IKON PASS OFFERS THE GOOD STUFF FOR WINTER 23/24 ON MARCH 16....

[KingGrump]

anyone know if we get like 20, 30, 50 people together if we can get a Ski Talk group discount?

 

[Pequenita]

Something that occasional skiers/riders (especially those with partners) don't often take into account is whether buying a pass for one person and using the buddy pass/discount for the other is more cost effective than buying two passes for a week of skiing.

I don't know if it works out with the 25% that is the Ikon benefit (although, maybe it does if there's mostly non-skiing partner), but I've friends who bought $850 single resort passes for the current season and have skied 6 days thinking they've made back the cost of their lift tickets....except if they used the 50% buddy passes that several of us in our group of friends have, they would have paid max $480 for the 6 ski days, vs $850 for a pass.

 

[Bozzenhagen]

Any resort on the Ikon pass is going to turn into a zoo during spring break.
A-Basin is crazy at the moment. Crazier than Loveland.

Reservation systems need to come back. Preference for locals with proof of residence.
Punishment for no-shows within reason as well (local or not).

Most locals get less than 30 days a year (probably less than 15), afaik.

 

[dbostedo]

Preference for locals

Why?

 

[PlainsSkier]

A-Basin has the longest season in the country, if locals aren't getting enough days in it is more due to a lack of motivation than anything.

 

[Bozzenhagen]

Why?

Only because I think a reservation system that did not favor locals out would cause outrage. I couldn't care less tbh personally. Anything to limit the Walmart skiing experience. Limit it via price, or reservation system. Taos is going to be a zoo without a reservation system.

A-Basin has the longest season in the country, if locals aren't getting enough days in it is more due to a lack of motivation than anything.

Yes 100%.

 

[dbostedo]

Taos is going to be a zoo without a reservation system.

2 things:

1) You can't really know what impact the reservation system has had currently without seeing how many people they turn away, or at least how many and which days they didn't have reservations available. (And how many reservations they allowed.)
2) They won't be on the base pass next season

I'm not sure which way is more limiting, but they're betting that just going to the full pass will be sufficient.

 

[KingGrump]

Taos is going to be a zoo without a reservation system.

Only time will tell.

I'm not sure which way is more limiting, but they're betting that just going to the full pass will be sufficient.

I am pretty sure they know how many full pass vs base pass reservations from historical data.

 

[Johnny V.]

Any resort on the Ikon pass is going to turn into a zoo during spring break.

Steamboat was busy last week, but I skied Winter Park yesterday on a bright blue (cold in the AM) day and it was surprisingly uncrowded.

 

[Mister Tea]

Anybody know when the early discounts expire? i.e. how soon do I need to buy a pass before the price goes up?

 

[mikel]

Well Copper has already announced 1st price increase on May 9th. Not sure if Ikon will be in that ballpark timeframe.

 

[cantunamunch]

Why?

Taxpayers to the local community, through either income or property taxes. Incentivise NOT converting residential properties to AirBnB.

 

[cantunamunch]

They clearly are not trying to segment the market with these pricing tiers, Base Pass Plus really feels like a throw away SKU with a bad pricing model.

In any marketing there is huge upselling value in having an intermediate tier. Especially with customers committed to buying lower tiers.

BPP is simultaneously a FOMO (e.g. Utah, Sun Valley) upsell of the Base pass, and provides a platform from which upsell to Full (FOMO on 2 more days, FOMO on blackouts). While at the same time managing crowds at those up-value resorts by being biased closer to the Full pass.

I'm betting IKON did a hell of a lot more linear programming models than anyone in this thread, and picked the BPP package and pricing because a pass purchaser buying Base-only is likely to commit to NOT make destination trips. At all.

 

[dovski]

In any marketing there is huge upselling value in having an intermediate tier. Especially with customers committed to buying lower tiers.

BPP is simultaneously a FOMO (e.g. Utah, Sun Valley) upsell of the Base pass, and provides a platform from which upsell to Full (FOMO on 2 more days, FOMO on blackouts). While at the same time managing crowds at those up-value resorts by being biased closer to the Full pass.

I'm betting IKON did a hell of a lot more linear programming models than anyone in this thread, and picked the BPP package and pricing because a pass purchaser buying Base-only is likely to commit to NOT make destination trips. At all.

Yes and no. The upselling concept is correct but falls apart when the "mid tier" is more expensive than the top tier, and that is the case for most of the Base Pass Plus skus. So I will stick by my original statement that they screwed up with the pricing of the BPP as for 3 of the 4 skus (both children's skus and youth sku) it is more expensive than the full pass. From a product pricing standpoint this is flawed and any analysis you run will show that. When BPP is more expensive than the advertised price for the full pass why would anyone buy it? And yes as noted some folks may opt to save $60 over the full adult pass, but given the small difference I doubt there will be very many.

While it would be nice to think Ikon put alot of thought into this with the pricing, my guess is that each pass has a product team that has a specific contribution margin or metric they need to hit and often times those targets carry significant influence over the final pricing ... etc.

 

[crosscountry]

Honestly with the cost of lift tickets at most destination resorts, one trip essentially pays for you Ikon/Epic pass and then some.

They key is the "destination resorts" part.

If you want to ski those resorts, buying a pass is the best value, they jacked up daily lift ticket price to make sure you have no other choices.

But if you don't need to ski those "destination resorts", then those passes don't do anything for you. You just laugh at people's calculation in "justifying" the cost of the passes.

Figure out where you want to ski first. The choice will be a "no-brainer".

I have the option to do either. So I alternate, some years I go for mega pass, other year I don't. Some years I travel, other years I stay close to home.

 

[tball]

Anyone knows how much Ikon pays to partner resort per skier/day? Just curious.

IKON must be paying partner resorts a lot per scan. At least at Copper Mountain, since they priced their season pass almost at the IKON Base price (includes unlimited Copper).

IKON Base is $829, and a Copper Mountain season pass is $799! It's crazy how much they both have gone up.

One thing to note is the Copper Mountain season pass includes a free kid's pass, while the IKON Base gives you $100 off a child pass. So, Adult+Kid IKON is $1,028 while Adult+Kid Copper is $799.

 

[mikel]

If someone decides to go all in at Copper this season it will be about $2,200. Season pass, fast tracks, and parking.

 

[fatbob]

IKON must be paying partner resorts a lot per scan. At least at Copper Mountain, since they priced their season pass almost at the IKON Base price (includes unlimited Copper).

Surely it's done on an algo based on scans per pass? Thus if a resort gets say 50+ scans on an individual (and nowhere else does) his allocable revenue (being price less Alterra central pot) goes all to that resort, if he does 25 each of 2 places they get 50% each. Guess there may be factors where certain partner resorts get a lower or higher multiplier based on their negotiated value to the network (like 1.1 or 0.9). The other unknown would be the day revenue caps : pretty sure Ikon won't be giving all allocable revenue to a resort where the passholder busts out for the season at one day.

I'm not sure it follows that Copper are getting $799 from Ikon, they are just pricing their season pass up to just below Ikon level e.g. even if they max out at $700 from an Ikon base pass skier who skis exclusively at Copper that doesn't mean it's better to sell their pass at $710.

 

[Jim Kenney]

IKON must be paying partner resorts a lot per scan. At least at Copper Mountain, since they priced their season pass almost at the IKON Base price (includes unlimited Copper).

IKON Base is $829, and a Copper Mountain season pass is $799! It's crazy how much they both have gone up.

One thing to note is the Copper Mountain season pass includes a free kid's pass, while the IKON Base gives you $100 off a child pass. So, Adult+Kid IKON is $1,028 while Adult+Kid Copper is $799.

A Solitude person told me that one of the reasons Solitude (alterra owned) plans to stay open well into May this year (besides the deep snowpack) is that because once it closes Alterra must pay something like $100 for every person that goes to Snowbird (ikon partner but not alterra owned) instead of skiing at Solitude.

 

[Pat AKA mustski]

I would assume the partner resorts get a hefty payday and that is why the base+ for kids costs so darn much. I still don’t see the point in the base+ vs the full ikon. It’s too small a difference in cost to make it a viable choice.