Crooks: Adventure Air in Lewiston Idaho

For Chris's birthday this year I decided to get him a hot air balloon ride as a present. After researching I found the closes one to Spokane was in Lewiston. This company partners with a company to book reservations. I talked to a lady at this partner company and was given a quote on a balloon ride. When I called back to confirm the reservation a different agent answered the phone and said that the other lady was mistaken and the price was substantially higher. Sooo....

I decided to bypass this booking company all together and go directly to Adventure Air. I explained the situation to the owner James Knight and he expressed his concern with the situation. After talking everything through he said I could rent an entire basket for $199 per passenger, which would mean I would need to find 3 other passengers to go with Chris and I. The basket holds 6 total (including the pilot). The price for an individual ride was more expensive and there was a slight cost savings by renting out the entire baskets. I invited my Dad, Brother and by brother's wife to join us. I called and finalized our reservation for a private ride and we were good to go! Or so we thought.....

We show up for our ride and there were five other passengers there. ???? I ask James where our private balloon was and he claims to know nothing about that. He asks me what I paid (in front of the other passengers) and makes a point of saying the price would have been double if we had actually reserved a private basket.

I had promised my family a private ride and now we were jammed into a basket like cattle to the slaughter with strangers. We couldn't even see out the other side of the basket! Our one sided view of stinky Lewiston was extremely underwhelming.

Had I know were were not going to have a private flight to ourselves I would have only booked the flight for Chris and I which would have saved me $597.

Oh and right before our flight the company ran a groupon deal for $139. When I talked to Mr. Knight on the phone he said they wouldn’t be doing another groupon deal because it didn’t make him any money. Well…apparently that was a lie also. Had I taken advantage of this deal it would have saved me….$300. And had I only booked the flight for Chris and I it would have saved me….$717.

And two more points of dishonestly:
5 people at $199 each means I should have been charged $995 dollars on my credit card; not the charge that came through for $1000. Where I come from it is not okay to “round up” charges.

The flight was supposed to be 1.5 hours and was just shy of 1 hour from the time of lift off. That means instead of paying $11.11/ minute we ended up paying $16.50/minute.

Needless to say I will not be recommending this company to anyone. Unfortunately, we made all of our arrangements over the phone so I have nothing in writing. But, you all know me to be an extremely honest person…so…..you decide for yourself.

Because I believe in treating people humanely I would like to mention how fantastic our pilot was. He was extremely knowledgeable and very very good. Also, the support crew was fantastic, they worked their tails off. Thank you!

I highly recommend a hot air balloon ride. It is a fun adventure and I imagine it could be a really great time; especially in a more scenic setting. Just make sure you do not book your flight with Adventure Air.
http://www.adventuristair.com/index.html