Go Ballooning Avoid

mumto2loves

My daughter (8) had a balloon flight with Go Ballooning about 2 weeks ago and I (and she) thought the pilot was great (Mike flying from Larmer Tree in Dorset), He has been hot air ballooning for years and def knows his stuff.

Yes it was our 5th booking BUT on the previous 4 times the weather was obviously bad, so thats no fault of the company.
I thought it was really easy to re-book using their online booking system.

My husband and I also had fun following the ground vehicle in a convoy following the balloon - a bit like being on twister chaser USA - on a much calmer scale! lol


From our experiance I'd recommend Go Ballooning anytime infact my dd had such a great time she wants to do it again!

I don't work for them and have photos to prove i'm not talking out of my !!!! if anyone wants proof.:D

oscarward

I too had a succesful flight with Go Ballooning.

I agree it's a bit of a pain trying to book and if you choose a remote location then because of weather cancellation you may have costs such as hotels. It took 3 attempts to get a flight that went ahead.

My only gripe was the number of people being carried (14!)which made it a bit cramped.

Still thoroughly enjoyed it.

Swoodh

Just wanted to give everyone an update on the Go Ballooning situation.

Sandra Hossack, the Go Ballooning CEO has failed to respond to our emails. We are getting a growing number of people with similar problems.

The BBC want to name and shame Go Ballooning on The Legalizer so watch this space.

Anyone that has had a bad experience with Go Ballooning, please can you support us by joining our FB page and we can keep you posted on what's happening, whilst trying to help.

Search for "I didn't Go Ballooning" on Facebook or if anyone able to leave links on this forum can do that for me, I will be very grateful.

pimento

I had a fabulous flight with Go Ballooning. Yes, it took four attempts because of the weather but when we did go up it was all very professional.

You can't complain if a flight is cancelled for safety reasons.

I have no connection with Go Ballooning beyond that of a very satisfied customer.

dazh1

I had my 6th flight cancelled in 18 months on Sunday 14th Oct 2012 due to the “bad weather” but when I checked the virgin weather line they WERE flying from the same site, I have rung the weather line lots of times, and most of the time the flights are cancelled. I can only have a 25% refund, and cannot see any dates to rebook from November – May so how can I book the rest I need to roll over to next following year.

look for the facebook page ididntgoballooning

mum2one

I'm glad tp day my daughter and father had an amazing time on their flight, it was nearly cancelled on the day as the weather at our local site was unsuitable, but everyone agreed to travel 30 miles to a different site, and it went perfectly.

So much that she wants to go again, x

twiglet80

You may be interested to read that Go Ballooning have now gone into liquidation.

azertyuiop

I am a ballooning operator in France. I have no connection with Go Ballooning. I recently heard of these problems from a friend in Wiltshire. A balloon flight can only take place in excellent weather conditions. Light winds,no rain,no nearby storm activity,no strong gusts,no low cloud. So it is not unusual to have beautiful weather and the flight still be cancelled if there is a little too much wind. It is typical for clients to have their flight postponed 3 or 4 times. My record is a client who made 15 attempts! It happens but passengers have to make themselves available and keep trying. I can usually rebook someone within a fortnight. There will always be passengers who are unavailable for a while due to health or professional reasons so I am unusual in that I offer a ticket validity of 3 years to allow for these difficulties.
I work with an agency that sells tickets for several professional balloon companies. This agency started to have financial difficulties a few years ago and has seen it's turnover reduced by 65%. It was then forced to start selling cheap tickets via a discounter in order to provide working capital in the few months after Xmas when sales are normally low. Tickets sold at these prices provide no profit to the operator. If this french agency goes bust tomorrow I will lose £30,000. So I feel your pain! But today we have to keep working. The weather in 2012 caused our industry a lot of trouble and that coupled with the economic climate has doubtless sealed Go Ballooning's fate. In the last few weeks, because of poor sales and many unforeseen large expenses, I thought that I may have to close my company. If this happened there would be enough in the company's assets to refund customers. Perhaps not the same for Go Ballooning. Recently, sales have been good and so I can continue trading and hope for a successful season. After every flight I can honestly say that all my passengers leave with a smile on their face. There are few jobs in the world where that is the case. Good luck to all concerned in this affair.

dacouch

twiglet80 wrote: »

You may be interested to read that Go Ballooning have now gone into liquidation.

Gone Ballooning?

ex-GO-pilot

Don't shoot me - I'm an ex-pilot for Go, recently dropped in the XYZ by what they've done. Don't let it get brushed under the carpet. You may only have paid £79 for a ticket, but some have paid many times more, and the pilots, crews, maintenance people (mostly self employed subcontractors who are in the same position as yourselves) are owed many thousands. You do realise the directors can declare themselves as creditors too and then hold a significant vote on the liquidation process?

Please, please, please:

Register if you're a creditor

Attend the Creditors Meeting - appoint a proxy if you can't

Look at the recently formed companies of SKYPOWER LIMITED and SKYPOWER AERIAL FILMING LIMITED and wonder about the closeness of the incorporation dates (23-3-2013) and the day they ceased trading as GO (5-4-2013 I think). I wonder what equipment they are using and how much they paid for it?