If you thought that working in a Customer Support (CS) team is boring, you’re wrong! Well, at least at Kiwi.com because while helping our passengers, the CS team is no stranger to funny stories and remarkable situations from them. There are plenty of memorable anecdotes that our team experiences on a daily basis and we’re sharing some of them with you. Enjoy the read!
Catching the sunrise during the flight
Our CS consultant Petr reported that he had a case where the passenger wanted to see a sunrise during his flight. Petr decided to take this challenge and investigate the travel route. It was from Taiwan to Japan and our agent realized that the plane was heading directly, so he allocated his seat accordingly to give the passenger a “front row” view. Can you imagine the amazing pictures our passengers have gotten to take during the sunrise?
Couchsurfing to help the passenger
One of the company’s customer service agents, David, once had a case in which the passenger did not send his passport details on time, and Kiwi.com was unable to register him and provide him with the boarding pass. The passenger arrived at the airport but had no money to print the boarding passes himself. What was David’s creative solution? He ended up posting requests on a Couchsurfing page to see if someone from that community could print the boarding pass for the passenger and take it to the airport! After finding someone who could help him, David provided the contact details to the passenger, who luckily, at that point already found someone at the airport to help him and printed the boarding pass that allowed him to reach the final destination.
Can you travel with “pippies”?
A passenger took his mother on a trip from Australia to the Egyptian city of Alexandria, and among the routine questions about boarding passes and checked baggage, there was an unusual request: “May I bring pippies with me?” read the emailed request.
After some thought, the Kiwi.com agent assumed there was a typo in the request (puppies in English means puppies) and informed the passenger about the process for requesting the addition of pets, such as puppies, to their reservation. From the customer’s response, the agent discovered that the assumption had been wrong and that it was, in fact, referring to pippies, or Paphies australis, a shellfish found off the coasts of Australia and New Zealand, similar to a clam. Seeing that this was not a very common request, Kiwi.com customer service had to ask the airline directly. And, of course, confusion was served. After a detailed explanation of whether or not they were live animals, the airline’s customer service agent answered that he could travel with them as long as they were well wrapped. It is true that we learn something new every day, and the customer service team will never forget this one in particular!