Fly Bay Area

Kevin was awesome! Very nice, friendly and professional.
We decided to upgrade to San Francisco which was the best idea we could have been offered.
We the views. And after all the rain it was perfect weather for sightseeing.
Thank you Kevin! We look forward to our next flight.

LOVE THIS PLACE! I purchased a Groupon for a surprise gift. I had a ton of questions about the Groupon offer (if you want to ride with the person you’re going with, make sure you buy the right one) and Lisa was super speedy to get back via phone and email. I upgraded to the Half Moon Bay tour and it was SPECTACULAR! Jim did an amazing job letting us pilot the plane and being super chill during the whole ride.
I would suggest to check the weather before booking, I made sure to do this on a sunny day and it was totally worth the $$. If this is your first time doing something like this, I would highly recommend Fly Bay Area because they have amazing customer service and the flight experience is incredible.

I took my hubby here as a birthday gift for a flight down the peninsula and it was a true delight. The pilot, Alex, was excellent, charming, hilarious, and incredibly generous. I highly recommend this experience and hope you have as much fun as we did. My hubby can’t stop smiling.

It is totally worth it. Alex is so friendly and experienced. You truly don’t need to worry about anything. Just trust him and he will take care of the hard part. Enjoy your cruising~

ALEX and the staff at Fly Bay Area provided a great experience. We will go back and I recommend them highly for the experience and their professional and fun atmosphere.
Check out this Youtube video (
) of my 12 year old taking the yoke for his 12^th birthday. Alex provided a wonderful experience.
This was a great entry into flying for my son. He really enjoyed the experience. Alex communicated well during pre-​flight and flight to make the experience very memorable.
I can’t recommend a service more for those that are interested. The staff is great and the venue is amazing. Maybe next time we will take the extended trip to the SF Bay!!!

I bought a u-​fly with a passenger through Groupon for my husband’s birthday and he was absolutely thrilled! We flew with Alex who was the funniest, not to mention he made us feel really comfortable! Highly recommended for the thrill, the service and the magnificent views of the peninsula!

Surprised my bf for his birthday with a U-​Fly tour of the Golden Gate. We got there at about ten minutes before our flight time, which we were told to do. But when we arrived, we were told by Kevin, our flight instructor, that they were expecting some delays. Which we didn’t really mind.
Although we weren’t in the plane and ready to fly until an hour after our scheduled time, Kevin was great! He was very informative and funny. It wasn’t agony waiting for our flight. Being an hour late, we actually ended up getting the sunset flight, which was awwweeesommmeee. My bf spent pretty much the entire time flying, just like they said he would!
I would definitely do this again, recommend this to others and buy this as a gift!

Dave was great and the dual U-​Fly experience was a lot of fun!

Best Birthday gift to date. Alex was wonderful. He was so calm and made it seem like I knew what I was doing. We got pictures and a video. I HIGHLY RECOMMEND doing this.

Good flight experience at Fly Bay Area. Captain Alex was nice, patient, and professional. Enjoyed the view of Silicon Valley.

I would give 6 stars if I could.
Did the ultimate experience where my boyfriend cld fly the plane and wow it was amazing.
Our flight guide KEVIN was thoroughly outstanding and made us truly feel welcome, educated, encourages, and made the entire experience the experience of a life time.
Took the 4pm 70 minute flight and the views were exquisite!
UFLY BAY AREA MADE MY BOYFRIENDS BIRTHDAY A LIFETIME MEMORY.

We Can’t say enough about our pilot Kevin and UFLY, it is top notch all the way! Our pilot, Kevin, was funny, friendly and professional. We got a great deal from Groupon and I had some problems with the code, but UFLY and Groupon made good on the package. Beautiful day and they made my husband’s birthday! Thanks and we will be back and tell all our friends!

We were looking forward to this experience for a long time, ever since we learned about Fly Bay Area on Zozi. We were in the air promptly (I thought we would have to wait a lot more for instruction and other things) and our pilot Jim was really great. He was helpful, informative and didn’t mind taking photos for us, even mid-​flight. 20 minutes isn’t very long to be in the air on paper, but it felt like plenty of time for us to get a sense of flying and a new respect for the amount of attention and care that it takes to guide a plane through the air.
Only two small disappointing things…
We originally booked 6pm, but got a call around 1 encouraging us to come at 2pm instead. We didn’t want to risk bad weather, but ended up regretting not flying during golden hour, which is when all the beautiful photos on the site were taken and which turned out to be a beautiful time of day. Would have been worth the risk to wait.
The $ 19.95 booking fee was a surprise. Since there’s no way to avoid it, it seems like it should have just been factored into the price.
Still, it’s a really legitimate operation run by great people who take flying seriously. They’re a legit flight school, not just a tourist operation, which made it feel a lot more trustworthy and genuine. Would definitely recommend giving it a try at least once, and then maybe coming back for flying lessons after that!

It was an absolutely seamless, amazing experience with the best of the best!
Thanks to Gabe and David for an exceptional customer experience !

I booked my kids flying lesson for first time, its for a month in advance, the company called the day before the lesson to cancel, i called to resched or refund, fly bay area never called back. Dont waste your time and money with this company

What an amazing time we had! We did the «ultimate tour», a birthday gift for my boyfriend and I had planned this for about 8 months. I was thrilled to find out that my boyfriend would be able to fly the plane for the majority of our flight (and he flew over 90% of the time) without being required to take lessons in advance. My boyfriend loved every second!
Our pilot (Alessandro…hope i spelled it right) was wonderful! He was funny, attentive, enthusiastic and very knowledgeable. He made us feel so comfortable (I was a little nervous at first) and was great with his tutorial on flying a plane. While my boyfriend flew the plane (and he was awesome at it) I took over 100 breathing photos and video.
This is a «must do» if you’re into adventure and appreciate the beauty of the Bay Area. We hope to do the sunset/​twilight tour next.
Definitely put this on your bucket list!

I booked a flight after purchasing a Groupon deal. We were not able to fly on the day of our originally scheduled flight due to weather so we rescheduled a couple of weeks out when the weather was better.
On the day of our rescheduled flight, we upgraded to the Half Moon Bay flight which offered surreal views of the coast. Our pilot, Kevin, was very friendly and engaging, explaining all of the controls and processes. My boyfriend also loved being able to take control of the plane for a bit. The flight delay ended up working out in our favor because we were able to peer over our shoulders to watch the sunset over the water (pretty incredible) as we flew back to SC.
A phone call to let us know about the delayed flight would have been nice so we could have left home a little bit later rather than rushing to sit in the terminal for an hour. Also slightly off-​putting was that the girl checking us in, waited until after we purchased the upgrade to Half Moon Bay to tell us that our flight would be an hour delayed.
Gabe is great though and I highly recommend this experience to anyone seeking a bit of a thrill.

Summary: Unprofessional poorly run business
As an extra special (and expensive) holiday gift to my boyfriend, I bought a Sunset Flight with Fly Bay Area. It cost me a bit over $ 500 (this tour is currently being offered for less than that).
I was really excited to fly over the coastline and the city being lit up by the golden rays of the setting sun. We scheduled the 50 minute flight in advance for 4:30pm (the sunset was at 5:30pm that day and the booking email confirmed that we would be leaving 30 minutes before sunset). We had to have our family drive us all the way from San Francisco to the airfield which took close to an hour. When we arrived, Gabe told us that they double-​booked our departure and that the plane would not come back until 4:45 — 4:50. As we continued to fill out the forms, he proceeded to tell us that the plane will likely not be back until 5:15. He told us that we could reschedule the booking or we could wait and see when the plane gets back and also that sometimes it’s even better to leave a bit later. Based on this advice, we waited (plus, making another trip down to San Carlos is not easy). At 5:15, Gabe motioned for us to get out onto the airstrip; We proceeded to wait another 10 minutes until the plane finally arrived. We did not leave the airport until 5:25 (again the sunset was at 5:30). I’ve included the picture with this review so that you can see what the sun looked like 2 minutes into the flight — as you can see, not much of the sun was left, sadly.
Because the sun was already setting, we had to choose between seeing the coast or the city before it got too dark to see anything. We, of course, chose the city. Once we got to the city, the sun was gone and we had maybe 10 minutes before the light was extinguished. We then proceeded to fly around the Bay in the dark for 30+ minutes, to complete the 50 minute duration of the flight.
While seeing the city from the plane is a very special experience, this is not at all what I envisioned when I paid a premium price for the SUNSET flight. Not only did we not get to see the coast, but we did not get to see the city at sunset! Additionally, we did not get the photos that came with the package. We asked Gabe for a discount as the experience was not as advertised, but instead of that, he offered us a $ 50 discount on a future flight! Considering our flight cost was already $ 50 higher than what’s currently advertised, this «concession» was absolutely laughable.
We will definitely book another flight over the Bay area, but this time with a more professional and customer-​oriented business. A quick search reveals that Fly Bay Area has competition: please take your business to San Francisco Air Tours or Seaplane Adventures (I have no affiliation with either business).
Gabe, you seem like a lovely person, but please review your customer service practices.

For my boyfriend’s quarter century, I took him to new heights! We went flying with Fly Bay Area! And boy, was he surprised!
If a special occasion is coming up and you aren’t the type to buy actual gifts, I think this is definitely a memorable experience. This was especially good because he loves photography and we flew over the Golden Gate Bridge, which allowed him to take pictures of the Golden Gate Bridge from an angle that he never saw before.
Another great thing about this is that you don’t have to do any prep classes. I mean, we wanted to fly but it was probably going to be a one time thing. We didn’t need to learn too much about flying. Our pilot, Nick, basically took care of take off and landing. Everything in between was us. He would explain to us how to level off the plane as well as go left or right as we were flying. He would also tell us where to go, as we were supposed to fly around a certain area. He was very helpful in teaching us how to maneuver the plane while in the air.
We did a flight where we both were able to fly. We did a longer one to Golden Gate Bridge and back as well as a shorter one around the peninsula. In between the two flights, Nick landed the plane back at Fly Bay Area and then we took off again. Apparently, the plane must take off and land at the same airport.
You can always upgrade your flight when you get to Fly Bay Area on the day of. Gabe will explain everything to you.
We also got some pictures and videos as well.
This was not a cheap experience but it’s also not something we’d do everyday but it was very fun and we enjoyed it very much!

My hands were getting clammy just thinking about how high up in the air we were going to be… flying in a tiny plane with two other passengers, one of which had zero experience like me, leaving our instructor to do pretty much everything. I have a fear of heights too!!! Fortunate for us, Tanner was an exceptional pilot and did not make us feel any more nervous than we already did! In fact, he was very professional, friendly, and informative! He walked us through everything that he did and let us pilot while we were in the air. I really liked that he was able to answer all my questions and that he demonstrated a lot of passion in what he loves — airplanes and flying!
I had an amazing time and I could not believe that I even had the opportunity to even do such a thing with literally no experience and barely any training. It’s probably one of the most memorable things I’ve done and I highly recommend trying it out. It’s a beautiful sight above, especially on a warm, sunny day. You can see the entire city, ocean, and hills… it’s gorgeous. The experience is worth the money you pay. Groupon or not, it’s worth it.