I along with the 6 other people that took this tour on November 12, 2022 are highly dispointed by Grand Canyon Scenic Airlines and recommend that everyone uses another tour operator when visiting the Grand Canyon. Here is why.
The tour wqs advertised as lasting 11h30 and here is the timeline we went through:
- 6:30 AM: Pick -up at hotel
- 7:30 AM: we arrive at the Boulder City airport and pay the 30$ surcharge / person for fuel
- 8:30 AM: we take-off and view the scenery of the Grand Canyon from above (a nice experience) for 1h30.
- 11 AM (local time): we land at Page AZ where we are rushed into a van to go to Antelope Canyon in the Navajo territory.
- 11:15 AM: we arrive at the canyon where we are being asked to put masks to visit the canyon (prior to arriving to the site, the Canyon is outdoor, we had not been told that we had to wear masks even when being outside to visit the Canyon).
- 12:30 PM: we leave Antelope Canyon by van.
- 12:40 PM: we make a short stop and are allowed to buy food (not included in the package).
- 1:15 PM: we arrive at the Horsheshoe Bend parking where we are rushed for a 15-min walk to go see Horsheshoe Bend. We are told that we only have 10 minutes to visit as we need to go back to the airport as the plane will depart at 2:15 PM. If you add it all up that means that it is not an 11h30 tour as advertised but a 9-hour tour (which is confirmed by the paper we are given at the end of the tour indicating that it is a 9-hour tour). IT SHOULD BE ADVERTISED AS SUCH BECAUSE ADVERTISING IT AS AN 11:30 TOUR IS PLAINLY FALSE REPRESENTATION.
- 1:45 PM: we are told that the plane is delayed and that we have another 45 minutes to visit the Horseshoe Bend (actually, if you want to experience the Horseshoe Bend properly, an hour is required not the 10 minutes that we were initially allocated for this place).
- 2:30 PM: we leave Horseshoe Bend to go back to the airport.
- 2:50 PM: we arrive at the airport were we see the plane but cannot leave because in lieu of being late, we are told that the plane has in fact a technical issue that prohibits us to leave at this time. We are told that a mecanic will arrive within the next 30 minutes to come fix the plane.
- From 3:30 PM to 5:10 PM: we are being told every 30 minutes that the mecanic should arrive in 30 minutes. When we asked the poor agent at the airline counter if we can contact anyone at Grand Canyon Scenic Airlines to ask about contingencies in the event the plane cannot be fixed, we are told that there is no management available to be contacted as it is the week-end. We all thought then: Imagine if there was an accident, there would be no one to contact at the management level to handle the situation... what kind of airline company has no procedures to handle emergencies! During that time period, we even tried contacting on LinkedIn Brenda Halvorson, the CEO of the company, and to this day she has not even acknowledged our message.
- 5:10 PM: The mecanic arrives to fix the plane.
- 5:45 PM: we finally depart from the airport. It is too dark now to see the Grand Canyon at this time of the day, when we were expected to see it had we had flown back on time.
- 6:15 PM (Local time): we arrive at Boulder City airport much too late to make it on time back for dinner reservations and shows that had been booked for that night. To compensate us for all the trouble we went though, Grand Canyon Scenic Airlines offered a refund of 50$/person when our experience and evening were ruined by their behaviour. We were also provided in writing an e-mail address to contact
[email protected]. This address was disconnected 2 days after being provided to us. It appears as if Grand Canyon Scenic Airlines does not want to handle and remediate complaints from their customers.
- 8:15PM: we finally got back to our hotel.
OUR RECOMMANDATION: STAY AWAY FROM GRAND CANYON SCENIC AIRLINES!!!