Lift pass?? buy before you go or get them out there.....

A snowHead

....going to 3 valleys on the 26th of march,
is it best to get your ski passes out there or buy online before you go??????

thanks

jason

A snowHead

Depends whether you prefer to spend your first morning standing in a queue or having breakfast and going skiing.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Used to book prior to going but don't now. Had to cancel a trip last year and struggled to get a refund on the lift pass from either the insurers or the T.O. Eventually the T.O. came good (thanks Neilson!) but still hit me with a hefty admin fee.

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I was there last week and bought it on the first morning in C1650, no queue and it took about 2 mins - perhaps we were lucky.

To be honest I prefere to buy it on the afternoon/early evening that we arrive but by the time we got to resort the ticket ofice was closed. I have never pre-purchased though so cant comment on that.

Enjoy your trip

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Just bought some tickets online for our easter trip at les deux alpes. The total saving for two over 4 days was nearly eur50. So was well worth it, providing we dont have any issues regarding the trip like sudden illness or complete lack of snow!

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Where u going man?

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kcosh

Ordered our 3V lift pass at 11pm a week past Friday and they arrived in the post on the Tuesday only 4 days later. Great Service.

I have in recent years brought on line for the 3 valleys for Christmas but it doesn;t save you any money buying up front.
What it does save is the lottery of any possible ques when buying in the pass office, even in the small resort of St Martin, neither are they up front in the offices about any deals, which can be displayed on the web site.
I always seem to be stuck behind the guy that will not try to speak French and will wind up the staff by shouting his instructions or requesting his next years monthly mortgage quote... OOOooops sorry that is when I am in a hurry at the bank... rolling eyes

A few years ago there was a deal lift staff warned us of, so we stayed the extra day but only to be told in St Martin that this wasn;t available by the staff in the office. We went up to Les menuires & got the deal.
Similarly whilst my son & I get 3 valley passes, my wife only gets a single valley Val Thorens pass. One day was awful weather in Val T so I tried to get her a single day 3 valley pass, so she could come with us across to Meribel where we knew the weather would be better & the staff refused, stating all kinds of excuses (from weather would close lifts / lifts had mechanical problems to it not being possible to upgrade for 1 day or obtain a single days pass). we had a great day in Meribel & across to Corcheval - I am not impressed with lift pass staff.

My son & I are returning in April & I will pay on line to fill our existing passes from Christmas.

Noisey

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thanks guys.

staying in brides les bains

Smile

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they all seem to be about 235 euro for a 6 day pass,!! about right???

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if you will miss one day of the skiing, all these discounts on multiday ones will be useless.
so, buy on the spot. perhaps one day you will like to ski from 8:30 till 13:00.
another day could appear to be unskiable (rain, etc).
In some resorts, split passes for a half day or even from 11:00 AM.. 13:00 PM.. 1400:PM till the end of the day, are available.

jayjames, unless you can get a discount somewhere online (I managed to get 10% off a Verbier lift pass this year) get the pass when you get there. I really don't see why people get so het up about lift pass queues - other than that one online buy I've always bought when I get there and have hardly ever had a problem (other than at Tignes pre-season). There can be a bit of a queue at the Brides ticket office around 8:30 on Sun am, but in buying half a dozen tickets there in the last two years I've probably had one wait of 10 mins, and normally it was only a couple of mins.

You know it makes sense.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

jayjames, 195€ in 2Alpes. 166€ if you buy online, limited availability.

cbr7, weather conditions aren't reliable during any other month either.

A snowHead

I say we may as well get them there. We will have time satyurday afternoon before we have a beer or two. Very Happy

A snowHead

Poo, I need a 9 day pass for L2A. 279.59€ or if I buy a variety of tickets on offers about 270€ grr. That 6 day ticket is a very good price though.

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

If your sorting everything well in advance of going, I like to buy the passes online and get them delivered to your place in the UK, that way you have the passes there and can jump on the piste as soon as you get into resort, not lift office required Shock

) , plus another thing is sometimes buying the passes online can save u 5 - 10 % on the lift office prices.

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jayjames, are you going with a TO or a DIY holiday?

we got our 3Vs passes through our TO for next week and the cost was around £180

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

jayjames, Always buy it there is my advice - what happens if you'd bought it before hand and its a windy/ lifts closed when you get there. Up early first day, beat the queues and get out there IMO.

Wierd thing - debit cards not accepted in St Anton, but credit cards are.............how mad's that?? (and they have to be signed, plus copy of driving licence for additional security)

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Colin B, you're already saving nearly a tenner a day on full price, stop grumbling. Laughing

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Lizzard, Suppose so but it's still near enough £500 for the 2 of us. I'll see whether Charlotte can do anything this year.

After all it is free

shoogly,

tour op

friend who booked (bigtoe) is contacting them!!

that was cheap!

6 day?

noisey, how u mean fill you lift passes? so the lift passes u had at crimbo can be re-activated for another week? and is there a discount with this?

also my brother in law is working in the ronnie in Meribel and hes got a season valley pass. When he wants a 3V pass for the day it costs him 20 bucks.

going back out on the weekend of the 15th April. trying to figure out which way is cheapest to get passes?

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Buy out there.

It's dumping at the moment. If it's dumping when you get there, buy a 5 day instead of a 6.

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PHoSawyer, that's cruel - all that skiing and only the worst of it for free. They're teasing him Laughing

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the tour opp offered 5% discount. I say get there have a few beers then handing over £205.00 for the lift pass wont feel as painful. If its dumping it downwhe we get there i am still skiing!!!! Very Happy

PHoSawyer, I believe you can top up the lift passes we brought at Christmas, they have a number on them that you can quote on line - our friends who came with us that particular year complained and got a discount on this years pass.

He talked me through it, they went on line, quoted the numbers on their passes & names then the discount number and their passes were topped up for when they arrived.

I have not done it yet, but need to - I can try later this weekend and let you know.

I do not believe 3V give discounts on line. They did have a weired offer over Christmas, 6 child days for 5 and oddly similar for adults but on different start & finish dates !! We were able to take advantage of it for our son but not for us due to our arrival date.

Noisey

You know it makes sense.

we have pos passes bought in advance, you can top them up over t'internet in about 2 minutes and of course reuse them on other trips. no hassle and flexible.

Otherwise you'll just go on seeing the one name:

bar shaker, All the more reason for getting out there, yellow lenses in and go for it.

A snowHead

A snowHead

PHoSawyer, Just loaded my passes....

having previously brought POS ski passes (3 Euros charge each) all I have had to do is go on line, log in, tick which of us we want a repeat "order" for, click and it goes thro to a screen with the people selected and info and by each person I have had to select "yes" button to whether we had a card - then I could enter the number that is on each POS card on screen (ensuring the number tallied with the person, as my son counts as an "enfant" so I don;t end up mis-using a childs pass by mistake).
It then confirms & you pay.
It didn;t save me any although it came in 10 euros less than when I cost it out a month ago.

I think the main benifit is that by paying on line you can help spread the cost of the holiday. For example the way my credit card lands the passes & insurance are this month - the digs & transport were on last months car and the trip will be on next months card - spreading the cost a little further.

The risk is in loosing the cards !!

Noisey

Well, the person's real but it's just a made up name, see?

Be a little wary of TO lift passes. At SOPiB11, most sHs whe were not over 65 (and so eligible for a discount on personal production of ID) got the passes through the TO. Trouble was that the lift pass receipts did not have the vouchers printed at the bottom for day passes at other resorts such as Mont Genevre. Caused a major problem at the ticket office at Mont Genevere - resulting in admin forking out personally for day passes after an hour's delay - and then having further major problems getting his money back.

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achilles, Alpe d'Huez? In which case the TO was probably supplying non-Visalp passes, which are cheaper but don't include the Galaxie system. Pays to read the small print.

Anyway, snowHeads is much more fun if you do.

Lizzard, Serre Chevalier. I made sure I got a full area pass (called a Super Galaxie, I think) which had all the bells and whistles, including the vouchers for the day passes. The rest of the party seemed to be OK skiing in the Serre Chavalier area - but when they wanted to ski elsewhere for the day, the TO rep told admin (after the Montgenevre debacle) that she had to send a fax and needed notice - 48 hours IIRC Shocked

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PHoSawyer Strange misdirection from the people of Sevabel (Ski Pass company).
When they send you your confirmation of order, after purchasing your top up for your POS ski pass -
or Key card as they call it - they state:

"....Please bring your registered keycard and this confirmation email with you to Les Menuires skiresort..."

Which is a bit of a waste of time as my resort is St Martin De Belleville, which I tagged as part of the purchase process.

Not wanting to catch a bus up to Les Menuires I contacted them on bookingsevabel @ compagniedesalpes.fr

& they have now confirmed that:

"....It’s not necessary to go to LES MENUIRES, the first passage on the lift of ST MARTIN valid the skipasses
Best regards..."

Although this would only apply to topped up ski passes rather than completely new ones.
DO NOT request posting a ski pass - as I did last year, it took 3 weeks of postage and we only got it with 2 days to spare and when checking the post mark it had sat in Les Menuires for 5 days before getting down to Moutiers for it;s post marking and then took a further 10 days to reach us (assuming 5 working days per week for the posty).

Noisey

After all it is free

ahhh, so even though you can buy online to topup you still need to validate in a pass shop?

or do they mean when you first use it, then it validates for the period that you've purchased?

Im asking because im gunna be in Les Allues which is below Meribel and Meribel-Village and it hasnt got a lift pass shop i dont think. Ill probably end up getting the TO to get them. They are a small company and just sends and employee to buy the passes.

PHoSawyer

Yes that is how I would read that, when you first use it, then it validates for the period that you've purchased..

As they state "... the first passage on the lift of ST MARTIN valid the skipasses..."

Their Franglais doesn;t help but I think you get the idea.

Why not get them to collect the ski pass, anything to ease the burden..

We are there from 9th April are you going the previous week ?

Noisey

*Ski* the Net with snowHeads

Be careful buying in advance to get an offer as well, we did this for 2 adults and a child at isola2000 last year (jan 2010) and we had a power outage that wiped out the lifts and most of the other power on the mountain for 2 1/2 days, we were told to go to the ticket office on the last day of our passes to get a refund, but when I got there was told that as they were special offer tickets purchased in advance we weren't entitled to a refund. I countered that we'd missed the same 2 days as other pass holders and we were only asking to be refunded pro-rata what we'd paid per day to be given a very French shoulder shrug and a closed blind on the window. I wrote to the manager of the resort and never even got a reply

Help!!

Lift pass?? buy before you go or get them out there.....

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