Did anyone buy an Epic or Ikon or Mountain Collective pass?

[ozzy]

Did anyone go with a multi resort pass in addition to a K/Pico pass or a multi resort pass only and ditch the K/Pico pass? Just curious. I went with a K/Pico pass as well as an epic local pass for a few days out west, the days Stowe gets lake effects or snow in general and we get nothing or reign and for a few days at Okemo, because lets face it - they have four trails all season long with catted bumps. I figured for the early bird price of $669 it was an easy decision to go with the epic local pass. I guess I just wrote myself out of the Killington 100 day club now too.

[GlenPLake]

I have the Ikon base pass, it was purchased in Spring before I knew I was going to have Killington as my dedicated home base.

I am now stuck deciding if I want to upgrade to the full Ikon pass for another $300, or use the $300 on something else, like K-cards/express card.

I plan to do most of my Killington skiing on non holiday weekends, so getting the K/Pico mid-week pass is not really a good option for me.

I will prob do at least one or 2 western trips, so I will most likely get my value from the Ikon pass on those trips, its just a matter of getting the most skiing for my $$.

Getting to be decision time, but still not sure what I am going to do?

[Mister Moose]

K tickets are $75 each, if you buy 8 it works out to $65.63 each. Unfortunately you missed the early season pass price which broke even at 14 days. At the current unlimited price of $1,069 you break even at 16 days.

How many days do you expect to ski at Killington?

Last year Costco had a 3 pack for $219, but that's more than the K ticket 8 pack.


Early season (pre December ~10) you can cobble together some 2 for 1's which may affect your BEP. Season pass price goes up October 18.

[da Pimp]

Anyone notice how the POWDR strategy is working out? When they first came to town they said they wanted less volume more margin. Pricing and program cuts backed that up. Eventually after they saw attendance dropping year after year they found wisdom in the Preston Leete Smith strategy that more is better, get the volume up and you will get a lot more revenue, with some of that being the high margin type.

Now we are in our second year of no midrange season pass. We see the ticket programs rising another year. $75 a day on their bargain program. Even $70 if you belong to a ski club. The POWDR strategy at work. Ease away the low end customers, get more from the day ticketers.

In comes the Epic and IKon options. Anyone in the East who expects to do a ski trip somewhere finds that it makes sense to go Ep/IK and avoid any commitment to Killington. Why? Its either over a grand or $75 and up. The net result will be that K attendance will drop a bit due to many Ep/IK passholders visiting the other New England options they have, and come to K a lot less. So the hill is filled with season pass holders and day ticket holders, all of whom are now paying a lot more per day to ski/ride at Killington. Passholders support the revenue stream, and ticket holders provide the margin while the hill is becoming less crowded.

By showing off new lift work, tunnels, snowmaking they are expecting to see more customers showing up and they will be paying a lot more per day than ever before. If it does get crowded or they get a net increase this season it will result in a better margin per day than previous seasons.

I am committed to Killington as are most of my regular ski friends. But in my local club there is a fair amount of people who have an Epic or IKon pass for the first time. And they are buying very few Killington tickets this year compared to how many our club bought in the past. I know this is a sample of one, but the common theme is that they like the options and the price per day of an Epic or IKon pass, especially when coupled with a western trip. Net result? Less people in my club will ski/ride at Killington, and there are sales of Epic or IKon where there used to be none.

[SPORE]

Anyone notice how the POWDR strategy is working out? When they first came to town they said they wanted less volume more margin. Pricing and program cuts backed that up. Eventually after they saw attendance dropping year after year they found wisdom in the Preston Leete Smith strategy that more is better, get the volume up and you will get a lot more revenue, with some of that being the high margin type.

Now we are in our second year of no midrange season pass. We see the ticket programs rising another year. $75 a day on their bargain program. Even $70 if you belong to a ski club. The POWDR strategy at work. Ease away the low end customers, get more from the day ticketers.

In comes the Epic and IKon options. Anyone in the East who expects to do a ski trip somewhere finds that it makes sense to go Ep/IK and avoid any commitment to Killington. Why? Its either over a grand or $75 and up. The net result will be that K attendance will drop a bit due to many Ep/IK passholders visiting the other New England options they have, and come to K a lot less. So the hill is filled with season pass holders and day ticket holders, all of whom are now paying a lot more per day to ski/ride at Killington. Passholders support the revenue stream, and ticket holders provide the margin while the hill is becoming less crowded.

By showing off new lift work, tunnels, snowmaking they are expecting to see more customers showing up and they will be paying a lot more per day than ever before. If it does get crowded or they get a net increase this season it will result in a better margin per day than previous seasons.

I am committed to Killington as are most of my regular ski friends. But in my local club there is a fair amount of people who have an Epic or IKon pass for the first time. And they are buying very few Killington tickets this year compared to how many our club bought in the past. I know this is a sample of one, but the common theme is that they like the options and the price per day of an Epic or IKon pass, especially when coupled with a western trip. Net result? Less people in my club will ski/ride at Killington, and there are sales of Epic or IKon where there used to be none.

The bargain ticket price was $62.50 a day this year through the 4pks.

[SPORE]

Did anyone go with a multi resort pass in addition to a K/Pico pass or a multi resort pass only and ditch the K/Pico pass? Just curious. I went with a K/Pico pass as well as an epic local pass for a few days out west, the days Stowe gets lake effects or snow in general and we get nothing or reign and for a few days at Okemo, because lets face it - they have four trails all season long with catted bumps. I figured for the early bird price of $669 it was an easy decision to go with the epic local pass. I guess I just wrote myself out of the Killington 100 day club now too.

We ditched our Killington passes last year when they eliminated the black out passes. Epic Local passes and K Tickets along with the early season BOGO if they offer them again this year.

[PinnacleJim]

My portfolio this season:
Killington/Pico senior pass
Epic Liberty pass (for veterans) unlimited skiing at Keystone and A-Basin with no blackouts
Copper 4-pack (with free 5th day for renewing early)

[brownman]

Epic just doesn't cover the western resorts that we prefer.
For us IKON Base pass, Bush Boomer pass and Express pass at K.
That ensures Western trips, several days in Warren Valley and some days at the Factory.

Only tunnel skiing we plan on doing will be at Snowbird and la Plagne.

[simpletwist]

We ditched the K pass when they got rid of the blackout option. Now we just get the pico only pass to go with our epic passes. I might grab a K ticket this year to check out some of the new improvements.

[AtomicWoody]

Ikon for me and maybe some K tickets for the kids. One trip out west and 5 days at Killington - more than worth it.

5 days @ Stratton, VT
5 days @ Killington, VT
5 days @ Sugarbush, VT

[Cityskier]

Ikon. Trip booked to ski 5 days each at Big Sky & Jackson Hole. Window price today for those 10 days is $1,102. Ikon base pass was $599. Already $500 ahead and have 25 New England days in the bank (K, 'bush, 'loaf, Sunday River, Stratton). Add another trip to Tahoe or SLC and it's a no brainer for me.

[boston_e]

Ended up with just the K/Pico pass this year. Had there been an "add on" option for the IKON (as there was with the Maxx pass) we likely would have done that, but could not justify the Ikon at the full purchase price.

[rogman]

I suspect Mike has a pretty good handle on the supply/demand curve for season passes. He is a finance guy, after all, and been working at Killington a long time: all the way back to ASC gold pass days. Vail's entry, and expansion, into the Eastern market has certainly had an impact. Their approach seems to be cheap passes and high day ticket prices. Killington hasn't quite gone that route. Although Killington has a high walk up rate, how many actually pay it? There are good deals out there for the bargain hunters/price conscious skiers. From my perspective, Killington is trying to better position itself not for the passholder, and not for the day tripper, but the family vacation market: groups/families coming here for a 5 to 7 day trip. Package deals. Few on Kzone fit that description; thus we may be poorly qualified to evaluate that strategy: it simply isn't oriented towards us.

[spanky]

Epic local for the second year in a row. I’ll supplement that with 2-for-1, K-tickets and Costco for days at K. Otherwise, I’ll spread my day ticket dollars to Magic and Sugarbush. Also planning days at Stowe and, *ahem*, Okemo (for those aforementioned manicured bumps).

[Highway Star]

Evidently dropping the blackout passes shed more than a few fence sitters that were getting a blackout and epic local or other option.

I've heard from several ski house operators that many of their shares don't buy passes anymore - they get discount tix, express passes, ambassador or other options. Some people will come up for the weekend and only ski one day.