Do you plan on buying one of GA's new Membership plans?

[Lemur]

On 4/29/2018 at 1:51 AM, Matt Kaiser said:

 

And also can't be used at Panda Express. 

 

Okay, what's with the love for Panda Express?  I've ate there.  It's terrible.  It's as terrible that vast majority of food in the park.

[Matt Kaiser]

2 minutes ago, Lemur said:

 

Okay, what's with the love for Panda Express?  I've ate there.  It's terrible.  It's as terrible that vast majority of food in the park.

 

I only eat one thing there (orange chicken), but I think it's one of the better foods in the park. The one in the park is better than any other Panda Express I've had. 
The other bonus is that Panda isn't on the dining menu either, so it's usually one of the shorter food lines in the park.

[SFGadv123]

12 minutes ago, Lemur said:

 

Okay, what's with the love for Panda Express?  I've ate there.  It's terrible.  It's as terrible that vast majority of food in the park.

I haven't been to the one at the park, but I did go there once at Cedar Point. It wasn't bad but certainly wouldn't be my first choice. However I will say the prices aren't completely ridiculous like most of the other food places in the park, so it's a good option if you don't have the dining plan

[Medusa42]

I am waiting for someone to do a Panda Express taste test challenge.  7 out of 10 people didn’t know they were really eating dog food. 2 out 10 people realized they were eating dog food and kept eating it.

[hollyferry]

On 4/27/2018 at 11:42 PM, 29yrswithaGApass said:

I just got the Diamond Elite Membership today and find two things interesting/unfair.  Please correct me if I am wrong:

 

(1) To park in the Preferred Parking Lot with Diamond Elite you need to reserve a spot in advance.  If you just show up without a reservation, you can't park there even if the lot is empty.  Meanwhile, Diamond members can't reserve in advance but can enter the lot whenever they show up (assuming empty spots).

 

(2)  With the Membership drink bottles you have to present your pass and wait 20 minutes between refills.  However, season pass holders don't have this restriction of having to wait in between refills.

 

Am I missing something?

Hmmm. I just have the Gold Plus membership still (simply haven't gotten around to upgrading yet). We went on Saturday and we weren't asked once to show our passes to refill the purple cups. And that's 5 cups filled multiple times that day.

[Matt Kaiser]

6 hours ago, hollyferry said:

Hmmm. I just have the Gold Plus membership still (simply haven't gotten around to upgrading yet). We went on Saturday and we weren't asked once to show our passes to refill the purple cups. And that's 5 cups filled multiple times that day.

 

If you haven't upgraded, you have Gold, not Gold Plus, which doesn't count as a "membership" for the new membership perks.

It's the red Member cups that have a 20-minute cool down. They're only given to Platinum, Diamond, and Diamond Elite members.

[Lemur]

12 hours ago, hollyferry said:

Hmmm. I just have the Gold Plus membership still (simply haven't gotten around to upgrading yet). We went on Saturday and we weren't asked once to show our passes to refill the purple cups. And that's 5 cups filled multiple times that day.

 

Purple cups are dining pass cups, you don't need to show your pass.

 

[29yrswithaGApass]

How long did anyone have to wait to receive the email for getting reimbursed with Six Flags/Bugs bucks as a refund when switching from a pass to membership?

[fs76]

7 hours ago, 29yrswithaGApass said:

How long did anyone have to wait to receive the email for getting reimbursed with Six Flags/Bugs bucks as a refund when switching from a pass to membership?

I got mine 4 days later. They sent me an email that my old one was cancelled and then a little later I got another email with a new online order confirmation that had my refund listed. It’s showing as a credit on my credit card.

Edited May 4, 2018 by fs76

[fs76]

They actually also refunded me for the payment of my old gold membership (pass...whatever they consider it now) which happened between ordering my new membership and them canceling my old one. Which was nice because I thought I was going to get stuck paying twice for a month because I waited too late at the end of my bill cycle.

[hollyferry]

22 hours ago, Matt Kaiser said:

 

If you haven't upgraded, you have Gold, not Gold Plus, which doesn't count as a "membership" for the new membership perks.

It's the red Member cups that have a 20-minute cool down. They're only given to Platinum, Diamond, and Diamond Elite members.

Lol yes. I have the dining pass and the old Gold membership. That's that happens when I try to post in the middle of the night while at work. 

[Matt Kaiser]

9 hours ago, 29yrswithaGApass said:

How long did anyone have to wait to receive the email for getting reimbursed with Six Flags/Bugs bucks as a refund when switching from a pass to membership?

 

When I upgraded at the park (Member Services), they told me we would go to GR to pick them up immediately after upgrading. We got to GR and they told us it takes 72 hours to go to corporate and come back.  While looking at my account, GR realized Member Services didn't process my upgrade correctly, so they informed me I was "no longer entitled to the Six Flags bucks refund." Wtf? 

In the end, they did a manual refund and I got my bugs bucks the same day.

[29yrswithaGApass]

The hassle is one of the reasons I hesitated to change to membership, but I did and now the "fun" begins.  

 

When I processed my new DE membership at the Member Services booth they told me I should hear back within a week with the info about my Six Flags bucks.  Being I didn't use my 2018 season pass prior to enrolling in membership I expected to get my $69.99 plus tax as a credit.

 

As of this morning I didn't receive anything and started a chat on the SF website, explaining my issue.  They told me they couldn't find any record of my 2018 Season Pass, even after I sent them a screenshot from their app showing my pass number and an "Active" status.  They told me to call GA.

 

I called GA and spoke with a very pleasant lady who put me on hold and came back and said everything was fixed and I should receive an email confirming the credit within 72 hours.

 

After only a couple of hours, I got the email and to my surprise it said they credited me $4.56 with some boilerplate explanation which was totally unrelated to my circumstance.

 

Nothing is easy.  To be continued....

 

 

[Matt Kaiser]

4 minutes ago, 29yrswithaGApass said:

The hassle is one of the reasons I hesitated to change to membership, but I did and now the "fun" begins.  

 

When I processed my new DE membership at the Member Services booth they told me I should hear back within a week with the info about my Six Flags bucks.  Being I didn't use my 2018 season pass prior to enrolling in membership I expected to get my $69.99 plus tax as a credit.

 

As of this morning I didn't receive anything and started a chat on the SF website, explaining my issue.  They told me they couldn't find any record of my 2018 Season Pass, even after I sent them a screenshot from their app showing my pass number and an "Active" status.  They told me to call GA.

 

I called GA and spoke with a very pleasant lady who put me on hold and came back and said everything was fixed and I should receive an email confirming the credit within 72 hours.

 

After only a couple of hours, I got the email and to my surprise it said they credited me $4.56 with some boilerplate explanation which was totally unrelated to my circumstance.

 

Nothing is easy.  To be continued....

 

 

 

I did not get a refund for tax or processing fee on the season pass. I ended up double-paying processing fees.

I was thinking the lack of tax refund wouldn't matter as long as Six Flags Bucks get applied BEFORE tax, but apparently they don't, so I'm double-taxed on every purchase I make with Six Flags Bucks.

 

 Good luck to you.

[29yrswithaGApass]

I received $66 Six Flags Bucks back.  Not sure why it was that amount but it’s close enough.  

[Matt Kaiser]

On 5/8/2018 at 12:01 PM, 29yrswithaGApass said:

I received $66 Six Flags Bucks back.  Not sure why it was that amount but it’s close enough.  

 

Did you get some sort of e-coupon or do you have to go pick up the Six Flags Bucks at the park?

[29yrswithaGApass]

I received eCoupons on my app which I need to redeem at guest relations.  

[dougdrummer]

Last year my wife and I had season's passes with full dining plans, but decided not to purchase again in 2018 because of health issues.   We visited SFGA about 12 times in 2017, including both HITP and FF.  We also visited SF New England on the way back from a trip to Boston.  I also filled out several on-line surveys during last season.

 

I find it astounding that Six Flags never attempted to reach out to me about renewing this year - not a single email, text or phone call.  I guess it was okay for them to drop me from the roster, without even finding out why I decided to not renew.

 

Maybe they figured I wasn't a money maker since we attended so frequently, eating and drinking to our heart's content - LOL.

[Urklore]

i have the Diamond Elite plan. I think the drink cup thing is Bogus. I was told by numerous employees this last weekend that they need to check pass's. Due to Cup theft and people abusing the cup refill rules. The 20min time is a little steep. when it hot as heck out i need to wait to Quench my thirst. Waiting to see how hurricane harbor works with the preferred seating. 

[rj1972]

On 5/10/2018 at 7:41 AM, dougdrummer said:

I find it astounding that Six Flags never attempted to reach out to me about renewing this year - not a single email, text or phone call.  I guess it was okay for them to drop me from the roster, without even finding out why I decided to not renew.

 

 

They do very little in terms of customer retention. They are all about selling cheap passes to the masses. With that said, the goal with the memberships is to somewhat address that. However, they are not charging nearly enough for their Diamond and Diamond Elite memberships. 

[scott]

It's great that I found the only group of people that want to be charged more for something.

[rj1972]

4 hours ago, scott said:

It's great that I found the only group of people that want to be charged more for something.

 

I'm also a shareholder, and feel that price points are too low.  As I mentioned, the memberships will hopefully help incrementally, but they did not price their top tiers high enough.  People love aspirational offers and are willing to pay a premium.  For years I clamored for a Centurion card invitation from American Express.  Once they finally offered the card to me, I kept the card for a short period of time, and realized the benefits did not outweigh the premium I was paying for the card.  It will be interesting to see what they do with membership pricing moving forward, assuming that sales were better than expected.  

 

On a similar note, I would prefer to pay more for my park experience, and see a reduced crowd. I never go without a flash pass, which certainly helps, but food concession lines can be excessive, and there's no way to circumvent those. 

[fetish911]

I dont understand the whole “passes are too cheap, i want to pay more” argument. You arent going to attract a classier clientel partly because of GA’s location. You have 2 major cities in proximity and that wont change just because you up the ticket price. All it will do is price families WHICH MAKE PARKS NICER right out of the picture. As for crowds, i go when i know its not crowded and have never or will i ever get a flash pass (im only 20mins from the park, so thats kind of a moot point for me anyways).   I love GA-  but sadly it is NOT  maintained like it should be either. They notoriously let rides goto sh$t instead of up keep. Its amazing how far some fresh paint would go for asthetics.... ya know? I do not think the park itself is dirty as ive heard some people say, i find it decently clean? Some of which cannot be said for select patrons (some of the things ive seen, whew!!!!)  I do love GA, but its not worth an even higher premium price than DE. 

[rj1972]

Fetish911, you are so correct in that the park could use a refresh. I rarely ever see employees cleaning tables, and yes, paint would go a long way. The place looks shabby in spots, but going back to my argument, it costs money just for the basics.  If you think about it, a single season pass sale of ~$67 doesn't even cover the cost of one employees shift. It also doesn't buy much paint. 

 

When we consider a price and demand curve, my speculation is that we could move the price upward, and not see much of a drop in demand. The original concept was to price passes so low that customers would return time-and-time again to spend money incrementally in gift shops and on F&B, but the $67 crowd spends very little in gift shops, and they either leave the park for meals, or purchase a dining pass, which while profitable for the park, isn't as profitable as selling individual meals. I also feel the reason for the F&B discounts on the memberships is to encourage individual meal spending versus dining pass add-ons. It will be interesting to see how the memberships work out. I'm optimistic that they will drive revenue. Lord knows, Jim Reid Anderson would sell his dog if he knew he could profit by doing so.  

Edited May 22, 2018 by rj1972

[Medusa42]

It was briefly mentioned on the Q3 earnings call that more membership tiers and mobile dining are planned in 2019.