Tour operator - Ski pass mark up

WeatherCam wrote:
Do it when you are out there - and don't use the TO

A) It's quicker
B) Depending on your circumstances - family / time of year
C) TO's are not up to speed on available discounts

On the last few holidays I have been on the rep has had the ski passes
ready either the evening we have arrived or waiting for us at breakfast
the next morning - even when we didn't reach the resort util after midnight!

Each time we have been charged the same amount we would have paid if we
had bought them personally.

Ian W.

"David Off" wrote in message
...
Michael Chare wrote:
When ski operators offer to get you ski pass for your on the bus to the
resort,
what sort of mark up do they get?

The profit a T.O. makes varies from resort to resort and also depends on
their sales, big T.O.s make more profit on lift passes. It is around 5
to 15% depending on the ski resort.

Thanks - that was the information I was looking for. Maybe I did not make my
question clear.


You still pay the list price.

Some TOs like to add a surcharge when you pay by credit card. Specifically
Thomsons tried to do this 2 years ago when I went to Zermatt.
The sold me the tickets without the surcharge after I declined to pay it. I did
not have the same trouble with Inghams the following year. The Inghams rep
actually got my tickets at the station beofre the hotel bus turned up which was
very good. (2 week full area passes have machine produced photos on them)


Beware that you can get discounts on your
lift passes for a variety of reasons and the TO may, or may not, be able
to pass these on to you.


If you know of any discounts which I might qualify for at St Anton, I would be
very grateful for the info. - I have not been there before.
I have never managed to secure a discount on a lift pass. But that is a habit
that I am quite willing to break.


A lot of resorts will deliver LPs to your accomodation if you book in
advance so the T.O. may not be offering a great service, especially if
lift passes are delivered at 10.30 am on Sunday morning.


I dont much like parting with my money (on the bus to the resort) before I get
the tickets as it always worries may that they will not turn up - Though in
practice I have not so far been let down. My idea of a good skiing holiday is to
be at the lift station when it starts in the morning. I dont want to be kept
waiting at my accommodation waiting for some lift pass to arrive which I could
perfectly easily buy myself.


Michael Chare

Michael Chare wrote:

I dont much like parting with my money (on the bus to the resort) before I
get the tickets as it always worries may that they will not turn up -
Though in practice I have not so far been let down. My idea of a good
skiing holiday is to be at the lift station when it starts in the morning.
I dont want to be kept waiting at my accommodation waiting for some lift
pass to arrive which I could perfectly easily buy myself.

Top tip - order one of those Instant Student ID cards from the websites
that offer such things for a tenner, present it at the lift pass office,
and get your student discount.


--
Trophy 1200 750SS CB400F CD200 ST70 YTC#3
GAGARPHOF#30 GHPOTHUF#1 IHABWTJ#1 BOTAFOT#60 ANORAK#06
BOF#30 WUSS#5 "Worse than Timo" - Official

you don't have to be a TO to get the discounts , we rent out our appts
privately and offer the independent skier the choice on how much they want
us to organise for them , yet 95% of our guests still prefer for us to go
and get the passes for them and either drop the pass at the appt (or in the
pub ).
To get ski pass commission in the trois vallees you need to sell over 300
passes in a season, this takes some doing ! (for us) especially if I don't
shift the last 2 xmas appts I've got (only £400 to you guys !!)

Nic & Karen.
Quality Ski Apartments in France
www.accommodationinthealps.co.uk
UK 0870 136 4311 Fax (national call in the UK)
Call us direct in France on 0033 (0) 4 7908 2376
CLICK HERE FOR OUR SPECIAL DEALS :
http://www.accommodationinthealps.co.uk/special.htm
"Carl_M" wrote in message
om...
"Michael Chare" wrote in message
...
When ski operators offer to get you ski pass for your on the bus to the
resort,
what sort of mark up do they get?

Michael Chare

In my experience they charge the same price it would cost you if you
bought it yourself. I would suspect that they get a discount from the
lift operator which they do not pass on but you could not get it
cheaper yourself.

Different operators might have different policies so to be sure look
up what the lift pass should cost (most resorts have it on their
website) and check that the operator is not ripping you off.

Carl

On Sun, 30 Nov 2003 13:02:41 -0000, "WeatherCam"
wrote:

Do it when you are out there - and don't use the TO

A) It's quicker

That would have been totally impossible in all but one of the five
occasions I have had a pass through the TO, since I received the pass
*before* the first point at which I could have reached the ticket
offices. I was given the pass on the bus twice, it was waiting at
hotel check-in the third time, and the one where photos were required,
they took those on the bus, and brought our lift passes at Dinner that
evening.

There almost certainly are occasions where the reps are slower than
doing it yourself, but IME, it is not normal.

B) Depending on your circumstances - family / time of year
C) TO's are not up to speed on available discounts
Agreed. It is rare for the TO to get family discounts or anything
similar, although they do usually get time of year discounts.

Not sure why that was B and C, since it was just one comment?

Go to the the main "bureaux" and see what's on offer - quite often a family
lift pass including ski lessons for the children will be a damn site cheaper
then what the TO has on his books....plus time of year i.e Jan could be much
cheaper...


That may be true if you are travelling with your kids and all skiing.
But most of us aren't.

Don't be a mug - if you must go with a TO then use your head!


Yep. I always check the listed prices, including discounts, and so far
have never been charged more, and have always had the ticket at least
as quickly, without any queuing.

--
Alex Heney, Global Villager
Oxymoron: Subsequent Initiatives.

To reply by email, my address is aDOTjDOTheneyATbtinternetDOTcom

Michael Chare wrote:

If you know of any discounts which I might qualify for at St Anton, I would be
very grateful for the info. - I have not been there before.
Things may have changed since I was last there, but discounts are hard
to come by in St Anton. Children and OAPs qualify (with appropriate
documentation to prove age), and kids under 5 (I think) can get a season
pass (Schneemankarte) for less than the cost of a kid's 2 day pass.

St Anton has a variable price depending on when you buy the pass, there
is no fixed price, it varies throughout the season week by week. There
is a chart on the back of the piste map to show the price in any given
week, so you can easily check. Odds are the same chart will be on a
website somewhere.

Also, be aware that the lift pass office did not take credit cards a few
years ago, not sure if this is still the case.

If you do buy the passes yourself rather than through the tour operator
you may find youself paying more and not less than the TO price. The
price the TO quotes is (or should be) the price for people staying in
the resort. If you buy your own pass you have to prove you are staying
in St Anton by producing a form from your hotel (and this being Austria
we are talking about you'll need it signed and stamped in the correct
places by the hotellier). Alternativly your hotellier can get them
delivered, they have always done this when I have visited. As an added
convenience you do not need photos for passes less than 10 days in
duration (again, this is going back a couple of years so check anyway).

Enjoy St Anton, at the risk of starting a major flame war I think it is
the best all round ski resort in the world, but that's just me.

Michael Chare wrote:

Some TOs like to add a surcharge when you pay by credit card.

Thomson and Crystal do this. They say it covers their costs of
processing credit cards and helps keep prices down for guests paying
cash. Easyjet do the same for that matter and I don't think you get the
option of paying cash with them.

There was a funny thing a couple of years back. Irish guests paying in
Euro's had their ski packs translated into GBP then back into Euros with
credit card surcharges. The Irish were non-too pleased. I' sure
Crystal/Thomsons have got this little glitch sorted now.


If you know of any discounts which I might qualify for at St Anton,

I don't know anything about St Anton but as another poster mentioned,
regular visitors, visitors booking accomodation through the tourist
office or ski school packages will sometimes get discounts on ski passes
or hire. Good UK Tour Operators, or at least competent reps, will know
this and will either pass on any discounts or advise you to book direct
if appropriate.

My idea of a good skiing holiday is to
be at the lift station when it starts in the morning. I dont want to be kept
waiting at my accommodation waiting for some lift pass to arrive which I could
perfectly easily buy myself.

Normally reps are good, but when they've just done 24 hours and 2
airport trips on the go you can sometimes appreciate why they keel over
not to wake up until angry guests head down to hovel the TO has given
them to sleep in for the winter.

In article , Michael Chare wrote:
When ski operators offer to get you ski pass for your on the bus to
the resort, what sort of mark up do they get?

I'm not sure they charge an up-front markup, but you may well lose out
on the exchange rate charged by your credit card company.

I paid £109 for a 6-day Tignes pass when I booked with Crystal. Based on
the exchange rate for the day that was exactly 154 Euros the Tignes site
quotes. No markup there.

Cheers,

Mark