SOUTH COAST AERONAUTICS

★★☆☆☆ 2 out of 5 a month ago

I had a terrible experience with South Coast Aeronautics. Dealing with Benny, the booking/email staff, and the overall scheduling process was incredibly frustrating. Communication was by far the biggest issue. It took nearly a month just to get a response after I sent my Groupon voucher number and the dates and times I wanted to fly. When they did reply, the responses were vague and came across as dismissive rather than helpful. They waited until the last day—only a few hours before the scheduled flight—to confirm the booking, which forced me to reschedule. Weeks after my birthday, I finally had to flood Benny with emails just to get someone to respond. Calling the phone number was a complete waste of time since no one seemed to answer or provide any useful information. The final straw was the hidden $99 booking fee for Groupon customers. After paying $178 for the flight, being hit with another $99 just to book felt misleading and left a bad taste. The one bright spot was our pilot, Peter. He was professional, friendly, and made the actual flight enjoyable. He's the only reason this review isn't one star based solely on the flying experience. If you're looking for a discovery flight in Torrance, I'd recommend checking out SLING Pilot Academy just a couple of buildings down at Torrance Airport. Their first discovery flight is around $100, and based on my experience, I'd rather spend my money with a business that values communication and treats customers with respect. Overall, South Coast Aeronautics has poor customer service, long response times, terrible communication, and unexpected fees. I won't be returning, and I can't recommend them based on my experience.

Spencer

★☆☆☆☆ 1 out of 5 3 months ago

Urging everyone to report this place to the Better Business Bureau, as they already have a hit there and a few more will stop his ability to continue his terrible business. Benny the manager seems to be a delusional individual that continues to treat people poorly, and scamming them out of their voucher money. He’s now claiming my honest review is a “danger to his pilots”. Something is seriously wrong with this guy. Our entire communication is documented, and my review is public. Listen to the other bad reviews. They never answer the phone. Everything is done via email. Forced me to redeem my voucher and give them the number (the voucher clearly states not to swipe to reveal until at the location), but they state they would not be able to book anything without the number. Then AFTER redeeming they state a $98.99 “facility fee” that is never stated on the voucher nor on their website. I let them know do of my concern, as my booking was for the next day and they simply state “we will take you off the schedule”. Are you kidding me? I then agree to the fee (if they were transparent about it from the beginning prior to the redemption of the voucher, it still wouldn’t have been a bad price. However, the way he sets this up AFTER convincing you to give up the voucher number, so that they will still get paid out by Groupon, is how they navigate this scam), and refuses to honor my booking claiming I “am a detriment to society” and “a danger to his pilots” after seeing my review. This guy has countless bad reviews of other people having my exact same experience all over the internet and then gaslights me? I am still in the works with Groupon customer service as I better be getting me my money back. Screenshots of the whole interaction attached.

Sun Kim

★☆☆☆☆ 1 out of 5 a year ago

Hidden charges, very scammy In response to the response to the owner saying that I used a voucher that wasn't mine. Clearly they're not very smart and bad liars. I bought a voucher on Groupon and then after confirming my appointment with me they decided to add on an extra $80 charge that wasn't mentioned and then there was a cancellation fee if I tried to cancel. The redeemed the voucher anyways after I said I wouldn't take the appointment due to all the hidden fees... so they redeemed the Groupon anyways so they could charge a fee if I did not show up or if I tried to cancel. Scammers there's like extra fees if you try to cancel or extra fees if you don't show up on time or cancel within a certain period of time once the voucher is redeemed. Crazy that you really tried to lie, no wonder you guys have such a low rating everywhere.

Morgan Thompson

★☆☆☆☆ 1 out of 5 a year ago

Cancel my voucher as they have hidden fees which put them over market price including a 98 dollar facility fee. Also just like the other reviews state they only communicate via email.

Dennis Balaz

★★★★☆ 4 out of 5 5 years ago

There was a bit of worry/ frustration with the initial response time. (Called and emailed a few times) But I received an email and the staff was in frequent communication throughout my reservation process. The instructions were clear on how to get here and what to do once you arrive. Our Pilot was awesome and patient with our nerves in the beginning. The entire flight was smooth and pretty relaxing.

Marina M