High Priced Lift Tickets

[djd66]

It’s not just in our minds, ticket prices have far outpaced inflation.

That may be true for the walk up rate, but my price per day of skiing has never been cheaper.

 

[snoseek]

It's by design. They want that early guaranteed money and for them it works beautifully.

 

[Hawk]

I've become totally selfish in my old age. LOL
For my $800 bucks I will ski probably 60 days, 7 in the Dolimites. If you look at that in terms of say $100 a day that is an 8 day break even or $80 is 10 days. As it stands now I am skiing at a $13.33 a day rate. Sounds really economical to me. In fact I was hoping that IKON would up the anti and cause people to jump to epic. I would pay more to have less people as Sugarbush. I told all my friends and relatives to buy an IKON or even a discounted IKON but you can't tell people. They don't listen. Either way I ski a lot for not very much. Hell I even bought early ups so my daily is now $17.50. Not bad I say.

 

[Kingslug20]

With an epic and ikon...figure at least 80 days..I'm at 22 a day. Now going to add Bolton pass which at 600 is not a bargain but sometimes you need to get away from crowds.

 

[jimmywilson69]

^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^^

Good for you brother!

 

[urungus]

With an epic and ikon...figure at least 80 days..I'm at 22 a day. Now going to add Bolton pass which at 600 is not a bargain but sometimes you need to get away from crowds.

Then once you get the Bolton pass you need to get the Indy add on

 

[boston_e]

Vail will sell you a 3 day, 4 day or 5 day Epic Pass at way less than window rates, with the price depending on what range of their mountains you need to be able to ski and whether you need it to be good during peak periods or not. They are absolutely offering deals to the 3-5 day skier who is willing to plan ahead. They are not offering deals to the person who does not decide to ski until he sees it start snowing on a peak day (unless he has a buddy with a pass that offers companion deals - and even in thst case the deals are less attractive than what one gets by planning ahead.

Well, sort of, but those “deals” are basically just what the normal cost of a day ticket was only 6 or 7 years ago…. But now you have to buy them in October. They are only a deal when compared to the artificially inflated window prices of today.

 

[zyk]

So I get the strategy and it works. I have a pass (not vail) that I have not used due to unforseen circumstances. Like a mullet. Business in the front party in the back. Maybe next year... I'm sure I will buy a pass again.

 

[thetrailboss]

View attachment 57126It’s not just in our minds, ticket prices have far outpaced inflation.

Yep.

And I can personally attest to the fact that Chamonix does a lot of "off-season" business. Our visit in August was great but honestly I was surprised as to how busy things were, how many people were at the ski attractions, and, unfortunately, how hot it was for the French Alps.

 

[thetrailboss]

I've become totally selfish in my old age. LOL
For my $800 bucks I will ski probably 60 days, 7 in the Dolimites. If you look at that in terms of say $100 a day that is an 8 day break even or $80 is 10 days. As it stands now I am skiing at a $13.33 a day rate. Sounds really economical to me. In fact I was hoping that IKON would up the anti and cause people to jump to epic. I would pay more to have less people as Sugarbush. I told all my friends and relatives to buy an IKON or even a discounted IKON but you can't tell people. They don't listen. Either way I ski a lot for not very much. Hell I even bought early ups so my daily is now $17.50. Not bad I say.

(IKON went up more than Epic last year or two years ago. Unfortunately, with Vail setting the "floor", people paid MORE for IKON and jumped ship TO IKON).

 

[MidnightJester]

$299 dollar lift ticket due to dynamic pricing scheme this weekend. This will for sure cause other mountains to eventually catch up to this price point faster then they would of if this AI technology didn't exist. Total bullshit

Flagstaff Ski Resort Ticket Prices Soar To $299

"Our demand-based pricing is designed to manage the number of riders on the mountain on specific days to ensure you have the best time out on the slopes."

unofficialnetworks.com

 

[JimG.]

$299 dollar lift ticket due to dynamic pricing scheme this weekend. This will for sure cause other mountains to eventually catch up to this price point faster then they would of if this AI technology didn't exist. Total bullshit

Flagstaff Ski Resort Ticket Prices Soar To $299

"Our demand-based pricing is designed to manage the number of riders on the mountain on specific days to ensure you have the best time out on the slopes."

unofficialnetworks.com

It's not total bullshit if your main goal is to sell season passes. That seems to be the direction of marketing managers in the ski industry. They want your money by the end of summer.
Buy a season pass and you can set your own day rate by skiing more or less.
Or you can buy an overpriced day ticket for a third of the cost of a season pass. Makes that seem like a dumb choice.
And why not charge more for a good snow day for those who choose to buy by the day? Just another incentive to buy a season pass.

 

[MidnightJester]

It's not total bullshit if your main goal is to sell season passes. That seems to be the direction of marketing managers in the ski industry. They want your money by the end of summer.
Buy a season pass and you can set your own day rate by skiing more or less.
Or you can buy an overpriced day ticket for a third of the cost of a season pass. Makes that seem like a dumb choice.
And why not charge more for a good snow day for those who choose to buy by the day? Just another incentive to buy a season pass.

I get the push to season passes but Its not that they have higher lift tickets day of in itself that is the issue. Killington, Stowe, etc have had rising costs as a ski day approaches till max cost was set in stone and was the same every day and most weekend days. This new dynamic pricing (add on) prices go up on multiple factors not just day of purchase. They go up on purchases and just looking at tickets to purchase whether people buy it or not can cause a spike in a price.

Apparently a weekend or two before when they were lacking in holiday or fresh snow or whatever the lift ticket was less then half the cost on even the same day of Saturday purchase. This sat is booming with fresh snow and its 299 or other weekends sucked so it was 100 is a wild difference. The $299 number is only being restricted till they up the max purchase price in the AI input field a couple of years from now if it is allowed to continue.

AI's that rise prices based on data points it sees in the background have resulted in more then a few wild price swings that was more un-natural in pricing tickets. One of the good things should be to restrict a constantly changing dynamic ticket pricing run by AI.

Its not a full match but it shows what happens when Dynamic ticket AI resulted in middle of arena $5000 Bruce Springsteen tickets and Taylor swift $20000 tickets when the upper limit was open ended. Every time someone queued up or reloaded the tickets the AI regenerated new upper ticket costs. That is part of the effect of what led to the $299 cost on the lift ticket today I believe.

Congress, Ticketmaster and Taylor Swift: How we got here

Last week, a congressional committee used the shrill megaphone of Twitter to issue a Clint Eastwood-style threat against a company selling Beyoncé tickets: “We’re watching, @Ticketmaster.” Ho…

thehill.com

 

[Zermatt]

Did anybody actually pay $300 to ski in Arizona that day? Just because the price got printed doesn’t mean it got sold.

 

[machski]

Did anybody actually pay $300 to ski in Arizona that day? Just because the price got printed doesn’t mean it got sold.

Exactly. Resorts will correct if a peak weekend powder day has half empty slopes. Of course, if they are at CCC, then they won't correct this. But this dynamic model is also designed to get skier's/riders to commit on some level pre season with passes or multiday prebought ticket-passes good any day. They are trying to remove fickle weather decisions and swings in their revenues YoY.

 

[Zermatt]

Exactly. Resorts will correct if a peak weekend powder day has half empty slopes. Of course, if they are at CCC, then they won't correct this. But this dynamic model is also designed to get skier's/riders to commit on some level pre season with passes or multiday prebought ticket-passes good any day. They are trying to remove fickle weather decisions and swings in their revenues YoY.

They effectively sold out and shut down ticket sales, just in a different way. Jackson Hole just stops selling tickets to the public when they sell out, but I bet they will sell you a ticket with a private lesson for what? $1,000?

 

[MidnightJester]

Here are a few of the top 2023-2024 Lift ticket prices across the country. Grrrrrrrrrrrr

Peak Lift Ticket Prices to Hit near $299 at more U.S. Ski Areas This Winter. Knew that as soon as this new $299 and dynamic pricing set in more would follow fast with higher set prices.​

Peak Lift Ticket Prices to Hit $299 at Some U.S. Ski Areas This Winter - SnowBrains

Day lift tickets at U.S. ski areas will reach these peak rates this season: $299: Park City, UT, Vail, Beaver Creek, CO $289: Deer Valley, UT $279: Palisades Tahoe, CA, Steamboat, Breckenridge, CO $269: Northstar, CA, Keystone, CO $259: Heavenly, Mammoth Mountain, CA, Copper Mountain, CO $255...

snowbrains.com

 

[Harvey]

Are you guys figuring (only) the cost of the lift ticket in your cost per day, or other costs too?

 

[4aprice]

So a day at Arizona Snow Bowl went for $300 last season. What the article doesn't mention is that they use a dynamic pricing system there. That 300 dollar day was a holiday I believe (MLK or Presidents Day) when they were expecting major crowds. They also offer tickets for different dates at very reasonable prices. Purgatory operates the same way and they are offering tickets for $29 on certain dates. Not the same as Park City/Deer Valley daily rates.

 

[jaytrem]

In reality AZ Snowbowl and the other MCP lift tickets are often dirt cheap. Especially if you buy early. Check out the prices for this coming year...

Arizona Snowbowl Lift Tickets

store.snowbowl.ski

Last year I skied Willamette for $14 and my kids were free. So yeah, article leaves a lot out.