Flying Lessons

lee84

Im looking to buy a flying lesson as a present for someone.
Can anyone recommend where to go?

niceoneted

I got a present of a flying lesson and it was bought through www.topgifts.ie
I had no hassle with arranging it.

BrianMac21

Hi, I really recommend not going through topgifts, I did and I am still waiting for my flight and its been 2 years now! The number has now gone out of service, 1890 77 20 00! You should call NFC and they should be able to help you out; number is (01) 6217333

IngazZagni

BrianMac21 wrote: »

Hi, I really recommend not going through topgifts, I did and I am still waiting for my flight and its been 2 years now! The number has now gone out of service, 1890 77 20 00! You should call NFC and they should be able to help you out; number is (01) 6217333

I don't want to sound rude but you sound like someone from NFC. So you got a flight through NFC but are still waiting for the topgift flight? Doesn't make much sense man. For what it's worth I went through topgifts a couple years ago and all was good.

BrianMac21

No, I'm not from NFC! But NFC are the ones you fly with if your flying in Kildare! I got a voucher from topgifts for my 18th (2 year ago) and everytime I ring them, they say theyll ring back and never do! The 2 times I actually managed 2 make a booking, they cancelled it and told me they'd call me back and never did! This has been going on for 2 years!! The number I received with the voucher 2 ring is not in service anymore so now I'm finding it difficult to even get through to them!!

Cathmandooo

Top Gifts phone number is 045 882000 taken from their website, maybe that's why you can't get through.

Lads please don't be accusing each other of shilling, if you have a problem with a post please report it. Thanks.

Mightycraic

According to both a colleague voucher holder and gift voucher partner, it looks quite feasible that TopGifts are about to shut the doors. Partners are not being paid and voucher holders are being spun all sorts of stories as to why they can't book their activity. Today, many of their offered activities appear to have disappeared from their website and they are not answering their phone. PROCEED WITH CAUTION.

BrianMac21

Ye I know, I think topgifts will be finishing up soon, heres my story so far;

I received my voucher for my birthday in 2009 I rang them before the summer of 2009 to book a flight and they told me that they would call me which I didn't receive, I rang them again and they gave me a date in November for my flight (14/11/2009). Two weeks before my flight, they rang me to cancel due to
weather conditions which was fair enough but the person on the phone told me to not ring again for they will call me with a date. Therefore I waited and waited and waited for them to call me, I waited for nearly over a year to call again (16/03/2011) and then they told me that they would ring back with dates the week after which again, never happened. I then attempted to phone them again but the number was gone out of service.
I got another number for them and rang them on that to be told once again, that they would email me a list of dates and I still haven't received this!

I have now emailed them this and have also tried calling them but no answer

My recommendation is to call NFC (which is the National Flight Centre that I don't work for) because these are the ones that you fly with on a TopGifts voucher and they should be able to sort out a flying lesson.

PS
I also received an email today from a guy from RTE asking me to tell him about my experience as a lot of people seem to be having a problem with TopGifts!

Just went through the TopGifts.ie page and all the experiences are taken down...ye, feel free to try flying with them!! I AM RAGING!!!!

Mightycraic

>>I also received an email today from a guy from RTE asking me to tell him about my experience as a lot of people seem to be having a problem with TopGifts!

From what I hear, there is a feature due on RTE1 (Eddie Hobbs?) shown on Tuesdays. I'm sure all will become clear then.

rebecca1988

lee84 wrote: »

Im looking to buy a flying lesson as a present for someone.
Can anyone recommend where to go?

http://www.flightwise.ie/ brilliant

alphaLaura

I would strongly recommend Waterford Aero Club: http://waterfordaeroclub.com/index.html

They're a great bunch and you get to fly out of a very friendly airport with some fantastic scenery. You can buy the gift vouchers straight from the website.

silverharp

they are talking about top gifts now on whine line , they have gone tits up

BrianMac21

Goodbye to TopGifts...no flight for me anyway!

Website under maintenance!Company officially gone into liquidation, what a shower of #*&! Thank god they cant do anymore harm!

W#@*%rs!!

smiley1986

I have my voucher with topgifts and I have being trying to use it for 2.5 years. See my below conversation with them, luckily I kept at them and got my refund!! They are a bunch of cowboys!!!! The directors should go to jail for ripping people off like this.

Hi [name],

As per our telephone call on the 23rd March @ 11:39pm I am writing to about voucher No. ORDxxxx.

I have this voucher 2.5 years now. The first voucher was for a microlight lesson. Each time I tried to book it you told me the micro light was broken down.
I then upgraded the micro light to a parachute jump 1yr later. I booked this 3 times, on each occasions the jump was canceled. Each time you told me you would ring back with the next available date, but i got no dates.

The last booking I made was for the 8th May. My girlfriend who bought the voucher for me has booked a flight home from England to see the Jump. My brother who has a voucher with Clonbullogue directly himself also booked his jump for this date. However, Clonbullogue have said that I am not booked in on the 8th of May through Topgifts, they told my brother this and I rang them personally myself.

Since I heard this ive having being trying constantly to contact you. The 1890772000 number no longer works. The 01-4010200 begin_of_the_skype_highlighting**************01-4010200******end_of_the_skype_highlighting rings twice and then hangs up on me and the 045837799 number just rings out. I have rang these numbers countless amounts of times over the last week. I also emailed you this morning!

In the end I had to do a bit if research and found out that you are the Director of Topgifts as well NaturallyIrish.ie! I rang the number on Naturallyirish and it got answered straight away, I asked the woman was Topgifts part of the company and she said yes. You then came on the phone and could not give me an answer as to why this was going on. After all my trouble in trying to get hold of someone you could at least apologize and give a legitimate reason for the situation.

So the situation is as stands. I want to know by COB Thursday 24th of March whether my parachute jump is booked for the 8th of May. If the jump has not being booked I expect a full refund to be sent to me by Thursday the 31st March and I will book it myself.

If neither of these are met I have no problems turning this into a much bigger issue for your company name "Topgifts".

Cathmandooo

There's a Consumer Issues Forum at your disposal to discuss your issues with TopGifts.

This forum is for throwing around ideas of gifts, festivities and parties. Thank you all for your information on TopGifts but this isn't the place to air your issues now so please keep the thread on topic to recommend good places to get Flying Lessons.

Thanks

infidell

http://www.irishaerosports.com/, based in Kilkenny and offer a few different voucher options. Dealing directly with them so you don't have to pay until you take the lesson. A few different kinds of planes as well.

Bellemaman

:mad:
Does anyone know what to do with vouchers for topgifts now that they have gone into liquidation?? I was trying to book a flying lesson I gave to my husband for his birthday last April in Kilkenny. It was paid for via Mastercard. Is it too late to claim back on this? Does anyone know the place in Kilkenny I could contact about the lesson?
Thanks for any help:)

Cathmandooo

Bellemaman please use the Consumer Issues Forum to discuss issues with vouchers

There's already a thread in there regarding Topgifts

Quebec Delta Mike

Hi folks,

For anyone looking to book a flying lesson or buy one as a gift for a friend, then ring Weston Airport at 01 6217300.
There are three "fixed wing" flying schools based there, all do gift vouchers. Its should cost about €95-€100 for 30mins (in the air), and around €190-€200 for a full hour. You can even book a helicopter flight over Dublin city, once you don't mind sharing with others, for only €99, including lunch.
Best advice is to go to Weston yourself, especially on a Saturday or Sunday and see the schools in action, ask around see who gives the best deal.

QDM

beltzar

Hi OP,
I bought a flying lesson for my OH through GROUPON for Sligo Airport. Its a small quiet airport and I waited in the Hangar. As part of his gift, I also paid for a 2 night stay over in Markree Castle Sligo (about 30 mins from airport) and we had a fantastic chilled out weekend.
The airport (and hotel) were great and my OH loved it.
Hope this helps.
Good Luck