Unfortunately, our experience aligns with several others. Often times, only people frustrated with…read moresomething will bother to write a negative review, but those with a positive (or expected) experience will not write a review. So it always tends to be skewed and you have to take reviews with a grain of salt, so I was hopeful that would be the case for us and we wouldn't experience the problems that others have.
Just as several others have mentioned here, our flight was cancelled the day of, after we arrived. We booked SEVEN months in advance, paid in full ~ $1200 for family of four. We arrive 30 minutes prior as instructed. They tell us, sorry, we have mechanical issues, so you are cancelled. They say, we tried to call you (we received no call because, guess what, cell service is not the best around the south rim of the grand canyon...). We said, we have seen at least 4 helicopters flying, how about canceling someone else, how do you select? Did everybody else here book 7+ months ago? Who is prioritized? The reality is they overbooked, and because we paid 7 months previous, we paid less (I looked, their prices went up since we had booked). So I guess we were the easy choice to cancel...
They offered to rebook the next day, yet they know that nearly nobody can accomodate this, so it is a hollow offer where they know they can "do their part to try to rectify", but also know that nearly everybody would then just cancel, and the problem takes care of itself. Great business model...
Everybody that is going to book a helicopter trip over the grand canyon is there on vacation, and nobody is staying anywhere near grand canyon village or the location of this airport. It is an hour drive just from Williams and the main road, one way. Anyone who books this is driving in from Sedona or Vegas or Phoenix for a half/one day trip, and vacation days/time is precious. Its not as though you can just go do something else nearby and wait until the next day... We had one window of time planned, and the time of this flight was it. I suppose that is why they do not really care about customer service, or screwing someone last minute. Its not like they are planning for repeat customers really...
Kids were beyond disappointed. The build-up and excitement, only to be completely let down last minute. They cried as we were walking out and leaving because the talk of the helicopter ride was happening for months prior.
And now to the refund. The girl at the counter said the refund would take 7-10 days. Ok, thats typical, whatever. 12 days goes by, no refund. E-mail and call. They respond and say that, because its been more then 6 months, we cannot refund back to your card. We can either ACH (and attached a form) or send a check. I respond to tell then to send a check. Who in their right mind is going to provide their bank account number and routing number into a microsoft word file and e-mail it back?
Fast forward ~ 21 days. Still no check. So send another e-mail (haven't called yet because that is a whole other experience...). I receive and e-mail back, not a response to my e-mail, but a carbon copy of the first one sent 9 days prior saying I can use ACH or check. Um, huh?
So here we are now, still no refund.
Fortunately, since we were heading to Vegas that day (was supposed to be right after our helicopter flight), we booked with Maverick for a helicopter flight over Las Vegas the next day. $450 for family of four, and the experience was excellent all around. I'd recommend Maverick, and avoid this company.
