ski pass

Alex Heney wrote:
On Wed, 22 Nov 2006 09:26:51 +0000 (UTC), Brian McIlwrath
wrote:


Alex Heney wrote:

: Some tour operators will take visa on the bus for passes etc.

: Certainly Thomson did last year in the Dolomites.

But always (in my experience!) in sterling at a poor exchange rate!!



No, they were charging in Euros, so the exchange rate was whatever
your card company gave you.

And they were charging exactly the same as the window price at the
ticket office - 171 Euros for 6 days.

I still didn't buy from them, because I thought (correctly) we would
arrive in time for me to get an hour or two skiing that evening, and 8
days instead of 7 was only 10 euros extra, while a day ticket would
have been 23 Euros.

I got about 1½ hours extra skiing in for that 10 Euros :-)

Ha, before the advent of hands-free scanners, you could buy the ticket
on arrivel in Meribel in the afternoon after 4 and go skiing that day as
it only had the date of expiry printed on it. If you timed things right
you could be at the top of the mountain at 5 and have a gentle ski back
thus getting 1.5 hours extr skiing for free

Interesting discussion about lift passes. It appears that we may be
moving to the North American model where people buy lift passes in shops
etc. at less than the lift operating company sells them.

My experiences of the last couple of years is that you never pay the
list price for a lift pass any more. Last Christmas and Easter we skied
in Les Arcs and got significant discounts on lift passes. In January we
skied in Tignes, staying at the excellent chalet Planton. The owner
wrote us a note on a piece of paper which we took to the lift pass
office and were given our lift passes. We paid the chalet owner the
money at the end of the week. It was at least 5% less than the listed
price. We didn't have to resort to any underhand tactics at all.

I note that this year Les Arcs are offering to recharge your tickets
online before you leave. I wonder when you will also be able to get a
listing of ever lift you took and when. Even more alarming is the
possibilty of being charged at the end of the week depending on which
lift you took and when (reductions for quiet times, surcharges for busy
times!). A charge for every vertical metre!

John



I know the (quite byzantine) rules vary from resort
to resort, but the lift operating companies seem pretty hot on making
sure you pay the right rate. I'm 99% certain they wouldn't get away
with it in Tignes for example,

What do you mean, "get away with it"? Group discounts are available to
any large group - the tour operators aren't in any way screwing the
lift company, although perhaps the client isn't always aware that some
of his money is being used to subsidise the reps' beer fund.






Ah... group rates. I see what you mean now. Yes, that would make sense.


although the workers obviously get their
passes at knock-down rates.

But only officially-sanctioned staff, and then normally only on a
whole-season pass.


Indeed - Espace Killy do monthly rolling ones to ensure the sacked
people can't continue to benefit. I believe also you don't get the
'free days in Les Arcs/3 Valleys/etc.' benefit that you do on a 'full'
season pass.


Hmmm.. maybe I'll have to ask around some
more company reps this winter...

I don't think you'd find many ready to blatantly break the rules
unless it were for a close friend.


No, I wouldn't expect them to - I'm just curious as to how twisted the
system is if you scratch beneath the surface. Personally, I'm looking
at only a 5% discount this year, unless my flat purchase completes in
the next 6 weeks in which case it's still only 20%. Got 50% last year
just for having the carte fidelite.. :-(

Anyway, I shall report back!

Matt

Alex Heney wrote:
: No, they were charging in Euros, so the exchange rate was whatever
: your card company gave you.

: And they were charging exactly the same as the window price at the
: ticket office - 171 Euros for 6 days.

My last experience was Crystal I think....the pass price was correct but their
exchange rate was not good - as the voucher got made out in sterling. That
has happened with some other operators as well.

On Wed, 22 Nov 2006 15:04:06 +0000, "
" wrote:

snip


I note that this year Les Arcs are offering to recharge your tickets
online before you leave. I wonder when you will also be able to get a
listing of ever lift you took and when.

You already can in some places.

With the Dolomiti Superski pass, you can log on to a website, put in
the numbers from your lift pass, and it will display all your
activities with that pass for each day.

And their database covers the last two years.

I am sure there must be other places doing similar things.
--
Alex Heney, Global Villager
A fool and his money are my two favourite people.
To reply by email, my address is alexATheneyDOTplusDOTcom

On Tue, 21 Nov 2006 18:16:59 +0000, Alun Evans
wrote:

Be aware, though, that you'll be required to have money and photos
(depending on resort, but some still use them) ready on the bus from the
airport,

Well, not the money, the money is normally taken up front in the UK, in GBP.

If they're making you pay on the bus, they'll charge you some crazy 5% credit
card fee.

I've always paid Euros in cash on the bus.


--
-Pip

On Wed, 22 Nov 2006 18:58:14 GMT, Pip Luscher
wrote:

On Tue, 21 Nov 2006 18:16:59 +0000, Alun Evans
wrote:

Be aware, though, that you'll be required to have money and photos
(depending on resort, but some still use them) ready on the bus from the
airport,

Well, not the money, the money is normally taken up front in the UK, in GBP.

If they're making you pay on the bus, they'll charge you some crazy 5% credit
card fee.

I've always paid Euros in cash on the bus.

S'wot we do, too.

--
Ace (brucedotrogers a.t rochedotcom)
Ski Club of Great Britain - http://www.skiclub.co.uk
All opinions expressed are personal and in no way represent those of the Ski Club.

In message , @elgy(nati-spam).org.uk
writes

I note that this year Les Arcs are offering to recharge your tickets
online before you leave. I wonder when you will also be able to get a
listing of ever lift you took and when. Even more alarming is the
possibilty of being charged at the end of the week depending on which
lift you took and when (reductions for quiet times, surcharges for busy
times!). A charge for every vertical metre!


All that was available in the PdS in 2003, except that if you wanted to
pay by the ride you had to keep your card in credit. They earnestly
warned you not to run out of points, and if you did the local area had
several valley bottoms from which the only way out was by ski lift.

--
Sue ];(