Ticketing that actually understands balloon flights.
Generic activity software treats your balloon like a kayak rack. Sky Desk handles the sunrise timing, the weather scrubs, the weight & balance, and the texting — the parts that actually make running flights hard. Now with a built-in AI assistant that runs it all by command.
Start free — pay only on completed bookings.
- 3%
- + card fee — flat, no monthly bill
- 1-tap
- weather scrub + auto rebooking
- 2-way
- SMS inbox, A2P registered for you
- 0
- features locked behind a higher tier
Why Sky Desk is different
The only ticketing platform built by a commercial balloon pilot who actually runs a ride operation.
Every other booking system was built by software people who've never made a dawn-patrol weather call, never juggled passenger weights across three baskets, never rebooked a full flight after a scrub. We have — thousands of times. Sky Desk is the system we built because every other one fought us at every step. We understand the struggles of running an operation on someone else's software, because we lived them.
— Built and flown by a working commercial balloon pilot & ride operator
Run your morning by just asking.
A built-in AI assistant lives in your dashboard. Ask it anything about your flights, bookings, manifests and weights — or tell it to make the change. No menus, no digging.
- Pulls a flight’s manifest and passenger weights for weight & balance
- Finds, moves, and creates bookings on command
- Checks availability and today’s schedule in a sentence
- Or connect your own ChatGPT or Claude — it works there too
You choose read-only or let it make changes. It only ever touches your account.
Take the operator dashboard for a spin
No signup, no forms — just click through the menu and see exactly how Sky Desk runs your mornings, from the schedule to the texting inbox to compliance paperwork.
Good morning, Wicked 👋
▶ Auto-playing — click any menu item to explore at your own pace.
See what you'd keep
Estimate on $396,000 in annual bookings. Both platforms pass the same card fee, so your real savings is the 3.0% commission gap. Most platforms charge 6–9%.
Honest pricing
No monthly fee. No contracts. No lock-in. You only pay when you get paid.
That's it. Compare to FareHarbor and Peek at 6–9%. Every feature is included — scheduling, texting, weather rebooking, vouchers, reporting, embeds, and compliance.
Create your account in minutes — pay only on completed bookings.
Everything the morning needs
From the first booking to the post-flight thank-you text, in one place.
Your AI flight-ops assistant
Ask “who’s on Saturday’s sunrise and what do they weigh?” or say “move the Jones party to Sunday” — in plain English, right in your dashboard. Or plug in your own ChatGPT or Claude.
Sunrise & sunset-aware scheduling
Flight slots track the sun automatically for every launch site and season — no more hand-editing departure times twice a month.
Weather rebooking in one tap
Scrub a flight and every passenger is notified and offered the next available departure. Weather credits never expire on you.
Weight & balance built in
We capture passenger weights at booking and plan each load against your balloon's real payload limit — not just seat count.
Two-way texting
A real SMS inbox. Broadcast a weather call to a whole flight and field replies in one threaded conversation per customer.
Digital waivers
Customers sign after booking. See who's outstanding at a glance and nudge them automatically before flight day.
Gift cards & discount codes
Sell stored-value gift certificates and run promos with percent- or dollar-off codes. Email the code to the recipient and track balances automatically.
Tips that reach the crew
Let guests tip their pilot & crew by card after the flight — run one in the office or send a secure link. Every tip is tracked to the right flight, so you always know who it's for.
Full history, instant undo
A complete change log shows who created, edited or deleted anything — and the owner can undo any change or restore a deleted booking in one click.
Sell on the big OTAs
OCTO-certified, plus direct Viator & GetYourGuide connections — bookings flow straight into your manifest in real time, no double entry. One rate, every channel included.
Everything Sky Desk does
The complete feature set — every one of these came from actually running balloon flights.
AI & automation
- Built-in AI assistant — ask about flights, bookings, manifests & weights in plain English
- Tell it to move, create or look up a booking — it does it
- Connect your own ChatGPT or Claude to your account (via MCP)
- Choose read-only, or let the assistant make changes
- Paste an OTA confirmation email → a booking drafted in seconds
- Automatic waiver reminders and post-flight follow-ups
Scheduling & availability
- Sunrise & sunset-aware departure times per site and season
- Rule-based scheduling — which balloons fly which days
- Patterns like “weekends only, until a set date”
- Pooled capacity: sell combined seats across multiple balloons
- A separate availability calendar for every experience
- Stop sales for a single day, or set a one-off seat cap, in one click
Booking experience
- Branded, mobile-friendly customer booking pages
- Booking pages in English, Spanish, French & German with a visitor language switcher
- Map-based launch sites with timezone detected automatically
- Multi-city / multi-state areas, each with its own calendar
- Two-step checkout: lead contact first, then passengers
- Sold-out dates and experiences shown clearly — never silently hidden
- Manual & phone bookings from the back office
- Optional gratuity for your pilot & crew at checkout
- Collect missing passenger names & weights with a self-service link
- Per-guest QR check-in tickets on the confirmation and manage page
Flight day & operations
- Operator dashboard with today’s flights at a glance
- Passenger manifests for every departure
- Weight & balance against real payload limits — not just seats
- One-tap weather scrub with auto rebooking & weather credits
- Per-balloon pilot & crew — mark each balloon flown individually
- Drag-and-drop load plan with printable manifests
- Email or text everyone on a flight in one tap
- Rebook a no-show onto a new day in a click
- Hold canceled-flight guests in a queue until they pick a new date
- Edit any booking: contact details, passenger names & weights
- Add or remove a seat with an instant charge or refund
- Private office-only notes on every booking
- At-a-glance readiness — green once every weight & waiver is in
Payments & paperwork
- Card payments with deposits and balances
- In-person cash or card-reader payments for walk-ups & balances
- Refunds, full payment history, and one-click order cancellation
- Crew tips by card — run one in the office or send a secure link
- Tips tracked per flight so you know which crew they're for
- Stored-value gift certificates plus percent- or dollar-off discount codes
- Codes emailed straight to the recipient
- Digital waivers signed after booking
- Outstanding-waiver tracking, automatic reminders & on-demand resend
- Searchable signed-waiver records — signature, timestamp, IP & version
Messaging & marketing
- Two-way SMS inbox (A2P 10DLC registered for you)
- Email or text everyone on a flight at once
- Editable templates for every automatic email & text
- Follow-up CRM for past customers
- Drip campaigns for new contacts and leads — request tips automatically
- Abandoned-cart capture and recovery
Team & compliance
- Pilot, crew & office roles with emailed self-serve setup links
- Resend a staff invite anytime with a fresh link
- Pilot certificate, medical & flight-review on file
- Balloon registration & airworthiness on file
- Expiry alerts — amber at 60 days, red at 30 days
- Compliance warnings surfaced right on the dashboard
Distribution & integrations
- OCTO-certified supplier API — connect once, reach Expedia, Klook, Tiqets, Headout, Bókun & more
- Direct Viator & GetYourGuide connections — bookings into your manifest in real time
- Import existing OTA bookings from Viator, GetYourGuide & Tripadvisor
- Publish your schedule as iCal feeds (Google, Apple, Outlook — or a calendar-importing channel)
- Full REST API for your own tools
- Signed outbound webhooks with automatic retries
- Embeddable calendar widgets: inline, popup, floating tab or link
Reporting & insights
- Revenue collected, outstanding balances & refunds
- Revenue explorer — filter totals by date range, channel & flight type
- Tips collected per flight, attributed to pilot & crew
- Bookings calendar with daily guest, booking & revenue totals
- Sort and filter bookings by any column or a single day
- Load factor and cancellation rates
- Cart conversion and average order value
- Performance broken down by experience
- Voucher liability and top customers
- Switchable date ranges (30 / 90 days, 12 months, all time)
Platform, security & account
- Multi-tenant, multi-site, multi-balloon by design
- Full change log — see who created, edited or deleted anything, and undo it
- Two-factor authentication (required for admins)
- Breached-password blocking & strong-password enforcement
- No monthly fee — a simple percentage per booking, no contract
- Your brand colors and name throughout
- Full migration from your current ticketing system
Every operation is a little bit different — so there's no one system that fits everyone.
Different sites, different aircraft, different weather calls, different ways of running a morning. We get it — we run flights too. That's why Sky Desk isn't take-it-or-leave-it. If a feature doesn't quite match how you work, tell us — we're genuinely happy to tailor and build things around your specific company's needs.
Custom features
Need a workflow, field, or report that's specific to your operation? We'll build it.
Fits your stack
Your booking page, your branding, your payment and texting setup — wired to work the way you already do.
We actually listen
Tell us what's slowing your mornings down. Real changes from a team that flies, not a faceless help desk.
Already on another ticketing system? We'll move you over.
Switching shouldn't be a headache. We offer full migration services — our team brings across your customers, bookings, vouchers, and history from FareHarbor, RideOne, Peek, or wherever you are now, so the transition is seamless and you don't lose a thing. You keep flying; we handle the move.
Missing a feature? We'll likely build it — for free.
Sky Desk is built to be customized around how you actually run. If there's something you need the software to do and it doesn't do it yet, just tell us — if it's a fit for balloon operators, we'll almost always add it to your account at no extra charge. Your workflow shouldn't have to bend to the software; the software should bend to you.
No obligation · we love a good "can it do…?"
Frequently asked questions
The things balloon operators ask us most.
How much does Sky Desk cost?
3% plus the card fee per booking — no monthly subscription, no contracts, no setup fee. You only pay when you get paid, and every feature is included at that rate.
Do I have to re-enter all my existing bookings?
No. We migrate you fully from your current system, and you can import existing OTA bookings from Viator, GetYourGuide and Tripadvisor — including traveler names, weights and contact details.
Can I sell through Viator, GetYourGuide and other OTAs?
Yes. Sky Desk is an OCTO supplier for the big OTAs, and also supports direct Viator and GetYourGuide reseller connections with a separate access key per partner so availability and bookings stay in sync.
How and when do I get paid?
Card payments go through Stripe and pay out automatically to your bank. After a short hold when your account is brand new, payouts run on a daily cycle. You can also take deposits, collect a balance later, or run an in-person cash or card-reader payment for walk-ups.
Can I offer discounts or gift certificates?
Yes. Create stored-value gift certificates, or discount codes that take either a set dollar amount or a percentage off. Discount codes are reusable; gift certificates draw down their balance as they're used. Add a recipient email and we'll send the code for you.
Can I stop sales or cap seats for a specific day?
Yes. Mark any day sold out in one click, or set a one-off seat cap for a single date — without touching the rest of your schedule. Sold-out dates still show on your booking page, clearly marked, so customers aren't left guessing.
How do you handle waivers and weight & balance?
Customers sign a digital waiver after booking, and you can see who's outstanding at a glance, send automatic reminders, or resend a waiver by text or email on demand. Passenger weights are captured at booking and planned against your balloon's real payload limit — not just seat count.
What happens when the weather doesn't cooperate?
Scrub a flight in one tap and every passenger is notified and offered the next available departure, with weather credits that don't expire. You can also broadcast a weather call to a whole flight from the two-way SMS inbox.
Can I run multiple launch sites, balloons or cities?
Yes — Sky Desk is multi-site, multi-balloon and multi-area by design, with sunrise/sunset-aware times per location and a separate availability calendar for each experience.
Is my data locked in?
Never. You can export your data at any time — it's yours. No lock-in, no holding your bookings hostage.
What's the AI assistant, and is my data safe?
A built-in assistant in your dashboard that you talk to in plain English — ask who's on a flight and their weights, find or move a booking, check availability, or have it create a booking. You choose read-only or let it make changes, and it only ever touches your own operator account. You can also connect your own ChatGPT or Claude. The assistant is included — no extra charge.
What if I need a feature you don't have yet?
Tell us. A lot of Sky Desk was built from exactly those requests — we'll usually build it into your account, and typically at no extra cost. No 'enterprise tier', no per-feature upsell.