Who Has Bought Their 20/21 Pass Already?

[p_levert]

IKON will have to match Epic's new "insurance" coverage.

Just give me another $50 off on my Ikon base and I'm happy. Screw the insurance, it's really not needed for a relatively low capital outlay item.

 

[cdskier]

I agree, Epic covers many situations and provides a refund, including a prorata refund if season is cut short. Very customer friendly. With Ikon you can only defer usage for one season, though it is for any reason. But on the other hand, there is a due date of December 10th, and the pass cannot have been used.

They both have some different pros and cons. With Ikon the customer can decide to defer for any reason by early December (and I would think by that point people have a decent handle on what the situation would be). With Epic if they choose to open the mountains (even with some sort of restrictions/limitations that you're not personally comfortable with), you're out of luck from a refund perspective. For that I personally give the edge to Ikon even though it is a deferral and not a refund.

The options they give to determine how much of a refund you get are also interesting...people need to read that part carefully with the Epic coverage.

"Core season" for purposes of a refund calculation only goes from Thanksgiving to Easter (which is very early in April next year). So if the season was cut short in mid-March like it was this year, you only get a refund for 2-3 weeks of the season.

For the other things the Epic coverage covers (i.e. injury), the pro-rated coverage is based entirely on the number of days you've skied so far. Once you hit 7 days, you get 0% back from that "personal coverage" portion of the insurance. So if you ski 7 days in December and get injured January 1st and miss the bulk of the season...too bad it seems if I'm reading it right.

With Ikon's insurance for that injury type of scenario I can't figure out exactly how they calculate it. They simply say it is pro-rated based on when the "season interruption" claim occurs.

 

[Zermatt]

I mentioned this in a different thread weeks ago.

Places like Revelstoke are screwed with only a gondola to access the mountain.

Long before COVID-19 existed I mentioned to Revelstoke they were screwed with only a single lift at the bottom. They acknowledged, nothing they had really good maintenance.

 

[machski]

Makes me wonder though, if this is an issue, can chairs be successfully run on some vendor's gondy lines?

On the line itself, absolutely. However, the loading/unloading platforms would need to be substantially modified to allow for safe load/unload of skiers/riders from the chairs. Many Gondis have tracks below the cabins on the platforms to help stabilize them for boarding/unloading that would need to be covered up at a minimum.

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[mbedle]

On the line itself, absolutely. However, the loading/unloading platforms would need to be substantially modified to allow for safe load/unload of skiers/riders from the chairs. Many Gondis have tracks below the cabins on the platforms to help stabilize them for boarding/unloading that would need to be covered up at a minimum.

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I'll take that a step further and state that some gondolas could never be converted to a chairlift. Stowe's gondola loads and unloads inside buildings with multiple stairs.

 

[machski]

I'll take that a step further and state that some gondolas could never be converted to a chairlift. Stowe's gondola loads and unloads inside buildings with multiple stairs.

I've loaded and unloaded many chairs inside of buildings, some with snow ramps, some with loading carpets and some with the nylon fake snow carpeting. You can load/unload a chair within a building. If you want examples, Mount Bachelor Summit Express loads/unloads top/bottom in a building, same with Turoa in NZ's Summit 6. Mammoth's Chair 23 is a FGT and unloads in a building (heck, it enters a tunnel coming up to the summit station!)

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[x10003q]

Oh, sure, the differences aren't huge. One other thing to note, however. For Ikon Base (that's me), there wasn't a price decrease at all. To renew one year ago, I paid $599, which included the $50 renewal discount. So then Ikon raised prices and offered the same $50 for renewal. Then, in response to Covid, they increased the renewal discount to $100. So we're just back at no price increase for 20/21.

OTOH, they made Sugarbush and Stratton unlimited, but took away Aspen and Jax, so really kind of a wash there as well.

Ikon base has blackout dates at Stratton and Sugarbush.
Dec 26, 2020 – Jan 2, 2021
Jan 16-17, 2021
Feb 13-14, 2021

 

[p_levert]

I think it might be easier to remove one of the gondola benches and take out some or all of the windows. Not a bad approximation to a chairlift. And you would have some protection from snow and rain, but it might get cold.

 

[andrec10]

Same. Anyplace I ski I basically avoid them.


Gore - can 100% be skied without having to use the gondola
Jay Peak - never use the tram
Stowe - Only use the gondola if I want to hit Chin Clip (not a horrible loss)
Whiteface - never use the gondola

And that's it.

Makes me wonder though, if this is an issue, can chairs be successfully run on some vendor's gondy lines?

Only Problem with Gore, is using the High Peaks chair to get to the top. I hate that thing....

 

[Edd]

I think it might be easier to remove one of the gondola benches and take out some or all of the windows. Not a bad approximation to a chairlift. And you would have some protection from snow and rain, but it might get cold.

I like that idea.

 

[Jcb890]

Standing in a line is worse than riding the lift.


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This. On a lift you're crammed next to someone almost all of the time but at least moving. That's one positive for that scenario.
But like smellytele said, the crowding at the base of the lifts to wait in line is just as bad with people on top of one another. There is 0 chance of instituting social distancing in a life line and yes you're outside, but there is no motion benefit. People are coughing, sneezing, sweating, etc. - not the most sanitary of spaces to be honest.

As I think about it now... this might basically disqualify my wife and myself from being able to ride here in New England on weekends, at least for next season. She's high risk, so I don't know if she will be able to/willing to be standing in a lift line next to a bunch of strangers or on a chair with them. Same goes for me, I can't be bringing this virus into our home.

I'm not going to quote them all, but for the suggestion to remove a bench/windows from a gondola to make it like a chair, you still have a heck of a lot more surfaces to attract/house germs compared to a normal chair lift. But, still, I think both are issues either way due to proximity between yourself and other skiers/riders.

 

[dblskifanatic]

This secondary discussion of lift lines and lifts is worthy of its own thread!

Back to the original discussion - Epic Spring deadline is now moved to Labor Day including buddy tickets - that is significant while other pushed out until June. Of course you can lock in now for $49 as always.

Also nice to know that if part of the season is lost next year they will refund the % of the season that was lost.

I think over all this was pretty well thought out. Makes me wonder if they were trying to get ahead of the call action?


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[kendo]

This secondary discussion of lift lines and lifts is worthy of its own thread!

Back to the original discussion - Epic Spring deadline is now moved to Labor Day including buddy tickets - that is significant while other pushed out until June. Of course you can lock in now for $49 as always.

Also nice to know that if part of the season is lost next year they will refund the % of the season that was lost.

I think over all this was pretty well thought out. Makes me wonder if they were trying to get ahead of the call action?


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Will wait until 5/13 or after to purchase Epic. That's the date they'll email your 19/20 credit code to use for 20/21.

 

[dblskifanatic]

Will wait until 5/13 or after to purchase Epic. That's the date they'll email your 19/20 credit code to use for 20/21.

Will probably do the same!


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[prsboogie]

Definitely feeling better about my early Epic purchase. Automatic credit for the pass insurance and credit from the end of the season is a nice bonus.

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[jimmywilson69]

Will wait until 5/13 or after to purchase Epic. That's the date they'll email your 19/20 credit code to use for 20/21.

not if you were a Peaks convert. the date for the epic credit for Peaks customers is 5/21.

 

[drjeff]

not if you were a Peaks convert. the date for the epic credit for Peaks customers is 5/21.

Granted I didn't read that part (the Peak pass part) very closely, but the chatter among some of my ski friends, who didn't switch from Peak to Epic last year, in a big group text about 20 of us have, was that those of us who bought Epic's will be seeing our email notification with our exact discount amount by 5/13 and those who had Peak passes last year will be getting their notification by 5/21 and we all have until Labor Day to purchase with no loss of benefits/discounts

 

[slatham]

Ikon just added Windham, and Mt Bachelor.

 

[cdskier]

Ikon just added Windham, and Mt Bachelor.

Really would have rather seen them partner with NYS on the Belleayre/Gore/Whiteface combo rather than Windham. Windham is the least exciting option in the Catskills.

 

[p_levert]

Windham is a pretty boring addition, but Mt. Bachelor is great. Big mountain with a very long ski season. Timberline and Mt Hood Meadows on the way from the Portland airport. You can also fly into Seattle and drive down, it's not too bad a drive.