I wonder how many early purchase day tickets go unused?

[Great Bear]

I'd be curious to know how many of these early purchase "discounted" day passes go unused for each resort in any given year? I'd guess it is not insignificant and probably a big profit center for resorts.

To add in my own personal rant - I bought a some Epic Day passes for the family in anticipation of a Colorado trip we planned to take this winter. That trip is now looking like it will not happen, so unless there is some legal way to transfer or sell these, I'll be left with 12 Epic tickets that I'll never use... ugh.

This is the stuff that really makes me dislike the current "cheap season pass / expensive day ticket" model that all the resorts use.

 

[Edd]

I’d guess you’re correct on many tickets going unused. Skiing has a gazillion variables so committing early has risks.

Can those tickets be used on the east coast? Members here may buy them.

 

[fbrissette]

I have no idea as to the real percentage of unused ticjkets, but based on my own experience as well as that of friends, I would guess that It could easily be in the 20-30% range

 

[Great Bear]

I’d guess you’re correct on many tickets going unused. Skiing has a gazillion variables so committing early has risks.

Can those tickets be used on the east coast? Members here may buy them.

They can be use on Epic New England resorts yes - I have to look into if they are transferable or not.

 

[Smellytele]

They can be use on Epic New England resorts yes - I have to look into if they are transferable or not.

You aren’t skiing at all this year?

 

[Great Bear]

You aren’t skiing at all this year?

I'll ski a lot - on my non-epic resort season pass.

 

[cdskier]

They can be use on Epic New England resorts yes - I have to look into if they are transferable or not.

From everything I'm reading, they're not transferable and can't be resold. If I remember correctly, you even have to assign them to a specific person in your family at the time of purchase.

 

[jimmywilson69]

That seems very Vail Like...

 

[abc]

That’s why I don’t prepurchase any specific number of days.

Season pass? Yes. Pre-purchase x number of days? No.

I got burned once, years ago. (Pre-Vail). Needless to say, it wiped out the so called “saving”. Never again. Won’t make the same mistake twice.

 

[Great Bear]

That’s why I don’t prepurchase any specific number of days.

Season pass? Yes. Pre-purchase x number of days? No.

I got burned once, years ago. (Pre-Vail). Needless to say, it wiped out the so called “saving”. Never again. Won’t make the same mistake twice.

Yeah I will definitely never do this again (although at the time we had pretty firm plans for this trip - but of course sometimes things change).

Ironically, I will also pretty much never be willing to pay full (or even slightly discounted) price for day tickets / walk up etc. so it will mostly be skiing on the pass only for a while.

Edit: I just looked and a holiday day ticket pass at Breckenridge is $255!!! WTF? As mentioned above, I would NEVER pay that. I knew that regular rates were pricy but had no idea they were that crazy.

 

[cdskier]

I'll ski a lot - on my non-epic resort season pass.

I'd probably make it a point to try to visit an Epic resort at least a few times this year since you already paid for it anyway...

Also to an earlier comment about unused tickets being a big profit center for resorts...I don't think they'd necessarily view it that way. They'd likely prefer that every pre-sold ticket is used as that means it is more likely they generate ancillary revenue from people using those tickets (i.e. via eating on the mountain while they are there). Of course tickets being pre-purchased and unused is still more of a benefit (to the resort) than having not sold them at all.

 

[4aprice]

I’d guess you’re correct on many tickets going unused. Skiing has a gazillion variables so committing early has risks.

One of the major reasons I never used Liftopia that much (really only last minute when I did)

 

[Great Bear]

I'd probably make it a point to try to visit an Epic resort at least a few times this year since you already paid for it anyway...

We could - however our situation is that we already have a condo and season passes at a non-epic resort - so to go somewhere else would require us to either pay more for lodging elsewhere, or pack our stuff up on Sunday, bring it home and then do a long day trip the following weekend, or get back in the car to drive somewhere from the condo on Saturday morning after arriving at our on Friday evening, when we could just walk outside and ski on our passes.... so realistically, I just don't see us doing that.

Also to an earlier comment about unused tickets being a big profit center for resorts...I don't think they'd necessarily view it that way. They'd likely prefer that every pre-sold ticket is used as that means it is more likely they generate ancillary revenue from people using those tickets (i.e. via eating on the mountain while they are there). Of course tickets being pre-purchased and unused is still more of a benefit (to the resort) than having not sold them at all.

This could be true - although not having people there does reduce need for maintenance, staffing etc etc. But yes, someone can't spend money at the resort on food / souvenirs etc if they are not there. Either way, taking in a lot of money and having to do nothing in return is a nice way for them to make a profit.

 

[abc]

Pre-purchase discount is exactly for the very reason some of them goes unused!

So for the resort, they sell n tickets, at x% discount. If x% of the N tickets never show, they still got all the money. However, if they wait for people to pay full price the day of, they would have missed out of those x% who would not have bought.

Not to mention the resort got the money early.

 

[abc]

to go somewhere else would require us to either pay more for lodging elsewhere, or pack our stuff up on Sunday, bring it home and then do a long day trip, or get back in the car to drive somewhere from the condo on Saturday morning after arriving at our on Friday evening... so realistically, I just don't see us doing that.

Exactly the problem. To “not lose” those early purchase, you end up paying out of pocket in other ways!

And another reason I never bother to pre-purchase, I buy them off people who pre-purchase but can’t use it. I still get the discount but not having to make the commitment.

(Vail excluded, as those are not exchangeable)

 

[crystalmountainskier]

I'd be curious to know how many of these early purchase "discounted" day passes go unused for each resort in any given year? I'd guess it is not insignificant and probably a big profit center for resorts.

To add in my own personal rant - I bought a some Epic Day passes for the family in anticipation of a Colorado trip we planned to take this winter. That trip is now looking like it will not happen, so unless there is some legal way to transfer or sell these, I'll be left with 12 Epic tickets that I'll never use... ugh.

This is the stuff that really makes me dislike the current "cheap season pass / expensive day ticket" model that all the resorts use.

You can't find a way to visit any of the 44 resorts any time the entire season? That's on you. Of course they aren't transeferable.

 

[Great Bear]

You can't find a way to visit any of the 44 resorts any time the entire season? That's on you.

If you had read through the whole thread, you would see that of course In theory I could but barring the western trip that was planned, the options (certainly any of the New England Options) are less desirable than going to our condo and using our season passes (non epic resort).

As ABC identified, to "not lose" out on these tickets I will end up paying out of pocket in other ways. I'm unlikely to pay for lodging at a New England resort when we already have a condo. I'm unlikely to schlep all our stuff home on a Sunday night to do a long day trip the following weekend, and I'm unlikely to drive an hour to a vail resort on a Saturday morning (after driving to our condo on Friday night) - all to ski at a place that we don't like as much as our home mountain. At that point we are better off just cutting our losses.

Of course they aren't transeferable.

Not being transferable is an annoying Vail thing. Many other resorts sell pre-season ticket vouchers that are transferable. No reason they can't structure their pre season ticket sales that way.

 

[jimmywilson69]

of course they could, but they don't for this very reason. they have your money now and couldn't care any less if you actually use them. In fact they'd probably prefer your situation...

 

[BodeMiller1]

Pre-purchase discount is exactly for the very reason some of them goes unused!

So for the resort, they sell n tickets, at x% discount. If x% of the N tickets never show, they still got all the money. However, if they wait for people to pay full price the day of, they would have missed out of those x% who would not have bought.

Not to mention the resort got the money early.

The powers that be count on revenue from tickets that are sold and not used.
In the State of New Hampshire it is against the law to sell a gift card and then have "interest" eat away at the principle. Not sure how this translates to pre-purchased ski tickets? I'm thinking it is exactly the same thing. Therefore, it is illegal in the State of New Hampshire to sell a "ticket" with and expiration date.

There ...
Meow

 

[BodeMiller1]

What if ski area holding co. (SKIXYZ) sells 10 passes that can be used anywhere during the 2022 and 2023 season. For the sake of argument, the states: CO, VT, ME and NH.
This has obvious interstate from Uniform Commercial Code stuff going on, butt can SKIXYZ sell these bundles in NH with an expiration date. No, this would be against NH consumer protection code.
Will an attorney go to court and force SKIXYZ's hand to honor the tickets. No and the beat goes on.