Virgin Balloon Flights Avaliações 5.357

To be Clear - this is a review of booking procedures.

Excellent!!

Prompt, clear and full replies regarding my query to book two balloon flights in 13-months time for a grand family reunion.

Natalie was attentive, efficient, competent, polite and fantastically helpful.

I will update the review once our flights have taken place. Of course it is dependent on weather :)

Excellent customer service from Virgin Balloon flights. I had to cancel due to challenging unforeseen circumstances. Lynn and the team handled everything promptly and with understanding. Their support and flexibility was very kind and much appreciated.

After five years of holding a Virgin Balloon Flights voucher and around 11 cancellations, we were already frustrated before we even got to fly. The booking system is difficult, the extension period has been reduced, and the whole process feels like a slog. We did try to get a refund at one point, however Virgin were unwilling to make any allowances.

We flew from Whitchurch Rugby Club in late April. Check in was 5.30pm, the next hour or more we were assisting the crew with setting up the balloon, which largely meant a lot of standing around waiting.

The flight was lovely, the weather calm and sunny. We had quite a long flight due to our travel direction over a nature reserve. The flight was thoroughly enjoyable, and we had a good calm landing.

Deflating and packing up the balloon again took some time and manual effort and getting your hands dirty. After all was packed away, prosecco or orange juice was offered around. While seemingly good intentioned, many people still had a long drive ahead and the evening was approaching 9pm. This part felt more like a chance to flog the in-flight photographs for £20 - which seems both steep and unfair given the price of the actual experience!

From here we were driven back to the launch site, getting back around 9.30pm. The whole thing took around 4 hours, with about 1 hour 20 in the air.

While the balloon flight was enjoyable, it was certainly not worth the effort required to keep re-booking, making plans and cancelling etc for 5 years at the risk of losing out entirely. If you are booked for a flight, take water and snacks, and dress appropriately for landing in a muddy field.

Great balloon flight! Lovely views and it felt very safe and enjoyable. Huge thanks to Caroline and Mike (pilot) for making it a great experience from start to finish!

*I did need to wait 8 years until I was able to fly! I probably did have a lot of bad luck (most people don't need to wait this long), but please keep in mind that flights do get cancelled and it's up to you to rebook before the voucher runs out.

Fabulous experience well worth every penny.Super knowledgeable pilot and guys!
Loved every minute - great to be involved in putting the balloon up.
Prosecco at the end was a wonderful end to the day!
There is so much involved in making sure the conditions are suitable for flying and safe for passengers - i understand now why flights get cancelled.

Russell Collins led us through our balloon ride experience with great aplomb. From getting the balloon up then enjoying our flight to landing and packing it away. The weather was perfect and we had a good time.
Thank you Virgin Balloons.

The staff were incredibly friendly and professional. It was all really well managed from the messages about the trip to the trip itself. The experience was amazing!

Great experience when you do get up there, just brave the heights. Took a few bookings before the weather was right which is a downside, but once your up there you will appreciate the safety aspect. Thanks!

Inadequate safety procedures; appalling customer response. Apparently their much-vaunted insurance policy doesn't cover somebody getting a serious injury when going on one of their balloon trips. They just blame the individual. Truly awful customer service attitude, not even offering any ex gratia payment for the experience, just hiding behind a blanket legalese response so that they are not sued. I wasn't even intending to sue them!

DONT USE
My husband and daughter were due to go on a balloon, (special Birthday treat) but the week before my husband was called into hospital to have an emergency tumour removed. When doing this it affected his balance and he has received physiotherapy to help. He was off work for 6 months. I contacted Virgin and asked if I could reschedule and was told by a lady called Lynn, that he had the operation the week before, so therefore he could have attended. I don’t recommend ANYONE using this company, as they say they have compassion, but I can’t see it. BE WARNED!!!

I just had this response. .

Regarding the flight, I want to clarify that it’s not about expecting anyone to attend, but rather that the booking was not cancelled prior to the flight date. This is why the vouchers were marked as used. I understand that this may seem unfair given the circumstances, and I’m truly sorry for any distress this has caused.

As if my husband was in the right frame of mind to think about making a call, when his life was more important.

We bought the Virgin Balloon flight for our 40th Wedding anniversary in 2022, 4 years later and 8 cancellations by Virgin we are still waiting. We have had every excuse you can think of, too cold, too hot, too windy, not windy enough and todays excuse a slight possibility of a shower during the flight. I understand that safety must come 1st but honestly I'm sure on at least 3 of the occasions it would have been entirely safe.

A few weeks ago we took to the skies over Newark and the whole experience was amazing. To start off, the take off location was a beautiful site and as we were flying not too far from home we were able to see recognizable locations from above. Our pilot Matt was a star, really down to earth and had a great humour, great to put you at ease if needed. He also narrated as we went and answered questions. Mum and I felt safe and really enjoyed our time- it was her second flight and my first, and we both loved it. It's very peaceful and calm up there (apart from the burner every so often of course). If you're contemplating this, I definitely recommend. Once we were down, we were greeted by Adam and Martin with our drinks and certificates, and we were able to help pack the balloon- if you thought packing a tent is a hard task, wait until you see this. We were then driven back to 'base', again with high spirits and chat. We felt very welcomed the whole time.

You do have to be patient, but we understood this from the get go. You are against the weather and elements, it's not as simple as flying when you want to. It was worth the wait for sure. Thank you to Matt, Martin and Adam for such a lovely evening. I hope they receive our thanks. 👏

Wow , such a perfect day !
My son bought me this experience for my BIG Birthday and we’d had several cancelled as the weather has to be in perfect conditions but oh my goodness it was worth the wait ! Special thanks to Robert and the team who made this flight even more special with his experience and total respect for nature and landowners, a day I’ll never forget !

My Mum Died and Virgin STILL won’t exchange.

Myself and my husband were gifted a balloon flight for our 40th birthdays (we are now approaching our 45th birthdays!) we have tried to book a flight 7 times and every time it has been cancelled.

We do not live close to a launch site, but until last year we were able to stay with my mum. However sadly my mum suddenly died last in May of 2025 and we now have no accommodation near to a launch site. Making it very difficult and expensive to book, especially when the flights get repeatedly cancelled.

My mother in law also broke her back in December of 2025 and is now unable to provide childcare.

We have contacted virgin to explain these circumstances and asked for an exchange (not a refund!) and have been told we can’t have one. Although we had been told previously if we had 7 cancellations we would be able to exchange the vouchers. Given our circumstances I’m not sure what’s needed to qualify for an exchange.

Please, please do not waste your money or gift these vouchers to anyone, I’m sure they cause more distress to people then pleasure! The whole experience has been extremely upsetting.

Whole experience was fab, the crew Glyn and Dan looked after us so well, it was great to be involved in the set up and packing away. The flight with Mike was so smooth just gliding through the air. I had a few weather cancellations but was always communicated with, re booking was easy

What a glorious balloon flight I had this morning. Thank you Nobby (pilot) and crew for all your hard work and attention to safety and humour; all of you were great 😀. I was a lone traveller, the rest of the basket made up of couples, and I was made to feel like I was part of the gang, so if, like me,no one wants to go up with you do it anyway!!! (This was a morning flight from Newbridge in Bath.)

Very polite, kind and helpful. Responded quickly and solved my issue perfectly.

Liz was very helpful with my enquiry. She provided excellent customer service in fact exceeded that.

Liz was very helpful and thoughtful dealing with me.
I wasn't sure if my voucher was valid. My son and daughter had bought me the voucher.
I didn't get to use it as my daughter passed away suddenly last year.
Liz was was understanding and caring. She sent me a new voucher, the old one was still valid. I hope to be able to use it this year.
Please thank her from me.

I was very lucky to have perfect flying weather which made it extra special but the whole experience was wonderful. There are 4 sections in the basket with 4 people in each so it's a bit of a squash but you still get a glorious view. Phil the pilot was lovely and professional. The system to check the flight was on, back up sites, and rebooking process if your flight was cancelled was efficient and worked well.