thebigo
Well-known member
Interesting that is a different number, I will give it a call.
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Season Pass Options/Considerations
- Thread starter dblskifanatic
- Start date
Interesting that is a different number, I will give it a call.
thebigo
Well-known member
I called the number in mbedle's post and surprisingly got through to a woman named Sandy in only 14 minutes. Sandy should be Vail's employee of the month, the only pleasant and helpful person I have ever gotten on the phone at Vail. She said to stop by one of the mountains with a picture and they will print a complimentary pass for kids under five years old. Further she said they would print the pass in the summer but to call ahead, the former Peak mountains are still getting set up to print passes, sunapee should be able to print now. I only asked about NH but suspect the same is true in VT.
Done.
Wife renewed her IKON pass (evil).
I renewed my Brighton Night Pass, which they now call the "Twilight Pass" giving me access 7 days a week from 2 until close for all lifts. That is significant. Brighton gave me FULL face value for the Go Cards I could not use last season and a discount to renew. I was able to do it over a single phone call which made life easy. Pretty much a no-brainer to renew at the pitifully low rate.
Also waited until the last minute to renew our Alta-Bird Passes that include free IKON base passes (more evil). Online renewal today was easier than expected with discounts that pretty much washed out any price increases.
The common theme this year: increased prices cloaked with giving us "improvements" we did not ask for. Lots of Snowbird folks were not happy about that. Some folks, mainly family packages, saw huge price increases and added "perks" that nobody wanted. Snowbird got a lot of flak over that. As predicted, John Cummings doesn't get it.
Wife renewed her IKON pass (evil).
I renewed my Brighton Night Pass, which they now call the "Twilight Pass" giving me access 7 days a week from 2 until close for all lifts. That is significant. Brighton gave me FULL face value for the Go Cards I could not use last season and a discount to renew. I was able to do it over a single phone call which made life easy. Pretty much a no-brainer to renew at the pitifully low rate.
Also waited until the last minute to renew our Alta-Bird Passes that include free IKON base passes (more evil). Online renewal today was easier than expected with discounts that pretty much washed out any price increases.
The common theme this year: increased prices cloaked with giving us "improvements" we did not ask for. Lots of Snowbird folks were not happy about that. Some folks, mainly family packages, saw huge price increases and added "perks" that nobody wanted. Snowbird got a lot of flak over that. As predicted, John Cummings doesn't get it.
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jaytrem
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Have you decided if your daughter is going in any programs, or will she just be skiing with you guys?
Likely Alta camps. We're not doing Snowbird's program. She ended the year in a lower group than when she started.
machski
Well-known member
This isn't just a theme in ski resorts. My YouTube TV went up $15/month (~30% increase) and got channels added like MTV that I could care less about. It's a thing in businesses right now.
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I was just pondering these uncared for and unwanted "improvements" that businesses relish adding to product so they can pump up prices. Had to leave my car for service until Monday and got a loaner car. Brand new Subaru Legacy. I have a 2011 I love and plan to drive until it dies. 6 speed. Fun and simple. The new Legacy looks like a Toyota Camry.
There are no knobs on the dash anymore, just a complicated touch screen. Too much to glance at quickly to determine what it does, requires study. Easy to touch the wrong function. When the car comes to a full stop it turns off. So if the AC is on that turns off too. Dumb. Lane departure warnings, automatic lane correction very unpleasant and dangerous IMO. Those are the things I decided I don't want in a car based on a 15 minute drive. Sure I'll find more by Monday.
I may wind up driving my 2011 until I die.
BenedictGomez
Well-known member
If they run it as well as their summer ops I wouldnt be surprised. When I was there summer 2018 it was probably the worst run resort I've ever been too. Complete chaos. I can 100% say I've never seen employee dissatisfaction like I saw there.
thebigo
Well-known member
Check out fubo, you save $5/month and gain history, weather, newsmax. DVR is limited to 500 hours but does not expire after 9 months.
Smellytele
Well-known member
Does it give you local channels for news and also local sport stations?
xlr8r
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- Feb 7, 2009
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So today i attempted to purchase a 20/21 Epic Northeast Value Pass and use my 19/20 Epic Local Pass credit for a discount. So it turns out if you want to use a 19/20 credit on a lower priced pass product for 20/21 than the pass you bought in 19/20, you have to fill out an exemption form and wait for an email or phone call from Vail Resorts to process. Has anyone done this? I filled out the exemption form but it said response will take 5-6 weeks. I will try calling them this week as 5 weeks from now puts us past the Labor day deadline.
thebigo
Well-known member
NESN and the celtics channel are included, also nbc CBS and fox boston. No local pbs, wmur is being added before the end of the year. They have necn for semilocal news. Also has Smithsonian.
thebigo
Well-known member
We had the unlimited peak passes last year, i think they were $629, bought northeast this year at $600. My discount code worked first time, wife's did not. Called and got some dude named Darrell or maybe darren, he had me log off then log back in and it worked.
$475 unlimited at four places in NH is a hell of a deal, hope to get it under $5/day.
xlr8r
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Looks like calling works then, I am trying to get my pass down to roughly $475 as well. I figure as a Middlesex county MA resident, VT maybe a no go this season based on their county restrictions, so most of the season will probably take place in NH. Might pickup the Indy Pass as well.
As I've said before in here, that is ultimately what has happened. Cummings is doing a good job buying "nice shiny" toys for his resorts, but they can't get and keep good quality employees. Snowbird had an issue with recruiting and retaining talent before him. Camp was a nice program but it has slipped the last two years. Almost all the instructors, for kids 7-13 or so, were mostly old retired grumpy white men with a few burned out young folks who can't get work elsewhere. So how does that work with kids? It doesn't. Our regular instructor was not an option. She was awesome.
The only thing with Alta has been the increasing sense of entitlement from the clientele. My goal is to focus on skiing and tune that shit out.
As to my passes, here is what happened. Brighton Night Pass was previously $249 or so early season and got one skiing every night they were open--basically Mid-December through early-April, six nights a week from 4-9pm. Great deal. Night ticket rates were about $45-50 per night so it added up fast (not taking into account regular promos). Brighton moved it to a season pass good everyday of the season from 2pm to close. So now one can ski more of the season and ski more of the resort since one now gets two hours each day. In terms of value, it is a good value if one doesn't mind skiing terrain that may be skied off. Surprisingly, the night terrain holds up very well in my experience. But none of us asked for it. The price went up to $349. Still a good value, but it was clear that Brighton just was in a place where they needed to boost revenue. I get it. That said, I did not pay $349 thanks for having some unused Go Cards and getting a decent renewal discount.
Snowbird did exactly what I said they would. As I had said in here, from what I saw and was hearing from insiders and seeing anecdotally, IKON has resulted in more traffic but less revenue. These daytrippers weren't buying food, lessons, or anything else. Just using their "days". The second season a lot of passholders did not renew and went IKON or elsewhere. So more lost revenue. Basically, more skiers and riders and flat or declining revenue. Instead of looking at IKON, John did what I said he would--increase pass rates. That has led to more pissed folks (posting on FB and other places) and slower sales (they just extended the sale "due to IT issues" they claim). Even with the "loyalty credit" everyone ended up paying a bit more. Folks with family programs or multiple passes really got screwed with the increases. They created a new "pass" that includes all access pass, an IKON pass, and a free adventure (cat skiing or guided trip). Nobody asked for it. On my pass they upped it about $200 and gave us IKON passes as well. Nice because we now have common passes again but again I saw it as paying $200 to get an IKON pass. I didn't need it or necessarily want it, but Snowbird had to justify price increases in a bad economic period.
Interesting how both these IKON partner resorts, who have had a lot of problems, both had to increase rates instead of looking at IKON as the issue. I guess they are all gung ho for these pass programs despite the issues.
Everyone is stuck with these megapass deals essentially. This model may fall apart faster and destroy the skiing industry far faster than anyone imagined.
Wait to see prices after this season when nobody is going to fly.
jimk
Well-known member
Got a pass for my resort of choice. Hoping to ski a lot of weekdays. Will brown bag my lunch as always. It's good to be retired as long as the federal government doesn't implode and stop sending my pension checks.:roll:
Assuming that we have a ski season.....
I can't believe that Alterra was able to talk these resorts into joining them in IKON. What I heard they made a pretty hard sell. Honestly, it is pretty insidious how IKON is actually undermining these partner resorts revenue.
We'll have some kind of ski season, it's just going to be different and be a major ****show until we get herd immunity or an effective vaccine. Hopefully the resorts can keep their losses to a minimum and come through it allright....
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