Ticket etiquette??

[Ticketsarenotfree]

So my husband and I had tickets to an event but he can't go because he's got COVID. I said on my group chat that if anyone wanted they could buy it off me at £10 discount. A 'friend' then put a laughing emoji and said I must be joking.

I don't want to go on my own, but I also don't want to lose money. What's the etiquette here, am I supposed to just give the ticket away?

Would that really be something most people would consider? It certainly wouldn’t even cross my mind

I think it’s an odd offer. Come to an event you had no intention of buying a ticket to, at short notice because I don’t want to go alone. Oh and it will cost you £50.

This!

We had tickets as a big group last year to see something and two people had Covid on the night. The tickets would just have been wasted, but we found two friends who came instead-wouldn’t have dreamed of charging them, it was good that we found people who were free at the last minute who fancied it.

I don't want to go on my own, but I also don't want to lose money.

You haven’t lost money-that money has been spent already.

So, what are you doing…are you going alone then? What a fun night that will be.

"Would that really be something most people would consider? It certainly wouldn’t even cross my mind"

Ooh, you're so cool 😎

I don’t particularly worry about Covid but I don’t particularly want to catch it either. I wouldn’t want to spend the evening sitting next to you if your spouse was freshly diagnosed.

In my social circle people tend to offer the tickets for free when situations like this arise - and then people often offer to pay anyway. You might have better luck offering a pair of tickets if it’s something appealing to people at short notice.

I’d have offered it for free. It’s like you’re asking people to pay for the inconvenience of your husband being ill. It’s not their responsibility to make sure you don’t lose money. £10 off is tight. Just give it away and no doubt the other person will buy a couple of rounds of drinks to say thanks.

But you're not losing money as you've already spent the money?

I'd honestly be happy for the company and would not expect any payment.

I’ve spent lots of time over the past year looking for people to come to events with me instead of my husband who has a chronic condition. I would never dream of asking them to pay as I assume if they particularly wanted to go they would have bought a ticket already. But in all cases they have offered to pay or bought all the drinks, paid for parking etc

You're definitely tight!

I'd have offered it free and let friend buy aa drink or something.

It depends how you asked/how desperate people were likely to want to be to go. I'd have offered it free to friends if I wanted company or sold it if I just wanted the cash.

I think you need to decide whether:
a) you want to get your money back for the ticket
b) you don’t want to go alone and want a friend to go with you

If a) then a £10 discount is reasonable - but not so much if b. Your friend was rude though!

I think the correct etiquette is that you shouldn’t ask for any money, as you want someone to keep you company so they’re doing you a favour, and the friend who goes with you should insist on paying if it’s something they genuinely want to do. But if they really aren’t that bothered and you’ve pestered them into it because you don’t want to go alone, you should pay.

Sorry OP that’s stingy AF

The money for the ticket has been and gone! I would have invited a friend for free.

I have come to realise, mostly from seeing Facebook marketplace, that people place so much value on things that are next to worthless.

I would have offered the ticket for free, it's paid for either way and would have liked someone to go with. You have basically said you want someone to go so you don't lose money.

I would have declined too. It like the time a friend of mine offered to sell me something she knew I could make use of and she no longer could (it was for use with another item) and she said £45 or it's going in the bin. I let her bin it.

The money is spent whether your husband goes or not. You don't want to go alone so I'd offer it to a friend for free.

I would've just said 'anybody fancy coming to see X with me as DH can't make it?'

Don't see the point in trying to make money back from friends, you'd rather their company for the evening than the £50 I imagine.

Ok then 👍

What a strange response to a genuine question but ok

How do you know they didn't want to go? They might not even have heard about it.

In that situatuon, I think the norm would be to either offer both tickets for sale or "invite" someone to join you without mentioning money, although everyone I know would offer to pay, if it's something they want to do.

If you want someone who's not especially interested to join you as a favour, you need to give them the ticket.

Your friend's comment could just mean " you must be joking, I can't stand that band" because it's an odd thing to say. I'd expect people not interested just not to comment.

Although honestly, having had a big change of corcusrsnces that mean I often have the choice of either going alone or not going at all, I'll say learning to enjoy going alone is absolutely completely liberating.

I think that’s what most would do. Offer it and then not expect anything but the friend is likely to buy lunch or the coffees etc.

I would have just invited a friend along as a treat for them. Benefits both of you.

If you don’t want to go alone, I think you’ll need to offer someone more of an incentive than them paying out £50! This just says you don’t want anyone getting a freebie from you. Which is fine. But then you risk going alone. So, your call. Not a question of etiquette. Just understanding the situation.

Also, fyi even if it were free I wouldn’t go with you knowing you’re probably incubating Covid. Certainly wouldn’t pay £50 to probably catch it from you…

I think the thread is split because some people are assuming it's something they wouldn't want to go to and are therefore doing the OP a favour by babysitting them.

Either it's something you want to go to or it's not, if you do then obviously getting a ticket at a discount is a good thing. If you don't want to go then don't go, the tickets obviously have a value or they couldn't sell enough at £60.

If I really needed the money I'd have put it at half price at most. Although if I were that skint I probably wouldn't have bought them in the first place!

Yes it's tight to offer it as £10 off. I'd have laughed too. As others have said, it's almost more insulting than full price!

At this point you should probably go on your own. Even if you did now give it to a friend you'd be doing it begrudgingly which would sour the evening. But maybe lesson learnt for next time.

It's unfortunate that your DH has covid but these things happen and as you say, you can't return the ticket. So you either try and sell them both and neither of you attend or you give the ticket to a friend to come with you - but you really can't expect someone to fork out £50 to come at short notice just so you have someone to keep you company. I'm afraid I do think that's tight, yes.

I agree. My friend split with her partner last year and offered me his bed for a weekend away. She didn’t want any money so I paid for dinner and drinks on the first night as a thank you