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Merlin Annual Pass

I picked up my premium pass upgrade at the dungeon on new year's eve. New logo is very nice. However, there was no mention of the premium pack (with Lanyard, fast-track vouchers, etc); the staff (whilst lovely) were completely clueless. They suggested something about having to pick it up at a theme park… which strikes me as just a made up "trying-to-be-helpful" answer.

It's shocking there is no communication. Going to call the help line...
 
djtruefitt said:
Ian said:
Last year if I recall correctly you got 50% off admission to Heide Park with a valid UK MAP. Be interested to know if that's staying or not with the introduction of the Global VIP pass...
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You still get that with standard and premium passes, I have read it somewhere on the new site.
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The question then is do the international places actually know this perk exists...

My previous visits to a Sea-Life in Oberhausen and Tussauds in New York both had rather confused (and no knowledge) reactions to the perk, and we actually got into Tussauds for free as a result (we were given BOGOF for Sea-Life after the guy rang up a manager to investigate, whilst Tussauds just thought our MAPs would allow us free entry regardless)...
 
Poor planning on Merlin's part - as per usual.

They should have just delayed the new passes until March and even done a spring sale. It will cause unnecessary faff when many people buy new passes this time of the year and then have to get the extras months later.
 
I somewhat doubt they'll be keeping track of who is missing a premium pack either - which will mean chaos when trying to attempt to get one...
 
Hopefully they will just post them out when they are ready to avoid these issues </wishful thinking>
 
What is so complex about the pack?

Not being sarcastic, genuine question. Did they use the same building company to make the lanyards as built The Smiler (Ok, that bit was sarcastic)?
 
I'm personally very pleased by the introduction of a 'VIP' pass.

By continuing to fuel the superiorty complexes of those with more money than sense, and labelling them 'very important' because as we know, money is the only important characteristic, Merlin helps contribute to the coming rise of poor (or 'standard') people in the revolution to overthrow the chains of financial feudalism posing as the benign.

Every excess of the wealthy brings them ever closer to their eventual downfall.

Viva la revolucion!

(Also, happy 2014 everyone. I thought I should probably make my first post of the year a good one. ;))
 
Oh come on now, it's a theme park pass ::) Anyone who owns any kind of Annual Pass (or, indeed, goes to theme parks at all) is indulging in a luxury.

People who can only afford to enter with the lowest-price tickets should be grateful these premium options exist, as they tempt those who can afford to pay more into doing so. This increases total revenue for Merlin. If they didn't, nobody would have any incentive not to pay the lowest price they could otherwise get, and the lowest prices available would therefore be higher.
 
Meat Pie said:
I'm personally very pleased by the introduction of a 'VIP' pass.

By continuing to fuel the superiorty complexes of those with more money than sense, and labelling them 'very important' because as we know, money is the only important characteristic, Merlin helps contribute to the coming rise of poor (or 'standard') people in the revolution to overthrow the chains of financial feudalism posing as the benign.

Every excess of the wealthy brings them ever closer to their eventual downfall.
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I work hard, I earn money, I use it to buy stuff I want. Get over it. ;)

Anyway, to those wondering about the premium pack, we were told that they were going to be posted out in February.
 
I felt it was blindingly obvious that I was exagerating for comic effect, but since I've hit a nerve, let's explore this...

Cdd - If you honestly think the money from up-selling goes anywhere but the shareholder's pockets, I feel you are sadly mistaken. If you got rid of these 'premium' products, it would not have an effect on standard ticket prices, unless of course Merlin wanted to put their prices so out of reach of their primary customer base that they would lose buisness.

Pixie - You work hard? So what? Most the people on minimum wage work hard. Most people at the lowest end of the socio-economic scale work hard. Most the people who are forced into working for no money by this Government's workfare (slavery) scheme work hard. What is your point? Do you believe you work harder than everyone poorer than yourself or who can't afford what you can? Do you work harder than a child paid 8p a week in a sweatshop? Is it just their fault that they are poor? You'd have to be a maniac or so self-involved that you are able to ignore anyone else's plight to believe that our society is in anyway meritocratic. Or perhaps you just don't care...? Or most likely of all, you are using simple phrases that whilst sound universally appealing, they fail to address the complexities of our world, as to back up a position that is otherwise indefensible?
 
I work on minimum wage and choose to work 50hr weeks to be able to get money to spend on what I like. I'd like to earn more money for the job i'm doing, but I don't so I won't. I also won't blast about what I cannot afford to spend money on. Because the world doesn't work like this and tbf I don't think the world owes me a living or that it's wrong of them to treat me like this.

VIP pass is good, anyone who has the money to spend on it and thinks it's good value is more than welcome to spend on it. Least they're catering for all needs. That's my view on it.

Moderator Comment: post edited to remove aspects that do not meet member expectations (respect for fellow posters)
 
Meat Pie said:
I felt it was blindingly obvious that I was exagerating for comic effect, but since I've hit a nerve, let's explore this...
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Why did you have to set him off? It was obviously tongue in cheek lol!! Now he is going to go all "I want to win most serious member award again!" on us all!! DARN YOU ALL!!

On a serious note, he is right though, society is in no way meritocratic, but I still want the VIP pass, they are awesome, and to annoy Meaty even further I would follow him around and skip every queue he was in with it like some kind of neo-VIP! ;D
 
The worlds unfair

From pay to health to getting run over by a bus it proves that 1000 times over. I'm not getting a VIP pass but if I had the income I might.
 
Meat Pie said:
Pixie - You work hard? So what? Most the people on minimum wage work hard. Most people at the lowest end of the socio-economic scale work hard. Most the people who are forced into working for no money by this Government's workfare (slavery) scheme work hard. What is your point? Do you believe you work harder than everyone poorer than yourself or who can't afford what you can? Do you work harder than a child paid 8p a week in a sweatshop? Is it just their fault that they are poor? You'd have to be a maniac or so self-involved that you are able to ignore anyone else's plight to believe that our society is in anyway meritocratic. Or perhaps you just don't care...? Or most likely of all, you are using simple phrases that whilst sound universally appealing, they fail to address the complexities of our world, as to back up a position that is otherwise indefensible?
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You certainly like to put words into people's mouths, don't you? I don't believe I said any of the above, yet you chose to judge me for a tongue in cheek comment to match your own. Ah well, you seem to enjoy being angry with the world so I'll leave you to it.
 
Meat Pie said:
Cdd - If you honestly think the money from up-selling goes anywhere but the shareholder's pockets, I feel you are sadly mistaken. If you got rid of these 'premium' products, it would not have an effect on standard ticket prices, unless of course Merlin wanted to put their prices so out of reach of their primary customer base that they would lose buisness.
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I don't believe it all gets invested into the park again by any stretch. It's just an elaborate method of market segmentation.

I highly recommend you read the link (and it has more economic relevance to a theme park than you might imagine, mainly because the unit cost to the vendor of both software and theme park entry is approximately zero, and both include significant sunk costs), but to summarise:

  • Variable pricing works better than a flat entry fee because it maximises consumer surplus [difference between the price people will pay and the price they are asked to pay] and low-end consumers [those who can't afford the flat entry fee at all] that would be lost out on if they were charging a flat fee.
  • Merlin's aim is (or should be) to get people to pay the maximum they are prepared to pay. This maximises revenue.
  • Asking people how rich they are and charging them accordingly doesn't tend to go down all that well as a business strategy, so they have to offer something (that doesn't cost them anything, because that would defeat the point) to convince those who are paying the higher rate that they are getting value for money.
  • The best way to offer a tangible perk that costs no money, whether you like it or not, is to treat those paying more better than those paying less. Hence: premium parking, queue jumping, etc.
  • Making the perks scalable, again, maximises consumer surplus (if you'd be happy paying £30 to get in, you'd get your entry ticket + a £10 fasttrack; if you'd be happy paying £70, you'd get the entry ticket and a £50 fasttrack; and if you'd be happy paying £130, you'd get the entry ticket, unlimited fasttrack and premium parking, and trust me, some people are.
  • Most importantly, capturing consumer surplus at the top end also allows them to capture lost revenue at the bottom end by keeping the entry fee low.

If a law were passed saying Merlin could only charge a flat entry fee and no more, I can assure you it would be greater than £20. Why? Because the revenue lost by those who could afford £20 but can't afford £30 would be made up for by those who would be only too happy to pay £30 (since they were happy to pay £130 beforehand). It's all about finding that sweet spot between cost and ticket sales, and trust me, £20 is NOT the sweet spot. It's only where it is because Merlin have other ways of getting the additional revenue off those who are prepared to pay more.

Let's assume, just for a moment - for the sake of argument, if you will - that the sweet spot is £30. (I would actually guess it's more, since you need coupons to get a £20 entry, but I'm trying to be uncontroversial here). There's no paid discrimination, but everyone has to pay £30 to get in. That's a lot of families who can no longer get into Alton Towers because they can't afford the new, genuine entry fee that maximises profits. Good?

I'm guessing it hasn't escaped your notice that the price of a Standard Merlin Pass has remained the same, despite inflation having taken place - and the 'value' of a premium pass has increased significantly. Entirely unrelated to a VIP pass taking up the top-end? Or the magic of market segmentation in action?
 
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