Sharing/Selling passes?

[scott43]

Threads get derailed in so many interesting ways...

I believe I, and some others..., have a unique skill in this...

 

[chris_the_wrench]

I remember the days of buying tickets in the parking lot from people leaving early. Thats how my teenage self managed to ski. Well that and ketchup/creamer/hot water soup i scrounged together in the cafeteria. I did it without second thought back then, not sure if its ‘older’ age or this is totally different??

 

[HardDaysNight]

My suspicion is that the incidence of Vail being defrauded by skiers scamming passes is pretty much zero. The prevalence of Vail defrauding its customers by taking their money and then failing to deliver the properly operating mountain they expect when they buy the pass is pretty much universal this season. Lifts are not being run, terrain is not being opened and grooming of runs normally groomed is close to nonexistent. It is true that Vail resorts are extremely short-staffed. This is because Vail pays critical staff an hourly wage less than a dishwasher makes on Main Street in Park City.

 

[newboots]

Show of hands..who has reached into a toilet to retrieve items?!?! Come on! I know some of you have!

Early in my career at the ski shop, I discovered a dead mouse in the toilet. (Hadn't been there a short while earlier - nobody could figure it out.)

The entire staff (3 men, 2 women) gathered 'round the toilet, staring at it, and asking each other who was going to fish it out. (Toilet did not require flushing at that moment.) There was much talk of who was in charge of such things. I shooed everyone away so I could grab the dead mouse, and the manager stopped me, insisting I wear a plastic bag on my hand.

So. Much. Drama!

I was happy enough to use the plastic bag, but really. Has anyone heard of washing their hands? With the gallon of hand sanitizer we have in the shop, I think I could have managed well enough.

 

[Ogg]

Early in my career at the ski shop, I discovered a dead mouse in the toilet. (Hadn't been there a short while earlier - nobody could figure it out.)

The entire staff (3 men, 2 women) gathered 'round the toilet, staring at it, and asking each other who was going to fish it out. (Toilet did not require flushing at that moment.) There was much talk of who was in charge of such things. I shooed everyone away so I could grab the dead mouse, and the manager stopped me, insisting I wear a plastic bag on my hand.

So. Much. Drama!

I was happy enough to use the plastic bag, but really. Has anyone heard of washing their hands? With the gallon of hand sanitizer we have in the shop, I think I could have managed well enough.

Why didn't you just flush it?

 

[Crank]

I feel like if you are not using your pass at all you should be able to sell it... like a concert ticket. I guess you can opt out and use the $ towards next season's pass but still...

Sharing, not so much.

I have both received a few times and given away the old style printed lift tix in parking lots.
when coming in for an afternoon or leaving early. We would snip the wire at the top of the loop.

Back in my SoCal days (late '70's) you had to buy tix for Big Bear at Ticketmaster by Thursday or they would be sold out for the weekend. They did a good job of limiting sales. Often would buy or sell one in the parking lot. Usually sell because it was easier to get rid of one than not have enough for everyone in our group.

 

[fatbob]

Not so sure calling your name and checking reaction is foolproof with the number of people wearing earbuds.

That said I'm sure its a sign that I skied more than my fair share of days at Kweed over holiday period that lifties were just waving me through with a shrug of recognition.

Euro even day/week passes are smart - first upload takes a pic of you at the gate. Know it sometimes causes problems when families/groups dump their otherwise indistinguishable cards on a table/counter at the end of the day then pick someone elses up in the morning.

 

[Tricia]

Vail itself does have that functionality in its scanners. Moreover, upon scanning the liftie calls out your name, looks at you and looks for a reaction that might tell them you're not the actual passholder.

I know the name shows up, but didn't know that they have the image.
At one time I know the name was the only thing that showed up on the scanner.

 

[Tricia]

I feel like if you are not using your pass at all you should be able to sell it... like a concert ticket. I guess you can opt out and use the $ towards next season's pass but still...

But passes say, "not transferable"

 

[fatbob]

My suspicion is that the incidence of Vail being defrauded by skiers scamming passes is pretty much zero. The prevalence of Vail defrauding its customers by taking their money and then failing to deliver the properly operating mountain they expect when they buy the pass is pretty much universal this season. Lifts are not being run, terrain is not being opened and grooming of runs normally groomed is close to nonexistent. It is true that Vail resorts are extremely short-staffed. This is because Vail pays critical staff an hourly wage less than a dishwasher makes on Main Street in Park City.

I suspect this is largely the case. I did ride a lift with a kid who seemed like he may have scammed up on his buddy's pass. I could only really think good for him vs $200 for the day to stand in liftlines because "windhold" (suspiciously like money/staff hold in the am before the winds really came in) had hobbled the mtn.

 

[Truberski]

I do know lifties get a hefty reward for turning people in. Just because someone does it on Reddit, does not make it right.

I am ten years removed from having inside knowledge but this kind of stuff was taken very seriously at Park City Mountain Resort and Canyons back in the day. It was virtually automatic that they would call the cops and detain you until they arrived if you were caught. At least PCMR had some type of financial incentive for employees to do the catching. I know many that just didn’t care but I simply told anyone that asked “I like you but you can’t use my pass.” Just not worth the risk and I’ve demanded the same with my kids but amazing how many adults think nothing of this practice (for them or their kids).

 

[ThomasD]

Same as everyone said, I can't imagine this working for long. The number of times on cold days I've had lifties go "you're [zircon]? Can you take off your mask?" I can only imagine it's the hot pink shell with the typically male name. They're definitely checking.

Who says the 80's look is out of style?

Bonus points if it's a onesie.

 

[Carl]

Sharing a season pass is definitely not appropriate. But I think that prohibiting an individual from re-selling a day pass that they purchased, and that hasn't been used, is too restrictive.

 

[dovski]

Sharing a season pass is definitely not appropriate. But I think that prohibiting an individual from re-selling a day pass that they purchased, and that hasn't been used, is too restrictive.

Let’s be clear the fine print on the back of the pass is not customer friendly, but we already knew that before we purchased and in doing so agreed to the terms. So while I agree with your sentiments on this, it still does not give us the right to share or resell passes.

case in point I was incredibly unhappy with my experience at Whistler several years back. Had an edge card with several days left on it. I was not able or willing to use those days. Rather than trying to resell my edge card I just said never again and stopped skiing Vail resorts. So while I did not recoup what I spent on my edge card, Vail has lost out on my family’s ski $$ ever since and quite frankly it has worked out really well.

 

[Dave Marshak]

The tradition of Mom and Dad sharing child care and lift tickets should be encouraged. All that does is create the next generation of addicts. Why would you want to stop that?

Pretty soon it will be impossible to share lift passes. Surveilance technology always improves. Eventually they'll compare your lift pass to your phone in real time, or maybe even to the chip on your head. Someday they will just code the pass into your DNA.

dm

 

[raytseng]

Sharing a season pass is definitely not appropriate. But I think that prohibiting an individual from re-selling a day pass that they purchased, and that hasn't been used, is too restrictive.

Or if you want to take the by taking profit out of the equation; giving the unused daypass to a friend to use without any monetary exchange should be an even lower violation.

I think everyone understands all of these actions are against the terms and conditions.

But if we're splitting hairs we might as well compare the size of our hair splits.
I think if you went to court you could make an arguement on what was the monetary loss to show these are two different things.
Based, on the epicpassinsurance formulas, for example after a seasonpass is used 5days or whatever, the residual value of the pass is $0. So you could argue any theft of services after that would be of the full window ticket (e.g. $200)

However, if you got fixedday pass or 4pack, I think you can argue there is intrinsic value and they even advertise the "per day" cost that is paid. So the theft would just just the difference between a window ticket and that costpaid and have intrinsic value.

Penalties are different for different violations, it is not all-or-none.
Maybe you only get banned for a couple years if you sell a unused day pass rather than lifetime for a seasonpass. If you giveaway and didn't take money, maybe it will be just 1 year rather than a couple years.

 

[raytseng]

The tradition of Mom and Dad sharing child care and lift tickets should be encouraged. All that does is create the next generation of addicts. Why would you want to stop that?

Pretty soon it will be impossible to share lift passes. Surveilance technology always improves. Eventually they'll compare your lift pass to your phone in real time, or maybe even to the chip on your head. Someday they will just code the pass into your DNA.

dm

haha, lol: See Ski school Monopoly thread

 

[Nobody]

Same here. Even daily passes cannot be re-sold (if one stops skiing early).
All lifts, not only the base ones, have a monitor that shows the pass holder picture, which is also present on the pass. This, of course for multi days passes. I know of people who got caught using the season pass of their relatives...now they don't ski at the area anymore.

 

[cantunamunch]

Why are we assuming that the post in the OP was not a sucker trap?

 

[Pequenita]

I haven’t bought a day pass in years, but as more places go to RFID and having people set up accounts to buy a day pass, it seems like it’ll get more difficult to resell a day pass.