Papillon Helicopters - Boulder City — Local services in Boulder City

We were visiting Las Vegas from the Boise, Idaho area for the weekend to attend the F1 races. My girlfriend, my best friend, and his son had all accompanied me on the trip down. I thought it would be fun to book this helicopter trip down to the Grand Canyon. I called my ex-wife who is a part owner in a very large tour company that has been in Las Vegas area for well over a decade. I asked her if she could get me any kind of deal for the four of us on this outing. She called them, called me back and told me that she could get us a little bit of a deal but because it was F1 weekend they really would not help her out too much. It was on Thursday afternoon so I called them immediately (approximately 2PM) and booked the trip for Saturday morning at 11AM. After booking the trip, my girlfriend suggested that I call my doctor to get flight approval, being that I had just had retina attachment surgery a month prior to our trip. I called my doctor’s office and left a message for hm to call me back. My doctor called me back about an hour and a half later. I asked him if it was ok that I got up in the helicopter being that surgery had been only a month prior to the trip. He sternly told me that there was no way I was to get into a helicopter and that I could go blind because of the elevation of the flight. I immediately called the helicopter company at 3:50PM and explained the situation and asked if we could cancel the trip. Keep in mind, this was less than two hours after I booked the trip. They told me that with proof of my condition from my doctor that they would cancel/refund only my trip, but they would not cancel/refund on the other three passengers. They said this was due to their “48-hour cancellation policy and due to the fact that none of them had a medical issue.” I explained that this trip was booked and cancelled all less than their 48-hour cancelation policy. Therefore, there was no way that we could've been able to change or cancel the reservation within your cancelation policy guidelines. I further explained that the trip was meant for my girlfriend, myself and friends who were all on vacation together and that we were all looking forward to experience. However, my concerns all fell on deaf ears. Now, we were being put into a position where my girlfriend didn’t want to go because I wasn’t going, and our two friends didn't want to go without my girlfriend and myself. Now everyone was feeling forced to go because they didn't want to eat $650 per person cost of this trip. Which also meant with us only being in Las Vegas for 3 days together, we would all be split up doing different things for almost a full day when the plan was for all of us to hang out together. They did not seem to care about my situation nor my other friend’s concerns, they were adamant that they were not issuing a refund for the other three people. Keep in mind, this was all happening on a Thursday and within two hours of me booking the trip, the actual helicopter trip that was not happening until late Saturday morning. With all of that being said, our friends decided to go so they did not lose out on the money spent, my girlfriend decided not to attend which would leave me waiting for them at the AirBnB. As I promised the company on that day, I am now leaving the appropriate Google review of my experience with their company. I have to say, with my experience lately of businesses in the Las Vegas area, their company falls right in line with the severe lack of customer service to the consumer and being more focused on just getting the dollars out of their customer’s pockets than providing good service and understanding when strange circumstances present themselves and working around them. In summary, I ate the $1300 portion of my trip and needless to say will never be going back to this business again. My own opinion and advice (for what it is worth), there are PLENTY of other companies that provide this same exact trip and service, I would recommend contacting them before this place. If I could give them ZERO...

This is a long review….

Doing a scenic helicopter flight over the Grand Canyon has been on my “bucket list” for years.

As both my dad and I were each celebrating birthday milestones, we decided to take the entire family and do it properly. We booked with Papillon and went ALL IN by selecting: The “Grand Celebration Sunset Tour” on a private basis. I figured, it’s once in a lifetime experience and so I’d rather we get the helicopter for ourselves. We decided to leave from Boulder City rather than from Vegas. It made the flight a little more direct to the Canyon that way (skipping the flight over the strip) and was slightly cheaper too. In Insight, I think paying a little extra would have been better as you will find out further down my review…

Prior to my flight I had been calling the company to reconfirm my booking/departure as stated on my voucher. Whilst our flight went ahead, I can’t believe the day we chose out of the 6 days we were in Vegas was the worst of the lot. It was the coldest, cloudiest, and windy.

On the day of the flight, I arrived at the agreed meeting point 10mins early to ensure a prompt departure. However, at the agreed meeting time the driver was not there. Per the instructions, I immediately called the dispatcher to ask for an update. He reassured me the driver was only running 5mins late due to traffic. Another 10mins later and still no sign of the driver. At this point as I called the dispatcher again who apologized but assured me the driver was nearby. Fast forward and the driver turned up 30mins late. As we boarded the bus, I could hear someone on the radio telling the driver to do everything he could to get us to the airport by 5pm. We arrived at 5.15pm….

Once we arrived, they rushed us through the check-in process to ensure we would leave “on-time”. This resulted in miscommunication between the check-in staff and the pilot which meant that the safety briefing was completely skipped and basically boarded the helicopter with no clue what to do in case of an emergency. Eventually we got on our way and despite the weather being so-so, it was sensational. The view from up there is truly breathtaking. That is however only true for 4 of us in our party who each enjoyed unobstructed window views. Indeed, they put my 4year old on the back row seat in-between my dad and wife while my daughter and I had the prime seats at the front of the helicopter. The poor guy didn’t see a single thing for the entire journey. I felt so bad. When the pilot asked what was wrong and explained the situation. She immediately told me that putting him at the front for the return journey would be no problem considering how light he was and that it would not compromise the overall helicopter weight distribution. I really wished they had thought about it before departing.

We then landed in the Canyon for what was supposed to be a ~30mins stop with Champagne. At that point the pilot apologized but announced we would only be able to stay a maximum of 10 mins due to our late departure. She asked if we still wanted the Champagne which we politely declined as our priority was to spend whatever few mins we had to take pictures. What a real shame as everything felt so rushed, trying to both take in the beauty of the Canyon whilst trying to convince the kids to take part in the pictures. Sure enough exactly 11mins after we touched down, we were on our way out again to Boulder City. As we flew back the sun eventually started to show its face and so ended the flight on a higher note than it started.

Now, whilst we didn’t get what we originally paid for (let’s be honest), our pilot Lia was absolutely amazing. Despite the challenges, she took really good care of us. I’ve also raised all of the above concerns with their management and whilst they can’t change what happened, they went above and beyond to make things right. I truly appreciate them acknowledging the challenges we endured and I hope that my comments will help them prevent future occurrences...

It really is a long day. You get picked up from your Las Vegas hotel before 07.30 so you probably have not had breakfast. You are then transported by minibus to Boulder City airport for you to be checked in ready for the helicopter ride to the Grand Canyon. This takes about 30 - 45 mins depending on other pick ups and traffic. Only problem with this is that I arrived at about 08.15 but then was kept waiting until 09.30. Other people arrived after me at the airport, yet got to depart a good 30 minutes before my name even got called out. However this also meant that me time at the Grand Canyon got less and less. Finally I got to leave as shown at 09.30 so 75 minutes after arriving at Boulder City. This was not a great start and I was not kept informed what was happening for those 75 minutes. There were 6 others on the flight and I was in the back row behind the pilot so at least I saved $60 premium to sit up the front. The pilot (Brandon, I think) was decent and gave out a few facts and pointed out some sites. The Hoover Dam for example. We also landed next to the Colorado River as the couple in the front had the boat ride booked. Then we headed back up to the Grand Canyon airport and it was time to head from there to Eagle Point and the Skywalk. Now this was also where it can be so much better. I had booked VIP tickets for the Skywalk. I have no idea what I actually got for this VIP? I had to wait for about 20 minutes for a bus to turn up to take me and the throngs of people to Eagle Point. Then you had to queue all over again to do the Skywalk. This was another 30 minute wait. By now it was nearly 11.40 and there was still Guano Point to get to. Again you have to wait for the shuttle bus to get you there. Finally I arrived at Guano Point at about 11.55 but it was also now getting really tight for the return as I had been told that I had to be on the 12.15 shuttle from Guano Point at the latest. So it was all a bit rushed here and I did not get to see everything. All because of the late start from Boulder City. I got a couple of photos before then ensuring I did not miss the next shuttle back to the Grand Canyon airport. Managed to get back for 12.45 as requested. Had a quick chat with the couple who had done the boat ride and then the heavens opened. It rained some I can tell you. But then it seemed to ease off and we all headed back to the helicopter about 13.00. We took off and then the adventure started. In light rain we headed back towards Boulder City, then the rain got worse and also the cloud cover and in fact you could not see the mountain range which we needed to get over. So what do we do? Well we landed next to the road in the Mojave desert as you do and waited for the rain to stop. I think we were there for about an hour before the weather cleared enough for us to get back to Boulder City. And not one car, lorry or any other type of transport went passed us during this time. As we were late heading back, you would think that the transfer bus to take us back to Las Vegas would be waiting. Nope. You would be wrong in thinking that. We had to further wait about another 45 minutes for the bus to take us back. This really should have been ready to take us straight back. An own goal by Papillon there. All in all, was it worth the money......No. The sights are spectacular yes indeed. The helicopter ride was really good also. (Although the music is a bit loud and not really necessary I think) The pilot was really good also. However it was all too rushed and not very well organised in my opinion. That was the really disappointing...