iFLY Indoor Skydiving - Dallas — Attraction in Frisco

Don't go to iFLY in Frisco if you have a LARGE group of children or a HIGH-RISK group of children, and you are a NON-PROFIT organization.

My agency took 52 children on Thursday, March 14th. This was out second year and second time to visit. Last year iFLY worked with us and ALL the children that we took were able to have the experience of indoor sky diving if they wanted, AND, we received money back for flyers that were too scared to fly.

We chose to bring homeless children from various housing situations including emergency, domestic violence, and protective custody to iFLY again this year for spring break to get the children out of the shelters and build their confidence and self-esteem. There were multiple challenges along the way that were outside of our control - the school buses the district provided to transport the children arrived late; paper waivers and releases had to be registered under my name so as to protect family members anonymity - we had the paper documentation as backup; and, we had a large group of children of varying ages excited and impatient to have their turn.

My first interactions were with Troy Anders who was amazing and went over and beyond to give the children the experience of a lifetime. I appreciate his prompt responses and willingness to do everything he could to assist us. Troy was my initial contact in making arrangements. Unfortunately, things went sour when he wasn’t in the picture. I don’t think iFLY really wanted to accommodate us. After being in touch with other employees, particularly Crystal Jacobs, the manager at IFLY in Frisco, it became very clear that she wanted to have nothing to do with our group and was rude and insensitive with our children.

Crystal became angry immediately when we started to check children in and although 70 kids names were on the computer the computer said waivers were not complete - waivers which had already been completed by me.

We waited for over 25 minutes for a decison to be made about our group as the children became, anxious, impatient and restless.

Other iFly staff came out and the flyers were amazing and wanted to work with us and make the situation work, but it was clear that Crystal was angry and did not want us there. I think she would have been happy if we left. I heard the flyers suggesting ideas as to ways to work with us, but Crystal would have nothing to do with us.

After 25 minutes, Crystal came out and said she would only let children that had waivers completed on the computer fly - even though we had 70 children listed and it had taken me 2 ½ hours to enter 70 names. She would look up a name and if it had a waiver, she would put a band on a child, and if a child didn’t have a waiver, even if it was a brother or sister, she would tell the child that you aren’t in the system, and you cannot fly. As you can imagine, children were devastated and didn’t understand why their siblings got to fly but not them. When I asked if I could re-enter and add these children, Crystal said, “NO!”

Children were lead outside crying not understanding.

There were more children in the system, but Crystal said it was too late, the kids missed the required training even though there were trainings every 30 minutes and other people, children, families were flying during our time there.

When I asked about getting our money back, Crystal retorted, "You were late, and you aren’t getting ANY money back."

It is clear that Crystal has no idea how to work with children in trauma and is lacking in empathy despite the children's tears. The children's spirits were crushed. I paid almost $2000 for 50 children to fly and only 24 were able to fly that day and no refund was offered and no one came to talk to the children.

If you have a special needs group, a large group or a non-profit, iFly is not a place you will want to bring children expecting to be treated with respect...

---UPDATE--- After leaving my review and also filling out their follow up experience survey, I was contacted by Terrance L. Jenkins, General Manager of iFLY Dallas. He issued me a partial refund, as we aren't local and wouldn't be able to come back in for another experience. It was great to see that they take customer feedback seriously and tried to make the situation right for us. Thank you to Terrance!

---Previous Review--- Disappointed is really all I can say. While our instructor was great, the explanations of what you are buying "in the moment" aren't very clear. Upon getting home and really looking at what happened, I believe we were played. We originally purchased 4 flights for 2 people and 2 free video clips included. For anyone checking this out for the first time, be aware that the "flights" are 60 seconds long...unless you buy an extra minute when you are checking in. This is where I believe we went wrong.

My husband and I ordered online the "Spread Your Wings for Two" which is supposed to include 4 Flights Shared By 2 People (2 Flights Per Person), Personalized Flight Certificates (which we never recieved, not that it really matters that much but still, it's something we paid for we didn't get again), and 2 Free Video Clips From Flight Session (which we didn't get either).

When we were buying our additional minutes in person, the person checking us out downgraded us without telling us. No one ever mentioned that weren't going to get the two videos we paid for until I finally asked at the end how to get our two included video clips. The guy said it had been downgraded when we bought the extra time. No one ever told us that so needless to say I was disappointed by this aspect alone.

We also decided during the sessions that we would get the high flying upgrade as well (all thinking we would be getting the high quality video clips/photos at the end.)

When we got home just a bit ago, I pulled up the photos and videos of our "sessions" and it was pretty obvious there were much fewer photos of myself and my husband compared to the one child who was in our class and his parents. The photos of the child were also very obviously posed, close up photos and I have a hard time believing that it isn't possible to get the same up close shots of each person in the chamber. This was quite possibly the straw that broke the camels back on our experience.

We didn't get any quality pictures from the session (all the photos were side photos and showed none of my face at all.) I didn't even bother with the videos because I was so upset by the lack of photos. Glad we didn't get the additional packages offered at the end because I definitely won't be recommending any of the locations and won't be...

We had a birthday party (Exclusive plus) at iFly Dallas (Frisco). The flying was awesome and the instructor was equally awesome.

For the price we paid, the party room was a disappointment. When we walked into the room, I felt like it was below my expectation party decoration. Only things in the room were a tablecloth, two centerpieces, two plates and a napkin for the flyers. There were no silverwares, extra plates or napkins for the rest of the guests or any other utensils to serve the food. In the cabinets in the room there were some plates and silverwares laying around on the shelf but not in a package or in a cover.

All the other places we had party previous years, they’ll have plates, silverwares all the necessary things beautifully arranged on the countertop for easy access. I gave a small birthday banner and asked the check-in person if someone can tape to the wall. When we walked-in to the party room, I saw it still rolled and sitting on the countertop. When I booked the party I was told, there is no dedicated host (party room) but I can just walk to any associate for help. The person I approached he said he’s a flying person and not sure about the party room.

I wonder if party room is also used as break rooms for the employees. The full size refrigerator in the party room had employees lunch and deserts in the freezer section and our drinks in the fridge. I don’t understand why don’t you make it more straight forward like have a mini fridge with glass door. Fill it up with the beverages and it shows this is for you to enjoy and also easily visible to the guests where the beverages are.

Other things also went wrong. 1.5 hours before the party someone form iFly called and said the pizzas are cancelled because the store they use is closed for Easter. I thought you would order it beforehand and make sure everything is good to go OR look for alternative options day before, Not last minute.

Exclusive plus birthday package is also supposed to have Video capture and photos. I was told that their still camera isn’t working so we didn’t get any photos. For the videos they gave us one voucher per flyer eventhough we did BOTH low and high flying. My understanding was I can download both flights per person as a part of the package. When I tried to download videos at home after the party, it was asking for voucher for each flight (low and high) or the option is to pay additional. I called iFly and asked about it. Then he said I have to choose either low or high to use the voucher, both are...