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By Eve, December 13, 2011 5:23 pm

With only one more shopping weekend left before Christmas don’t let your stockings be sad!

For just £89 you can give one of the most unforgettable and unique Christmas presents around – a hot air balloon ride from the largest passenger carrying balloon company in the world! We’ll even throw in a gorgeous box of chocs FREE with our national vouchers!

Watch their face light up when they realise that they’ve been given a Champagne balloon ride experience.

With over 100 launch sites to choose from all over England, Scotland and Wales they’ll be spoilt for choice as to where to start their airborne adventure.

Left it late? Doesn’t matter – you can get our balloon ride vouchers instantly with our Email Vouchers right up until the very last minute.

You can make this amazing gift even more spectacular by adding a bottle of Champers or a Champagne flute too from our gorgeous Gifts.

Save up to 40% on Regional Vouchers – buy from £89

FREE Chocolates with National Vouchers

Gorgeous Gifts from £5

See Christmas Delivery options

See what the experience is like

See our flight locations

Happy Christmas!

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By Eve, December 12, 2011 5:18 pm

The number of hot air ballooning photos shared with us this season was higher than ever.  Not only did we see lots and lots but the standard and quality of those images was fantastic too.  So a huge thank you to everyone who shared their amazing images with us!

Receiving a massive 21.5% of overall votes to secure pole position in the Virgin Balloon Flights Annual Photo Competition 2011 was the breath-takingly atmospheric image taken over Longstanton in Cambridgeshire by Sam Tolley.

Sam Tolley's winning image: 1-10 Misty Morning

‘Misty Morning’ also won best in category securing a huge 29.4% of all the votes in Category 1 – Views from the Basket. Well done Sam; you’ve won a £125 Virgin Experience Days Gift Card for your category and overall win!

Sam shared ‘Misty Morning’ with us on the Virgin Balloon Flights Facebook page on 15th October 2011 and we thought it was pretty amazing back then – looks like we weren’t the only ones to think so.

The photo was taken on a morning flight departing from our Cambridge Golf Club (Longstanton) launch site as Sam was looking in an easterly direction whilst about a third of the way through his flight.

You can purchase a flight voucher to fly from Longstanton and appreciate these amazing views that Sam so spectacularly captured, from as little as £89! You can even receive 20% off a round of golf on us!

Runner Up Winners

Huge congratulations also go to our category winners who each win a £25 Virgin Experience Days Gift Card!

Category 1 – Views from the Basket Winner = Misty Morning by Sam Tolley

Category 2 – People and Balloons Winner = Inside the Balloon by John Wells

2-2 Inside the Balloon by John Wells

Category 3 – Images of Balloons Winner = In Essex by Danyelle Motley

3-3 In Essex by Danyelle Motley

Category 4 – The Mechanics of Ballooning Winner = Inflating the Balloon by Helen Lehan

4-3 Inflating the Balloon by Helen Lehan

Each flying season (March – November) we hold a Photo Competition so if you have any ballooning images (of Virgin balloons) that you would like to share, you can find out more here.

Well done to everyone who took part this season and we very much look forward to next year’s competition submissions.

To find out more about hot air ballooning with Virgin Balloon Flights including what to look forward to on the day of your flight visit our website virginballoonflights.co.uk.

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By Eve, October 27, 2011 1:05 pm

Internet entrepreneur Jeanie and colleague Jackie were whisked high above the skies of Kent on their Wadhurst flight last month with pilot Damon Bridger.

Famous for her bright pink hairdo and savvy shopper website Mad About Bargains, Jeanie was originally scheduled to launch from the spectacular Bristol International Balloon Fiesta along with Jackie back in June after winning a competition hosted by Virgin Balloon Flights.  With gusty winds proving challenging for all pilots that day their original flight had to wait, not long though and within a matter of weeks they were experiencing what it is like to see beautiful Britain from above in a Virgin hot air balloon. We asked Jeanie what she made of her balloon ride and if geography and company were no object, where and with whom she would most like to fly:-

“It has been on my bucket list for some time and I enjoyed every minute.

I would love to do a balloon flight over somewhere really spectacular like the Grand Canyon or Niagara Falls (if possible) and I think the most interesting person to do the flight with would of course be Sir Richard Branson (and I am not just saying that). I have run various businesses since I was very young and I think he is a fascinating person.

Thank you again for the fantastic prize. It is something we will both always remember.”

– Jeanie, Founder, Mad About Bargains

After landing and enjoying the traditional Champagne toast that accompanies all of our flights, Jackie said:

“We had the most amazing experience and would like to thank you and everyone at Virgin Balloons again! We loved the Champagne, the whole experience was really lovely, they made everyone feel special.” – Jackie, Mad About Bargains

To see for yourself what a ballooning experience is all about visit our brand new Experience page to see videos, experience a 360° virtual tour from the air, view our gallery, read our pilot profiles and to read some of our passenger testimonials.

To enjoy a hot air balloon ride from just £89 from Kent or any other county within the UK visit our locations page to see which launch sites are available near you.

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By Eve, October 3, 2011 7:51 pm

Most days in the Virgin Balloon Flights office are pretty exciting, and the last couple of days have certainly been no exception!

We’re delighted to announce that our brand new hot off the press shiny new website has now gone live.

October the 1^st heralded a new online beginning for Virgin balloons with a much brighter, more social, more engaging new website that is faster, more customer focussed and more informative than ever.

Would be balloonists can find out which launch site locations we fly from all over the UK and see a fully interactive Google Map giving and indication of what might be in store on their balloon ride.  Of course no two balloon flights are ever the same and depending on the will of the wind who knows what sights will come into view.

View Full Album

As well as offering fabulous hot air balloon experiences from over 100 UK launch sites,  our new site offers a wealth of ballooning information… so if you don’t know your skirt from your envelope you can find out fast on our Ballooning Science pages and if you need to gen up on your knowledge of who flew the first hot air balloon then take a look at our Ballooning History pages.

With new Gift Extras to add to our balloon flights and a new online registration system to make booking flights even faster, the thrill of ballooning can begin even before our passengers take to the skies.

To find out more about our latest offers and to take a flight in a beautiful iconic red Virgin balloon visit www.virginballoonflights.co.uk where you can fly from just £89!

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By Eve, April 28, 2011 3:04 pm

It’s not every day  that us Virgin folk get the chance to all work together under one roof. Spread out all over the UK we sometimes meet for meetings but never before have we met in one place to work towards one common objective for the good of the brand.

Enter, the Virgin Social Marathon! The very day after the Virgin London Marathon, on Monday 18th April 2011, Richard Branson kicked off a day of social interaction with a difference with a video tweet.

Virgin Media turned charitable private member’s club The House of St Barnabas in London’s chic Soho into ‘Our House’; the ultra fast 100Mb fibre optic broadband came in very handy with all of us tweeting for 7 hours non-stop!

Virgin’s digital teams tweeted and Facebooked their collective fans and followers to build brand awareness, grow fan bases, start the Twitter trend #ifvirgindid to encourage new ideas for the Virgin group and to give away the Ultimate Virgin Lifestyle Prize which included amongst other things a place in the 2012 Virgin London Marathon, flights to New York, balloon flights and free Virgin Active gym membership (lucky Tom Chalet won!).

Richard Branson’s famous ‘RBT’ mugs were dished out to people who tweeted photos of themselves with their boring old office mugs or who actually came to Our House for a cuppa with us.  The guys back at the office got stuck in too.

Nobby the pilot and his passengers achieved the accolade of ‘highest tea break’ with a photo of his passengers enjoying a tea break in the sky.

Even singer Josh Groban made an appearance and got tweeting too…

Virgin Balloon Flights gave away prizes to people who got involved online including David Cruise from California who only seemed to sleep for a few hours before waking and tweeting us again, local Social Media expert Jan Minihane who published a blog post on her site about the event and Michaela who tweeted that she would most like Alan Carr #inmyballoon.

We particularly liked the post by one budding entrepreneur who tweeted #ifvirgindid Olive Oil, which made us chuckle.

The day was a great success in scoring yet another Virgin first, raising our profile across the social media networks, increasing all of our fans and followers online but most of all we would like to say how amazing it was for all of us to just work together in one place, let’s hope it’s not the last time.

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By Alex, January 18, 2011 11:27 am

Generous companies have won the chance to be official sponsors on marathon girl Sue’s running vest after stumping up for Hope House Children’s Hospices.

The highly sought after spots on the back of Sue’s top for the Virgin London Marathon 2011 were put up for auction with the highest sponsorship pledges winning the spots. And our friends didn’t let us down.

In tied first place, both bidding an incredible £500, were two of our top affiliates; TravelPixel.net -  which offers select discount codes and travel deals from 100s of travel websites – and TopCashBack.co.uk – the UK’s most generous cashback site. Lemon Press the Redditch-based commercial printer took the third space with £225.

In total the running vest sponsorship raised £1225 pushing our current total over £2,000 and well on the way towards the £10,000 target for Hope House which will also have a logo on the vest.

Sue, who is now busily in training, said:

I really can’t thank the people from these companies enough. The sponsorship money pledged by TravelPixel, TopCashBack and Lemon Press has really given us a push towards our target and will make a massive difference for Hope House Children’s Hospices. I’ll be proud to represent these companies as well as Hope House and Virgin Unite on the big day!

To top-off a fantastic week of fundraising Miles Lovegrove, director of our merchandise supplier Fluid Branding, personally pledged to sponsor Sue for £500 and affiliate cashback site Quidco also pledged to show their support. Thanks so much!

Follow Sue’s progress on her Marathon Girl blog or sponsor her on her Virgin Money Giving Page.

Don’t forget the Virgin Balloon Flights raffle will be launching soon with fantastic prizes from across the Virgin Group. Tickets are £1 each and if you would like to buy or sell raffle tickets contact us.

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By Eve, January 16, 2011 11:10 am

We believe in freedom of expression which is why we regularly seek feedback from our customers about our balloon rides.

If we don’t know what’s broken, we won’t know it needs fixing. So, we like to get your thoughts on how we can improve our website when buying a balloon ride voucher.  We also like to know what you think of your hot air balloon ride with us and your pilot.

As most of our balloon rides are bought as gifts for birthdays, presents, anniversaries etc it’s not always the person that pays that gets to experience the wonderful world of ballooning, so it’s good to get a different perspective.

To say thank you for helping us out each flying season we randomly pick someone who has taken the time to complete one of our surveys (which are emailed out weekly) and send them a lovely case of wine from Virgin Wines worth over £100, and as the flying season ends around November, this tasty treat arrives just in time for Christmas.

Win a great mixed case of Virgin Wine

The lucky winner last season was Kevin Eaton from Ratby in Leicestershire. Kevin was over the moon as he said it was the first time he’d ever won anything.

Well done Kevin!

Thanks to you and everyone who shared their opinions with us last year.

Visit our website to buy a balloon ride voucher from just £89!

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By Eve, October 6, 2010 5:12 pm

Each year Virgin Balloon Flights loves to celebrate Customer Service Week. It’s a time for our customer service team to reflect on their achievements over the year and takes place over the first week of October.

Customer service is always a high priority here at Virgin Balloon Flights HQ in Shropshire where our team of representatives centrally co-ordinate all customer related issues across each of our 100+ launch sites throughout England, Scotland and Wales.

Head of Customer Service Lynsay Symcox says that:

Customer Service Week gives the team a chance to get involved with different activities which promotes teamwork and encourages us to focus on how we can offer our customers the best experience possible. By sharing experiences and ideas we can learn and improve upon our level of service in an inspiring way.

So far this week the office has been decorated with customer service posters, there are colourful balloons and the occasional waft of freshly baked cakes has been very welcome. Various competitions have taken place and games played that assist communication and listening skills for example. And there’s more to come…

View Full Album

More info can be found at the Institute of Customer Service website.

To speak to one of our customer service stars about arranging a hot air balloon flight or to ask any questions about an existing booking you can reach us here.

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By Eve, June 9, 2010 11:40 am

No one loves surprises more than us. When someone gives you a gift and you have no idea what it is, it makes opening it really, really exciting.

Our hot air balloon rides make perfect gifts especially at this time of year when Father’s Day is just around the corner.

Customers who buy our balloon vouchers as a gift often ask if it’ll be obvious what they are when they arrive in the post so as to keep the balloon ride secret until the big day.

Whether it’s a birthday present, an engagement gift or an anniversary surprise Virgin Balloon Flights have taken several steps to help you keep your secret safe. Here’s how:

1. Our balloon ride vouchers and packages come in plain packaging with absolutely no branding so no one will ever know what joy awaits them – they are even marked Private & Confidential
2. When you order online you’ll be asked how you would like to receive your vouchers – choose Post Only if you share your computer or email account with the gift recipient
3. Select our Express Delivery option if you need to know exactly when your tickets will arrive, this costs £6 and you’ll receive a text and email to advise delivery time to the hour! Learn about the best delivery option for you

Virgin Balloon Flights Voucher, Wallet and Souvenir Brochure

Helpful Tips to Ensure the Perfect Gift Experience

1. Select Post Only option on our website so no email confirmations are sent which may be seen by prying eyes
2. You can buy a voucher and book a flight for your loved one if you know when they can fly, the most efficient way to do this is to get tickets by email and post by choosing the Email and Post option in your shopping basket, minding your Inbox if you do
3. If you book the flight as well for your loved one remember if you want to keep the flight quiet until the very last moment you’ll have to call our flight line beforehand to check if the flight is going ahead
4. Have timing and routes to the launch site planned beforehand, don’t forget we may launch from a back up site so make sure you know where these are too – all info will be on your booking confirmation
5. Check what days and times your gift recipient can fly as this’ll affect the type of voucher you buy for them
6. Use your SnapFish voucher to print up to 40 free digital prints of your loved one’s airborne adventure and/ or see the pilot for a commemorative photo of everyone on the balloon ride taken mid-flight as the perfect memento
7. Remember to tear off the little perforated tab in the right hand corner of your vouchers if you want the face value to be kept schtum from your gift recipient

The only thing we can’t help you with is keeping your secret shush until the big day. Don’t let the cat out of the bag and enjoy the look of excitement on your loved one’s face when the surprise unravels.

There's nothing quite like a ride in a big red balloon as the perfect gift