Craig
TS Administrator
There's probably a few things at play. Moving people onto newer plans en masse will certainly be an absolute nightmare. The booking system barely copes with the setup they have now, let alone throwing in an upgrade process between monthly pass tiers. I did see Merlin mention on Twitter to a few people to contact them directly to arrange an upgrade, so it's presumably possible but not really a standard process. As Rick mentioned though, the issue of the joining fee would no doubt have to be addressed as I've not seen anything about this being waived at present, aside from them replying on Twitter to "watch this space" when someone queried it.
Elsewhere, Merlin have probably done a bit of research and worked out that the cost of premium monthly pass holders who would completely discontinue their pass if they were forcefully moved to higher tiers would outweigh the revenue they're getting for them at the current price. Merlin are probably fairly happy to leave those pass holders alone at present as a guaranteed monthly income. With the winter months coming up, it's essentially "free money" as a large chunk of people will be paying that monthly fee and not really going to any attractions. You've also got annual pass holders who still have passes valid until February or March next year due to extensions, so they don't want to be seen as trying to get rid of monthly pass holders while annual holders still have the same type of pass.
The likelihood is we'll see a continued dilution of the old premium product to put it into a managed decline, to slow the number of people who completely leave over a longer period of time. We've already seen that dilution with the £20 fee for fireworks at Alton and Legoland, along with having only 3 prebook slots. We'd likely see a few more benefits tweaked on the Platinum/Gold tiers too which wouldn't be available to the legacy pass holders as time goes on too in order to encourage uptake.
Elsewhere, Merlin have probably done a bit of research and worked out that the cost of premium monthly pass holders who would completely discontinue their pass if they were forcefully moved to higher tiers would outweigh the revenue they're getting for them at the current price. Merlin are probably fairly happy to leave those pass holders alone at present as a guaranteed monthly income. With the winter months coming up, it's essentially "free money" as a large chunk of people will be paying that monthly fee and not really going to any attractions. You've also got annual pass holders who still have passes valid until February or March next year due to extensions, so they don't want to be seen as trying to get rid of monthly pass holders while annual holders still have the same type of pass.
The likelihood is we'll see a continued dilution of the old premium product to put it into a managed decline, to slow the number of people who completely leave over a longer period of time. We've already seen that dilution with the £20 fee for fireworks at Alton and Legoland, along with having only 3 prebook slots. We'd likely see a few more benefits tweaked on the Platinum/Gold tiers too which wouldn't be available to the legacy pass holders as time goes on too in order to encourage uptake.
