I’m not sure how you can write “safe and legit” in the title of a post outlining incompetence and failure. “Atrocious” might be more apposite.

Pity you didn't check them out on here first as you'd have seen how rubbish/incompetent and ironically, unsafe, they are. 'twas ever thus.

"Paid for checked bag, second airline didn't honor."

Sounds like you had separate tickets cobbled together as one trip. This is something KIWI is known for doing and one of the biggest reasons to avoid them. When a ticket is cobbled together like this, you lose all protection, including baggage transfer, free transfer to the next flight with available seating in case of a delay, free assistance if one or both your flights are cancelled and/or have schedule changes that may mean a misconnect, etc..

Roll the dice, yeah. If you get a 1, 2 or 3 you'll suffer a lot, if you get a 4, 5 or 6 you'll only suffer a little.

I happen to agree they're legit, but I also agree that atrocious would be a better word to use about them than safe.

Charged for booking never done, never get noticed, stranded in the airport, bought tickets home myself -- STAY AWAY, YOU WILL END UP PAYING MORE

You can listen to the sponsored bloggers on how Kiwi have cheaper tickets on connections, but I have a real life nightmare happened 2 days ago to tell you how Kiwi end up costing me way much more for a simple direct flight booked more than two months before departure.

** Long story short **

Kiwi never completed my booking but never notify me about this and guess what, they charged me anyway, at booking and till this day!!! For over 2 months, kiwi failed to notify me and refund me the money for a job they never done. I was lead to think this is just a normally processed booking because Google travel sent me an email saying the reservation is confirmed and this trip is clearly in my google travel app, only found out at the airport that my boyfriend and I didn't have tickets!!!! After spending hours of international phone call with Kiwi, they acknowledge their mistake and offered me to refund the money. I was going nuts at that moment, I couldn't believe my ears! For all the trouble they caused me they were only going to refund me the money there were never supposed to charge at the first place!!! I was furious! In the end they offered me about 400 euro compensation for two failed but charged booking, but this is not nearly enough for even one ticket home for the next day.

At that point I couldn't continue anymore. I'd either burst a vein in my brain or just end the conversation.

No one should be in that kind of situation. No one would have that kind of capacity to play that kind of game in that kind of situation, and if you travel reasonably, you know situations always happen. This is just not what you want for a vacation and thousands of miles away from home, no matter how much you think you saved, it will be very likely to cost you more in the end -- money, time, and your health.

** For those who have couple more minutes to read **

Here is the analysis:

Kiwi is incompetent -- didn't book a simple direct flight right, didn't send a notice for the failed booking, didn't refund money for failed booking, didn't stop booking partner from sending misleading email. I talked to 3 representatives; no one could explain what happened. Ok, fine, system glitch I guess. But what's more...

Kiwi is dishonest -- when what they failed to do cause people so much stress, money and time, they were trying to get away with it for just refunding the money they were never supposed to charge at the first place. They also tried to blame this on me as if it's customers' responsibility to doubt and investigate for a booking that is charged, and emailed with the word "reservation confirmed", and what's more, never ever receive an email notice for booking failed. When I pointed out the obvious and inconsistencies in the laughable arguments, they had another offer...

Kiwi is straight scoundrel -- after paying hours of international phone call. Each time a different person answers the phone they came back with seemingly different offers that essentially making me pay for new flight on my own. It's pathetic how they present them as different offers, they are insults of basic intelligence!

After they ran out of tricks their final offer was 400 euro compensation for 2 failed booking. This is not nearly enough to get even 1 ticket next day home!!! Let alone the phone bill, transportation, one night hotel, and absence from work. "That's the final offer", they said. No explanations. I was about to burst a vein in my brain that moment. It's either I damage my health or just hang up.

Kiwi doesn't just make mistakes; they are unethical in responding to their mistakes. If you are a decent person who values your time and yourself, you will end up losing to companies like Kiwi.

This is my first time booking with Kiwi. I didn’t think much even though this is not a popular site I normally use. I thought there should be basic assurance that a company at this level can do a simple booking. If for some reason not, at least don't charge me. If a mistake is made at least correct it. I offered Kiwi just cover my new flight home and one night hotel for 50 euro - this is the basic of basic of what they should do for screwing things up this badly. Kiwi came back said no. There are so many levels and steps Kiwi could do to prevent a mistake and if not correct a mistake, they chose the most disappointing approach each time.

So in conclusion, you don’t want to go through what I went through, truly. STAY AWAY! YOU CAN DO BETTER THAN KIWI!

#6 - posting duplicate posts on all the (many) kiwi threads is considered spamming the forums. Your posts will be reported as duplicates and removed. You made an expensive error, you are not the first. You didn't see all the warnings so why would people that are tempted to book with kiwi see yours....they will likely do as you did, book>have problem> come and add to the 1,000s of existing warnings

Hope it helps, if you had a simple direct flight, then why in the world did you not book it directly with the airlines? Madness.

After you had booked through Kiwi (or thought you had), why did you not independently confirm with the airline website that your booking was legit? Madness again! Why were you not monitoring your flight on the airline website during the weeks leading up to your flight? What happened at OLCI 24 hours before the flight? So many opportunities for you to find out something was wrong before showing up at the airport.

Well, I prefer to not “roll the dice,” so book with the applicable airline.

That settles it.

Best of luck,

Hunt 🎲🎲🎲

Ah, the Bloggers. I would not trust any to take out my recycle.

And, as for the Influencers, as they suggest taking “daddy’s smallest jet,” to take their friends to Spain for a big party, I ignore them too.

Maybe the TA Green Ticks? No, not them either.

Best of luck,

Hunt