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I booked a flight through Kiwi (travel agency) from Greece to India through Abu Dhabi on May.

My flight changed its schedule, now I cannot make it to my connecting flight. The travel agency proposed me 2 options:

  • cancel the flight: it takes up to 3 months, compensation is not monetary but travel credits, they don't commit for full refund but they will refund me 'as much as they can'
  • booked an alternative flight, paying full price

Looking at the airline compensation proposal, they do propose a free ticket of their own airline, but they deal only with the agency.

What should I do? How could I handle these crooks?

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    I know it's not helpful to you now, but as a warning to others: booking flights at an OTA, especially unconventional ones like Kiwi that do glorified self-connections and explicitly limit your interaction with airlines(!), comes with risks and headaches; which for an already long int'l trip is really not worth it imo. If you choose to do self-connections despite the risks, at least make sure you can deal with airlines directly yourself. See also: travel.stackexchange.com/questions/171330/…
    – xngtng
    Commented Mar 16, 2022 at 15:53
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    Did you buy the optional "Kiwi Guarantee"? It doesn't guarantee much of anything, but it is supposed to help a little.
    – jcaron
    Commented Mar 16, 2022 at 17:02
  • @xngtng thx. It was 2x cheaper booking through Kiwi. My current strategy is waiting to see if my connecting flight will be delayed as well (although according to flightstats this airline does not have much delays), if so great. if it does not, I will cancel the flight, and book a flight (which is the cheaper from the two) to Abu Dhabi, all of that while I already applied for credit card charge back.
    – SickOfBullsh1t
    Commented Mar 16, 2022 at 17:03
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    "It was 2x cheaper booking through Kiwi." – And now you know why.
    – Jörg W Mittag
    Commented Mar 16, 2022 at 20:37
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    “all of that while I already applied for credit card charge back.” - that may complicate matters.
    – user29788
    Commented Mar 17, 2022 at 5:27

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Sorry, you got what you paid for. Kiwi is (IMO) one of the worst online travel agencies and one of the very few that sell "self connecting" tickets, which are highly inadvisable. There are plenty of online reviews to back this up.

They clearly state in their terms and conditions (which you agreed to at booking) that any irregularity is your problem and not theirs.

Multi-city: means a form of carriage which includes a combination of Flights which pass through one or more interim destination(s), which You have expressly selected within the Booking. Please note that in the event that You have selected one or more interim destination(s) where You will spend less than 24 hours before continuing Your journey, We cannot guarantee that the respective Selected Carrier(s) do not make any changes, or cancellations, to the Flight(s) within Your travel to and/or from this interim destination as listed in Your original itinerary; in which case We are not responsible for any financial or other obligations to You or the Selected Carriers in this regard.

Even if you have bought the so-called Kiwi Guarantee, it wouldn't help much in your case. The terms are full of loop holes, restrictions and exclusions. See https://www.kiwi.com/us/pages/content/legal#ContentLegal-article5

What should I do? How could I handle these crooks?

Not much, I'm afraid. You chose to deal with crooks and accepted their terms. Nothing they do is outright illegal. If it's too good to be true, it's often not true.

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  • Is that part of the contract relevant? That sounds like it's for multi-city tickets (like you fly from A-B, then B-C in one booking) rather than a singular trip trip with a layover, even a self-connected one. Presumably they didn't specify that they wanted a specific stopover ("which You have expressly selected within the Booking")
    – jdouglas
    Commented Mar 18, 2022 at 22:19
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    Self connecting is NOT a singular trip. It's two separate trips that are completely independent . That's why this is generally a horrible idea.
    – Hilmar
    Commented Mar 19, 2022 at 18:41

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