NA Fanfest 2018 Debacle

[Stormfur]

Who's really to blame though? SE for not making enough tickets available, or the ticket vendor site for not having the systems in place to thwart the scalpers/bots ? (I'm not trying to minimize SE's role in this at all, just completely gobsmacked that a ticket vendor would have such a toothpick-like infrastructure to try and manage what they should have realized would be a MASSIVE event).

[Stormfur]

Also, as if this wasn't a brilliant indicator of just how passionate fans of the series are, maybe SE should consider having a fanfest on the west coast, and one on the east coast. I hear New York and Boston are pretty well set up to handle these types of things.

[Emstidor]

I know they were sold out weeks in advance before tickets were sold, but why would one book a room before you know you got a ticket? If you didn't get a ticket now you must cancel and lose the deposit if they charged any, and then cancel the flight as well. That's what I'm asking. Sorry if my wording made it sound weird.

? In my experience booking rooms I've never lost a deposit if I had to make a cancellation early enough (and this would definitely qualify as early enough).

I agree with you about airfare, but airline tickets aren't nearly at the same risk of selling out as hotel rooms are.

[Souljacker]

? In my experience booking rooms I've never lost a deposit if I had to make a cancellation early enough (and this would definitely qualify as early enough).

I agree with you about airfare, but airline tickets aren't nearly at the same risk of selling out as hotel rooms are.

Then you must not have booked many rooms in your lifetime. There are absolutely hotels that will penalize you for cancellation. Not every business is actually customer-friendly, especially in the USA.

[Elewyn]

The problem is that there were some who legitimately got their tickets. So to take theirs away would be as bad as whats already happened. The ID for badge would work except that if scalpers have already sold their passes all they'd need to do is provide the names of their "companions". If a credit card was used for multiple purchases more than 4...so in that case a boyfriend and girlfriend live together both have valid accounts miraculously got thru the queue, use the same card...you gonna tell them they cant do that? When we got into the virtual queue, we were all assigned a "unique identifying number". I assume they also have a timestamp for when that id number/cookie was assigned. Also, I would assume people who circumvented the system never got one of those identifiers. It would be nice if they could go back and match purchases to the cookie id tags and see who was legit and who was cheating. If one id number has more than 4 they forfeit their tickets, if an id number got tickets out of sequence bc they skipped the queue with a url link ...they forfeit. If someone doesnt have an id they forfeit. The tickets recovered go into a second chance pre-sale and god help them they need to get it right this time.

[CmdrKatLangley]

I know they were sold out weeks in advance before tickets were sold, but why would one book a room before you know you got a ticket? If you didn't get a ticket now you must cancel and lose the deposit if they charged any, and then cancel the flight as well. That's what I'm asking. Sorry if my wording made it sound weird.

Hotel reservations can be cancelled up to 72 hours prior to your check in date and you will get the deposit back. It's in the terms of the reservation so it's not like people are out that cost, it just may take a few days for the refund to hit the bank.

Flight tickets are another matter.
-If the tickets are refundable, then yes, they can get a refund or use the tickets for another flight, typically without a fee but that is dependent upon the policies of the airline. With a change though you are likely to have any additional costs in fare. (i.e. you paid $200 for the ticket and the cost of the new ticket is $300. You have to pay the $100 difference. If it's less then you get a refund on that, typically. Again up to the airline's policies.)
-If the tickets are NON-refundable then the airline will only refund under certain circumstances that their policies allow. If you cannot obtain a refund, then you can usually change the ticket with a fee plus any difference in fair (see example above).

[o0cacoto0o]

That makes sense, thank you.

[Awha]

Then you must not have booked many rooms in your lifetime. There are absolutely hotels that will penalize you for cancellation. Not every business is actually customer-friendly, especially in the USA.

I have ran into this issue only a handful of times, and I end up having to cancel many reservations a lot due to changes with my schedule. More often then not from my experience most business are extremely accommodating to the needs of their customers. Though I rarely use package deals so I cannot speak on that aspect.

[Derio]

This is a big learning experience for them. Next NA fanfest I wouldn't be surprised if they didn't choose a different venue or even if they did 2 fanfest with the other on the east coast

[Selenara]

I don't get the idea of people getting a hotel room or even buying plane tickets prior to purchasing the fanfest ticket themselves. I waited and even though it would have screwed me over in needing to go to a different hotel, I wouldn't have to deal with cancellation fees (if any). I got lucky, and I'll admit it, in getting 2 tickets for fanfest, and the hotel room at the Rio with the discount. I am baffled at how this sold in 30 minutes. Last year it took 10 hours, luckily this time I was ready just in case, but this sucks for everyone who couldn't get a ticket.

Usually any time I went to conventions, they asked for your ticket confirmation number to reserve for the hotel. This way people with tickets would get priority.

Here was the thing though. Back around dec i think square was like hey guys we got a speciak discount on the rooms for fanfest for a limited time but u need to book now! So a lot of ppl booked them. Needless to say bad move yes but it was a promo offered