Kiwi.com, a large European online travel agency, has just made a rather shocking promise — if you get sued by an airline for hidden city ticketing (also sometimes known as throwaway ticketing), they’ll pay your legal fees. Let’s step back for a second.
Continue reading: WOW: Kiwi.com Will Pay Legal Fees If You Get Sued For Throwaway Ticketing
Share your questions, experiences, and thoughts below.
Much like taco bell offering free tacos if Mir hit their target in the ocean, This company likely bought special insurance to cover these expenses.
Where are “ airlines “ taking legal action? It’s one particular case. And it’s unethical for a travel agent to do this and almost encourage passengers to do this. In that case if it’s found passengers are doing this frequently they are in breach of contract and the agent would receive debit memos and eventually have ability to issue tickets for a particular airline be revoked.
Better to avoid third parties anyhow and always book direct with the airline
"Airline pricing isn’t based on the cost" - drop the Airline, it's cleaner. Almost all goods and services are priced based on what the sellers can get away with.
EU has already ruled against airlines for asking customer to pay additional fees for not using every leg of their journey. So they aren't promising much.
Airlines already come down hard on travel agencies for doing this type of stuff. So the airlines are probably watching closely and will be ready to "pull their plates" (accreditation) if necessary. That being said, since Kiwi most likely generates a lot of revenue for them, they are probably on a long leash.
This is clearly a marketing stunt, I'm sure there is some fine print on Kiwi's offer that doesn't fall foul of their agreements with the carriers.
Hidden ticketing is perfectly fine, both from a legal side, as well as moral side.
It’s the greedy airlines that are trying to stop innovation by trying to forbid hidden ticketing.
@ Jackie. That’s not true sorry If you check the conditions of EU carriers there are fees that apply if you
..skip the first part, for example or try and curtail your journey at a transfer point
In many cases the airline is from a country where you don't live, so it's irrelevant whether an airline from that country sues you. You're not showing up in court and you're not paying any fine.
Worst case, you can't go to Germany any more. BFD.
Lucky, it's not good that you're giving them this free PR.
"they’ll book tickets on airlines that don’t interline otherwise, and they will cover you if you misconnect). So they’re an innovative and reputable travel agency."
They are definitely NOT reputable. If you just do a quick Google search, you will see that their "guarantee" is completely worthless. It's even in their T&C: If you misconnect, it's at their discretion if they will offer you a refund or rebook you.
I have read LOTS of reports where Kiwi.com didn't want to rebook passengers on a convenient alternate route because they deemed it too expensive. Instead they would offer rebooking passengers on super inconvenient flights several days (!) later, of course without paying for accomodation in the meantime.
Seriously, you should have googled them, the first thing that comes up is "kiwi.com SCAM":
https://www.tripadvisor.com/ShowTopic-g1-i10702-k11349129-Warning_Kiwi_com_is_a_SCAM-Air_Travel.html
From the same thread:
"There are probably hundreds of warnings here about Kiwi.com. Did you read them before you booked?"
They are a super sketchy OTA.
The only thing that's useful with them is that they show these routings (combinations of different low-cost carriers for example) - so you can book them elsewhere.
I would NEVER book with them.
And the same probably goes for this "guarantee." They know the Lufthansa case was all over the media, and they figured they could ride that wave. And unfortunately, it seems like it worked. Please don't promote them.
@Jackie no CURIA hasn't done that - but maybe some day they will do, if a member states national court is asking them.
@Icarus I dont know where you get that from, every member state still have its on laws.
This case with Lufthansa is in regards to "contract" law, and the contract laws are different they are not universal - in ex Denmark a standard COC cant be used in a lawsuit in context, here it has to be a specific condition you would need to agree on. That you will use the full itinerary, but then you also have consumer laws which protect consumers and finally they have to prove they lost money because of your actions.
Lufthansa got its cased dismissed in a lower court based on the "math" behind the amount they are suing for.
Asking ex. 500€ more for the same ticket but with an extra leg, its hard to prove you lost money - no you cant use the asking price, so that's why Lufthansa needs a new go.
If say Lufthansa is suing for 1000€, they have to prove that's the amount they have lost, that's why you dont see million and billion € cases in EU, you can only get the amount you have lost and not some billion dollars emotionel damage as you see in the US.
What CURIA has made clear is that outgoing and ingoing is two different tickets, and therefor an airline cant cancel ingoing if you have haven't used outgoing semi or full
" Almost all goods and services are priced based on what the sellers can get away with." There's no other good or service where if you "throw away" or decline part , you are charged more
@anon:
I hadn't thought of it that way but it's a good point. You don't get charged extra if you buy a 'gift set' instead of a stand alone item, and then throw away the parts you don't want. I think if airlines are allowed to charge what they want, passengers should be able to use what they want (accepting that abuse of the airline rules may get them into trouble with that airline).
Their promise is contingent on whether an airline “unreasonably decides you’re in breach.” Clearly, if the CoC states that hidden city ticketing is a violation, then it’s not “unreasonable” for the airline to sue you because, you ARE in breach. I wouldn’t count on these people to come to my defense.
They are a legit agency in the sense that they're not a downright scam, sure. But I'd be very careful with 'reputable'.
Their connection guarantee is actually worthless, but they also have some questionable practices, such as withholding the original booking PNR and issuing their own, so that you have to conduct all changes and even check-in through them. They do a lot of things in a grey area and pass it off as 'innovation'.
As far as this PR stunt goes, I wouldn't really trust it has any actual merit.
Marketing stunt, to make bloggers write about them and maybe get other free press. They're calculating, correctly, that no itinerary they sell will lead to a "lawsuit" that they'll actually pay out on. So, as with their past guarantees, they won't be forced to honour them.
I bet they sell lots of tickets. None to me, though.
@JDawg
I agree many companies price the product at what they can get away with. But you would be surprised at how many don't. Most retail has a specific margin that they price at based on the cost to them. Virtually the entire grocery business is done that way. They establish a margin that allows them to pay for the cost of the goods and an amount to cover overhead and provide a specific net profit.
Headline isn’t accurate as they don’t even guarantee that.
They only guarantee 1 of 3 options – and one of those is just that you get assistance from their legal advisors. And it’s at their choice. No payment, no coverage of the customer.
Nothing to see here – except free marketing.
You quote tbey say “contact us immediately after you are contacted by the carrier ...”
What does that mean? It gives them a huge get out from helping you if they decide you didn’t contact them ‘immediately’
Is it 5 minutes? 15? An hour? 2? 24?
It gives them a massive get out from doing anything for you with no apparent come back.
At least when my friend had to challenge his insurance company on when he informed them of an incident (he did as soon he was aware of it not as soon as it had happened because he was away) he had an ombudsman to help him
Can someone please tell me - if you're planning on taking advantage of this "hidden city ticketing" deal, how can you get your bags off at the midpoint (your desired stop)?
Maybe they are "reputable" as they seem to be giving Lucky a referral bonus for anyone who clicks away to their site from this post?
Used Kiwi last month and had a pretty good experience (their customer support team was very helpful), but their misconnect guarantee is notoriously not worth the paper it’s written on! I certainly wouldn’t be holding my breath for a reimbursement of legal costs from them!!
YOur headline is completely incorrect. Kiwi has a number of "or"s in their statement. Al they really say they will do is : "Assist You in the legal proceedings and provide You with the aid of Our legal advisors who are experienced with claims of this nature" which could mean nothing more than a letter from a lawyer in the Czech Republic. They do NOT say they will pay your legal fees or anything else. This is a marketing gimmick.
So this headline is completely misleading.
I did book with Kiwi.com several times and havent experienced any issues.
Bold move with this claim!
From my experience, dumb customers who dont know what they buy and dont read - then accuse companies behave according to T&Cs that are scammers. You can easily find scam claims about expedia/priceline amd others OTAs. Are they scammers? Not.
@WP For some flights one could bring checked bags. For example, one could book a ticket from LHR to ORD to RNO, but because one has to reclaim bags at the first port of entry to the US, one could check the bags to RNO and not take the flight from ORD to RNO.
I wonder whether the website might book some round trip tickets as two one ways in order to avoid liability. For most routes that do not go over an ocean, round trip and one way tickets seem to be the same price in most instances.
Please don't. Just don't use Kiwi. Are you paid by them to publish this?
They are ridiculous - a scam you might say.