Virgin Balloon Flights
Reviews and Complaints

Tried to book 4 times they cancelled twice, told me no flights were available one time and said that there was only 1 space available the other time which was not suitable because there were 2 of us. I developed a knee condition and sent them proof of treatment with a certified letter from the doctor. They said this was not sufficient and they're keeping my money until I book an appointment with the doctor the get them to stamp a letter I've written myself , to excuse me of going on a flight

I bought 2 tickets for the balloon trip and explained that I would have a 2 week window in the country to use them. We booked a date for the first week of August so this is peak summer, the weather is not going to get better all year.

The flight was cancelled on the morning of the flight by the pilot. I contacted Virgin and was told there are no other dates available in my 2 week window and to fill out the refund form.

After much back and forth (3 weeks) with trying to get the refund form submitted correctly I was told that because I am unable to get a refund due to not buying refundable tickets which are able to be cancelled.

The tickets were not cheap at all, and I think its very wrong that I would not be refunded for them even though the cancellation was made by themselves and not me. .

A wedding present bought in 2016

Couldn't fly due to falling pregnant- paid to extend.

Next booking cancelled by virgin flights due to weather.

Paid to extend.

Pregnant again couldn't fly.
Complications

Covid no flights

Under impression we could extend for £20 as previously done -

No tickets are void!
Looking at reviews many fall victim to harsh policies-

The burden to have to continually rebook and have them cancel or life delivers uncontrollable complications- personal or such as covid..

They will not honour the value of the tickets purchased

The guilt of not using a gift.

They are making ALOT of money for nothing though these polices that leave people high and dry!

Please help prevent more falling victim to unlikely redemption of this pricey experience.

order number 347701-0
Order date 26/12/2019
Invoice address melvin davies 5 Carriers road cranbrook Kent Tn173ju
Vouchers 797545 and 797546
Security Q4KS and S3ZE
£99.00 each total paid £198.00
I applied for a refund if possible at the beginning of the year stating due to
Breast cancer and covid I suffered anxiety and could not face a balloon flight.
I've had a response stating this order could not be found and instantly dismissed
I was very disappointed with this outcome so have decided to make a complaint with the hope payment
Refund can be made.
I hope I have supplied enough information for this to be taken seriously.
My husband melvin davies had purchased these tickets for my birthday.
Kind regards

Val davies

Hi firstly I would like to put a complaint in regarding the balloon flight I had booked over 17 months ago . Tried numerous times to get to a local venue to finally given up and having to travel out . And travelled to Nottinghamshire six hour drive paid for the hotel for the weekend petrol . To arriving at the venue and no balloon ride was present, to say I was angry and upset is a understatement as no confirmation no e mail no call to tell us it has been cancelled my partner is severely disabled the distress and trauma it caused has had a impact on my partners health . We then went on to book in another area for the following day to another two hour drive . Tickets showed up and booked on the virgin ballon flight page but again no confirmation nothing had come through . Eventually the owner of the hotel we stayed in provided us with the pilots number to find out the time to arrive on the evening we got through to the pilot to find an answer phone message again it has been cancelled .. my partner suffers ill health severe depression and anxiety that she cried all night and has not been well since .. we then spoke to the manager Shaun Howells who wasn't very helpful and suggested we have to ring 10 o clock In the morning to find out if the venue is going ahead . This was not possible to know as no e mails come through to give us guidance to do so .. was then told to book near to our area we have tried the past 17 months to it constantly being fully booked, the manager would not agree to offer us some sort of compensation and it's cost us over 400 pound for a balloon ride that never happened .. I have contacted the guardian newspaper on this and trading standards as we had no help whatsoever and I am requesting proof of the e mails that was supposedly sent out with the time and dates on . As we never received anything .. also your manager would not call back today as the tickets won't process for a refund and would not call to resolve this I even requested to speak to the top manager on this matter too .. Iv had an appalling service the trauma and distress my partner had to go to the doctors as this has made her so ill .. I want this matter resolved ASAP

Hi

I bought 2 balloon flights for my daughter and her boyfriend in November 2017. They have had the flight cancelled multiple times (3 due to weather, once due to COVID). Almost 3 years on and we are still no further forward. The booking process is such that often we are at the end of the line when having to call to try to rebook as no dates available. My daughter now is not able to go on the flight due to other issues. They refuse any help at all with either changing the voucher to something else or refunding.

Customer services is absolutely shocking.

Who do i go to for support with this?

Sandie Keall (was Hall at time of booking)

What a waste of money, absolutely loads of stress and nothing to show for it!..

This is my first ever complaint so i hope the company does not take this lightly..

A unresponsive web system where they don't fly for 6 months of the year yet they give you an extension (no cost added) of course theres no cost added! They cancelled it. fortunately enough i understand the weather systems in the UK are unpredictable but the system is an absolute sham! I can't for the life of me can't understand why they can't give a refund or continue to offer flights to someone who has paid for a service? Invalid... a 12 month window is not sufficient when you can only fly weekends and book one flight time..

This just isn't feasible I'm so disappointed that Richard Branson can put his name to this and take £300 for nothing...

We have been planning a wedding throughout the last window it did expire by 40 days and this was over christmas..

What a waste of time and money, we feel totally let down and ripped off!

Already got cancelled twice, and the last time it was yesterday on the clear, hot, sunny day in St. Albans.
it is a waste of money, you cant really plan it, i took days off from work! I needed a taxi to get to St. Albans, all planned and sorted and the trip was cancelled in the last moment. I understand if weather is bad, sure, but yesterday was brilliant. Also, even if wind or whatever your excuse was bad at 6, it surely was cleared at 7am. So inflexible and so unhelpful.
And wait for this: you cant demand refund, unless it is a 3rd cancellation and even then you will get only 2/3 of the price, this is a complete rip off. Its been almost a year since I bought the voucher.

Booked on 7 seperate occassions over a 3 year period and all wer cancelled even though the weather was beutifull numerous times. Phoned them on the fourth year to try again and they said my voucher had run out, even though i was told by the previous phone operative there would be no problem. No money back, no flight, over £200 spent for nothing apart from disapointment. Avoid this company, very very poor service which they are allowed to get away with.

Please read to the end! We bought my 70+ year old mother a balloon ride for Mother's Day one less thing on her bucket list!
Firstly the recorded message said to be at the launch site at 7pm not a second later..this had already been put back from 6pm..we got to the parking area 5 mins walk from the launch site at 6pm and saw the balloon basket on the back of a trailer parked up. At 6:45 the 4x4 with trailer moved off towards the launch site. We walked up to find it still on the back of the trailer, registered along with the others then waited half an hour for the balloon to be inflated with the help of paying customers after the pilot had introduced himself and his 1 man "crew". Surely this could have been done in the 45 mins+ they were sat in the parking area?
With the balloon eventually inflated (8pm) they set off on their balloon flight going in a circle with no more than a 2mile radius from the take off point!
Back down to ground with a small bump and they were then told they had to help the "crew" (one man) deflate and pack away the balloon. This took over an hour and was very heavy, hard work for a 70+ year old lady! While doing this my mum asked if they were being picked up by mini bus to be taken back to the parking area and joked or are we going back in the basket on the back of the trailer! to which she was told by the "crew" yeah if they can find us. Yes you guessed it! There was no minibus to take them back! It wouldn't have been hard to find them they were less than 2 miles from taking off and they were asked to climb onto the trailer then into the basket and keep their heads down so the police didn't see them!
I'm absolutely raging that my mother and 15 others (one young girl was petrified) were put in a basket on the back of a trailer with no safety precautions to be driven back to their cars!
Virgin and the pilot and "crew" are putting lives at risk just for the sake of saving a few pennies and getting a minibus to ferry people back to their cars and I'm sure their insurance company wouldn't be very happy about this practice either!

I made the mistake of buying flight *vouchers* for Virgin Balloon Flights back in 2011.

Eight times in four years, from August 2011 to April 2015, I tried in good faith to get Virgin Balloons to honour those vouchers. Each time I and my friend booked holiday time from work, made travel arrangements, and got up at the crack of dawn to hear the same tired cancellation message on the cancellation line, with the flimsiest of excuses. We had to practically beg Virgin Balloons to 'extend' the validity of our vouchers as they expired more than once as Virgin Balloons failed to deliver.

When it became obvious that Virgin Balloons could not deliver the service it had taken payment for, I reasonably asked if I could have my money back. Very long story short, I was refused. Virgin Balloons is a very unethical company that may adhere to the letter but certainly not the spirit of consumer protection law. It is not a good company.

I wrote a review on Trustpilot to share my experiences. These User-Generated-Content sites are supposed to provide honest insights into customer experiences of various companies, to help consumers make informed choices.

More than a year after I posted my obviously very negative but fair review, Virgin Balloon Flights reported my review to Trustpilot, with instructions for it to be removed, claiming I was not a genuine customer. I am now in the process of proving my veracity and validating all my poor experiences. I expect Virgin Balloons will be surprised that I am able to do so: I suspect Virgin Balloons 'reports' reviews and requests that they be taken down long after they are posted in the hope that customers will not have retained any of the required proof, or will simply give up.

After sending my proof to Trustpilot, I checked the website's page on Virgin Balloons. Currently, Virgin Balloons has five-star reviews. I am going to stick my neck out and say that what Virgin Balloons has done is report all the honest, fair, negative reviews in order to present a false image of themselves, to misrepresent their reputation, and to mislead consumers.

At this stage, while Trustpilot still has not reinstated my review, I don't know which company I am more disgusted by, Virgin Balloons or Trustpilot, which colludes with companies - charging them apprx £800 per annum - to 'manage' their reputation via the manipulation of customer reviews.

I really hope there is some official body this can be reported to.

Hi,

I have bought 2 vouchers from Virgin balloon and on 2 different occasions the flight was cancelled in past 3 months. On both the weekends I have to cancel my plans and it ended with nothing along with an upset partner.

They wouldn't refund you the money and the reason for cancellation is bad weather which you can't verify at all that it was due to flight or they have sold you places to some other at premium rates or for any other reason. Horrible experience without going on flight. And every time you have to wait for 1 month to get the flight book.

I would strongly discourage to buy from VIRGIN.

Muhammad

I booked two vouchers for me and my girlfriend and booked a weekend that we had time free together but on the day the flight was cancelled. I work alot and never know when I will have a day off so waiting around and bookings days off is really difficult. I tried to refund the tickets but Virgin told me that it was not possible and i have to wait for 5 cancellations before I can get a refund. but previously i did get an email from a BROGAN TAYLOR to call and get refund straight onto my card