pambam

Despite being a very experienced traveler, I found a good one way price ORD-IST for my nephew who is flying internationally for the first time. It was on Kayak and Kayak sent me over to the payment page which I noticed at the last minute was Kiwi.com. I would normally avoid them but I've used them a few times and haven't had a problem. I checked baggage and it just had a link to the THY website which I know is two bags from the US. But when the ticket arrived the next day - though it SAID ORD-IST, I'm glad I checked the booking reference on THY's site because it was actually ORD-Stockholm! They'd booked him on a hidden city ticket without my knowledge. My nephew is going for a year so just hand luggage is not possible.

They are saying I should have checked their site where it states that - but Kayak's didn't and just sent me to their payment page. They of course say they 'might' be able to get me a refund if I cancel but thousands of customer service complaints assure me this is false. Any suggestions what I should do next?

Yoshi212

Just to clarify, the TA didn't book you a hidden city ticket but rather you clicked the purchase button on Kiwi for your nephew? Did you make an honest mistake of not verifying the kiwi ticket before clicking purchase? Is it still within 24 hours which allows for full cancellation without penalty by US DOT rules?

Often1

Difficult situation. US DOT rules regarding 24-hour cancellation only apply to tickets booked directly with a carrier and do not apply to TA or third-party vendors such as Kiwi.

1. If you are still within 24 hours, check Kiwi's terms & conditions to see whether it offers a refund, even with a fee, and then exercise that immediately.
2. What would it cost to change the ticket to a "legal" ticket? Consider doing that and paying up.
3. If not, you are in a difficult position because you are the person who booked, accepted the terms & conditions and thus, if you did not know, it is because you chose to ignore the rules.
4. You might have some luck with a chargeback on the grounds that Kiwi booked you a ticket which violates the carrier's contract (check to make certain that it does and include the specific provision as an upload with your chargeback. But, in the meantime, do not plan on this being resolved quickly and it could well be decided against you.
5. You could purchase a new ticket (need to be a different carrier) and then sue Kiwi, again on the grounds that it sold you a ticket in violation of the contract provisions. Here you are laying out money you may not see again.
6. Leave it alone, chance it.

For the benefit of others, yet one more reason not to deal with these outfits. Everything is fine until it is not. If you really must, do your homework and don't check boxes and accept terms without reading them carefully. Then read what arrives carefully. In the end, this may be a cheap ticket, but an expensive trip..

TomMM

Since it is his first INTL trip maybe he would like to visit Stockholm first??

1353513636

If you can't get this resolved, TK offers the same baggage allowance on flights to Istanbul as Stockholm so perhaps you would be best off just going to Stockholm and then buying a ticket from Stockholm to Istanbul separately; of course this assumes that your nephew can enter Sweden and also the baggage allowance on a standalone ARN-IST would be 30kg in any number of pieces for economy.

Finkface

I did a search in Kayak and redirected to the Kiwi site. It is very clear that you are buying a ticket to Stockholm with an extra flight. They spelled it out prominently and it is right in your face. There is even a button to click (“Learn more”) where they make it even more clear, explaining that you should only bring cabin baggage and that the airlines don’t like this. Unfortunately, the OP missed it. I am afraid you are at the mercy of their goodwill on this one.

southlondonphil

One solution if your nephew is relocating for a year might be to courier/airfreight his belongings to his destination address in Istanbul separately and then he can just take a rollaboard on the flight and not worry about baggage being checked through to Stockholm?

RGS5526

Would the ticket conditions allow deferring the IST-ARN leg for a day, either free of charge or for less than the cost of a one-way ARN-IST?

TomMM

I guess another possible concern is if there is an issue and he gets re-routed to ARN bypassing IST.

Often1

At least until October 31, the nephew will be denied boarding at ORD because he is inadmissible to Sweden (absent some fairly unique circumstances which are not likely to be in place). That exclusion may well be extended and there is no way to predict whether that will occur and when it will end.

sdsearch

I think KIWI is a very deceitful site which should be avoided. Why in the world do they have Chicago -> Istanbul in giant bold type, the price in the next largest and boldest type, and all the stuff about the other flight in much tinier type. I can see someone in a hurry missing that, because they see confirmation that it's Chicago -> Istanbul in the giant type and that and the price is all they're concerned with, and that's all they think they need to be concerned with, because they don't realize how deceitful KIWI is. And if they only additionally read "This unique ticket contains an extra flight" and not stuff below that in tiny type, they probably think that there's a stopover between Chicago and Istanbul (maybe for refueling or whatever), that's all.

That's why I think you should never book through a site like Kayak. Just get the price information and book directly with airline. If you can't duplicate a price you saw on Kayak on the airline's own site, be very suspicious.

People are having way bigger problems getting refunds for flights (or hotels) booked the third-party sites than for those booked directly, and that's problematic especially during these Covid times when many people need refunds much more often than in normal times. And as a result, bookings through third-party sites are reportedly down even more than direct bookings.

If they hadn't been trying to be deceitful, they could have put Chicago -> Istanbul (-> Stockholm) in big type. So the fact they left all of that critical information out of the headline routing info shows how deceitful they are.

paperwastage

to be fair, i added checkedbags = 1 on kayak
and it still showed the kiwi link (which had 0 bags once you clicked through)

also, kayak.com is selling the same price (sold via kiwi on kayak.com), wonder if it's the same HCT. cannot find any real details (searched with 1 checked bag and proceeded with buying via kayak.com, no info whether my 1 checked bag was included)

1353513636

Zero chance TK would do that...they'd sooner give a refund.

LondonElite

Yes, this. And the flight to Stockholm couldn’t have come as a great surprise.

largeeyes

This thread combined with the other recent one where AA audited the guy for hidden city bookings is really something else.....