Multi-Mountain Pass Pricing

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

20 minutes ago, skiincy said:

@toast21602 - this is kinda interesting!

(1) There's a ski mountain in Alabama?!!

(2) The average pass price (in Pennsylvania for those who have released so far) is $456.

(3) 8 mountains in PA released pricing but 20 mountains haven't yet. 

Yeah Cloudmount. I guess I’m the only person who read the white book of ski areas as a kid. Until about ten years ago, Blue didn’t release their pricing until early fall when they released their new brochure. 

Edited March 15, 2022 by GrilledSteezeSandwich

[Schif]

It's time to buy a pass and honestly it's not as easy to do this year as in past years. I think $650 is the tipping point for people like me that live farther away. $650 is still a no brainer for someone within a 30 minute drive of Blue but it starts to get untenable for someone like me who's a weekend warrior and hopes to not be too busy for a few RAWS. 

Especially with all the other pass options out there for New York, Indy, Epic and Ikon it actually is more to think about than I thought. Any thoughts from the Philly and Philly burbs guys? 

[PSUFrankenstein]

Indy pass is worth it for sure.  You can get your money's worth in a short trip to VT or NH, plus the few PA mountains and NY that are possible for a day trip.  Ikon base pass is reasonable too especially if you end up going out west again 

[NMSKI]

24 minutes ago, Schif said:

It's time to buy a pass and honestly it's not as easy to do this year as in past years. I think $650 is the tipping point for people like me that live farther away. $650 is still a no brainer for someone within a 30 minute drive of Blue but it starts to get untenable for someone like me who's a weekend warrior and hopes to not be too busy for a few RAWS. 

Especially with all the other pass options out there for New York, Indy, Epic and Ikon it actually is more to think about than I thought. Any thoughts from the Philly and Philly burbs guys? 

I've been getting less bang for my buck the last couple years from my Blue pass, but by making the investment in the pass it makes me have an incentive to get out there at least once per week when I'm not traveling somewhere else.  It would suck to show up and pay $100 bucks to ski there.  If things are cranking in early December and they keep open all the way through you can make it really worth your while.  The shutdown in mid-december and some family stuff cost me 2 or 3 valuable ski days this year.  

I have blue + Ikon for 2022-23 and I think its gonna work out great.  

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

32 minutes ago, Schif said:

It's time to buy a pass and honestly it's not as easy to do this year as in past years. I think $650 is the tipping point for people like me that live farther away. $650 is still a no brainer for someone within a 30 minute drive of Blue but it starts to get untenable for someone like me who's a weekend warrior and hopes to not be too busy for a few RAWS. 

Especially with all the other pass options out there for New York, Indy, Epic and Ikon it actually is more to think about than I thought. Any thoughts from the Philly and Philly burbs guys? 

My thought is if you don’t have a Blue pass, it will dramatically hurt the number of days you ski next season.  You have 11 days so far at Blue and I’m sure you’ll have a few more so this years pass was worth it for you even though you got off to a late start and were away quite a bit.  

[toast21602]

4 minutes ago, GrilledSteezeSandwich said:

My thought is if you don’t have a Blue pass, it will dramatically hurt the number of days you ski next season.  You have 11 days so far at Blue and I’m sure you’ll have a few more so this years pass was worth it for you even though you got off to a late start and were away quite a bit.  

Yep. All of this. 

 

[toast21602]

29 minutes ago, PSUFly said:

Indy pass is worth it for sure.  You can get your money's worth in a short trip to VT or NH, plus the few PA mountains and NY that are possible for a day trip.  Ikon base pass is reasonable too especially if you end up going out west again 

You crushed your Indy Pass this year. Saved about $150 off of window prices compared to what I paid for the pass. Maybe there is still a day left for me to use... Next year it will be even easier since I paid ~$250 with renew discount. I think I have a better understanding of how to get the most out of it this year after watching your epic (Indy) adventures. 

[RidgeRacer]

25 minutes ago, GrilledSteezeSandwich said:

My thought is if you don’t have a Blue pass, it will dramatically hurt the number of days you ski next season.  You have 11 days so far at Blue and I’m sure you’ll have a few more so this years pass was worth it for you even though you got off to a late start and were away quite a bit.  

He could go epic and be at frost for local stuff. Not ideal at all as Schif belongs at blue and blue belongs with Schif, plus Vail. But it's an option for him. Blue is definitely forcing people's hands with the price hike so early.

[toast21602]

@Schif have you considered going back to Montage? That plus an Indy add on would be appealing.

[JFskiDan]

1 hour ago, NMSKI said:

I've been getting less bang for my buck the last couple years from my Blue pass, but by making the investment in the pass it makes me have an incentive to get out there at least once per week when I'm not traveling somewhere else.  It would suck to show up and pay $100 bucks to ski there.  If things are cranking in early December and they keep open all the way through you can make it really worth your while.  The shutdown in mid-december and some family stuff cost me 2 or 3 valuable ski days this year.  

I have blue + Ikon for 2022-23 and I think its gonna work out great.  

Yup, without the pass, i would be less likely to ski.  No way im gonna show up and fork out $100 or whatever to ski at Blue.  Somewhere else?  sure.  So far my Epic pass has mostly turned out to be a convenience thing, rather than a huge financial gain.  

[Schif]

1 hour ago, toast21602 said:

@Schif have you considered going back to Montage? That plus an Indy add on would be appealing.

I did think about that actually but realistically how long/how many times can I head up to NEPA for a weekend and ski a smaller, less diverse mountain with slow lifts and really enjoy it? Montage was/is amazing if you live really close and can pop in after work, ski the whole North Face once and head back home for dinner. Not sure it's a week after week destination if you need to drive. 

My goal next year is to enjoy my weekends here in PA and do at least one decent sized western trip, maybe two. 

[skiincy]

4 hours ago, RidgeRacer said:

He could go epic and be at frost for local stuff. Not ideal at all as Schif belongs at blue and blue belongs with Schif, plus Vail. But it's an option for him. Blue is definitely forcing people's hands with the price hike so early.

PASR people have the community at Blue. For sure.

But for non PASRs who drive 4 hours round trip from Philly or New Jersey... I think the price hike (so early) over the past 3-years will deter people. It really tests the price elasticity of the market.

 

[Schif]

4 minutes ago, skiincy said:

PASR people have the community at Blue. For sure.

 

The community is definitely a big help too. I feel pretty confident that most of the time I'm at Blue there's someone I know there. Not only is it cool that ski/ride with friends but as weird as it sounds it's kind of reassuring that if something goes very very wrong out there I'll likely have a friendly face around to help me. If I went Epic pass only and went to Jack Frost and went down in the trees I think it would be a worse situation to be completely alone. 

[Justo8484]

If my childcare situation wasn't what it is to make blue as convenient as it is for me, the big price increase for blue vs an epic pass would be a lot harder to swallow for two passes

[Benm]

blues SP money train is dunzo. 

529 was a great value during the pandemic for people to get out and do something.

too big of an increase for people who are casual skiers, remote work diminishing, safe/social distancing activities are an afterthought now.

i don't think they'll come even remotely close to selling out of passes. it'll cap at 749 and be available throughout the season.

[JFskiDan]

17 minutes ago, skiincy said:

PASR people have the community at Blue. For sure.

But for non PASRs who drive 4 hours round trip from Philly or New Jersey... I think the price hike (so early) over the past 3-years will deter people. It really tests the price elasticity of the market.

 

i think when you compare the price of the pass to a similar hill, like Elk, its actually on point.  I dont find $650 this overwhelming amount of money considering.  I mean, yeah, ski sawmill, montage etc will have lower priced passes.  No disrespect to Montage, i like the place, but i just dont think its, well, somewhere i could spend every weekend.  

I think everyone should really stop comparing any season pass to an Epic pass.  Its a different product/model.  Plus, i think Blue out performed all of the local Vail resorts this year in snowmaking alone.  

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

47 minutes ago, skiincy said:

PASR people have the community at Blue. For sure.

But for non PASRs who drive 4 hours round trip from Philly or New Jersey... I think the price hike (so early) over the past 3-years will deter people. It really tests the price elasticity of the market.

 

Most Blue passholders don’t want to ski an inferior PA mountain.   $650 is such a small amount of money..I do get families who purchase 4-5 passes that’s a lot of money...I wonder what the average household income is of Blue season passholders.  I’d guess we’ll into the six figures.  Even higher for the New Yorkers and Asian invasion peeps who only come on busy weekends and shell out $126 for lift tickets and have $100k plus SUVs.  

Edited March 16, 2022 by GrilledSteezeSandwich

[theprogram4]

5 minutes ago, GrilledSteezeSandwich said:

 $650 is such a small amount of money..

Lololololol.  What a dumb thing to say.  A majority of Americans don’t have $650 in their bank account right now 

[GrilledSteezeSandwich]

17 minutes ago, theprogram4 said:

Lololololol.  What a dumb thing to say.  A majority of Americans don’t have $650 in their bank account right now 

A majority of Americans don’t ski or snowboard.  Also there’s this thing called a credit card.  

[skiincy]

41 minutes ago, GrilledSteezeSandwich said:

Also there’s this thing called a credit card.  

I think it's incredibly dumb ... to suggest that more people use things like credit cards, especially for non-essentials.

[eaf]

4 minutes ago, skiincy said:

I think it's incredibly dumb ... to suggest that more people use things like credit cards, especially for non-essentials.

How so? Works beautifully for US government. And did Biden just approve some $13.6 billion in Ukraine aid?

[Benm]

certain people wouldn't be happy until everyone skiing blue made 100k+/yr

[skiincy]

I'm going to geek out about economics for a moment and no one will care. So, thanks for letting me vent

 

Average household income doesn't always dictate what people will spend on recreation activities. It's all about the price elasticity. 

Spending $650 on a ski pass is totally normal in Colorado and Utah. Most PASRs, myself included, have multiple passes but we're not the norm. I think the price jump will scare away the average person and families in Pennsylvania. 

Instead of average household income ... I'm curious what the average number of days Blue Mountain pass holders get. We know the PASR and 70+ contingent are getting 30+ days. What about everyone else?

I'm going to bet that looking at the total population of pass holders, the average person gets 4-6x days a season. Which, if you're someone who skis 4-6x a season -- it makes the price point more of a tipping point and makes something like a Blue Mountain pass more price elastic.

[eaf]

The 4-hour ticket price this week is just $44, which makes season pass a somewhat questionable investment for an average person getting only 4-6x days a season. I bet that your bet is wrong.

[Kyle]

18 minutes ago, eaf said:

The 4-hour ticket price this week is just $44, which makes season pass a somewhat questionable investment for an average person getting only 4-6x days a season. I bet that your bet is wrong.

It was $95 in January. What’s your point.