late season ski passes

How much is a regular ski pass? I don't ski much outside Verbier, Chamonix sometimes and Mt Blanc ski pass is only 52 Euros, so 20 Euro is a reasonably big doscount.

When ou shut down you save a lot on running lifts, first of all on electricity. You also reduce personnel-related costs greatly.

You comparison with flying to Milan over holidays to normal flying is not a valid one. Airlines and car hire companies are ripping you off generally over holidays periods. The same is with restaurants example - you pay per course there generally, but you don't pay per run or per lift in ski resorts, so the same logic cannot apply.

My comments were not particularly aimed at the Swiss resorts where he exchange rate has hit the Swiss tourist industry - however that is not the same as inflation.

As a rule of thumb the French resorts poular with foreign skiers seemed to have had a bout of astronomical inflation somewhat out of step with their counterparts in the other Euro countries.
Perhaps this was prompted by the arrival of Russians and lulled them into thinking that people would pay whatever was asked. Dual pricing was clearly going on in Les Arcs 3 or 4 years ago with the French / locals getting a better deal than outsiders.

Is it illegal - probably not but I doubt I'll go back there for the forseeable future because we felt we were being ripped off.
Going to Sauze D'Oulx again this year - prices seemed similar to 5 years ago - sure a bit on inflation but nothing like the greed of the 3V or Les Arcs.

Well, prices are driven by demand and in the end business don't care where their income is coming from, so it's understandable. Make money once you have an opportunity to do so seems to be the way most are operating these days. I don't know how the resorts compare in terms of terrain, entertainment etc. whatever you are looking for from a ski resort or ski holiday, but certainly if you feel you are ripped off you will be going to other places that will offer you better value for money. I don't know about dual prices though - sounds strange and not particularly legal, though locals may sometimes benefit from a saisonnaire card. Typically they would need to be employed in the resort though, but sometimes you can get it without it if you have a season-long accommodation. Ski instructors working for certain schools also may get discounts in some places. And patrollers as they are usually associated with the company running resorts lifts which negotiates this deal and offers it as a part of fringe benefits to their employees. But this would be fair and only expected as pay is not too high in resorts.

verbier_ski_bum wrote:How much is a regular ski pass? I don't ski much outside Verbier, Chamonix sometimes and Mt Blanc ski pass is only 52 Euros, so 20 Euro is a reasonably big doscount.

When ou shut down you save a lot on running lifts, first of all on electricity. You also reduce personnel-related costs greatly.

You comparison with flying to Milan over holidays to normal flying is not a valid one. Airlines and car hire companies are ripping you off generally over holidays periods. The same is with restaurants example - you pay per course there generally, but you don't pay per run or per lift in ski resorts, so the same logic cannot apply.

As opposed to the ski resorts ripping me off all year round!

I pay for a pass for all the lifts and when they close them I can not use them but still get charged.

Fact is unlike airlines and car hire companies I can not go to a ski pass comparison site and look for cheaper supplier.

Discount was 17% on the pass

Dave Mac explained really well what constitues the costs that is covered by ski pass prices, so even that you want to think that you are paying for open runs/working lifts this is not how it works in reality. People who can't afford lift passes don't usually ski, so paying for something and then complaining it's too expensive is a bit pointless. If you want ski pass comparisons, check resorts websites, this is open information and you can find yourself a better deal by simply looking. Snow-forecast.com usually provides links to resorts websites, so selection is huge. 20 euros at 17% would make a full price lift pass cost over a hundred euros. Which resort was it? If it's a day pass - this is way over what you would pay in most resorts - even Zermatt will be about 50 euros cheaper and they maintain some impressive network of lifts and underground tunnels. So yeah, it is too expensive, it's not even competitive and I suspect you probably got it wrong somewhere. Anyway, you can always reduce the costs of lift prices greatly if you buy a walker/tourer pass, invest in a touring rig and just walk up the slopes:)

If you were in Bormio (you mentioned Bormio in your other thread) why didn't you get a free pass?



It's not easy for a ski resort to extend the season; most of the employees have other jobs to go to when the ski season ends. Here they mainly work in the construction industry which shuts down for the winter.

You can't really compare ski lift companies with budget airlines and car hire companies. Lots of them were set up to provide employment for people living in the Alps, to prevent depopulation. Many of them are still at least partially in public ownership, 23.3% of the shares (the largest share holding) in the Zermatt lift company belong to bourgeoisie, 25.66% of the shares (also the largest shareholding) in Televerbier are owned by the commune and the bourgeoisie of Bagnes. Profit is not the primary motivation.

Bornio

So he did and it is still true of virtually every other businesses that they have fixed overhead but they do not get away with charging full price if they are not providing a full service.

I was just thinking, you wouldn't want to buy a roller ski bag. The wheels have broken off while being thrown around by the luggage loaders at the airport, a new one cost £80 but I sell you it for £60.

No, I wouldn't buy a roller ski bag without wheels as it has no value and typically ends up in trash, unlike skiing. Did they kick you out from the lift and made you walk half way up the slope so that you didn't get "full service" even that you paid for it? Full service doesn't necessarily mean all runs/lifts open as you are not being charged for number of runs - Dave explained but it doesn't seem you got it if you are trying to compare this to the roller bag without wheels. I think you got a reasonable discount for skiing in a fairly popular resort. If you don't like it, maybe don't go there next time but I don't think it will be much different elsewhere.