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In Historic Move, Vail Resorts Reduces All Pass Prices by 20 Percent Toward Goal of "Epic for Everyone"

Jersey Skier

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Epic does not seem to be pushing this too hard for existing customers. I received one email on March 25th about the discount and nothing since.

I was an Ikon holder last year and I still receive numerous emails weekly offering me discounts on purchasing another pass.
 

DanoT

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Epic does not seem to be pushing this too hard for existing customers. I received one email on March 25th about the discount and nothing since.

I was an Ikon holder last year and I still receive numerous emails weekly offering me discounts on purchasing another pass.
@Jersey Skier, if i was in your situation or similar I would not buy a 2021-22 Ikon pass (buy some other pass or whatever). Then in the spring of 2022 buy a 2022-23 Ikon pass, good starting when first bought in the spring of 2022.
 

Jersey Skier

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@Jersey Skier, if i was in your situation or similar I would not buy a 2021-22 Ikon pass (buy some other pass or whatever). Then in the spring of 2022 buy a 2022-23 Ikon pass, good starting when first bought in the spring of 2022.

Not buying a pass unless I know I'm going out west. I only bought the Epic pass because i was fearful that the daily ticket sales would truly be limited to pas holders. Turned out daily tickets were easier to get than reservations.
 

Posaune

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Does that also mean 'Parking For Everyone?'

Vail Resorts' Stevens Pass (Washington State) was so bad...impossible weekend parking. So bad that they converted some RV spots to daily car parking and didn't make any notification on the web site or elsewhere. Families with RVs only knew that they could never get a parking reservation. So bad that they frequently didn't have enough staff to run all the lifts on a busy fresh-snow weekday. So bad that they sent some staff home at noon and let the lift lines grow. I've heard equally bad reports of weekend parking at Alterra's Crystal Mtn (Washington State).
While all of the things you say did happen, I'm not convinced that they all happened because of parking problems. Stevens went downhill in a big way this season. It's disgusting.
 

dovski

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As tempting as the Epic pass prices are this year, once again we opted to go with a season pass at our local resort (Alpental owned by Boyne) and a Mountain Collective Pass. We ski at least 20+ days a year at our local hill and no multi-resort pass can accommodate that (Ikon would only give us 5-7 days). We have trips planned to Alta/Snowbird and Banff Lake Louise and will get 4 and 5 days free skiing respectively in each location through the Mountain Collective. Add to that we get credit for unused days on this years Mountain Collective and that is our most cost effective option for skiing in 2021-22.
 

Tricia

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Jersey Skier

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dovski

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I guess one could argue Vail is trying to impose their version of order/compliance on the Ski Galaxy. Seems they have a similar structure/training to the Empire
1618523752046.png
 

dbostedo

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Deeply deeply weird Evil Empire photo unless they are laughing with us.
To be fair, some Googling shows that it's from an article in Men's Journal article titled "King of the Hill: How Vail Resorts Conquered the Ski Industry". So perhaps the photographer wanted to play up the "conquering" aspect.

Now why SnowBrains picked that one to use in their article is anyone's guess.
 

fatbob

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To be fair, some Googling shows that it's from an article in Men's Journal article titled "King of the Hill: How Vail Resorts Conquered the Ski Industry". So perhaps the photographer wanted to play up the "conquering" aspect.

Now why SnowBrains picked that one to use in their article is anyone's guess.

It's more like why would any PR person allow that sort of threatening millitaristic picture to be taken - unless they want to roll with the Evil Empire vibe.....

Never forget this is the guy whose response to complaints about low wages from his staff despite the high revenue they generated said he'd have signs made up instructing customers to tip more.
 
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dbostedo

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It's more like why would any PR person allow that sort of threatening millitaristic picture to be taken - unless they want to roll with the Evil Empire vibe.....

Never forget this is the guy whose response to complaints about low wages from his staff despite the high revenue they generated said he'd have signs made up instructing customers to tip more.
I get all that... but it does go with the original article title and does semingly intentionally bring that vibe. I assume that was the point at the time (case in point, the article talks about some of the things like very strict uniform requirements with clear color differentiation). I wouldn't be surprised if they're not real happy it's still being used for other things.
 

dovski

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I get all that... but it does go with the original article title and does semingly intentionally bring that vibe. I assume that was the point at the time (case in point, the article talks about some of the things like very strict uniform requirements with clear color differentiation). I wouldn't be surprised if they're not real happy it's still being used for other things.
Quite frankly I am surprised they let the original article get published. Clearly not the warm fuzzy vibe you want to put out to potential customers. That said Vail has always been somewhat tone deaf when it came to customer service so ....
 

fatbob

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Quite frankly I am surprised they let the original article get published. Clearly not the warm fuzzy vibe you want to put out to potential customers. That said Vail has always been somewhat tone deaf when it came to customer service so ....
And comprehensively deaf when it's come to they or their handlers dealing with legitimate refund claims this year....
 

givethepigeye

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As tempting as the Epic pass prices are this year, once again we opted to go with a season pass at our local resort (Alpental owned by Boyne) and a Mountain Collective Pass. We ski at least 20+ days a year at our local hill and no multi-resort pass can accommodate that (Ikon would only give us 5-7 days). We have trips planned to Alta/Snowbird and Banff Lake Louise and will get 4 and 5 days free skiing respectively in each location through the Mountain Collective. Add to that we get credit for unused days on this years Mountain Collective and that is our most cost effective option for skiing in 2021-22.

not tracking on this - have been a MC passholder since inception, I didn’t see anything about “unused” days - where did you see that?
 

HardDaysNight

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It's more like why would any PR person allow that sort of threatening millitaristic picture to be taken - unless they want to roll with the Evil Empire vibe..
I’d not seen that bizarre picture before. Any sane CEO would have nixed it at once. Unless he had a dictator fetish of some sort. (Which even I don’t really attribute to that little runt.)
 

dovski

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not tracking on this - have been a MC passholder since inception, I didn’t see anything about “unused” days - where did you see that?
If you used no days on your MC Pass they give you an 80% credit, 1 day 60%, 2 days 40% and 3 days 20%. You have to submit for this credit May 1 and explain why Covid prevented you from using your pass. In my case we had to cancel a family trip to Banff because they closed the border.
 

DanoT

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Quite frankly I am surprised they let the original article get published. Clearly not the warm fuzzy vibe you want to put out to potential customers. That said Vail has always been somewhat tone deaf when it came to customer service so ....
I have posted this thought before: The real Vail #1 customers are the shareholders; skiers/borders are #2.
 
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