New Ticket Prices Are Out Of Control

[EXskier]

$82 for Saturdays and Holidays?! I don't know about you but I am one of the lucky ones who still have a job. That being said, I make less than I did 2 years ago and haven't had a raise in 2 years. I think most people are in the same boat. All the while prices have been going up in every aspect of life, food, cars, skiing. Something has got to give. I haven't been able to fill my ski house this year and these ticket prices certainly won't help. One more year of not filling my ski house and i will have to sell. That will be 17 people who won't be back skiing the Bush on a regular basis, but I guess making Sugarbush an upscale mtn is all about refining the Clientele.

[TimKeogh]

I hate to admit this, but my family will be spending more of our ski dollars at Jay Peak this year.
I truly love the Sugarbush experience, but a $47 Vermonter rate compared to what I pay for even discounted lift tickets at SB is just too much.

As a believer in the free market system and healthy competition, I wish Win and all his crew the best!
Go after the most profitable segment of the market you can find and set prices to what the market will bear.

[WWF-VT]

$82 for Saturdays and Holidays?! I don't know about you but I am one of the lucky ones who still have a job. That being said, I make less than I did 2 years ago and haven't had a raise in 2 years. I think most people are in the same boat. All the while prices have been going up in every aspect of life, food, cars, skiing. Something has got to give. I haven't been able to fill my ski house this year and these ticket prices certainly won't help. One more year of not filling my ski house and i will have to sell. That will be 17 people who won't be back skiing the Bush on a regular basis, but I guess making Sugarbush an upscale mtn is all about refining the Clientele.

17 people in a ski house that ski Sugarbush on a regular basis and you are buying day tickets ? Helluva lot more economical to buy an early bird season pass or at least a SugarDirect card.

[kcyanks1]

$82 for Saturdays and Holidays?! I don't know about you but I am one of the lucky ones who still have a job. That being said, I make less than I did 2 years ago and haven't had a raise in 2 years. I think most people are in the same boat. All the while prices have been going up in every aspect of life, food, cars, skiing. Something has got to give. I haven't been able to fill my ski house this year and these ticket prices certainly won't help. One more year of not filling my ski house and i will have to sell. That will be 17 people who won't be back skiing the Bush on a regular basis, but I guess making Sugarbush an upscale mtn is all about refining the Clientele.

17 people in a ski house that ski Sugarbush on a regular basis and you are buying day tickets ? Helluva lot more economical to buy an early bird season pass or at least a SugarDirect card.

Or try to join a ski club and get club rates, which last year were $49, I believe. The club I join won't work for EXskier, probably, because it has a lodge and does bus trips from NY, and that's not something he'd want to pay for. But I figure other clubs exist that may work out.

[Hawk]

Not out of control but in line with similar resorts. A brief look around shows that Killington is getting $82 for a weekend day. Stowe $ 89. Sunday River $74. NH resorts are all in the 70's. I guess Smugs, Jay and MRG are cheeper.

Now this is skiing. Who said it was going to be cheep? I always look at the cost of a round of golf and think that a round of golf is about $100 and it only takes about 5 hours. Now which is more fun? Golf? I think not!

[vonski]

The sugar direct card is the way to go for non-pass holders if u want to ski the whole mountain. But it does nothing to promote Ellen further. It is only good on an all mountain ticket. Perhaps that should be looked at closer and give the discount on Ellen only ticket as well. That would put the price at last years price for an Ellen ticket or at least close. This will not impact me as I did buy my pass in April, but it will impact my friend who would ski with me as he holds off on the pass all the time. The one year he did buy one he broke his arm in January falling of his roof so he is gun shy.

It is also only for the Sat and Holiday, so it looks like they are trying to maximize on the busiest days of the year. They do need to make their money. I think advertising the price increases would have promoted pass sales as It truely is a no brainer in regards to buying one in April. Think Snow!!!

[TreeBandit]

This is why I buy a season pass that pays for itself in ~15 day. Last year I got 50 days. I also believe that you get what you pay for with respect of ticket price.

We all like the new features at SB and these cost money. Yes I could ski MRG, if I want to wait in a lift line for single chair and get 5 runs in a day. i could also go to Jay (I do like this mountain), but I like the 5 mile drive to SB from my place. When we were looking for a ski house we looked in ME, VT and NH, heck I used to work at Okemo for 9 years.....but we came back to SB because of the mtn and what the area offered.

I do agree that many of us, me included have not received an income increase in multiple years and I have had to cut cost were I can, heck last year just the gas alone to get to SB was $100 for a weekend.

There are other options as people have pointed out for saving money and buying ski tickets, as you have to look at total cost. What is the extra cost to drive to Jay as you need to tack that cost to the price of a pass.

As a note, I just bought a Family Card for MRG so that my child could ski free there when she wants.

my $0.02

[summitchallenger]

As said, get the Sugarcard or a pass. If you are skiing enough, it is worth it.

[Lostone]

Can't argue that isn't high, but it is the biggest bang for the buck, charging more for the busiest times.

Consider the Sugar Direct. $99 gives you a free ticket. That means that you get it for $17, over the Saturday price. Then you save 20-25% off the daily price and get the 11th day for free. That is an additional 10% off.


Also, consider skiing Sundays, instead of Saturdays. I can't tell you how many times I've seen people not show up for a Sunday Powder day, after they skied a just ok, Saturday.

Of course, I never suggest that people ski on a powder day. Powder makes you stupid!

[Xskier]

THe people that join my house for the most part don't ski more than 8 days a year so a pass does not work for them and also the direct to lift pass won't work either, unless you ski at least 12 days (to get that last free ticket). Most join a ski club in CT, but those deadlines have come and gone. So any new memembers will be looking at dishing out $82 for a lift ticket. Most everyone except passholders only ski on Saturday. Killington and Sunday River has cheap pass options ($699 with black out dates for the WHOLE Mtn). I wonder who copied who but if you look at the Lift Ticket Prices for Sugarbush and Killington they are exactly the same for Saturday/Holiday and the rest of the week. Stowe is more, but if i wanted to be at Stowe, pay stowe prices, and act like a Stowe snob i would have bought a house there 12 years ago instead of Sugarbush. Now it seems like Sugarbush is trying to become Stowe. I personally wouldn't care if I was a skier renting a spot in a house because I have always bought passes, but being a home owner who needs the ski share income to keep the house this is having a huge impact.

[summitchallenger]

THe people that join my house for the most part don't ski more than 8 days a year so a pass does not work for them and also the direct to lift pass won't work either, unless you ski at least 12 days (to get that last free ticket). Most join a ski club in CT, but those deadlines have come and gone. So any new memembers will be looking at dishing out $82 for a lift ticket. Most everyone except passholders only ski on Saturday. Killington and Sunday River has cheap pass options ($699 with black out dates for the WHOLE Mtn). I wonder who copied who but if you look at the Lift Ticket Prices for Sugarbush and Killington they are exactly the same for Saturday/Holiday and the rest of the week. Stowe is more, but if i wanted to be at Stowe, pay stowe prices, and act like a Stowe snob i would have bought a house there 12 years ago instead of Sugarbush. Now it seems like Sugarbush is trying to become Stowe. I personally wouldn't care if I was a skier renting a spot in a house because I have always bought passes, but being a home owner who needs the ski share income to keep the house this is having a huge impact.

One last thing you can do is get discounted tickets. Sugarbush does not hide the fact that they sell them at many places.

I certainly understand the frustration. I'm local and I make a fraction of what people outside the state make at the same job. In May I really when I put down the $$$ for a Ellen Plus Pass, but I will use it. If I only skied 8 days I'd also be if not but apparently SB has data to suggest that they don't have a lot of people who ski the place 8 days or less.

[TimKeogh]

THe people that join my house for the most part don't ski more than 8 days a year so a pass does not work for them and also the direct to lift pass won't work either, unless you ski at least 12 days (to get that last free ticket). Most join a ski club in CT, but those deadlines have come and gone.

Xskier - Bulk Buy ticket deadline has passed. The price was $54 for an all-mountain, no-blackout ticket. But there are still options. CSC awareness days have $35 SB tickets on Jan 8/9/10 and Mar 24/25/26. There is also a exchange platform where you can purchase SB tickets from other valid CSC members.

This can still be a good deal .... if .... you use them all or sell (to valid members) the unused tickets, because SB only redeems 85%. I got burned last year by this.

So my plan is to ski CSC awareness days only and hopefully buy some tickets in the exchange in Feb/Mar. Jay Peak will be my primary mountain now.

This bums me out because if I got a 100% redeem rate, I would buy like 25 tickets @ $54 and end up spending a lot more $$$ in Castlerock pub & the restaurant and ski school...

[skierdon]

MRG is right around the corner if you don't like Sugarbush prices. You can stock up on Mad cards and people are only paying about $40 a ticket.

[WWF-VT]

This bums me out because if I got a 100% redeem rate, I would buy like 25 tickets @ $54 and end up spending a lot more $$$ in Castlerock pub & the restaurant and ski school...

I am not sure how you spread around 25 tickets but 25 x $54 = $1350. For $999 I bought an all mountain season pass that also includes a pass for my 11 year old son.

[gone.skiing]

You could also do Mt. Ellen on Sat and LP on Sunday. There are ways to save some... Prices still bite though. I have been trying to get friends that only ski a few times a year to come up for a weekend and with these prices I am not sure how many will actually do it.