Ballooning vouchers

WT70

Hi there,

I'm not sure if I'm posting this in the right forum - so apologies if not.

My mum bought my partner and I vouchers for a balloon ride, which was cancelled at the last minute. According to the company's terms and conditions:

1) We automatically lose the £70 pp "upgrade" my mum paid for us to fly during a balloon festival (the company says this was paid at our own risk and is totally non-refundable)
2) We now have to try to book and fly on seven more occasions before the end of the ballooning season this year before we can claim a refund
3) Or we can try to book and fly on three more occasions before the end of the ballooning season and then apply in writing to the company who may agree to extend our vouchers at a cost of £50 pp

In total, the vouchers cost about £200 each, including the upgrade.

We had to drive to the launch site to be there at 5.45am (telephone check the night before said they hoped to be able to fly), and then were told at about 6.30am that it had been cancelled due to bad weather.

I totally understand that these things are weather dependent - but my question is about their terms and conditions.

Can it really be ok to say that the £70pp for a flight at a certain time is non-refundable? And is it really legal to expect us both to potentially take a further seven days off work to drive to take-off locations up to 120 miles from where we live on the off chance that a flight will go ahead?

I fell gutted that my mum spent so much money on this. Does anyone know if I have a leg to stand on to just reclaim the money?

Thanks.

susan42

I dont know the answer sorry but

I think you would be better off posting this in a different part of the site,
if you paid by credit card how about contacting your cc company and asking their advice

Contact mse person and ask them to move your post for better replies

sarahlouisexo

Can't offer any help but try reposting in the consumer rights forum, or getting this moved?

As long as the terms and conditions state everything implicitly its my understanding that they have to be adhered to!

Lopsie

I completely sympathise with you! We experienced a similar problem earlier this year with a ballooning company (I paid for 4 vouchers) The terms and conditions were awful, and not customer friendly at all, and after our first cancellation and fully understanding their terms i felt sick that I had spent so much money. We were "lucky" i guess, after having it cancelled 3 times, they went into administration so i was able to claim the full amount back on the vouchers off our credit card. I really wish you the best of luck with getting it sorted and hope you get to have your flight or your money back in full.

cupcake4

Sounds a very similar story to my tale of woe.
I booked a hot air balloon flight with Living Social in April 2012 and the money was debited from my account at the beginning of April 2012.
Originally I had wanted to fly over London (as I am London based and do not have my own transport), but by the time I was referred first, to Balloons Over Britain and subsequently, Barefoot Promotions, no balloon flights were scheduled till the end of the flying season over London due to the Olympics.
I decided to fly over Essex, my next nearest site and was redirected to Essex Balloons. I booked 3 flights in 2012 and each time they were cancelled on the day due to adverse weather conditions. (At least I didn't have to trudge to a site in the middle of nowhere at some godforsaken time like you did, how awful. You should have been advised before you left home at least.) My 3rd cancelled flight was October 2012 and the ballooning season didn't start again until end March 2013. By this time my father was desperately ill and I was running to and fro to the hospital and then the Care Home where he died in April 2013. My voucher was valid until 16th July, but the last thing on my mind was going up in a hot air balloon and having a glass of champagne after my father had died.
I remembered the voucher about the end of June this year and phoned Essex Balloons who had now been taken over by Adventure Balloons. I had paid extra for a pm (afternoon or evening slot) as I knew I could not get to any sites in Essex at the crack of dawn.
The woman who answered was most unpleasant and said that all she could offer me at such short notice was an a.m. flight. in Essex. She kept telling me that I had only paid for an a.m. flight which was totally incorrect as I had all the paperwork in front of me. If I wanted a p.m. flight, there was nothing available until after the expiry date of my voucher and she told me I would have to pay an additional £40 as an extension. The terms and conditions she quoted were totally different to those of Essex Balloons with whom I had my original contract and she told me that I would have had to have 4 flights cancelled in order to extend my voucher free of charge - I had had only 3.
I tried to tell her that I had been unable to book before due to bereavement, but it was a waste of time.
I got back to Barefoot Promotions but no joy. I then sent a letter advising that I would take them to the Small Claims Court and sent it by Recorded Delivery but they did not want to know.
Eventually, I contacted Living Social who I had bought the initial 'experience' voucher from and after some delay when they contacted Barefoot Promotions, they offered me a credit of the full amount to be paid into my account with them, plus £10 extra for goodwill. I immediately replied that I wanted the money credited to my bank account which they have done with £10 extra credited to my account with them valid for one year.
Moral of the story "don't give up" - it took me many months to get a result. Threaten legal action, don't be daunted, these companies want you to jump through hoops and make it as difficult as possible to get your money back.
Good Luck and let me know how you get on!

sharnad

Happened to me with virgin several cancelled flights after driving hundreds of miles then changed location one flight took off but we had to land after a few minutes. Bad weather and someone guy hurt on a jutting out nail on the hard landing. Next time got a flight but it didn't up very high or far