South West Balloon Flights - Exeter

Paul S.

We had an amazing morning balloon ride to celebrate our dad's 60th birthday. The crew were really friendly and welcoming. The pilot put us all at ease and was a fountain of knowledge. Couldn't recommend them enough and will be booking up another ride for the next big family birthday.

andrew W.

An incredible experience. A very simple process from start to finish, communication was great including weather updates prior to the flight day. On the day of the flight the whole experience was very immersive, getting hands on with the setting up and putting away of the balloon. On the day of the flight the weather was perfect, affording extended views across the wonderful Devon countryside, a very controlled landing and champagne finished the morning.

Margery S.

Our flight was a Golden Wedding present from our family. We’d both flown before, but separately, so this was to be a great treat. We were extremely fortunate in being able to book a flight very quickly and probably even more fortunate that it went ahead as scheduled on a beautiful July morning. The pre-flight briefing was very professional and the preparation and inflation very smooth. Being involved in it all was fascinating and fun. The flight didn’t take us far but was an amazing 45 minutes, with deer, rabbits and a train to watch from above, as well as the incredible views across Somerset. Our landing was as smooth as our take-off had been. Gathering many yards of balloon up was an entertaining exercise involving some of the younger members of the group in a lot of rolling around! Champagne when it was all done was a nice touch. The support vehicle which had followed us on the ground served as taxi back to the launch site at Wincanton Racecourse. The entire experience was wonderful; the pilot was brilliant and the whole team inspired confidence. The best recommendation we can give is that we’d go again tomorrow like a shot!

Stuart R.

Had a great flight, an early present for my wife. Company communication great. Crew friendly and knowledgeable

Susan H.

Thoroughly well-organised trip, for my husband's birthday. We were lucky to be successful in flying on our first attempt. Pete was a reassuring pilot and the sunrise was lovely.

David N.

Flight booked as gift from children for my wife's 60th. Had to wait for flights to resume after Covid closedown but well worth the wait! Had a great flight from Broadclyst towards Cullompton early one sunny morning. Great fun and well organised and felt completely safe throughout..

Nikita M.

Awful, unyielding customer service. With no regard for customer satisfaction or for basic kindness. I prime example of when corporate values and greed overtake the values on which this business was probably formed.

I purchased 2 weekend flight vouchers from south west balloon flights for a very expensive £260, you would have thought that at this hefty price along with it would come with a level of customer service, sadly this was not the case. Our voucher was purchased in February, which you would assume given that it was a 9 month long voucher would give you 9 months of opportunities to fly. However this is not the case as they only fly for 6 months of the year.

Unfortunately this year was not an easy one for my partner and I and we were unable to book our flight in the first half of the year. We did book once but the flight was cancelled due to windy weather. After that point the weather took a turn for the worst, and we did not book as we could see that it was going to be rainy.

At the beginning of October this year I called south west balloons as I could no longer see any dates to book flights, I was informed that although the flying season is stated to last until the end of October, at Henstridge airfield, the last flight was instead the first week of October, and we were therefore out of time. I was therefore informed that we would have to pay an extra £70 on top of the £260 for the privilege of using a product that we had already paid for. For some reason they expect more money for doing no extra work.
When calling back to see if there was any leeway available, however I was met by an unyielding 'customer services representative' who refused to budge and instead hid behind the terms and conditions and refused to see the human side of the interaction, and instead suggested that I divulge personal details about the difficulties of my life this year in order to gain any kind of leeway, which I was uncomfortable doing.

South west balloons also hide behind they're automated email service informing customers of upcoming balloon flights around 3 days in advance, however these were mostly for weekday dates which we are unable to make due to being a normal working person, or for dates that we could not make. During the call they also claimed to have incurred costs by calling us to organise dates, no such calls were ever received.

They responded to my review on TrustPilot by calling my partner rude and aggressive which was not at all the case, therefore I have decided to share this review across as many different forums as I can to warn other people away from this awful company. All I am looking for here is some human decency, nothing more.

Lewis G.

Got this for the ladies 30th bday. Was amazing. The staff were excellent and the experience was unreal! Excellent comms with the company and they were very understanding with all the changes due to covid. An amazing experience and I will deffo fly with these guys again. Aerosaurus (I think) were the balloons we used.