Ticket Scanners

[rob56789]

Do most mountains scan lift tickets evertime you ride the lift. Windham does and its such a pain it slows the line down alot and only allows people to load onto every other chair.:uzi:

 

[riverc0il]

i would estimate only about 1/4 to maybe 1/3 max do so. it is mostly the more expensive areas, though there are some exceptions as wildcat has been doing this for several years and windham is by no means in the big boy catagory. a few of the great new england mountains are still hold outs like jay peak, mrg (of course), cannon, etc. but most of the big boys are going in this direction. i would rather see the money invested in RFID technology. at first, the thought of big brother watching me just about drove me nuts. but i think it would be nice not to have to flash a pass or ticket every time you ride a lift. of course that tech still has way too many bugs for legit use. but hey, for now i generally ski places that don't scan tickets and i am a happy man.

 

[rob56789]

Whats the point of scanning them? it doesn't seem like they could get any important info besides maybe how often season pass holders are using thier passes

 

[SnowRider]

I was in line at sunapee like 15 minutes before the mountain opened (2nd Chair) and they were teaching people how to use the scanners. The newbs check you every time but non newbs dont. They were also saying how they have the 3 second rule. If it take more than 3seconds let them go. Also if lines or long they dont bother.

 

[SnowRider]

Whats the point of scanning them? it doesn't seem like they could get any important info besides maybe how often season pass holders are using thier passes

I asked the man teching the kids and he told me it was to check if lift tickets are valid. It also tells you how long you did your run in...cool

 

[bvibert]

I asked the man teching the kids and he told me it was to check if lift tickets are valid. It also tells you how long you did your run in...cool

That's pretty much it. It's all about preventing ticket fraud. There is no reason that scanning should hold up loading chairs, if it is then there is a problem...

 

[riverc0il]

i asked the folks at wildcat about what they do with the data. dude told me they weren't even checking every one every run. guess it makes sense not to scan every one every run, especially if it is holding up the line. odds are you will get everyone eventually. but it definitely suggests that statistics about number of runs, duration, pass holder vs day ticket, etc. are not statistically valid if they are not getting nearly every skier or rider. if anything, it is a mighty big deterrent. though i suspect the return on investment isn't that great if they are not scanning everyone and getting a good enough sample for analysis in the office. they might as well have people checking for tickets manually, which i much prefer. nothing worse than standing around waiting for some guy fumbling around with a ticket that takes way to long to scan correctly while the line marches onward.

 

[bvibert]

I really don't think they do it for the statistics. Where I work they figured that out that they were losing a LOT of money due to ticket fraud, mostly to fake or duplicate season's passes. It's a lot harder to make a fake ticket with a randomly generated bar-code on it. If someone should happen to try the lost season pass scam (where they say they lose it and then give the 'lost' one to their buddy while they ski with the new one for a fraction of the cost) then they just deactivate the old passes bar-code number so it's no good. They also have provisions where the same pass can't be scanned more than every 5 minutes so that a pass can't be duplicated and uses amongst a group of friends. Of course the employee scanning the ticket is still supposed to be looking at the ticket to do a visual check, especially season passes to check the picture.. The end result is that my area figured they payed for the scanning equipment in the first season or two, if that's any indication on how much they lost each year to ticker fraud... That's not to mention the added bonus of your 4 or 8 hour ticket actually lasting 4 or 8 hours from the time you first use it instead of some predetermined time. IE; if you buy a 4 hour ticket at 9:00 and it takes you an hour plus to get your family through the rental shop and dressed. So you don't hit the chair until 10:12 then your ticket is good until 2:12 at which point the attendant tells you take your family and go home.

As far as holding the line up, that simply doesn't need to happen. As long as the scanner is positioned back in the line so that there are at least 4 or 5 groups ahead of him who are scanned and ready to load the lift then it doesn't matter of it takes a few extra seconds to scan a pass. If they are waiting right at the point where you wait to load the chair then that's a disaster in the making. What I'm getting at is that it's not hard to scan tickets and still keep the line moving to prevent empty chairs. The resort management doesn't want to see empty chairs heading up the mountain any more than you do...

 

[ski_resort_observer]

Many resorts have DTL(direct to lift) products which require scanners. the Edge Card with ASC is one example. You go direstly from your car to the lift, the scan deducts the cost from your credit Card.

 

[deadheadskier]

So far this year, they have scanned my pass every time at the lower lifts at Sunday River, but not at all at the Spruce triple, which requires a lift to get to or a pretty substantial hike. This leads me to believe that at SR, their only concern is preventing ticket fraud - not measuring skier statistics.

 

[klrskiah]

So far this year, they have scanned my pass every time at the lower lifts at Sunday River, but not at all at the Spruce triple, which requires a lift to get to or a pretty substantial hike. This leads me to believe that at SR, their only concern is preventing ticket fraud - not measuring skier statistics.

Yeah, If i remember right, last year they only scanned at barker, whitecap, north, and jordan (aka the lifts you can get to without hiking/skiing)

sugarloaf only scans at the superquad, whiffletree and DRC.


Solitude has the most high tech scanning system that i have seen. their tickets are a card that have a radio transmitter chip in them, so you just stick them in your pocket and then in order to ride a lift you have to lean against a sensor thing untl the gate opens allowing you to enter the line. It's kind of a pain, but the bonus is the system stores all your lift ride data so you can log on to their website and enter your ticket # and track your vertical and lift ride info so it's pretty cool!!!

 

[Big Game]

It's kind of a pain, but the bonus is the system stores all your lift ride data so you can log on to their website and enter your ticket # and track your vertical and lift ride info so it's pretty cool!!!

That's a brilliant idea.

I alwasy thought that palces did it for a combo to see the lift demand and to cut down on fraud.

But thinking about it, and based on my limited exposure to places that do scan, they only scan at the base. Mid-mountain lifts I don't see them there. Is there any place out east that scans at every lift?

 

[rob56789]

Windham scans every perso at every lit every single time they ride its so annoying

 

[bill9009]

whats a pain is that the scanners dont work very well if you have your pass in a clear plastic holder, it distorts the bar code, i know at gore i usually have to wait a few sec till they get tiredd of trying to scan my pass which is in a flap on my jacket

 

[drewfidelic]

Hunter started scanning tickets this year, at least at the quad.
________
Prison Break Advice

 

[Zand]

While we're on the topic of resorts only scanning at the bottom and not halfway-up lifts, heres a story:

I was skiing at Okemo years ago on a good 45-50 degree day. Pretty crowded so all the halfway-to-summit lifts were open. Well, I took the summit lift and stopped in the lodge for a drink and my parents wanted to sit for a while, so I left my jacket behind and went to ski some Glades Peak runs. Well, I get to the bottom of the quad and realize that my jacket is in the lodge with my ticket. I ski up to the checker and hes like "If this were any of the base lifts you'd be screwed." I guess I was pretty lcuky that I decided to stay on the upper mountain.

Anyway, the only resort where I've had problems with checkers holding up the line is Waterville. Most places I've skied at do check tickets, especially on crowded days. However, they all usually do pretty good at moving the line along. Waterville, on the other hand... I skied there 3 days last year. Twice the place was empty and once there was a small crowd (no more than 5 mins at the quad). When it was empty, I must've skiied on the Summit Quad 15+ times and EVERY time they had to stop me and check... not to mention most of the times it was the same checkers. The day with the short line, there really shouldn't have been a line. They were MAYBE getting every third chair full because the checkers held everyone up.

 

[sledhaulingmedic]

Whats the point of scanning them? it doesn't seem like they could get any important info besides maybe how often season pass holders are using thier passes

The data could be used to calculate lift utilization, even skier density. I doubt, in most cases it's used for anything but preventing fraud.

 

[threecy]

Remember if one is not checked every time, its easier to allow transfer tickets

 

[Lostone]

I think they are getting a lot of data that they don't have any idea how to use. It is good marketing data, but it would be a task to sort it for things thye might want.

At Sugarbush, they couldn't use it to see how many runs you took, only how many off the bottom. But they do know how many days people ski, and which mountain they're at.

As for why scanning every time, I could get scanned 3 times. Then, as I'm known, I hand my pass to Joe. He now is able to ski without a ticket. Would people do this? People will do anything they can. :roll: :wink:

 

[threecy]

Then, as I'm known, I hand my pass to Joe. He now is able to ski without a ticket. Would people do this? People will do anything they can. :roll: :wink:

This happens all the time - hence why its so important to check at all lifts with access from the base area or roads/walking paths