Kenya Airways

Not Verified | Extremely unsatisfied customers. We have been trying to rebook our flights to Kenya for the last 6 months with only one response which was on Christmas Eve of 2020 and we haven't heard anything from them ever since. We have a booked and paid for trip which we had to rebook due to covid-19 in 2020. Our trip is expected to be this April (2021), and we had supposedly received our cancelled flights in the form of a refunded 'voucher' which was never ever received from the airline. We then received (on Christmas Eve) a link to our supposedly 'new flights' which had a time frame to a payment portal from 15h00-17h30/18h00 roughly... let me reiterate, on Christmas Eve, who is checking their emails to rebook flights in such a short time frame? We then tried to access the portal that night at 19h00 and we could not access it to pay an additional fee (when this was supposed to be fully refunded I might add) for our flights in April. I have sent roughly 50 emails to the airline, and that doesn't include my partners emails to Kenya Airways. We have heard nothing back from them, and they have about R35 000 of our money in promised refunded tickets which we do not have and cannot get hold of anybody from Kenya Airways. This is beyond unprofessional and I have literally tried to contact any/everyone I possibly could from Kenya Airway.

✅ Trip Verified | Flight KQ101 to Johannesburg via Nairobi was meant to depart LHR on 8th February. Flight was at the gate, but boarding time kept getting delayed and delayed and was eventually canceled. Then complete chaos ensued. Kenya Airways do not have a desk at LHR. Tried to call 020 8283 1818 several times on the 8/2 and 9/2 but no answer and then line was disconnected. Was directed to hotel at LHR and then told flight was going to leave, turned out it wasn't so was directed back to hotel. At no point as there any customer service offered to customers. Kenya Airways made no attempt to rebook me on another flight or contact me at all. So had to purchase an alternative flight with SAA at considerable cost as I needed to leave that night. Have not been able to get any compensation at all for cancellation, alternative flight, no apology at all. Is it any wonder that no one wants to travel anymore when Airlines/Tour operators treat customers so appalling, you deserve to all go under.

Not Verified | I booked tickets to travel and had to make changes to the ticket, I contacted them via numerous emails and no response, their website says a change in ticket can be made at a cost even during this pandemic and for a first time change, I reached out to them explaining i am unable to pay for the penalty, they refused to respond rather they informed their back office team to increase the price of the tickets and then they responded quoting amounts triple to what the website says, I explained to them and they refused to do anything about it. I checked back on their website a week later and they had dropped the price of change of the ticket to double rather than triple, I contacted them as they intentionally removed the option to change my ticket online, they said they had sent a payment link - well payment link that says I pay triple when your website currently says it's a double payment. I requested they send a new payment link, of course they refused. A few hours later they informed their back office team to triple the price of change of ticket again. Avoid this airline by all means.

✅ Trip Verified | After cancelling two of my flights, KQ offered me options and I chose to travel KLM from Amsterdam to Nairobi to wait for my flight from NAirobi to Abidjan. Thought my original journey was all KQ flights, and I paid for 4 bags from Amsterdam to Abidjan, the second leg of my journey only had 2 bags covered in my baggage allowance. In other words, KQ basically robbed me as I had to leave 2 of my bags behind. Now I have to find a way to get my bags to my final destination, which is undoubtedly going to cost even more than paying for 2 bags did. I am extremely disappointed in the services that were provided. I am moving for KQ to refund me the money for my bags, seeing as I paid for a service I was not provided.

✅ Trip Verified | I have taken Kenya Airways a number of times and it is quite disappointing that instead of improving, the service continues to get worse. The food served remains almost inedible and inflight entertainment is virtually non-existent. Due to COVID they cancelled my ticket/s. Unfortunately, proved to be a horrendous experience as customer service is virtually non-existent. The airline doesn't respond to emails and the telephones indicated on their website does not get picked! It did not help that one is left with no option since they closed their offices. This airline needs to be more responsive to its customers (it seems to want to be known literally to go with the notion of pole-pole or slowly) if it is to get itself out of its reported financial woes due to plunging customer numbers.

✅ Trip Verified | We flew from JFK to NBO just before the pandemic was declared. This was the first leg of a journey to Seychelles (SEZ). We found the cabin crew on this flight to be excellent, attentive, and really friendly. It seemed that the cabin staff were up and down the aisles very frequently and had a smile on their faces, something that must be tough during these times. We told them how pleased we were at the end of the flight and they seemed genuinely surprised to get the positive feedback. We passed this on to the airline via their website but have received no response as yet. Check in at JFK was easy, but probably atypical due to the reduced number of flyers in early March this year. The same could be said for the boarding process. The plane itself was new, a lovely 787 with mood lighting and big windows. The legroom was reasonable (not cramped but not luxurious). Overall it was comfortable for such a long journey. The food on the outbound journey was really good, way better than we expected, and our son' child's meal was also better than typical kids meals. The biggest negative on our outbound journey was the entertainment system. There were very few recent movies and the choice was extremely limited. Take your tablet or phone and download some eBooks, movies or other entertainment to it. if you are expecting to use the system on the plane to keep you occupied for 14 hours you will be disappointed. If I was rating the airline based on this flight I would actually give this flight 4 or even 5 stars as it was enjoyable but external factors are influencing that rating. Our return journey from Seychelles was delayed overnight by 14 hours and we had to fight to get accommodation. Due to this delay, and the Kenyan government ban on entry for foreigners due to COVID-19, it also meant our mini KQ Safari booked through the airline had to be cancelled. This is all very understandable and we have no issue with any of that. We cancelled this over email with the safari division while in the Seychelles and assumed there would be no issue. However, despite meeting 3 of the criteria needed for refund I am now going through a VISA charge-back process to recover this fee. First they say to talk to travel agent (when we booked the safari directly through them on a different credit card number) and then they say its valid for a year and they do not refund services .. despite having a clear statement on their website that a refund can be done if you fit 1 of the 3 criteria - 1. contact the email provided within 24 hours of the safari to cancel (we did it 6 days before), 2. Have a flight cancellation or delay (we were cancelled and put on a flight 14 hours later), and 3. Being denied entry to the country (the government were denying foreign nationals even with a visa - which we had). We want to go back to the Seychelles when all this is over but sadly I fear it will need to be with another airline, despite the stellar service of the staff on KQ003 on the day we flew.

✅ Trip Verified | Cape Town to Amsterdam via Nairobi in early March. Did fly before the Vivid crisis. Missed our connection flight due to delay of the plane. But found out later of that connection had been canceled. Kenya Airways promised to give us a voucher as a compensation for the delay. After several emails I have not received anything.

✅ Trip Verified | I purchased a ticket back in December 2019 for a flight from Kenya to Italy. Due to COVID-19, the airline appropriately cancelled my trip, however, would not give me any sort of refund for the ticket price. I reached out to them multiple times prior to the flight with no response or call back. Finally, 2 days ago (almost a month after my flight was scheduled), I received a response stating that I did not qualify for a refund since it was a non-refundable ticket, even though they cancelled the flight. They wouldn't even give me a travel voucher by this point! If you can fly anyone else, please do. I had multiple international trips planned during this time and every other airline worked with me to refund my trip or provide me with flight vouchers. Kenya Airways clearly does not care about customer service or having future customers.

✅ Trip Verified | Due to the Covid 19, I had to cancel a flight to Nairobi. The cancellation was done on time early march. Well Kenya Airways refuses to refund my ticket and proposes a voucher to be used in the next twelve months. On top of that no one responded to my email for over a month. I really believe that this is not acceptable.

✅ Trip Verified | Nairobi to Mauritius This was the final leg of the itinerary from Manchester to Mauritius (Manchester to Nairobi flown with Qatar Airways) - flights sold by Qatar Airways. This flight was a short 4 hour flight. Nairobi Airport itself if not the best for transit, though we spent the 7 hour layover in the Pride Business Class Lounge (having paid $40 for a day pass) which was satisfactory. Cabin Crew appeared a little unfriendly on arrival onto aircraft, though pleasant with requests and service. The aircraft itself appeared old and tired, and could benefit from modernisation. For a small flight, a light meal was provided, which in honesty was good (Asian Vegetarian). Sadly few flight announcements and no advice that the plane was descending into Mauritius and landing - it just landed! No inflight entertainment - screen did not work! Finally the timing of this flight is not good. Arrival at Mauritius at 0300 in the morning is strange and untimely. Not sure why the schedule is this way, but certainly not a time that I would be looking at again in the future. In summary, an ‘ok’ airline - convenient to ensure Qatar Airways flights for the route, but will look at alternatives to Mauritius in the future. Put it this was, if Qatar Airways either fly directly to Mauritius, or have a transit in Seychelles or Johannesburg, then this would be the preferred option. Nairobi is ok, but I think the experience with Kenya Airways is not something I would revisit as experienced.