[News] Flames introduce paperless tickets

[Smartcar]

I was leery of it at first but it turns out that this system is a LOT easier if you split tickets. The person who owns the tickets logs on and forwards the agreed upon games to the other people. When they receive their tickets they can create their own account and those tickets are theirs. The forwarded tickets are no longer in the seasons ticketholder's account or on their card.

The only difference is the forwarded tickets have to be printed for entry. I suppose the barcode from a pdf version displayed on a smartphone might work, only one way to find out.

[homestand]

Cost saving for management only.
Personally I will have to print 360 tickets per season to distribute. Extra costs and effort for me. If I request printed tickets it could very well cost me $400 per season.
Box suite holders will not be going paperless.

[Smartcar]

Originally Posted by SeeBass

I had to deal with this crap last year with my work for Oilers tix it made it impossible to follow and we actually gave out the same tickets to different people. It was not good phone call when a guy and his son came down from Slave lake to see a game and had their tix from my company were declined as he is standing out side the rink calling me.

I'm not sure how this could have happened. Did you give them the original hard copy tickets and then someone email forwarded them as well? I gave the tickets to someone who lost them, so I forwarded the tickets to them by email (and ate the $5), and warned them the originals would no longer be valid. If you print them, yes you can accidentally print multiple copies but if you forward them there is no chance of multiple copies.

[Rhettzky]

Just talked to the ticket office and they said they are working on allowing you to scan from your smart phone. They are not sure if it will be ready in time for the start of the season but will let people know as soon as they figure it out.

[Cleveland Steam Whistle]

Originally Posted by SeeBass

It is a shame that you missed a couple of reasons from others that have nothing to do with what you said and they are valid.
You would also be wrong if you think that the majority of the 400 people who get tix from me feel that way either.

I absolutely haven't read every post in this thread, so I may have missed some. If you think I've missed anything relevant, you certainly could have re-itterrated the points, seen as you didn't, I'll assume you did so due to the lack persuasiveness of those arguments.

Also, 400 people you give tickets too? What kind of racket are you running? If you are re-distributing or re-selling your tickets, not really sure the Flames should be considering your business model while they make their decisions. If you aren't, why doesn't the email options work for you?

Also, 400 people is a pretty small % of any game day traffic, no solution will be loved by all, but decisions need to be made for the majority.

[squiggs96]

Originally Posted by Rhettzky

Just talked to the ticket office and they said they are working on allowing you to scan from your smart phone. They are not sure if it will be ready in time for the start of the season but will let people know as soon as they figure it out.

I would like to see a Calgary Flames ticket app for a smart phone. When you load it on to your phone you attach an email address with it. As a STH I can then send you the tickets for a particular game, either from my STH account on a computer, or through my own app. You receive the email notification that you have tickets and then you open the app up and can see all tickets from me, or anyone else. Once the tickets have been assigned/sent, they are no longer valid/in control of the original sender. If you then decide to assign them to someone else, you would have that power, which would continue to pass to the current ticket holder. When you go to the Dome you show your phone and they scan it from there.

This would make things much easier to assign tickets, especially if you share it with others, and it would make it more secure for the person who is buying and/or receiving the tickets. You wouldn't have to worry about receiving a flimsy paper ticket or wondering if the printed version of the PDF is fake or has been duplicated.

It would also be funny to see all the ticket sellers at the C Train station transferring tickets to buyers before a game.

[getbak]

Originally Posted by Resolute 14

Making it easier to transfer tickets is the only real concern, and waiving the transfer fees is meant to help that this year. If they make the ticket transfer process easier to use - which I am doubtful of for this year, at least - this is pretty much a win all around.

The letter says that the electronic transfer of tickets will always be free going forward. The only thing they are going to charge for in the future is printing out the full season's worth of tickets.

[Pontine]

I wonder how much this will hurt the scalpers? I guess they could always pay the fee next year to print the hard copy tickets, but that would cut into their bottom line.

The smart phone app will be interesting. Looking forward to seeing everyone's experience this year with the cards, as my group and I are opting for the paper tickets this year.

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by getbak

The letter says that the electronic transfer of tickets will always be free going forward. The only thing they are going to charge for in the future is printing out the full season's worth of tickets.

Does it? It definitely said for this year and seasons moving forward you'd get free print at home, but the wording about transfers is different, it only talks about this season.

Even the wording about print at home doesn't have anything nearly as strong as "always free" in it.

[Cleveland Steam Whistle]

Originally Posted by bizaro86

Does it? It definitely said for this year and seasons moving forward you'd get free print at home, but the wording about transfers is different, it only talks about this season.

Even the wording about print at home doesn't have anything nearly as strong as "always free" in it.

Why would it need to be spelled out about printing at home? How are the Flames going to find a way to charge you a fee for the paper and ink you buy at Staples?

[bizaro86]

Originally Posted by Cleveland Steam Whistle

Why would it need to be spelled out about printing at home? How are the Flames going to find a way to charge you a fee for the paper and ink you buy at Staples?

Well, in past years they've charged to print tickets at home, so I imagine they would do it exactly the same way they did last season.

[squiggs96]

Originally Posted by Cleveland Steam Whistle

Why would it need to be spelled out about printing at home? How are the Flames going to find a way to charge you a fee for the paper and ink you buy at Staples?

They don't charge you for paper and ink, they charge you for the access to the PDF. It used to be free to print at home, but was $2.50 per ticket to forward them. Then they made it $2.50 per ticket to either forward or print. Last year they waived the fee for a portion of the season. You could get around that by downloading all the tickets before the deadline and sending them to yourself. You could then cancel the download if you wanted to use the original, hard tickets.

[SeeBass]

Originally Posted by Smartcar

I'm not sure how this could have happened. Did you give them the original hard copy tickets and then someone email forwarded them as well? I gave the tickets to someone who lost them, so I forwarded the tickets to them by email (and ate the $5), and warned them the originals would no longer be valid. If you print them, yes you can accidentally print multiple copies but if you forward them there is no chance of multiple copies.

I don't understand what you mean but I could email, print and send the tix over and over with no cost or anything. It was just confusing when other people started swapping them. There was never a hard ticket last year from the Oilers either.

The tickets are club seats if that makes a diff I don't know.

[SeeBass]

Originally Posted by Cleveland Steam Whistle

I absolutely haven't read every post in this thread, so I may have missed some. If you think I've missed anything relevant, you certainly could have re-itterrated the points, seen as you didn't, I'll assume you did so due to the lack persuasiveness of those arguments.

Also, 400 people you give tickets too? What kind of racket are you running? If you are re-distributing or re-selling your tickets, not really sure the Flames should be considering your business model while they make their decisions. If you aren't, why doesn't the email options work for you?

Also, 400 people is a pretty small % of any game day traffic, no solution will be loved by all, but decisions need to be made for the majority.

If you want to comment about "nobody has a good reason" but you don't read ALL of the comments,. I also wouldn't know what you missed, so you are on your own.

The problem is obvious that when multiple hands get involved confusion about tickets for who and whom gets all screwed up. There is nothing confusing about a ticket in hand. Therefore a much better system for my needs.

So your opinion is the majority, or is there a real survey on this I missed?

[Cleveland Steam Whistle]

[QUOTE=SeeBass;4377304]If you want to comment about "nobody has a good reason" but you don't read ALL of the comments,. I also wouldn't know what you missed, so you are on your own.

The problem is obvious that when multiple hands get involved confusion about tickets for who and whom gets all screwed up. There is nothing confusing about a ticket in hand. Therefore a much better system for my needs.

So your opinion is the majority, or is there a real survey on this I missed?[/QUOTE]

Likely located in the same place where you found your facts on nothing confusing about a ticket in hand and when muliple hands get involved it all gets screwed up, when refering to email transfers or card based tickets.

[Flashpoint]

Originally Posted by JD

I'm pleased about this move and I'm surprised at how overwhelmingly negative this seems be going in this thread. If CP represents the more tech-savvy cross-section of Flames fans, what are the rest of season ticket holders saying? Is this a case of the vocal minority?

Actually, I'm kind of curious about this.

Could we get a mod to post a poll?

How do you feel about paperless tickets?

Love it - save the trees, sign free agents with the savings, easy and modern etc.

Hate it - I liked having my tickets in hand, as I share a lot, am a traditionalist, like the souvenir quality etc.

Meh - I don't give a tinkers cuss, and could go either way.

[getbak]

Originally Posted by bizaro86

Does it? It definitely said for this year and seasons moving forward you'd get free print at home, but the wording about transfers is different, it only talks about this season.

Even the wording about print at home doesn't have anything nearly as strong as "always free" in it.

Yeah, you're correct. It says that the Print at Home will be free going forward and that getting the Flames to print your tickets will come with a charge in the future, but it doesn't say anything about the future costs (or lack thereof) of transferring your tickets.

They definitely make a point of repeatedly mentioning that transferring tickets and printing at home is free for STHs now, but there is no long-term promise.

[iggy_oi]

It's not likely to be a real concern for a few years, but I wonder what they will do for playoff tickets, would they add them to your card or would they have hard copy tickets for those games. Time will tell I guess (hopefully not too much time)

[chalms04]

I'm going to miss the mildly awkward CP ticket handoffs.

[burn_baby_burn]

My Chiefs tickets work the same way. Only complaint I have is the ticket exchange. Impossible to resell preseason tickets at face value.

Nice thing about ticket exchange. Cash from sale can go directly on your account.