FlyNYON Helicopter Tours — Attraction in Kearny

SCAM. SCAM. SCAM. READ BEFORE PURCHASING!!! terrible customer service, (BRAD & JUSTICE especially) i don’t think i’ve ever experienced worse customer service than here. no common decency or respect. They only care about the $, they’re strictly $ driven & don’t care about customer service or satisfaction. CHECK YOUR EMAIL THE DAY OF FLIGHT BECAUSE THEY WILL CHANGE THE TIME & PROBABLY FROM 16 min flight to 30 min flight so you HAVE to pay the difference or pay the fee to reschedule for the 16 min flight smh. (our friends that went 2 days before us, during the day, said terrible customer service as well, but their flight didn’t get switched)

i booked a flight w 2 of my buddies for doors off shoe selfies flight. Ended up paying $398 for the 16min flight. booked it on late thursday night/friday early morning, for the flight on saturday night. Our flight is at 10:05pm & we get there at 8:45pm, 5 minutes earlier than you’re supposed to get there (1 hr 20 mins b4). Good vibes, excited,& grateful to be able to experience this with eachother.

Just to be told 20 mins after getting there, that they changed our flight to a 30 minute flight (**more expensive, without our permission or knowledge) AND it was moved to an hour earlier & we either have to reschedule and pay the fees for rescheduling OR pay $125/each more for the longer flight that was leaving in a few minutes. BRAD was very hostile & aggressive telling us this information & saying “we know you knew about it so even if you tell us you didn’t, we know you’re lying” none of us were aware that it changed to an hour earlier, if they would’ve told us, we had PLENTY of time to get there before 7:50pm if we knew they decided to change the flight sooner & to a longer one.

i told him “we’re only in town for a day we can’t reschedule?!” & he said “So…..? what does that have to do with this? that’s not my problem. most people that fly here are only in town for a day.” very disrespectful, aggressive tone & attitude. If they do this often (as shown in the reviews) they should put this in the original email next to confirmation # in big writing that the flight might get changed without knowledge. my buddy asked if this happens a lot & the manager “Justice” with the glasses said “honestly this has never happened before, this never happens.” (we didn’t see the reviews until after.) & my buddy respectfully & calmly asked if we were gonna get reimbursed & pay one payment for the 30 min flight or if we were paying the additional price, & Justice got very hostile & aggressive again.

I called today to get his name because he said he was the manager, i thought his name was Max but Erika on the phone (after asking her to look it up who worked yesterday, because she just said “i dont know who worked yesterday” instead of simply looking it up for me) said the only manager working that day is Justice.

& not only did i pay for the doors off -shoe selfie flight, but the pilot Giovanny, called my name first, put me in the seat which has a window barrier that you can’t just turn to put your feet out. then for the 3rd person, he calls my name again and said oh you’re raine? oh shit, i put you in the wrong seat, nevermind lets see what we can do & i said wait wait no i wanna move!!! & he said but uh actually nevermind, & called the other person to go where i should’ve been sitting. (i thought it was based off of “weight & balance” like they claim on their website) I couldn’t get any cool pictures with my cool shoes specifically for the shoe selfies with the majestic city lights & view in the background. Also the pictures on social media show the statue of liberty being SO much closer than the helicopter actually goes. Just a huge disappointment & frustrated. They don’t reassure you at all about the safety before going on the flight either. Telling us about the word “egress egress” what to do when the pilot says that (like it’s expected) until we asked when will he be saying that at the end?! are we gonna be safe? is that just for an emergency?? then he told us oh yeah just...

WARNING! Please read this all before booking!

BEWARE of the “SEAT SELFIE GUARANTEE”!!!

My wife and I went on the 30 minute doors off flight on our honeymoon. I had booked this as a wedding present for my wife. I had pre booked this prior to our honeymoon and had purchased the “shoe selfie guarantee” extra addition on top of our booking for both of us. This was done not for the iconic ‘shoe selfie’, but mainly to ensure that we had the full doors off experience without any obstructions. The website states that “With this upgrade, we'll guarantee your place on the side of the aircraft so you can take an unobstructed shoe-selfie when your pilot gives you the thumbs up!”

On the day we were informed that we both had the ‘shoe selfie guarantee’ which meant we would be sat on the left or right side depending on weight and balancing the helicopter. Again, this is all we were told. Nothing was ever mentioned at any stage about one of the side seats being beside a fixed window panel, which we would later find out…

When we got to the helicopter my wife was informed that she would be sat on the right side behind the pilot. This seat is beside a fixed window panel. This seat is apparently classed as a seat with the “shoe selfie guarantee”. The pilot said that to take our shoe selfie at any point in the air to ‘turn 90 degrees and hang your feet out the door’. As pictured, my wife was not able to turn at all in her seat, or move from her seat at all in order to hang her legs out in order to take the shoe selfie. It also meant that she felt as through she didn’t have the ‘doors off experience’. This fixed window is a complete ‘obstruction’ with the extra “seat selfie guarantee” supposedly meant to guarantee that you don’t have. As pictured, you can see the clear difference between her flight and mine given seat position.

After the flight we queried this with the staff on site and they informed us that the guarantee only means you won’t be sat in the middle. At no point, not when pre purchasing online, or on the day were we informed that there would be a possibility that we may be sat beside a window. Nowhere does it outline this on the website or in their T&C’s and none of the photos advertising the ‘show selfie guarantee’ show photos from this seat position. This is misleading advertising.

The staff explained that there is nothing they can do when I requested a refund and told me that in order to get a refund I need to email the general manager, which I did, and only received a response once I posted this review online which you can see below from the companies response to this review. I was offered the option of a refund or another flight for my wife with an actual guaranteed seat position. We didn’t want to fly again and couldn’t anyway so I requested the refund. I was then asked if I would delete my review. I responded by saying I would amend my review to included the ‘resolution process’ to which I was then told that my refund wouldn’t be processed until I had amended and improved the review rating. My refund that was offered was being held hostage and I was blackmailed into changing my review to be more positive. I changed it to 4 stars in order to get my refund, and once I did they instantly processed it. I have since changed my review back to reflect this horrible customer experience.

PLEASE, be mindful when booking that you may purchase the doors off flight, also with the extra “seat selfie guarantee” but you may by chance draw the unlucky seat like my wife and be stuck with a less than and ideal seat regardless of your...

Hi, Here is some feedback on the entire FlyNYON experience. First of all: We booked extra seats with a door-off guarantee ($150 per person). We also registered in advance as recommended to ensure that everything would run smoothly. When we arrived about 1.75 hours early, we checked in at the reception desk. There were three FlyNYON employees there talking about personal matters, and one of the employees told us without further ado to “fill out the registration form on the computer.” When we told her that we had already done so, she finally welcomed us properly and “checked us in.”

Then we watched a safety video on our own and that was it. After a long wait, a very nice and friendly man helped us put on our safety equipment. Then there was another short safety briefing about the harnesses. After that, we took the bus to the helicopter takeoff/landing site and waited for the pilots. The pilot then called out our names and assigned us to our seats. My girlfriend and I were allowed to get in first. She sat in a door-off seat and I sat across from her (I had a window next to me, which was not a door-off seat).

Then another woman got on, she sat in the middle (no Doof-Off) and her husband sat next to her (also directly Doof-Off) and opposite her husband sat a woman who also had a Doof-Off seat. The woman who boarded third then swapped seats with her significantly heavier husband (the pilot agreed to this without any problems). Shortly afterwards, the flight took off and it was a complete disaster, as my girlfriend was sitting directly in the wind stream of the rotors and was therefore exposed to the full force of the wind. She couldn't even turn her head and at times could hardly breathe. We had no way of informing the pilot, as we were not allowed to speak to him under any circumstances; only the pilot is allowed to speak to us! The fact that this seat is even offered as a door-off seat is an insult and a pure money-making scheme!

We spoke to FlyNYON about this and they just referred to their terms and conditions and said that my seat was also a door-off seat. They said that yes, it can be a bit windier, but after all, you are flying door-off. The other two door-off spots were not in the wind stream and the passengers were able to enjoy the flight completely, while we couldn't! This is an absolute disappointment!

I advise everyone to steer clear of these scammers. Please never get into one of these helicopters; it's the biggest rip-off ever. We also haven't received any replies to our emails. That alone shows you what kind of company this is.

Don't do it. If you want a helicopter tour, just use the providers in Manhattan, because then you won't have to rely on Uber, and the trip there is also a complete waste of time!

For us, a 30-minute flight easily took up 5-6 hours of our day!

Absolutely NOT...