Passholder loyalty -- and vice versa.

My inner cynic (as the spouse of a plaintiff's complex litigation attorney) wonders if Booth Creek had a chat with their lawyers about the likelihood of a class action if they didn't offer next season free or cheap to passholders, particularly given the fact that they practically didn't operate this season.  If 3000 people spent 300 bucks each on 04/05 passes, the money might have been big enough for the respectable local complex lit. groups to go after.<br><br>Maybe Stevens had the same chat with their attorneys and decided that 40 days with more than half of their lifts turning was enough to dissuade litigators from trying to make a case.<br><br>At any rate, if I was a pass holder at Stevens I'd be pissed, and as a pass holder at Snoqualmie I'm really happy.  Plus I rode many great days on Booth Creek's dime in Alaska and California this year.  And now I feel great about the Summit, even if they can't afford enough rope to straighten out the cluster-f at the bottom of chair 2.<br><br>

<br><br><br>Does anyone have a (guess)estimate on the number of passes sold? And do resorts count on passholder income to get ready for a season, or is it just gravy?

I'm not sure how many passes the Summit usually sells, I thought I had heard as many 10,000-20,000. It's definately more than gravy. At Alpental I would say that even on weekends it is probably 80%+ passholders, probably at least 95% on weekdays.

I heard once the Summit sales close to 30,000.

korup - I think it's hard to know what the full range of intentions were w/o talking to said MBAs. My assumption is that they're in the ski business because they love skiing and want to be part of making lots of people happy about skiing, and because they also want to make money. But if it were purely about the money, I'm guessing there are higher margin businesses they could have gone into. So maybe they really DID feel bad about the season, and wanted to be nice to their customers, and perhaps even skewed their business analysis toward assumptions that would allow them to do this. <br><br>Giving is a funny thing - if you want to, you can often reduce it to a skeptical view that it's all about what you think giving is going to get you, even in the case of couples who love each other (if I do this "selfless" thing for you, you'll continue to keep me from being lonely, etc). MBAs are just people too (I'm not an MBA, for the record, but have no problem with MBAs who have decent values, just the same as any other people I run across). Thank goodness for MBAs who run ski areas well...

I suppose the MBAs may have crunched numbers, and maybe LL Bean and REI crunched numbers to come up with their generous return policies, but that seems fine to me if what the numbers told them was how to satisfy their customers so well they'll be loyal.

<br><br>Skiing and riding In my opinion is an addiction! There are exceptions, but most addicts sooner or later return to the dealer.<br><br><br>My personal feeling is that purchasing a season pass is a risk much like buying stock. We purchase the stock/Pass in hopes of it paying off in big dividends. Lots of skiing for one set price. So I see it as a calculated risk. If I get little or nothing out of my investment that is tough luck. It's not like I make a lot of money to just throw it away, but I understand that I buy it to use the heck out of the pass and get real value out of it. If the resort is willing to give me anything in return that is great. The pass at Crystal is over $900 bucks. I used it maybe 15 times and (13 to just get one ride easy access to the BC).<br><br>Maybe I am a little harsh, but I hear the bullwheels turning at the ski resort of Self Pity. The ski areas did the best they could with what they were handed by nature. If the resorts are the patsy for our investments and disappointments in a lousy snow year then lets hang em all. As long as we choose to ride the chairs of Self Pity and blame the areas for being cheap we will all be avalanche victims of our own disappointments.<br><br><br>FYI-Ski areas encourage people to buy passes to pay the start up costs until they can open the tills and food service and make the real cash.<br><br>Thats my take-<br>Joe<br><br><br>