Grand Canyon Airlines Papillon Grand Canyon Day of our Grand Canyon vacation wasted, Internet

When I booked this flight, my bank issued a fraud alert. I thought it a mistake at the time, but considering the outcome, perhaps it was warranted.

We paid $788 for an airplane, hellicopter and ground tour of the South Rim of the Grand Canyon. According to their description "roomy, comfortable, air conditioned aircraft"; what we actually got was 5.5 hours of waiting at the airport, heliport and airport parking lot on a bus.

Then 2.5 hours of flight in overcrowded, overheated, rust buckets refitted to cram 19 or more passengers in a space meant for 8 or 9. One of the pilots looked as if he had slept in his clothes, scruffy to say the least. The side of the aircraft meant for one seat had two jammed into the space, our bodies were actually overlapping. And we are 115 lbs. and 179. Small people compared to most.

They promised great photos ops, but photos are almost impossible due to position of rotars in the windows.  Rotars and body parts, that is what is in my photos. They promised panoramic windows but on the aircraft we flew back from canyon we were again crammed into a tiny aircraft with tiny windows, little viewing possible.

We spent 1 hour at the Grand Canyon, viewing the same sight due to lack of time to eat our lunch provided by the tour. If you care what you eat at all, don't bother with the boxed lunch, it is for the most part inedible. The brochure states you will be shuttled to multiple viewing points, not so. You had to walk and we, in fact, power walked straight up an incline to grab a look at the grand hotel. Not so grand actually.

The bus driver in fact states that what you get on the tour depends upon the scheduling. They schedule too many tours for that day, your time on helicopter and at National Park gets cut to almost nothing.