Private Flight Balloon Rides

We made our hot air balloon trip plans in June for the Oct 2013 Hot Air Balloon Ride. We called several places and liked the Private Balloon Flights package — they try hard to promote it. This was a bucket list trip for me. We made the hot air balloon trip a stop on our move from San Antonio to San Diego — quite a ways out of the way. We woke up at 4:30 am in the morning to meet in the parking lot as instructed. It was freezing weather and we waited in line. Here we were told that we would not be in the sunrise hot air balloon group after all, but group 2. This was never told to us when we signed up in June (4 months in advance). After we signed in we were instructed to another park. We went and waited outside in the freezing cold for about an hour for the winds to calm down. While we were waiting we met the other people in our group. We learned that we had in fact signed up prior to the people in group 1 — so we are not sure why we were chosen to be in group 2. Another couple that was in group 2 had actually been signed up for a flight the day before and bumped to today — so they should have also been in group 1. At any rate the operator said we were lucky because Group 2 means we get a longer balloon ride. Well we get in the chase vehicle and our chase driver is very friendly, enthusiastic and knowledgeable. We start chasing the group 1 balloon all over ABQ and the chase driver tells us that the balloon driver is actually from out of town and isn’t that familiar with the geography. Well this didn’t worry us until there were several sites for the balloon pilot to set down but didn’t. It seemed like every other balloon in the sky that day found a spot to set down except the balloon we were supposed to be on. After about an hour the pilot radioed our driver and told her to take us back to the park because we would not be getting our balloon ride. I did everything I could do not to start crying. This was the most exciting thing I had planned on our trip. With the government shutdown our entire family vacation road trip was ruined. None of the national parks were open and now to top it off our hot air balloon ride was cancelled. We had done everything right — made our reservations early in advance, showed up on time! The chase driver said to talk to the reservationist Pam to see what she could offer us. When we got dumped off back at the park Pam met us and told us «sorry, sucks when mother nature doesn’t cooperate». It was the most UNheartfelt apology ever. She didn’t even have the class to offer us breakfast at least — nothing! Not even a sweatshirt for all of our troubles. I think at the very least they could have offered us a discount if we returned to a different day to ride and invited us to stay for breakfast anyway. This company didn’t even have the business sense to offer us ANYTHING! I was appalled. They said we could book another balloon flight on Tuesday — three days later! Well, sorry we were leaving in the morning… our trip was ruined. I get that mother nature has to cooperate, but it was apparent that there was more than just mother nature participating in this disaster! The other couple that was with us drove all the way from Louisiana for this and the couldn’t offer them anything either. I mean seriously — was breakfast too much to ask for? What a waste of time! My advice is to go with a different balloon ride operator — someone with more tact and customer service! There are plenty to choose from.