London, Adventure Balloons www.adventureballoons.co.uk

After cancelling 7 dates, they still would not refund the money. Its not been 1.5 years since I purchased the flight for 2 of us. I understand that weather is a variable, but because they cancel so many flights, there is no way to book the date you actually want. You are left with a date that they give you. We tried contacting them to understand how we can get our money back and they stated that this impossible. So basically, they have your money and you are stuck with them until they feel like you are worth the service. other than that - you are stuck.

Tried a number of times to book over the phone but the haughty old woman kept telling us we had to book online. We booked online but when we arrived we were told our names weren't on the list and the basket was full. This was our 5th attempt costing us wasted work holiday or money lost (I'm self employed so no work, no pay) The staff called the office and the woman on the phone (another arrogant ignorant haughty cow) said...and I quote..."you can ask for your money back but you won't get it" The pilot told me to call a lady who apparently owns this shambles of a company but I can't see the point. The pilot also told me they had about 3 or 4 balloons.....to cover the whole UK!! Hence limited flight opportunities even when the weather is good.Snobby on the phone was clearly well versed with dealing with irate frustrated callers which is easy when you know you have the backing of the firm behind you and there is no form of come back. To be able to say what she did shows nobody gives a damn about the paying customers. We bought these vouchers one a year ago and if we want to stand any chance of flying we will have to pay another £50 - £60 per head despite the fact we never received the service we paid for. They have your money upfront and you stand no chance of getting it back. That's official. Straight from the horsey woman's horsey mouth. The real kick in the teeth the last time we were told it was too windy to fly was when we got home to see a big red Virgin balloon flying over our house!!

This company have no morals! 2.5 years after we bought the voucher we have had 10 cancellationsand 10 wasted days off work i understand weather is a factor but on 3 occasions the weather was great the day before and the day of the flight but they still cancelled.

When you try to schedule your flight, for most of the available dates you have to pay an extra £60-£100 to fly on those days.

It feels like their aim is to try to get more money out of you after you buy your voucher. If you don't upgrade you might never fly.

We are now in a position where we can't use the voucher anymore due to personal circumstances, so we asked for a refund as we have not received the service we paid for. They said no refunds.

When I complained to the MD explaining that we had tried for 2.5 years to use the voucher. but we would not be able to why we could no longer fly in a balloon they offered only a 40% refund.

So they feel it is ok to keep 60% of the money we paid for doing nothing?

They seem to think this is ok but in my world that is unnaceptable.

My advice is use a different company for your balloon flight.

READ THE TERMS & CONDITIONS. I had specifically booked to fly from a designated destination as i wanted that particular view and because of getting to the take off sites, i also chose a specific time offered so as to make the venue around work commitments. After 11 cancellations over a number of months, usually only a few hours preceding the flight and mostly due to weather conditions, it would seems that if a pigeon passed wind, it made for unfavourable conditions, i received the text to say we could fly.

I called in to find that the venue had moved to different county some miles away from the agreed take off site and the time had been brought forward. I called the office to say that this is not what we had booked and had been waiting months to fly from where we had booked and that we would couldn't both make that time and destination. The reply came "if you don't take the flight you lose your money" there was no compromise. One of us didn't make the flight.

I arrived for the flight, another passenger said he had experienced 5 cancellations and the time and venue were not what he had booked either. The flight itself was over fields, i know what a field looks like we had selected a town, it was not for a great duration and the pilot was rude and abrasive. I wrote to explain that they had not honoured our agreement, i never received a reply. The whole experience was awful. Adventure balloons are only after your money, their customer relations are disgraceful. These flights are not cheap, we paid £270. I would NOT recommend Adventure balloons to anyone.

I bought two standby vouchers for my son and I (4th October 2014.) We've waited 11-months and never been offered a chance to ride. After several calls and emails requesting a refund, they finally agreed to refund the purchase with a hefty admin fee. (We're still waiting to see if they return anything at all.) If you have a few hundred to throw away, go for it...otherwise I'd recommend finding a different company. Take a good look at the reviews on Adventure Balloons, there's a lot of angry people.

Booked our balloon ride 3 times and it was cancelled by Adventure Balloons each time due to weather conditions. Not that there were any issues with the weather on those particular days so not sure what the problem was. Think this is a good money making scheme. Get customers to pay a hefty amount and then cancel each time. Of course no refund will be issued as they are not responsible for the weather as per their terms and conditions. Would never recommend this company.

Tried 5 times to book a flight.

The weather on the original flight day was perfect - there were many other balloons up that day - but AB cancelled our flight. We had taken the day off especially.

Tried to book and on the final attempt managed to get a slot, bit they moved the site and brought the flight forward by 30 minutes so we could not make it. The company refused to acknowledge this was there issue and we lost our money. Avoid.

I like others had many flights cancelled due to weather conditions, paid an extra £60 to extend another 12 months only to have the same problem. I have now run out of time again and because I am unwilling to pay a further £60 I have to lose all the money I have paid for nothing. I would advise anyone thinking of using this company to stay well clear, total waste of time and money

My balloon flight taken on Saturday 20 April 2013 from Prospect Park Reading Berkshire was a birthday present from my son in December 2011. It was well worth waiting for, the weather was perfect the company great and the pilot very friendly and helpful. He certainly knew his job inside out, he kept us entertained and informed and safe. I would never have believed that a balloon flight could be so great, it was my first flight, I have never flown before, and I thoroughly enjoyed it and cannot wait to do it again, with Adventure Balloons of course.

Had a fantastic flight yesterday! We had to rebook couple of times due to rains we witness all the time, but the fact that we finally made it and tricked "great" British weather, which is particularly funny this summer, added up even more positive emotions and fun. We enjoyed it so much - great views, fantastic adventure, unforgeable experience overall. This is a memory of a lifetime! I would definitely recommend it as a gift to someone special or just as a special activity.

Thanks so much to our experienced pilot Kim and all adventure balloon team for our amazing flight! Perfect organisation, brilliant execution, we felt very well looked after!