Above the Rest Hot Air Ballooning and Skydiving Service

Amazing hot air balloon rides!!! We loved the part when the sky diver jumped out of the basket while we were 4,000ft in the air. Very fun experience. The crew was very professional and safe.

Very shady business practices. Do not trust the owner, Dawn Chapton. I initially called Above the Rest Hot Air Balloon on Dec. 20, 2012 and booked for a balloon ride for Dec. 27, 2012. I spoke on the phone with Dawn and told her that I wanted that date. It was the only date that I would be available. My girlfriend was in town, and I wanted to surprise her with a balloon ride for our anniversary. We had a good discussion over the phone and talked about how I saw a Groupon deal but even though it was gone she was going to give me the same rate ($ 218 for the two of us). Everything sounded correct so I gave her my credit card information and completed the transaction. Come Dec. 26, 2012, I receive a call from Dawn late afternoon informing me that the balloon ride has been cancelled due to bad weather. Inclement weather, I totally understand that, but I told her that I will call her back within the next couple days to get a full refund (I was driving at the time) because I could only do the hot balloon ride on Dec. 27, 2012. Over the next couple of weeks, Dawn screened all of my calls. I left multiple voice mails, but she did not return any of my calls. I finally called her using a friend’s phone and of course it was picked up immediately. It was apparently another Dawn, who told me that she’ll get Dawn Chapton to call me back by the next business day. After waiting a couple of days with no reply, I filed a dispute with my credit card company. The dispute was finally closed and I got my $ 218 back by the end of March 2013. My credit card company attempted to reach out to Above the Rest Hot Air Balloon and they never responded. Beware of this company!

They are out of business… I left them several VM over the last 5 month and never got an anser. It looks like dealgrind the company I bought the voucher from also went under.

THIS BUSINESS WENT UNDER. We had purchased a «groupon» type deal through SpreeBird Deals and they gave us a full refund!

I cannot offer any feedback on ballooning or skydiving, just customer service. I almost never write reviews, but I had to comment on my experience in attempting to use my Groupon purchase. My wife and I have repeatedly called and emailed but have not received any response, now their voicemail is full. Shame on me for not heeding the warnings others previously posted. You have been warned!

Buyers Beware! I Purchased this deal through Spreebird Deals for my parents to go on for their anniversary. For about a month I had a difficult time getting a hold of the company with no call backs from leaving multiple messages in their voicemail box.
Finally as the date neared, I called Spreebird and they were able to get a hold of the merchant. The spreebird customer service put me on hold and then merged our calls together where I was able to make a reservation with them, finally. Their rule was, the night prior, between 8 — 9pm you need to call them and listen to the weather report to confirm the trip is still going on.
At this point, I told my parents everything that they needed to do and left the country for personal matters. Well I arrived today at 1am and asked them how the hot air balloon trip was last week? To my amazement, It never happened.
I looked at my phone and had numerous voicemails while being out of the country and when I went through them, one of them was from Above the Rest saying that the trip is cancelled due to bad weather. I asked my parents, «so what exactly happened?»
They tried calling the night prior and got no answer. They left at 4am to get out there and nothing was opened. They saw other companies all out there hot air ballooning but they were left out in the cold brisk morning. Luckily they decided to do other activities since they already made the trip out there but this is pretty much BULL SHIT!
After a nights rest, I called Spreebirds an hour ago and told them my situation and Spreebirds customer service rep told me that this has been going an on going issue they have been having with the vendor, Above the Rest Hot Air Balloning and Skydiving Service. Spreebird apologized and recommend that I take a full refund and walk away from the «deal». Gladly, and here is my Review for you ‘Above NO ONE Hot Air Balloning and Skydiving NON EXISTANT Service’.
STAY AWAY

My boyfriend and I went to the perris location today for a hot air balloon ride. It was great. Phil was our pilot and he has over 5,000 hours logged. Everyone was really nice and we spend over an hour up in the air. We had 5 sky divers come with us and jump out of the basket. Awesome. The only complaint I would have is the booking process. I called almost a month in advance and booked for the perris location. Didn’t receive a confirmation email or a reminder call a few days before. Then at 9pm I received a call from dawn confirming our flight in perris. There was no way for me to prove that is not where I booked since it was all over the phone with no confirmation email. It ended up being great since we got Phil and were able to go 11,000+ ft above ground level which is way higher than the other balloons. Great first time experience. Make sure to purchase the groupon for $ 99 but remember its only for one person.

My boyfriend took me for a Hot Air Balloon Ride for my birthday last August. it was a bucket list adventure and i was excited to go, even though I was getting over a bad illness. In retrospect, we should have rescheduled, as I would have enjoyed it more when feeling 100%.
The ride begins very early, we were up by five am. We stayed at a nearby hotel in Perris, which wasn’t the best, but at least we didn’t have to wake up hours extra to drive out to Perris.
We met at the airfield and it was a little chaotic, people scrambling to fill out forms and get into the vans.
The owner of the company, Dawn, was good at organizing the people and crew. However, when she was busy, it quickly became chaotic. It would have been nice to have one person just in charge of managing the guests. When it came time to board, there was a lot of confusion over who was going in which balloon.
Once we were settled, the ride was fantastic. We flew for about an hour and even had a skydiver jump from our basket.
The landing was interesting. We landed on a city street, coming within feet of a nearby house. I never felt like the situation was unsafe, as the guy driving our balloon seemed like a seasoned pro, but it was definitely a strange place to land.
After landing, we were picked up in a shuttle van and ended the tour with champagne and a continental breakfast.
I thought that the company did an overall great job and I enjoyed the experience. If I were to do it again, I would not go to Perris. Perris just isn’t a very pretty place.

Never trust this place if you’re planning on doing the balloon ride on a day that holds significance to you, your partner or your family. I had the worst experience with this company.
I initially booked a reservation through Bilateral Marketing for a ride in Perris CA for my anniversary and partners birthday.
When I bought the deal they promised me that the day I wanted is available. But when it started approaching I made a call to make sure everything was ok because we were flying from San Francisco to Los Angeles just to take the ride and the representative on the phone said yeah your ride is confirmed.
I put down the phone and minutes later I get a cancellation email. I called again and they told me to call the lady who is doing the ride. I called and she said that she doesn’t have any paperwork from Bilateral. Now that was confusing. One says confirmed that other one no paperwork and the email cancelled.
Anyways long story short. They made me call everywhere until the 2^nd last day the ride was going to take place they moved it to another vendor. Coz the lady who said that she doesn’t have any paperwork ditched both me and Bilateral.
NEVER GO THROUGH THESE PEOPLE THEY WILL MESS UP THE EXPERIENCE FOR YOU!

Both me AND Groupon has been trying to get ahold of this company for TWO WEEKS now. No answer!

Definitely had a great time with Dawn and her crew :) I bought this as a surprise for my boyfriend’s birthday and he loved it! I was hesitant at first because I read some of the reviews about her, but she’s sooo nice! Maybe she might just come off a little differently on the phone because I had initial doubts, but she’s definitely great in person. We flew up super high to about 7,000 feet and had a skydiver on board. Dawn told us later that other balloon companies don’t actually go up that high but since she’s one of the only companies that allow skydivers, it definitely makes for a greater experience.
I loved coasting 10ft off the ground. That was the funnest part for sure! We ended up landing near a recycling facility since you can’t really navigate where the wind takes you. The workers all came out and took pictures, haha. We had a great pilot and our basket was super roomy. We had 2 other couples with us along with a crew member and pilot.
Definitely give it a try! Just remember to call the night before from 8−9pm to hear the weather details and if the flight is a go. They’re really good about making sure everyone’s safe and loads the basket with more than enough fuel.
Dawn and her crew definitely made the experience awesome!

My boyfriend and I had a great experience with Dawn and her company Above the rest. We were slightly nervous that we wouldn’t be able ride because we did have to reschedule due thunderstorms, but Dawn said she could fit us in on another day. People just have to realize that you have to be flexible.
My sister bought one Groupon but was unable to go and I purchased the other flight. We had our flight with a pack of skydivers which was interesting to watch, but after that we pretty much had the basket to ourselves. Everything went very smoothly and we had a wonderful flight.

First of all, the owner of this company, Dawn, is the most unprofessional business person I have ever met. Thank goodness my Chase credit card refunded my money because she wouldn’t, but here’s how it went down (and thank goodness I didn’t actually get into a basket with her UNSAFE «professionalism»)
I am a skydiver. I have jumped out of her balloon last summer and It was fun, even though I felt like I was a «circus act» for the rest of the people to watch… the owner tends to brag about the skydivers to the non-​skydiving customers, like she owns us. Anyway, I saw a coupon offer from my husband’s work (Customer Appreciation Program) which offered 2 for 1 coupons. I told my husband to buy the coupon and I would book myself (the skydiver) and my family (husband, mom, dad, best friend and fellow skydiver) to have them watch me jump out of a balloon. Last year when I did the jump, she charged us skydivers $ 80 cash. I figured with the coupon, we would get a 2 for 1, which meant I could get 6 people up for the price of 3 (assuming it would be $ 240 – 300 total). When I called Dawn, she acknowledged my coupon and said my total would be $ 597.00. That was the first red flag. I was shocked at the total thinking this coupon is not only worthless but now I am paying even MORE than normal prices. Being an easy going person, I let it go and just said fine with the price. She wanted to know when, so I said let’s pick a date that is further into the future so that if I find other skydivers that want to join me, I could add more people to the group.
So I made the reservation at the beginning of June for a flight on July 22^nd. I told her I would probably be able to bring her even more business with more skydivers and would let her know asap. My skydiving friends were interested in the jump and I had a wonderful turn-​out of another 12 skydivers that wanted to do the jump on that day. I felt good bringing her all this business but she didn’t see it that way. She acted like it was a burden for her to accommodate the larger group. Second red flag, what business person doesn’t want business?
I called and left her 3 voice messages — — 1) to tell her about all the referrals I was giving her and if she could accommodate 2) repeated the information again 3) repeat the information again.
She finally called me back saying that she was waiting for an answer from one of her pilots to see if she could switch their schedules around to get a second balloon in the air for that day. I understood, and told her please let me know asap so i can tell my skydiver friends whether they were on the load or not. She even told me to call her back in a few days because she’s busy and might forget to call me… so I had to be her secretary to help with the booking!!!
More time went by, no responses, no answers. I politely sent her a text message asking if she had found a 2^nd pilot for July 22 and all she wrote was «I have 3 balloons that day». WHat does that mean? DId I get 2 of them? So I wrote her again, so does that mean we are good to go? She replied «Las vegas balloon company». WTF does than mean? I was so confused, like I was getting texts from a foreign person. SO I wrote again, «so I can tell my friends that you have 2 balloons for me?» She wrote back «I will let you know» (spelled wrong)
I waited 2 more days and text’d her again «DId you hear anything about getting that 2^nd pilot for July 22? All she wrote back was «NO». WTF??? What kind of business person gives their customer the blow-​off like that when here I am, bringing her $ 2000 worth of business and she’s just writes «NO». I was upset but decided to wait another week before I cancelled my trip all together because I felt that 1) I was being ripped off by the coupon 2) Been given the «I don’t have time for you» act and 3) wasn’t able to let my friends know if this plan was a go. Another red flag.
Well, 6 more days went by and I found out that a skydiving friend of mine went on her balloon (totally unaware of what I was already dealing with) with 7 other skydivers. Even though the weather was overcast and the cloud cover was too thick to take the balloon jump (against FAA regulations), she collected everyone’s money CASH, had them sign the waiver, and sent them up. RED FLAG — — this is dangerous and unsafe when you are flying through clouds. Although it was the pilot that took them up to altitude, it was her business and her greedy decision to just send them up anyway, regardless of their safety. 6 of the 8 skydivers DID jump out because they wanted to do this for a long time. My friend had the intelligence to say no way and stayed in the basket. The other skydivers, not seeing the ground below, had no idea where they were — — over a freeway? over a residential area? and how high was the cloud cover? They opened their canopies extremely low, had barely anytime to decide their landing route and LUCKILY landed on the streets of a residential zone.
out of space…

Very disorganized and unprofessional. Our pilot forgot his GPS and spent the entire time talking to the ground crew, trying to visually describe where we were so they could track us. We couldn’t enjoy the experience because of the constant radio back and forth noise. We landed in a field behind a locked gate, and waited in the sun for over an hour while the pilot tried to explain where we were to his crew, and then had to track down the property owner to open the gate and let us out. We weren’t offered water, although the ground crew had water bottles to drink in front of us. The vehicle we were transported in was a filthy, ancient pickup truck that smelled bad, and had no seatbelts. It was a disgrace. We were promised a breakfast with champagne several times, that was to be served as soon as we could get back to our original meeting place. When we finally made it back to Maurice Carrie Winery, we were told that that they had forgotten the food– it was still back with the balloon, so sorry. The final straw was when they said that they did have the champagne, but couldn’t serve it because they didn’t have any cups– they forgot those too. If I could give them less than one star, I would. We walked away in disgust and had brunch at South Coast instead of waiting around for them to scrounge up some dixie cups for the cheap champagne with no food. Run away from this company!

The owner, Dawn is unprofessional and rude. «FUCK THIS PLACE» is all I want to say at this point, but here is the detail for my disgust if anyone is interested.
We made a reservation with the company a couple of months ago using the Bloomspot deal and went to Temecula two Saturdays ago. We left LA on Sat as the air balloon flight was scheduled on Sunday morning at crack of dawn.
I received a call from the owner of the company, Dawn, around 7pm on Sat, saying that she had to cancel the air balloon flight in the next morning since her pilot got sick and she couldn’t find any replacement for the pilot.
We felt that none of this was our fault, so we requested her to compensate us in some ways; either put us on an air balloon ride with another company or refund the money so that we can book a ride with other companies on our own. However, she told us that if we wanted the refund, we need to deal with Bloomspot ourselves. And the best she could offer was that we come back to Temecula and re-​book the flight with her within a year.
Oh really? That’s really considerate of you. Because we come here all the freaking time. No, Fool. The whole purpose of the trip WAS to get on an air balloon. It’s not every day we get to take a trip with friends. We all have life and other shit to deal with.
And why the fuck do we have to be inconvenienced for YOUR imcompetence to do your job? You have the policy in which if we cancelled the reservation within 48 hours of the flight, you would not refund the money. Then why can’t you honor the same deal to us? YOU cancelled the reservation 11 hours before the call time for the flight.
Despite my anger and frustration with steam coming out of my head, I stayed calm and didn’t use any profanity. I told her the above in a less fired-​up way. The whole time she was on the phone with me, she wasn’t really apologetic. She was rather annoyed that I wasn’t budging. And in the middle of the conversation, she just HANG UP ON ME.
I was exteremely disappointed by the service we got (or lack thereof).
But I’m glad that I didn’t have the once-​in-​a-​lifetime experience with this shitty company. I’d gladly do it somewhere else.
So, I conclude… FUCK THIS PLACE.
PS. Bloomspot refunded us the full amount after I told them what happaned.

I didn’t even get to go do this experience and I have a negative review. I looked it up on Groupon and called to ask what the fee would be for over 200lbs. The woman who answered told me $ 25. Then, without me even responding or saying anything, she brusquely said, «Look, I’m giving everyone a deal here. I’m only charging $ 25 for being overweight. Other companies would charge you way more than that.» I said, «I wasn’t arguing with you, I just asked what the cost was.» And she said, «I’m not arguing with you either, I’m just saying that I am giving everyone a deal.» I was put off by her tone so I said, «Okay, well thank you.» And she literally said, «UGH» and hung up on me.
Unprofessional and rude.

What an amazing experience! To celebrate 2yrs together with my girlfriend, I wanted to do something different than the usual dinner! Gilt was offering this deal on Hot Air Balloon ride and I said, why not? When am I ever going to do this again… so we went down to Perris on a Saturday, it was as dark as it gets. We didn’t even know we were in the right place, haha! It was an experience! The ride it’s great… you watch the whole process of unwrapping the balloon, filling it up with air, and take life… the ride it’s amazing! You’re 4500 feet in the air and don’t even notice it! There are also skydivers jumping off of it for a little show… AMAZING! Dawn was so great and helpful! Like my girlfriend say…“we can check that off our bucket list!”

Above the Rest was AMAZING! After a previous reservation was canceled, we saw Above the Rest setting up and asked if we could ride with them. They not only gave us a deal, but they gave us breakfast and mimosas before, during, and after they flight. They also happened to have a party bus that picked us up from our landing spot to take us back to the winery. The ride felt safe the whole time. The staff was nice and accommodating, and made our trip extremely memorable. I would definitely ride with them again.

I purchased the groupon deal for this balloon company and am so glad I came across the deal when I did. I reserved my day with Dawn and she gave me all the details and also informed me that she gets a special hotel rate at the local Holiday Inn if I needed a place to stay the night. Let me say that was the best recommendation ever. THANK YOU DAWN! We had to drive from Orange County to Perris, so staying there the night before really helped out. We had to meet at 6:00 am for the balloon ride and later found out the rest of the people who went on the ride drove the morning of and were on the road at 3:30 am, so take my advice when I say get a room the night before.
So the balloon ride itself was amazing! I was surprising the BF for his Birthday and he was very surprised! Dawn had set up a special birthday celebration (which she does for an additional cost). She provided a cake and some decorations and everyone sang happy birthday to him at the end of the ride. All around great experience!!!
I can’t wait to do this again when the out of town family is visiting!

I became aware of this company through another website. I took advantage of their online offer. I am so glad I did. They are a family run operation. Dawn, the lady in charge is a class act. It was a BLAST. They had three balloons in the air. We were in the observation balloon watching the skydivers base jump from the other two. The views from the gondola at altitude were simply spectacular. I highly recommend this company to ANYONE wanting to take a hot air balloon ride.