Balloons Over Napa Sonoma

Unfortunately you can’t put ZERO stars on a review, because that’s what it should be! I originally bought vouchers from travelzoo, because it really seemed like a deal and we’ve always wanted to do a hot air balloon ride. After we made our reservation online, paid the taxes, and then got our confirmation email from the company. However, the website had magically been under some kind of «construction/​update» for the past 2 – 3 weeks. But we got emails saying we needed to fill out medical clearance forms and bring them with us (there was no attachment on the email) the day of the ride. I wrote their «support» team multiple times asking them to resend it and what time we had to meet at the departure location, etc. but never heard back from them (the website is still down) and their contact phone number doesn’t seem to exist either! Early morning we went to the so called departure site, only to find out there’s no such address and about 20 other people waiting to be picked up too. Bottom line, don’t buy anything from this company! Don’t buy any vouchers from a 3^rd party for this company! It is a total scam!!!

They went out of business, it was an actual company. I went on a balloon ride with them in August and the only complaint that I had was that the pilot made a really hard landing and the ground crew was not very well trained. During the landing, they allowed the balloon to come in contact with the hot blower and probably damaged it.

As other reviewers have said, Balloons Over Napa Sonoma ran a bunch of promotions via Groupon and other discount sites and shortly thereafter, they apparently went out of business. Additionally, there’s no way of contacting them. Really unfortunate that so many people ended up losing so much money over this «promotion».

OUT OF BUSINESS or FRAUD — haven’t figured out which. Do not use! You will never get a hold of anyone to get a refund! BEWARE!

FRAUD! FAKE COMPANY! Run away and do not give this company money. Even if it seems like an amazing deal. You will never reach anyone, the number is unallocated during business hours and just a voice mail otherwise. They are going to take your money and run.

I’m writing this on both pages in hopes that more people see this before they waste their time and money. This place is a total scam. I bought 2 vouchers from livingsocial in April to use in Napa Valley, CA. Even with the discount I spent hundreds of dollars to make my boyfriend’s birthday special. The first thing that annoyed me was when I went to schedule the flight for the hot air balloon, and thought I had already paid for it, they charged another $ 40 a person for ‘tax’. Then I got an e-​mail with a waiver for health problems with no attachment. I emailed them to get another copy and never heard back. After the fact I realized the initial address on the voucher was different than the address they sent us to in the e-​mail confirmation. The address was in Healdsburg, CA, which is literally in the middle of nowhere. We woke up at 5AM to drive down this scary road in the pitch black to find that a business never even existed at this address. After driving around for 15 minutes and stopping at anything around with a light on we saw a few cars parked in this random parking lot. We pulled in and they were all waiting for this tour. Long story short… the website was down, we tried to call the number and the mailbox was full, and it ended up being a total scam! There weren’t any signs for the place, no one showed up to pick us up, no one ever called, and apparently the same thing happened the last couple days to other people. There were about 20 people there, which further proves it was a scam because that many people can’t all fit in a balloon. After reading reviews, which I should have done beforehand, it seems as if hundreds of people were schemed out of money from this place. I didn’t check because livingsocial has never steered me wrong in the past. We are all in the process of filing lawsuits/​complaints with the police and our credit card companies. The biggest disappointment of all was that we thought we were going to be taking a sunrise balloon ride over Napa Valley with a limo taking us to wine taste and we ended up really disappointed. The Company name is Adventurist Air LLC, which is apparently based in Lewiston, Idaho, and owned by a guy named James Knight, who you can find on facebook if you would like to give him a piece of your mind if you were one of the victims.

This guy has promotions on many of the discount coupon sites. He is selling hundreds of flights to innocent victims. I don’t think he even owns a balloon. I bought two tickets on
, drove two hours to Healdsburg, stayed in a hotel overnight so I wouldn’t be late for the 5:30am call time. And yes, you guessed it, nobody from balloonwinetours even showed up. We sat and waited for an hour with about 20 other victims. No phone call, no email, no nothin’. The company is owned by an individual from Lewiston, Idaho. I’m letting the authorities know about this guy.- Anton 08÷20÷12

After passing on a concert last night so I could get up early to make the 6:30 am pick-​up in Healdsburg and getting up at 4:30 am so I could be at the pick-​up spot ahead of schedule, we found ourselves in a parking lot with about 20 other people, all of whom would eventually realize that no one was coming to pick us up and there would be no balloon ride.
I usually don’t write bad reviews, but if you ever consider ballooning, I would never fly this outfit. Even if they offer us all a free trip, I wouldn’t go. From the beginning I should have known. Poor scheduling and re-​scheduling b/​c they lost our first reservation.
Address for pick-​up spot is not correct. No one bothered to call the 22 or so of us to tell us no one would be coming. And now, I learned that the same thing happened yesterday! So instead of having a glorious morning ballooning over the vineyards, we were left with a complete let down and at 7 am in Healdsburg, very little is open so we just returned to SF.
NEVER BOOK ANYTHING WITH THIS OUTFIT. There are plenty of other good balloon companies in the area. For the record, I saw Up & Away’s balloon van and basket on the 101 as I was getting off the exit to go the pick-​up spot. If I only would have known, I would have followed the van and seen if I could have bought 2 spots at the take-​off spot. At least then, the morning would have not been a complete waste.

This was the worst experience. No address, no balloons, no office, went for our trip and found a guy in a truck no sign saying no trip, no call to cancel, no one has got back to us