Vail Resorts Open Note to Passholders

[Lift Blog]

The Epic Day Passes should be easy. Any unused days added to next year's pass if you buy one.

 

[Nathanvg]

Maybe we can still use our Epic passes at Breck this May. The odds of that are not great but there's a chance. I for one will be there if they are open.

 

[Kneale Brownson]

True, it wasn't their choice to close. I believe someone posted that they are asking the federal government to forgo lease payments for the rest of the year. If so ... they couldn't use a product they contracted for in the way they intended, so they want some financial consideration. Isn't that the same situation the passholders find themselves in? I hope that their request regarding lease payments was made, in part, to share that goodwill with the passholders.

I thought federal land lease fees were based on a percentage of revenue, not a set cost.

 

[Ski&ride]

I expect they will do something along the lines or offering a 20% off renewal rate for 2019/20 pass holders.

I highly doubt we're going to see 20% off. My guess is an extra $50 off (about 8% on the base pass)

I'm all but certain this is not legally obligated but more of a goodwill gesture. Don't expect anything big.

We shall see.

Pass discount are not dictated by “obligations”. It’s dictated by market conditions. That’s why they’re postponing the deadline. Delaying the decision of their customer while they delaying their own decision. Depends on how the virus thing goes, it could be big or small.

Personally, I think it’s likely big. That’s because I think the virus may linger on, and people are reluctant to commit. To drive sale, they’ll offer “big” discount.

 

[Seldomski]

The big name ski resorts played a role in spreading the disease -- Ischgl, Vail, Aspen, Italy all come to mind.

If travel bans are still in place, I would expect that some of the bigger resorts with global appeal may be partially or perhaps completely closed to save cost. The smaller 'local' spots may still operate with full staffing. Will Vail even be able to fully staff if their usually foreign staff is even more limited?

If I have to self isolate for 14 days after every ski trip, I probably won't go skiing next season... hmm, actually now that I think of it, the virus sends ~10% to the hospital... So I am thinking now its just not worth traveling to any 'destination resort' with global appeal based on current info. I'll have to re-evaluate in summer.

 

[Big J]

Phil and I are in a tricky situation with our Epic Passes. Which we didn't even come close to breaking even this year because the events we covered didn't include Vail Resorts as much as they have in the past.

My wife and I used ours twice. Had plans to make a couple of trips to Whistler before they decided to close all the ski areas.

 

[Brian Likes Pow]

I certainly know I'm not rushing out to buy next years pass. Unless I'm lured in by a deal I cant refuse. Either way I'll probably stay the course and wait till fall.

I gotta wonder what it's going to be like next winter assuming we put this all behind is. Prepare to say goodbye to alot of your favorite restaurant. I hope im.wrong.

 

[Big J]

My wife and I used ours twice. Had plans to make a couple of trips to Whistler before they decided to close all the ski areas.

I had two meniscus and two carpal tunnel hand surgeries. We knew this before we purchased the Epic Passes but could justifiy buying them by our intention to use them in the spring at Whistler. I am also in no hurry to buy again even though we usually auto renew. I would like to see what they offer in light of the closures. There is a glitch this year as they want to very my wife as a military dependent even though she already shows as verified. I emailed the verification company and when they responded a week later they said they fixed it. I will wait to purchase for now.

 

[CascadeConcrete]

I highly doubt we're going to see 20% off. My guess is an extra $50 off (about 8% on the base pass) and similar to a renewal discount on Ikon

Called it, Ikon is doubling the renewal discount. Vail will probably do similar. www.ikonpass.com/en/shop-passes

 

[Ken_R]

Called it, Ikon is doubling the renewal discount. Vail will probably do similar. www.ikonpass.com/en/shop-passes

Still too expensive

 

[CascadeConcrete]

I don't really care so much about the price itself. If I was confident next season would be business as usual, I'd buy it without a second thought. I harbor no ill feelings about the early closure, it's not like the resorts wanted to lose a month or two of revenue any more than we wanted to lose the skiing. My problem is there's still no clear policy or anything at all on what happens if the 2020-21 season is noticeably impacted by the virus situation. Since the potential risks include everything up to no skiing at all, I'm not going to buy a pass until there's either some guarantee or the level at which ski resorts will be able to operate becomes very clear. If I have to wait till the snow starts to fall to buy a pass then so be it. The early discounts aren't big enough for me to take the risk of jumping now when everything is still so uncertain.