Ikon Pass Details Are Out

[tball]

Oh crap.

 

[Philpug]

Ever hear the saying “the early bird gets the worm but the second mouse gets the cheese?” Les Otten was that first mouse he set up the parameters for these programs sitn ASC ( American Skiing Co) could not make it successful and they were short-lived but it looks like Epic and Alterra I making these work.

 

[Tricia]

Woah! And now Crested Butte, Okemo and Sunapee go to EPIC.
https://www.denverpost.com/2018/03/14/crested-butte-mountain-resort-epic-pass/

To be blunt, this really gets serious when we start to see the future acquisitions. Not 5 day access pass deals, 50% off. It's all good, in terms of adding more access, and more value to the Epic Pass {and to Ikon, as they make moves}, but we may see that VR and Alterra don't look as similar as some now think once we see the next wave of acquisitions. The more deals and pass partnership deals that VR can put together to sell more Epic passes, the better for them to keep that stock price buoyant, IMO. I am astonished to read the focus on the number of passes sold. And not a lot of substance otherwise. It's brilliant. when they hit 1 Million sold, or even 900K {which is 10% of US skiers} that's going to be big news.

As Phil has said golden age for skiers, buying passes. Sustainable? Good for the overall business? Different discussion.

Makes your individual pass purchases more confusing by the day!

I thought it was all in, but the inclusion of these three resorts is just a nibble.
-- Epic 7-Day pass holders can use any or all of their seven days and Epic 4-Day pass holders can use any or all of their four days of skiing and snowboarding with no blackout dates at the three resorts

-- Epic, Epic Local, Epic Australia, Epic 7-Day and Epic 4-Day pass holders will receive 50 percent off lift tickets after their respective days have been redeemed

-- Crested Butte Peak Pass Plus and Peak Pass holders; Okemo Ultimate, Classic and Gold Pass holders; and Mount Sunapee Full Ride and Skiing Is For Life Pass holders will receive 50 percent off lift tickets at all Vail Resorts owned mountain resorts

 

[Andrew Pitts]

I thought it was all in, but the inclusion of these three resorts is just a nibble.
-- Epic 7-Day pass holders can use any or all of their seven days and Epic 4-Day pass holders can use any or all of their four days of skiing and snowboarding with no blackout dates at the three resorts

-- Epic, Epic Local, Epic Australia, Epic 7-Day and Epic 4-Day pass holders will receive 50 percent off lift tickets after their respective days have been redeemed

-- Crested Butte Peak Pass Plus and Peak Pass holders; Okemo Ultimate, Classic and Gold Pass holders; and Mount Sunapee Full Ride and Skiing Is For Life Pass holders will receive 50 percent off lift tickets at all Vail Resorts owned mountain resorts

That, along with

Epic, Epic Local and Epic Australia pass holders will get seven unrestricted days of skiing each at Crested Butte and its sister resorts of Okemo in Vermont and Mount Sunapee in New Hampshire,​

 

[Karen_skier2.0]

There are some statistics I would love to see--that we will never be privy to. How much do people actually use their passes and at which resorts? How many of the 7 day or 4 day tickets have days that go unused?

Then, the other side is the people that could be saving money, but don't even know about any other options. I've been at the ticket booth using buddy passes or other discounts and am still amazed at all of the people shelling out cash for full price single day tickets. I've offered them my extra discounts and they either don't care or are amazed at what is out there.

I can make the case for myself going for variants of the Ikon, Epic, or both. I do know my wishlist has 2 travel plans next year including the 2019 FIS World Cup in Utah next year (Deer Valley, PCMR, and Solitude) and/or Nastar Nationals at Squaw Valley. Considering back issues I've been dealing with I cannot see myself making any purchase at this point.

 

[socalgal]

Did anyone answer this? Thinking about Ikon which would include a Squalpine trip around New Years. Looking at the calendar, Dec. 31 is a possible ski day in my travel schedule that would be blacked out.

I think I found the answer:

Friends and Family discount lift tickets are offered with the Ikon Pass and Ikon Base Pass and are intended for guests of the pass holder. Friend and Family benefits are not eligible for use by the pass holder after all access days have been used or on blackout days.

 

[Karen_skier2.0]

I think I found the answer:

Friends and Family discount lift tickets are offered with the Ikon Pass and Ikon Base Pass and are intended for guests of the pass holder. Friend and Family benefits are not eligible for use by the pass holder after all access days have been used or on blackout days.

Ouch! I was able to use my own buddy pass at Beaver Creek during a blackout day. This is definitely a different direction than VR. However, I'm wondering how can they prevent it? If you wind up buying a paper ticket with the F&FB at the ticket window, how can they stop you? You put your pass back in the car and use the ticket. Or am I missing something?

 

[John Webb]

Just checked with Ikon and verified "After 5 or 7 days" in the more limited areas you can get no further discounts. Pay full price.

This could factor into trips to Salt Lake, Jackson, or Aspen. May work better to move from one of these to the other if you are doing a longer trip.
SLC can be OK as follows
5 days at Deer Valley
5 days at Snowbasin
5 days between Alta & Snowbird.

 

[aerojack]

Ouch! I was able to use my own buddy pass at Beaver Creek during a blackout day. This is definitely a different direction than VR. However, I'm wondering how can they prevent it? If you wind up buying a paper ticket with the F&FB at the ticket window, how can they stop you? You put your pass back in the car and use the ticket. Or am I missing something?

There is not a friends and family buy option at all on blackout days is how I interpret that.

 

[4ster]

5 days at Snowbasin

Wait... Is Snowbasin now on the Ikon???

There is not a friends and family buy option at all on blackout days is how I interpret that.

I sent them an email with a specific question & they responded within a day.

I asked "Is there anyway to avoid having to visit ticket offices daily for this Spring?" when using my Ikon pass since they aren't mailing them out till Fall. They replied "If you are going to be going to the other resorts who offer spring ski such as Mammoth or the Big Bear Mountain Resorts you will need to go to the ticket window for tickets this spring. You will get these free of charge at Mammoth starting 4/9. Due to the IKON pass being mailed out this fall the ticket window would be the only way for you to get access. Sorry for the inconvenience. Thank you for contacting the Ikon Pass sales center. We look forward to seeing you next season".

I purchased the Ikon base pass yesterday primarily for early & late season. Hoping for a good April & some May along with the usual early Mammoth opening. I had a Squalpine bronze ($500 midweek) pass this year & definitely got enough days in to make it worthwhile.

 

[Jilly]

Friend just paid her Ikon base and it came to $ 771 in Canadian $$ on her credit card. Think I paid $ 1032.00 last year for Tremblant unlimited. So it's a bargain for us!

 

[Uncle Louie]

Just a guess here. I suspect once you use your allotted days at a given resort on your Ikon Pass you can no longer purchase any tickets for a friend whether you buy a full price ticket or not for the day.

If that is the case you can not buy a ticket at a discount for yourself OR your friend who could be a pass holder buying a discount ticket for you.

That's probably how they control the sale of discounted tickets.

 

[DanoT]

Friend just paid her Ikon base and it came to $ 771 in Canadian $$ on her credit card. Think I paid $ 1032.00 last year for Tremblant unlimited. So it's a bargain for us!

Whistler has just announced 2019 pass prices:
Unlimited WB pass = $1289CDN
Epic pass which includes unlimited WB= $899 US

Using Jilly's exchange rate example, the Epic pass comes in at around a little less than $1170CDN so it is less expensive than a WB pass.

For the extra $ the WB pass gets you "up to" 20% off some purchases in stores owned by WB (you can also wait until April when almost all unsold ski stuff is 30-40% off or better at all stores in the WB Village) and some 50% off buddy tickets and 50% off most Vail Epic resorts that are "free" if you get an Epic pass. So why would anyone buy the more expensive WB pass?

The Epic pass also delivers some skiing at Kimberly, Fernie, Kicking Horse while the WB pass offers 50% off lift tickets at Sun Peaks. Again, better value with the Epic pass vs WB pass.

The only sense that i can make out from the above pricing is that from VR's point of view, they only own 75% of WB so perhaps they have to share a greater % of WB pass sales (25%) with Nippon Cable, their WB partner, compared to what they share with Epic partners like Resorts of the Canadian Rockies who own Kimberly, Fernie, Kicking Horse.

 

[noncrazycanuck]

getting the regular season pass at whistler instead of an epic pass doesn't make a lot of sense if you intend to ski at the hills covered in the US
however the senior unlimited Whistler season pass is 869. It's where i usually ski and Epic does not offer a senior rate.
If epic included more BC Alberta hills I would rethink but instead I pick up the Louise Card and the RCR for about 200 CDN more
Covers the better hills in BC Alberta for some good road trips.

I probably save more in the 20% off lunch and the other freebies at Whistler to cover the cost of a few day tickets elsewhere.

 

[Jilly]

I thought last year that the WB pass came in just a little lower than the epic. Must be the exchange rate, because Tremblant is saying $ 749 on Feb 26th the day they printed the brochure. Yet my friend is saying $ 771. Not sure if her credit card company added anything to that too.

 

[Jerez]

gave in and bought the pass. Then received a postcard from RMSP indicating that the pass was good for some resorts this spring. Anyone know how to use it before they actually send the physical pass out????

 

[4ster]

gave in and bought the pass. Then received a postcard from RMSP indicating that the pass was good for some resorts this spring. Anyone know how to use it before they actually send the physical pass out????

See post #450 above^

I sent them an email with a specific question & they responded within a day.

I asked "Is there anyway to avoid having to visit ticket offices daily for this Spring?" when using my Ikon pass since they aren't mailing them out till Fall. They replied "If you are going to be going to the other resorts who offer spring ski such as Mammoth or the Big Bear Mountain Resorts you will need to go to the ticket window for tickets this spring. You will get these free of charge at Mammoth starting 4/9. Due to the IKON pass being mailed out this fall the ticket window would be the only way for you to get access. Sorry for the inconvenience. Thank you for contacting the Ikon Pass sales center. We look forward to seeing you next season".

I purchased the Ikon base pass yesterday primarily for early & late season. Hoping for a good April & some May along with the usual early Mammoth opening. I had a Squalpine bronze ($500 midweek) pass this year & definitely got enough days in to make it worthwhile.

 

[Jerez]

thank you!

 

[Uncle Louie]

We have the "Food Network" on the tube here tonight and we just saw a commercial for The Ikon Pass.

 

[surfsnowgirl]

I wish there was a down payment option for IKON . Life happened, sick cat....huge vet bill..... Looks like it'll be epic local or Killington pass for us.