Dedicated Express Access Lanes

[skibikeclimbguy]

Resort operator Powdr is launching dedicated express access lanes at four of its mountain resorts this season: Copper Mountain in Colorado, Killington in Vermont, Mt. Bachelor in Oregon and Snowbird in Utah. To access the lanes, which will be located at the most popular lifts at each mountain resort, guests will need to purchase a daily Fast Tracks pass. They will start at $ 49 per day, but will be dynamically priced based on peak periods, holidays, and days of the week, and will go on sale November 1.

[snoloco]

Source? Killington tried this several years back and it flopped?

[skibikeclimbguy]

The Wall Street Journal

https://www.wsj.com/articles/skiing-sno ... 1633705877

[snoloco]

Maybe it's different at the western resorts, but I don't see it being particularly useful or popular at Killington. We can assume the base price of 49 dollars will apply only on uncrowded days when you won't even need a skip the line pass, because there are no lines to skip. During peak periods, it'll be quite expensive for what doesn't amount to much of a time savings. Maybe a 10 minute wait gets reduced to 2, but for what could cost 60-70 dollars, on top of a lift ticket? I'm sure some will pay it, but you can avoid lines just as easily by taking the less popular lifts. It's not like Six Flags where you could be reducing a 60+ minute wait down to 5.

[ski]

This is sheer madness . . A money grab a la Vail. . Do not see this going well for Killington . . . Pretty lame shlt

[skiadikt]

as a mid week skier doesn't effect me. but yeah a pretty lame money grab that i don't see making it through the season. don't think there's many people who'd be willing to pay 50 bucks on top of an already expensive ticket.

[snoloco]

What's so surprising is how they already tried this in 2014 with the BeFast Pass, which was such a huge failure that it was discontinued after 3 weeks. Does anyone remember that? My concern is they don't run all the lifts on weekends to incentivize more fast tracks sales. I've usually done pretty well avoiding lines at Killington, even on the busiest days.

[PinnacleJim]

Copper has had that for years. It's an addon to the season pass, not a daily fee. ONly on a few lifts, mainly the ones out of the base areas, and don't see a lot of takers.

[snoloco]

I went around to all the base areas today to see if the extra RFID gates were installed, and they seemed to be on every base area lift except the Snowdon Triple and Snowshed Double. I would assume that Needles and Skyeship Stage 2 have them as well. Some of those lifts rarely have much of a line. The way this is being implemented is reminiscent of the Nyberg era. Decisions were made with no prior notice and without taking any feedback from customers. And if you tried to call them out on it, radio silence.

[boston_e]

Not a fan at all of this. Totally lame.

[JJR]

K is trying to see how much blood they can get out of a stone. For me, I am a mainly midweek skier so I don't think it will be a major problem. But it is a lame money grab!

[Mistergiff]

Should we do a poll on how long this lasts? This is the stupidest thing from Powdr since axing the Mogul Challenge.

[snoloco]

The previous attempt lasted 3 weeks. I'd say just keep hammering away with the angry emails, phone calls, and social media posts. Hopefully this can be stopped before it's even started.

[skiadikt]

K is trying to see how much blood they can get out of a stone. For me, I am a mainly midweek skier so I don't think it will be a major problem. But it is a lame money grab!

sounds like it's a powdr thing as opposed to a K thing. they're implementing it at their biggest resorts which K is.

[RustyK]

The new line also requires full vaccination in order to use.