Busch Gardens Williamsburg Membership Program

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To be honest, good on them to try to recoup their investment if they feel like they're getting hosed. As much as the park wants to keep their money IMO there should be an automatic refund in full available to anyone who wants it, no questions or strings.
 
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I've kept up my few bucks a month to Six Flags without question. Least I can do. What they're paying ... yeah.
 
BGWnut said:
They could have deferred payments though if they wanted but it seems like they are dead set on not using any avenue available to them and only wanting to get their money refunded.
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Yeah, the membership situation is messy. Even if we accept that the nature of the membership vs. yearly pass system made it impossible for SeaWorld to do what Cedar Fair did (basically just roll over 2020 memberships to 2021), the choice to not make deferring payment the default to maintain a flow of income is a difficult position to defend from a customer service point of view, even if we accept the business logic, and the plan to offer 2020 perks as an incentive for people not to defer lost its value for BGW specifically when it became clear the park wasn’t going to be able to return to normal operations.

At the same time, though, the park was upfront about the fact that they would be deferring payments once the park reopens, meaning that they’re not outright stealing money, so I think they’re within their rights to refuse refunds unless in extenuating circumstances (like military families being relocated away from the area, and thus unable to use the membership in the future). But the optics were always going to be bad once they made this particular bed.
 
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I think for the 2022 season that memberships should be seasonal and end in January after Christmas town (i'm guessing most people will have a free 2021 season if they're still paying). If on EZ-Pay then your membership will be auto renewed month to month at the next year price point with all other legacy passes becoming void. Therefore it would be 1 system, less confusing, and everyone paying fair market price.
 
I don't think it's fair for a business to not allow for refunds for unused service - in this case, the service purchased was multiple visits to a fully opened park (kinda fuzzy about attraction open status since the value of the service being paid for is in the attractions, but it's not clear what should be considered acceptable downtime for the stated passholder/member value).

In a normal year that means as long as a guest doesn't visit the park they could get a full refund for their membership/pass, one visit should be half refund, and two visits is no refund IMO - in a pandemic year even with the partial opening the full refund should be available under similar rules but maybe extend the amount of visits needed to reduce the refund amount.

This kind of thinking is simple and looks out for both consumer and business interests... So therefore probably won't be used ever.
 
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In this specific instance this family mentions buying them in October and using them to visit the park. So they wouldn't qualify for a refund anyway.

Personally what I think SEAS should have done is given members, who are still in the initial 12 month commitment, the option to just cancel their membership. Maybe with the caveat that if they came back and got a new membership the initial commitment would have to be the standard 12 months plus whatever time was left on their membership. But that opens up a while bunch of potential issues
 
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Here’s something interesting I hadn’t heard about before: Apparently if you call customer service they can redeem your membership bring a friend tickets as Coasters & Craft Brews reservations for friends.

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I exchanged a few DMs with her and everything checks out—reportedly the SEAS rep acted like it was all by the book. I’m sorta surprised the park isn’t promoting this ability—it seems like it only benefits BGW to get people to use these tickets now when the “value” of the park is much, much lower than it would be normally.
 
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Zachary said:
Here’s something interesting I hadn’t heard about before: Apparently if you call customer service they can redeem your membership bring a friend tickets as Coasters & Craft Brews reservations for friends.

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I exchanged a few DMs with her and everything checks out—reportedly the SEAS rep acted like it was all by the book. I’m sorta surprised the park isn’t promoting this ability—it seems like it only benefits BGW to get people to use these tickets now when the “value” of the park is much, much lower than it would be normally.
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Could be with the capped slots they would prefer as many of the 2000 slots be paid single admission vs passholders. since there is guaranteed revenue via the ticket sale vs a passholder who could possibily spend zero dollars on food or merch in their visit
 
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Received the below today in regards to the Sesame Place pass we have for our son. Granted, Sesame Place sells an annual pass, and not a membership, but certainly nice to see...


​
Dear *****,

As the summer winds to a close, we want to take a moment to thank our valued Season Pass Members. We are grateful for the support from those we have welcomed to the park in recent weeks and look forward to seeing many more of our friends in the months to come. Your safety is our foremost priority and our team continues to work hard to implement enhanced health and safety protocols including limiting capacity to create plenty of space for physical distancing, face covering requirements, temperature screenings, and enhanced cleaning and sanitization.

As a token of our gratitude for your loyalty, we are happy to announce that 2020 Passes purchased prior to August 20, 2020 will be automatically extended through the end of 2021* - that means you can enjoy the rest of this summer and the beginning of fall, Halloween and Christmas plus all of the fun events we’re planning for Spring, Summer, Fall and Winter of 2021!

This will be reflected in your online portal in the coming weeks, but you don’t have to wait until 2021 to take advantage of all the furry fun!

Mark your calendar for these upcoming events:​
•Labor Day Weekend: Reservations still available!
•First Responder Days: Sept. 11,12,18 and 19
•The Count’s Halloween Spooktacular: Sept. 25 – Nov. 1
•A Very Furry Christmas: Nov. 20 – Jan. 3

If your Season Pass is currently paused, the extension through the end of 2021 will be applied when your pass is unpaused on October 23rd.
If you wish to unpause your pass in advance, please call 1-215-702-ELMO or email us at guestcomments@sesameplace.com.

*EZpay accounts must remain in good standing in order to receive the extension and benefits.​
 
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Tweet from a passholder:

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It showcases the contradiction embedded in BGW allowing the passholders to remain grandfathered in: they feel like they should be the most valued, since they've been paying the park for longer, but they're paying the park far less, and don't seem to have gotten the hint from their exclusion from situations like this that the park actually resents their existence.
 
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The thing is though... at least for platinum, that there WAS a tier upgrade for grandfathered passes. Maybe the person in the tweet didn't notice?
 
Eric said:
The thing is though... at least for platinum, that there WAS a tier upgrade for grandfathered passes. Maybe the person in the tweet didn't notice?
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I thought that was only for platinum members not platinum passholders
 
BGWnut said:
I thought that was only for platinum members not platinum passholders
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Nope, can confirm that platinum passholders have the extra upgrades at least until December 31st. Really helped out with those funnel cakes at 3 rivers. Also, please note that while the legacy passholders do not pay as much as the higher tiered members now, they still did pay for a park to be closed for x amount of months, even with the additional covid perks, the members still have more(photokey, animals encounters, etc)

edit: oops, Jonesta6 beat me to the response
 
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So members who kept paying this whole time *and* members who paused their payments get their passes extended through 2021? Am I reading that right?
 
Mamunia said:
So members who kept paying this whole time *and* members who paused their payments get their passes extended through 2021? Am I reading that right?
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That post was about Sesame Place, not BGW. BGW's policy is that if you kept paying, you will receive an extension to your membership for the amount of time the park ends up being closed (the current limited event does not constitute an opening, so the clock is still running). If you paused payments, you will only get an extension for however many months you paid during the closure.
 
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