Complaint Review: kiwi.com -

I booked a flight May 20th from Cartagena to Madrid (with a stop in Medellin) on Kiwi with Avianca. Kiwi sent my flight information which included that both flights would be operated by Avianca. July 6th, I received an email from Avianca informing me that the Medellin to Madrid (10 hour flight) was going to be operated by Wamos Air, whom only have a handful of very old planes that have no room and a number of problems. I called customer service. 

1st phone call: The lady, while nice, took over an hour to confirm that the flight indeed was not on Avianca (kiwi.com is still unaware of this information; all flights on Avianca from Medellin to Madrid are on this horrid airline). When I asked my options, she wanted to change the days, which would still result in the same airline. I asked to cancel my trip, and she said that she could not be sure if I would receive my full refund. I let her know that I should not be culpable because it is in fact their mistake and I should receive the full refund. She went back to consult again, leaving me on hold, and the call dropped. I asked her at the beginning of the call to please confirm my phone number so if we lost the call, she could call back. She confirmed my phone number, but after the call died, she did not call back. 

2nd phone call: I have now been on hold for going on 45 minutes waiting to speak to another agent (estimated at 15 minutes), whom I will have to start the process over. While nice, she was completely unaware of their policies along with anything else, as she had to continuously consult with others. I just want my money back so I can take care of this myself, but I cannot after nearly 2 hours on the phone, over 90% of that time on hold.

And as I see below, the customer service team requests you contact them (which means calling), which gets you nowhere.

Update: After 50 minutes (originally told 15 minute wait), a new lady answered. I explained the whole situation. She then went to consult, came back and I had to walk her thru where on Avianca's website this information is (which is on the front page of the site's travel scroll **you're welcome kiwi.com**) although it still became a task. Now am on hold again as she consults with the team again. 1:15 into the 2nd call, which was has been longer than the original call.

2nd Update: She also wants to contact Avianca about a full refund. I explained to her, as I did the first agent, that I already spoke to Avianca and because they have already given this information on their website (apparently for months) will not give a full refund. I also explained, as Avianca explained to me, that it is the agent's responsibility (in this case kiwi.com). They need to be aware of these changes and inform their customers. I explained I want to cancel, and the burden falls on Kiwi.com as far as a full refund because of this reason. She went back to consult, putting me on hold. 

3rd Update: She returned to say that they would review my case within 24-48 hours. I told her 48 hours is cutting it close as my flight is in 3 days, in which she responded that they will contact me in 24 hours. She mentioned that if I want to cancel, however, it would be voluntary, and therefore subject to partial refund. I corrected her immediately. I would like to cancel my flight because Kiwi.com gave me INCORRECT information which I have record of. On my ticket from Kiwi.com it states that Avianca is the operating airline. It does NOT say Avianca operated by Wamos Air, so while I want to cancel my ticket this is not because I do not want to go anymore. I am canceling because Kiwi.com gave me incorrect information regarding the flight. If I had known this information, I would not have booked the flight. The deception is on Kiwi.com as they are not informing the passengers of the true travel plans, and to note this as the reason for my cancellation. She noted. Call ended 1:29. 

In total 2:30 spent on the phone, a customer explaining the airlines policy, including walking one of their agents thru the actual airlines' website. All because I asked for a refund because Kiwi.com is unaware of the business of the airlines they are selling.

4th Update:

I received an email 3 hours after my phone call informing me that I could apply for a full refund, but that they are not obligated to refund for up to 30 days. Since this was the case:

3rd phone call: The third lady I have spoken to on this adventure. After giving her my booking number, she reviewed the information, and was still fully unaware of anything that happened, including asking me for the name of the booking agent before and claiming in her system it was a man. She then said that I will still have to change my flight online, although last night on my 2nd call they were going to help with this process. I explained I do not want to do this because they should be liable for the change since the original flight was booked under false information given by Kiwi.com. I also explained that I am willing to change airports and dates on both ends of my trip, but she said that she is not able to do this. I demanded to speak to a supervisor as she fumbled through explaining that she is trained to handle these situations. After 10 minutes of explaining my situation, she still did not seem to understand that Kiwi.com's bad information was the culprit, nor did she want to transfer me to a supervisor. She was also unaware of the Wamos Air / Avianca Flight switch. At 40:00, she put me on hold to reach a supervisor.

48:00, Cian (sp) returned (I asked her name since she was unable to find the information in the system of the previous women I spoke with). She said that the supervisors were still on with other customers, and that they could call me back, which I immediately said no to given that the 1st person I spoke with said she would call me back and never did. Now back on hold at 50:00. 

While on hold, I've searched thru the options for flight change, all of which include an extra charge of $500 or more. Almost all of these changes are more expensive than buying the ticket outright on their own site.

1:10:00: Cian returned and transferred me to her supervisor Jeff. I explained to Jeff the situation. He saw the information on Avianca's website and agreed that the customer should be advised as to the carrier they are flying with and that their system does not have the change. At 1:16:00, he placed me on hold to see what he could do.

1:23:00: Jeff tried to book me on another flight from Medellin to Madrid the next day. I explained to Jeff that if he read the full information on Avianca's website, he would see that the problem is ALL flights from Medellin to Madrid are on Wamos Air as of this time, and not Avianca. He then said the concern then is the change of price since the flight is soon. I had to explain to him, like the others, that this should not be my concern since Kiwi.com booked the flight with INCORRECT information, and did not make me aware of this. He read the information on Avianca's website again, and now understood that all flights on this route are on a different airline. I gave him other options I am willing to consider and he said that he would check if they can change or cancel. Back on hold at 1:27:00. Hitting the 4 hour mark on the phone with Kiwi.com shortly.

1:45:00: Jeff returned to tell me that because of US DOT regulations, they do not have to disclose the airlines that are operating with others, therefore, there is nothing they can do. I explained to him that neither Avianca nor Kiwi.com are US companies so what do US regulations have to do with any of this. He then tried to backtrack the information, finally saying that they do not have to disclose when a carrier is changed. He then informed me that because of this they will not pay the fees to change my flight. He also informed me that because of this policy that the cancellation would be voluntary and subject to the fees of the airlines. 

In other words, they have shunned their responsibility in this, do not have to let you know what carrier you are flying on, and it is not their problem. 

Call ended at 1:53:00.

Total call time between 3 calls: 4:23:00.