£1 booking fee for season ticket holders?

[Babs709]

My local theme park has just introduced £1 booking fee for season ticket holders. Apparently they’re getting a lot of no shows. Curious what other places doing?

I think converting into a voucher is a good alternative. Would have been easy too!

@OliviaPopeRules yes I’ve only been after 2pm 🤦🏼‍♀️

I don't think £1 is enough to deter people.

It's simple, if a member books and doesn't show or cancel they can't rebook until they've paid the full price of the lost booking. That would focus people's minds a bit more.

It makes me wonder about whether GPs would have few no shows if there was a £1 refundable deposit to book...

@fartyface

It makes me wonder about whether GPs would have few no shows if there was a £1 refundable deposit to book...

They possibly would, but it would create problems that aren't relevant for theme park places.

If you don't have a quid to book a day out then it's a shame, but if you can't book a GP appointment because you don't have a quid then that's just going to potentially cause even more cost to the NHS when people get more ill or end up going to A&E.

GPs also have to think about elderly people and those who might not have the internet or ability to book online. They're not going to want to be taking cash at reception as that creates other problems like safekeeping and handling cash from lots of sick people likely won't be appealing.

@Babs709

I think converting into a voucher is a good alternative. Would have been easy too!

@OliviaPopeRules yes I’ve only been after 2pm 🤦🏼‍♀️

Yeah the problem is have is my DS is about 101cm and we don't have a season ticket for him so need to get him a day ticket for £33 so don't want to pay that for a couple of hours. Generally speaking I thought Paultons has been quite good extending the passes etc but I am annoyed about this not because I care about the £1 but because it punishes people who haven't even been able to book because of the people making block bookings. I agree voucher is a good compromise.

Merlin do this but they have extended annual passes by five months and we have nt paid for our pay monthly passes since March and don’t have to until September. It’s £50 a month so I ve saved £300, we ve done Alton towers and Thorpe Park 20 times since reopening so I ve still saved £220 so I don’t mind. If there is no incentive though they should give it you back as a voucher to spend on site. I know Blackpool pleasure beach are penalising people who book and don’t turn up three times, I m not sure how though.

It's really annoying, one of mine has just hit 1m and needs a season ticket now or won't be able to come with us and the price has shot up, then on top of that it's going to cost an extra £5 every time we go (£4 if I go when DH is at work) but we go probably twice a week.

We saved up so so hard for our season tickets after a horrific year of hardship and bad news and poor health. It was a real struggle to do but it was something to try and make our little ones lives better. It's probably the last year I will be able to do things like this with my children because of my health.
We as a family can not afford £10 a week on booking fees.

Not that we've been able to get any tickets for the last 3 weeks.. it's also very annoying as part of the reason we got season tickets was so we could decide to go on the day if I was well enough to manage. Now I have to pre empt what day to try and book and then risk not being up to it and having to cancel and not be able to rebook for weeks and weeks.

I know we could just not go or go less but that wasn't what we signed up for when we opted to become season ticket holders. We did it for flexibility and to invest in something as a luxury so we wouldn't have to keep forking out on days out.

@SquirtleSquad oh I’m so sorry to hear that. “Not going” isn’t really an option when you’ve forked out for season tickets. It’s far too much money to just throw away.

@OliviaPopeRules the admission prices have all shot up too, think admission is about £36 now (in advance; it’s £42 on the day and I’m sure it was only about £32 on the day last year).

Paultons have extended season tickets by about five months too. But seeing as they were closed for three months and are shut for two, I don’t think they can really be applauded for this. It’s almost the minimum they needed to do. And the extensions are moot as most people haven’t been able to use their season tickets over the summer anyway.

Bringing in this £1 booking fee at the end of the school holidays also stings a bit. They added another post to the SM channels last night telling everyone that September is quieter. So you’d thing they’d be more tempted to wait and see what happens in the next couple of weeks before making a decision.

@girlicorne

Merlin do this but they have extended annual passes by five months and we have nt paid for our pay monthly passes since March and don’t have to until September. It’s £50 a month so I ve saved £300, we ve done Alton towers and Thorpe Park 20 times since reopening so I ve still saved £220 so I don’t mind. If there is no incentive though they should give it you back as a voucher to spend on site. I know Blackpool pleasure beach are penalising people who book and don’t turn up three times, I m not sure how though.

Thankyou for confirming I was sure I'd read that on website!

Ds and I off to Chessington again this weekend.

Would you recommend the annual pass for £85?

If I upgraded (can I do that?) it would be valid until end of summer next year.

When it's £30 a person and £4 for parking it seems such a good bargain. Even if £1 to book per person on top!

I think people are also annoyed that the Halloween tickets have been available for the general public to buy for a while now and there's no update for when season ticket holders will be able to book for Halloween. I'm hoping it's not a case of the tickets being released the Friday before like at the moment!

Interesting today that there's lots of availability still left for season ticket passes for next week and today/bank holiday Monday!!

@SquirtleSquad I can’t even imagine the fall out if there are season ticket holders who can’t go for Halloween.

The managing director has sent out a very passive aggressive email this morning (think it’s on their Facebook too) which just lacks compassion IMO. Twisting the knife slightly!

My season ticket expires in Feb so they’ve got a lot to make up for; if it expired soon I wouldn’t even be considering renewing. I think Marwell will be getting my money instead.

Yes Halloween will be really telling.
I emailed them earlier to ask about it and also said that I'd seen season ticket holders buying tickets and having them refunded on the day and they said

"Thank you for your email.

As it stands at the moment, the current pre-booking situation will apply for October whereby spaces will be released the Friday before for the following week.

With regards to purchasing day tickets in order to secure a visit, we can confirm that these will not be refunded as all tickets purchased are non-refundable."

We did marwell season passes before it was very good value! We also have a Moors Valley season ticket which works out very worth the money if you go more than 4 times in a year.

The whole point of having a season ticket is that cancellations are convenient. I wouldn’t pay to reserve on top of the cost of the season ticket - it’s ridiculous.

Our local one is £2 per person which you can have back as a voucher or cash on the gate.

I think that the majority of 'offenders' will have block-booked for example every weekend of the summer holidays (or the whole season) just on the off chance that they wanted to go, because it sells out in advance and it's free - so why not. The problem with the merlin passes seems to be that passholders slots are booked up weeks in advance regardless of the £1 fee, but fully paid tickets are still available.

I can't see that many people will think that £1 is inconsequential if the majority have booked multiple weekends, as it would quickly add up to the cost of an extra season pass. So the charge should prevent the problem. But if it sells out far in advance you lose any spontaneity anyway.

The Paultons ones are only available a week in advance. So they release at something like 8.30 on a Friday morning for the whole week. They’ve been like gold dust all summer.

I don’t blame odd no shows really. The message from Paultons appears to be “be angry at your fellow season ticket holders”. But if you’ve booked a slot and the weather ends up crap, or your plans suddenly change, I can see why people don’t show up. I don’t think £1 is going to change that. And it’s benefit of having a season ticket really.

They claim there are serial offenders which I must admit, is dickhead behaviour. But dickhead behaviour is hard to avoid! Maybe the £1 will put those people off.

Apparently Merlin have given people the chance to have a refund which Paultons are vehemently refusing I believe.

@SquirtleSquad that reply about Halloween is infuriating! No awareness that it’s going to be popular and lots of their ST holders will be disappointed!

My dad is a National trust member and he’s been booking 3 days at the same attraction and then going when the weathers best. His argument is that he’s not depriving anyone as no one would go (at the moment) to walk around a garden in the rain. This is probably true. However if he had to pay £2 for each booking I guarantee he wouldn’t do it, despite not being short of money! It would be the principle.

I think booking fees which are refunded would be a better idea.