As a New Yorker, I thought it would be wonderful to celebrate this great city and my 40th birthday by taking a helicopter ride with Zip Aviation. The experience was anything but.
Upon arriving at the terminal I was met with absolute chaos. There were many different companies all sharing the same terminal and when I did locate my representative they told me to speak to someone inside. I was not allowed inside, so was told to speak to someone outside. Trying to find a representative to ask where I should line up was almost impossible. Finally a lady came outside and told the 1.30 people to line up. So we waited and waited. A representative then came out to take the 2pm flight inside. When I informed them that the 1.30pm flight was still waiting to go inside. I was told that I should relax and not give 'him attitude'. The group that was with me was equally upset with the way we were treated and started to voice their concerns.
Finally, at 2.30 we were led inside only to wait another 30 minutes. Many groups that were behind us, came in and flew before us. At 3pm (an hour and a half after our scheduled departure) we were led outside for our flight. We stood waiting for a helicopter, only to be told one wasn't available and to be led inside to wait again. At this point I asked one of the representatives why is had taken an hour and a half for a 10 minute flight. He told me it was a safety issue and that they were being 'safe in New York.' I asked to speak to his manager. The manager came over and I told him how long we had waited, that we had been led outside and that no-one was giving me an answer as to why we were being treated this way. During my conversation, he just walked away.
We were then led outside for our flight.
My day was completely spoilt. I had always dreamed of flying in a helicopter for my 40th birthday and my friends had bought me a ticket for my birthday. My mother had flown over from the UK and I had bought her a ticket too as this had been a dream of hers. From start to finish, this experience had lasted 2 hours. 2 hours of waiting, being given no information, treated badly and ignored. I'm extremely upset that I spent my 40th birthday like this. It was supposed a memorable and wonderful occasion and instead my whole day was spoilt.
I would not recommend that anyone give this company money their well earned money. Even after complaining to their customer service department I received a short and unapologetic email. Save you money. This is not a good representation of New York.
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