Season Pass Options/Considerations

[Cobbold]

ABC, sorry about the confusion, but I was talking about last November December, right after the closing went thru, that peak pass holders switched to epic pass and got money back, not the 20 percent credit for the early closing, pleas accept my apologies for not making that clear, sorry about any confusion I may have caused.

 

[abc]

Did you submit an exception form?

Yes

 

[abc]

Will I get that many (on Epic and overall) this year? Only time will tell. Will I get enough days on my Epic to take the per day cost down below what the walk up rate for those days would of been? I'd bet a bunch of $$ on that happening.

I don’t compare my pass cost to window price of the Vail resorts.

I don’t particularly like the Vail collections (weekend crowds). But I ski them because they’re “free” — I bought the pass for skiing out west. I only got something like 10 days in the northeast.

As I don’t see going out west being an option next year, the cost of the pass is to be compared with days at non-Vail mountains I typically skied, such as Plattekill, Gore, Magic etc. Their window price is considerably lower than Vail’s mega-resorts. The break even point is much different than what most of you guys are talking about.

If it weren’t for the 20% credit, I wouldn’t even be thinking about another year on the Epic pass. Though with the credit, I can get either a northeast pass or northeast midweek for under $500. So I’m going to get one or the other.

I’m primarily a weekend skier as I work regular job. But with the reservation thing, I may not get too many weekend days in. I can take vacation days to ski midweek, though that would only net me ~10 days or so. Main thing is, if I can’t get more than a few days of weekends, there’s no point in paying the extra for the northeast regular. I can get by on the midweek pass.

 

[p_levert]

Freedom Pass reborn: https://www.saminfo.com/headline-news/9703-freedom-pass-adapts-to-changing-marketplace

Detailed analysis here: https://skiing.substack.com/p/freedom-pass-returns-with-10-partner

 

[Ski2LiveLive2Ski]

Wonder when the big passes (and others) will announce prices and put passes on sale for next year. I always enjoy the opportunity to get a new pass early if it expands options for the rest of this skison.

 

[drjeff]

Wonder when the big passes (and others) will announce prices and put passes on sale for next year. I always enjoy the opportunity to get a new pass early if it expands options for the rest of this skison.

Lately the announcements, especially for the larger passes, have been in the 1st week or 2 of March, whereas they used to be the last week of February after the school vacation weeks end.

Not sure, with capacity restrictions and the overall significant demand that many ski areas have seen, if they will choose to have a "buy now, ski/ride the rest of the season as well as next season" option as many have had in the past?? Guess we'll find out in the next month or so.....

 

[2planks2coasts]

I'm waiting with bated breath for the early price announcements. Will likely get whatever midweek deal in the Whites jumps out at me and either a Ski Cooper or IndyPass.

 

[2planks2coasts]

Looks like Tamarack is first out of the gate with the 21-22 pass. Their pass includes summer activities as well though.

Tamarack All Season pass early purchase deal.

 

[machski]

Wonder when the big passes (and others) will announce prices and put passes on sale for next year. I always enjoy the opportunity to get a new pass early if it expands options for the rest of this skison.

I would not wait with my breath held for those options this season.

 

[abc]

I would not wait with my breath held for those options this season.

I am (waiting with my breath held, on the Ikon).

We'll find out soon enough how many of those who ski the President's week school holiday will return to ski in subsequent weeks. Many of Ikon mountains had dropped their reservation even before the holiday week.

Vail has never offered spring benefits of its pass. But some other passes do.

 

[ss20]

I would not wait with my breath held for those options this season.

I can see something like "5 free days the rest of this season". Capacity at these mountains has not been an issue for the most part, and will be less of an issue in late March. However, you get some bottlenecking when it's a prime bluebird spring weekend and there's only a handful of lifts spinning. The worst crowds I can remember in recent memory at Killington were Saturday April 15th-ish, 2018. Unmitigated disaster. They ran out of parking in the K1 and Vale lots. People were hiking up from the Snowshed lot. And they only had Superstar, Snowdon Triple, North Ridge, and K1 iirc. I think they extended lift ops by an hour that day to make up for the crowds.

 

[machski]

I can see something like "5 free days the rest of this season". Capacity at these mountains has not been an issue for the most part, and will be less of an issue in late March. However, you get some bottlenecking when it's a prime bluebird spring weekend and there's only a handful of lifts spinning. The worst crowds I can remember in recent memory at Killington were Saturday April 15th-ish, 2018. Unmitigated disaster. They ran out of parking in the K1 and Vale lots. People were hiking up from the Snowshed lot. And they only had Superstar, Snowdon Triple, North Ridge, and K1 iirc. I think they extended lift ops by an hour that day to make up for the crowds.

Not sure where you have been skiing, but weekends at Sunday River have been super busy on unrestricted weekends. This past it was very quiet, likely due to the blackouts of most of the more value oriented pass levels would be my guess. Given this ends the restricted pass blackouts, I am not convinced they will allow free skiing. Add to it, some still seem snubbed with the limited give backs for lost back portion of last year, to give next year passes u restricted access mid March on might cause another ski bro uproar.

 

[abc]

The whole idea of spring special, whether it’s spring pass, spring use pf next year’s pass, or discounted day tickets, was to take up the slack and turn it into revenue. There’s never any “uproar” from current pass holders I’ve heard of.

So, whether that will be offered, will entirely depends on whether the crowd continue to come skiing or they all go home!

Given the “ski only, no apres” setup, with almost non-existing lodge access, I suspect most of the casual skiers will not come back after this week. There won’t be any “spring break” crunch either. Again, no drinking and partying, how many college kids will go skiing?

 

[machski]

The whole idea of spring special, whether it’s spring pass, spring use pf next year’s pass, or discounted day tickets, was to take up the slack and turn it into revenue. There’s never any “uproar” from current pass holders I’ve heard of.

So, whether that will be offered, will entirely depends on whether the crowd continue to come skiing or they all go home!

Given the “ski only, no apres” setup, with almost non-existing lodge access, I suspect most of the casual skiers will not come back after this week. There won’t be any “spring break” crunch either. Again, no drinking and partying, how many college kids will go skiing?

You've also never had current passholders who felt they were robbed of two months of skiing on the back end the year prior by some massive industry shutdown (not me personally, but a casual perusal of FB will generate ample evidence).

The resort may very well still do the same as they have in the past. But until one or more announce their intentions, just assuming it will be business as usual this year is risking pie in the face.

 

[skimagic]

The whole idea of spring special, whether it’s spring pass, spring use pf next year’s pass, or discounted day tickets, was to take up the slack and turn it into revenue.

Although not a pass, Bromley will not be offering the Spring Loaded 4-pack this year. It was a decent deal in recent years for those not chained to a pass.

 

[jimmywilson69]

Given the “ski only, no apres” setup, with almost non-existing lodge access, I suspect most of the casual skiers will not come back after this week. There won’t be any “spring break” crunch either. Again, no drinking and partying, how many college kids will go skiing?

Completely disagree with this statement. Skiing is one of the only "normal" activities that has largely been able to continue without impediment. Spring sports may likely be delayed due to COVID. I suspect people are going to continue coming out to ski in large numbers through March or later as an activity to do outside. Especially if winter continues and snow continues to be on the ground in the mountains and in the flatlands.

 

[abc]

You've also never had current passholders who felt they were robbed of two months of skiing on the back end the year prior by some massive industry shutdown

But those “robbed of” people had all gotten credits to this year’s pass. So while I’m sympathetic about them last year, if anyone still haven’t got over it, I consider them self-centered entitled nut job!

The only thing I see coming are the tourists who need to use their credit from last year. But those are not the spring skiing people. They’re all scrambling to book this week!

 

[Ski2LiveLive2Ski]

But those “robbed of” people had all gotten credits to this year’s pass. So while I’m sympathetic about them last year, if anyone still haven’t got over it, I consider them self-centered entitled nut job!

The only thing I see coming are the tourists who need to use their credit from last year. But those are not the spring skiing people. They’re all scrambling to book this week!

I feel completely compensated for last year's shutdown by Vail offering a credit towards this year's pass, even though I skied enough pre-shutdown (28 days) that I only got the lowest credit amount they were offering.

 

[kingslug]

37 days with 22 on Epic last year..made it to the last day at PC then they shut down. I'm good with that.

 

[drjeff]

37 days with 22 on Epic last year..made it to the last day at PC then they shut down. I'm good with that.

All 4 of my family had anywhere between upper 20's and upper 30's day wise on our Epic's last year. Wasn't expecting any type of credit given the use we got out of them. Vail over delivered with the credits in my eyes given the use we got.

Honestly not expecting anything for next season. If we get something credit wise, just more icing on the cake