Dynamic pricing

[paulnumbers]

There is an entire segment of society now that is barley thinking at all. Ask them why you can have surge pricing for hotel rooms and flights but not Oasis tickets, and they'll come up with something quickly enough but it won't be rational.

The reason this is even up for debate is a mixture of envy, bitterness, and quite frankly, stupidity. You're better off just raising a single eyebrow, then going and making a cup of tea.

I guess sufficient reason is one's own personal disappointment at being excluded from events which previously one could have enjoyed. That's a good enough reason for any individual to feel aggrieved, I should say.

Supply and demand is one thing, but we are quite used to, and expect, seat prices to be stable once offered for sale. This might be the brave new world, where only the wealthy can afford such outings, but that doesn't mean we have to applaud it. Indeed, I'd suggest that only those who weren't particularly keen on such an event would shrug and move on - and who needs such a pallid audience?

The bigger problem, to my mind, is the folk who thought they had booked a hotel room, but find it is "unavailable" at the last moment because of a technical error - oddly, resulting in the same room being offerred at a higher price. Is there no shame in these organisations? Have they had a total empathy bye-pass?

Arb.

Was it ever offered at one price and then changed? My brother was out of the country and asked me to buy some tickets for him. I logged into ticket master and all I got was a queue. no pricing.

Occasionally I checked back between cups of tea, but in the end had to leave, so I don't know how the queue ended

[Lootman]

There is an entire segment of society now that is barley thinking at all. Ask them why you can have surge pricing for hotel rooms and flights but not Oasis tickets, and they'll come up with something quickly enough but it won't be rational.

The reason this is even up for debate is a mixture of envy, bitterness, and quite frankly, stupidity. You're better off just raising a single eyebrow, then going and making a cup of tea.

I guess sufficient reason is one's own personal disappointment at being excluded from events which previously one could have enjoyed. That's a good enough reason for any individual to feel aggrieved, I should say.

Are you saying that you have never been "excluded from events" under fixed pricing? But only under dynamic pricing?

Surely if demand exceeds supply for an event you want to go to, then some applicants will miss out. So why do you never miss out with fixed pricing? I would have thought that was inevitable, some of the time.

[swill453]

I don't understand why it was dynamic at all. There would have been maximum demand from the instant the sale was launched. What possible reason would there be to sell any tickets at less than the maximum price?

Scott.

[paulnumbers]

I don't understand why it was dynamic at all. There would have been maximum demand from the instant the sale was launched. What possible reason would there be to sell any tickets at less than the maximum price?

Scott.

how do you know the best price you can get unless you wiggle it around a little ?

[Clitheroekid]

I notice today the furthest away seats (back of the stalls in the RFH, and the only ones remaining) are available at £120! For a production with only two pianos and no audience this is unheard of.

So if there's to be no audience where are the seats?

[Arborbridge]

I notice today the furthest away seats (back of the stalls in the RFH, and the only ones remaining) are available at £120! For a production with only two pianos and no audience this is unheard of.

So if there's to be no audience where are the seats?

Well spotted - I meant to write "orchestra"! In other words, it ought to have been a cheap enough recital. I suppose one part of me doesn't resent the performers milking their fame while they can - provided they are getting part of the excess ticket price and not the management.

However, none of these arguments make me cheer for this new harsh world which is emerging. There seems to be a lot of "logical" thought on here, but a distinct lack in some quarters, of empathy. Concert organisers and philanthropic sponsors have wanted a wide demographic, at least during my lifetime - not just the richest segment - and this liberal approach could be breaking down.
I have a feeling several of the contributors are not regular theatre or concert goers so just don't give two hoots about people being frozen out of cultural events. A shame that people will - if this carries on - have fewer chances for enrichment, including not being able to take children as the cost will be prohibitive.

As an piece of history (which I am!) I can say that as a young man on a starter's salary, I virtually lived at the Royal Festical Hall . I was able to hear all he great performers and orchestral works, thereby, which has enriched my life ever since. There's no way any young person could do that now. Seomwhere as a society we have taken a wrong turning. And that's before we note the rise in beggars on the street of London.


Arb.

[UncleEbenezer]

As an piece of history (which I am!) I can say that as a young man on a starter's salary, I virtually lived at the Royal Festical Hall . I was able to hear all he great performers and orchestral works, thereby, which has enriched my life ever since. There's no way any young person could do that now. Seomwhere as a society we have taken a wrong turning. And that's before we note the rise in beggars on the street of London.
Arb.

I had envisaged something like that when I got a job in London after graduating. Festival hall and other venues - like the ROH, where I had prommed the entire Ring cycle as a student at £3 per opera (plus queueing - arrive 08:20 on the last day, take place ~280 in the queue).

But inability to afford a room in London stopped that. In practice I had a much richer cultural life after escaping London to places I could afford to live. But of course, those are much smaller pools of cultural capital for those of us who aren't so rich.

BTW, last time I went to the Festival Hall, I went on spec after a daytime meeting which had taken me to London. Fantastic central seat for about a tenner - presumably a dynamic price for an unsold seat. They were playing Bartok's Bluebeard, and the chap due to sing the title role was indisposed. But I certainly wasn't complaining when they announced Willard White as substitute!

[Lootman]

last time I went to the Festival Hall, I went on spec after a daytime meeting which had taken me to London. Fantastic central seat for about a tenner - presumably a dynamic price for an unsold seat. They were playing Bartok's Bluebeard, and the chap due to sing the title role was indisposed. But I certainly wasn't complaining when they announced Willard White as substitute!

As distinct from Willard Whyte, the reclusive billionaire in the 7th James Bond film Diamonds are Forever, best known (to me anyway) for the Bond girl Plenty O'Toole?

You are definitely more cultured than I am.

[88V8]

I guess sufficient reason is one's own personal disappointment at being excluded from events which previously one could have enjoyed. That's a good enough reason for any individual to feel aggrieved, I should say.

Are you saying that you have never been "excluded from events" under fixed pricing? But only under dynamic pricing?
Surely if demand exceeds supply for an event you want to go to, then some applicants will miss out. So why do you never miss out with fixed pricing? I would have thought that was inevitable, some of the time.

We will be going to the Goodwood Revival this weekend.
All tickets are sold out... I bought ours last year, and booked our B&B a year ago.
No dynamic pricing there. Except that local prices during Goodwood events are sky-high. £200 a night for a nothing special B&B, but we knew that when we booked.

I can see the attraction of dynamic pricing for sellers, and I believe this is quite the norm in the US, if so inevitably we will follow unless the govt somehow stamps on it.

All this of course is a 'benefit' of the internet, without which it would not be possible.

V8

[DrFfybes]

Just tried to book holidays with Easyjet.

In the few minutes between selecting the flights and choosing the suitcase and rejecting their offers for seats, insurance, and car hire, I enetered the dredit card details and a little box popped up to say the prices had changed.

Oddly this was not in my favour, and was an extra hundred quid.

Sod that - I didn't really want to spend new year with MrsF's sister anyway so that's a relief.

Paul

[staffordian]

Just tried to book holidays with Easyjet.

In the few minutes between selecting the flights and choosing the suitcase and rejecting their offers for seats, insurance, and car hire, I enetered the dredit card details and a little box popped up to say the prices had changed.

Oddly this was not in my favour, and was an extra hundred quid.

Sod that - I didn't really want to spend new year with MrsF's sister anyway so that's a relief.

Paul

I understand that deleting cookies before trying a second time can help, unless the booking sites have become wise to that and found ways to get round it.

[DrFfybes]

Just tried to book holidays with Easyjet.

In the few minutes between selecting the flights and choosing the suitcase and rejecting their offers for seats, insurance, and car hire, I enetered the dredit card details and a little box popped up to say the prices had changed.

Oddly this was not in my favour, and was an extra hundred quid.

I understand that deleting cookies before trying a second time can help, unless the booking sites have become wise to that and found ways to get round it.

I deleted the cookies as it had gone up £15 from yesterday on MrsF's machine, it came down £30 on mine. There's a fine line between "dynamic pricing" and "taking the proverbial".

[Redmires]

An interesting article about the stranglehold that Live Nation have on the ticketing business. Sounds like a cartel to me.

https://www.bbc.co.uk/news/articles/crmw0l30vk0o