9/19/07 Wed - Mia talked with Ron Lake, the manager of A Great American Ballon Company

I was pretty annoyed that they haven't flown weekdays for such a long time, but called them to reschedule our flights. (3rd time.)

Ron Lake answered the phone, and he suggested me to book a flight next year since this year it's pretty full. We may be moving abroad next year, so we cannot wait until then. He then told me that the next available day was 10/15. It's almost a month away!!! They are closing the business for the year on 10/31. What if they cancel the 10/15 flight too? (It most likely to happen seeing the 100% weekday cancellation rate since 8/3.)

I asked Ron for a full refund again since there was not enough service offered. He refused, telling me that I purchased the tickets knowing that their service was weather dependent. Well, it does say only "50% flights are canceled", not 100%! He told me that I was not looking at the big picture. He claimed that in some months, they flew 10 times. Well well... they offer two flights a day. Sunrise and sunset, which add up to 60 - 62 flights a month. If they only fly 10 times, that still means 80% of the flights are canceled! In a GOOD MONTH!

He then said that not all the flights were booked, so if they calculate the flights that were booked, the cancellation rate would be approximately 50%. It's hard to believe it! Since I started to check the flight info in August, they canceled only one flight because of insufficient number of passengers. Every other time, the reasons for cancellation were either because of the "wind" or "weather" condition. That means they are lying about either the cancellation reasons or the cancellation rate.

I noticed that they were prepared with excuses that we cannot prove wrong for all kinds of complaints. When I asked him why they canceled weekday flights even on days with almost no wind. Ron told me that I was getting "land weather info", and at 1,500 feet above which they check for balloon flights, the wind situation was different. Oh really, for all of those calm days!!!!???? No way! I don't believe you, Ron Lake!!!!