Gold pass 2019 feedback

[Ladyuna]

Hi!

 

I am a gold pass for 5 years at LFCC and I always noticed that you take care of our feedback so I am starting this post.

 

- No comment on photo or auto on my side it was as usual.

- A big remark for the entrance :

I thought it was a great idea to make us go in H so you can see us entering and we were directly in the guest area.

BUT it could be managed better :

Before entering the building (so before security check) some crew members told gold to go in the huge queue outside because they need to queue like everyone else. Gold always had a separate entrance so they don't need to queue with everyone else (or we loose one of the main interest of the gold), I don't think it has changed so this is an issue of everyone on H entrance.

Saturday (didn't get there for the opening on Sunday so can't say) we got in at 8.55 am but hundreds of people were already inside. I needed only one VQ ticket and I had number 100 even if I found the guest directly. So why regular entrance were inside before 9 am?

- Talk seating :

Sunday apparently the staff decided that we didn't have priority seating on free talk and that we can't seat on first row (diamond neither).

The person with me only do talk and entrance with her gold pass so if the priority doesn't work anymore for this it become useless for her to be gold.

If I quote the FAQ :

What is included in the Standard Gold Pass?

- Entry for all 3 days. You will be getting access to the Venue 5 minutes before General Entry, (This will give you a head start on picking up VQ tickets).
- Access to and priority seating in all talks free and paid (this does not include the Talks of Diamond Guests, these have to be paid separately, and possibly some promotional talks): In Diamond Pass Talks you will be seated behind the Diamond Pass holders.   

 

I had a good gold experience anyway but we notice less and less gold every year because we have less and less things included so this post is not to complain about what was done but to inform the main staff of some issue so you can improve in 2020 ;-)

[gobo1979uk]

Only two reasons I get a gold pass

1 - get in 5 mins early to get early VQ tickets for diamond guests.

2 - ability to join any queues.

First bit was great - much prefer the entry procedure - being inside, with seating, toliets and being close to signing area.

Second bit not so good. Was refused entry to two different queues (Billy Dee Williams Saturday and Tara Fitzgerald Sunday) as they had been mismanaged and got too busy. I don't expect to pay £260 for a pass that gives me the ability to join queues and then be told I can't join the queue because its too busy.

Didn't have time to do any talks in the end so can comment on seating. However, I think in general there needs to be better training of the blue shirts so they know what gold pass holders are entitled to.

The early entry Sat was due to high numbers of people in the queue outside in the rain. The gold passes did still go in 5 mins earlier than regular entry.

[Ladyuna]

You waited in the panel room before it opens? On sat we were there at 8.45 am so we waited just on the bottom of the stairs so time to go up even with the 5 minutes we arrived late on the top. It was ok for us because we wanted only one VQ ticket.

For the panel, not me but an other gold told me a red shirt said there is no priority seating for gold in free talks. And for the queue outside also a red shirt saying gold should queue with everyone else. I found blue shirts I met well informed (but I only did autographs on friday except one so it wasn't busy and didn't need a gold pass to queue)

[chayanua]

I had the experience twice in short queues for shootings, that gold pass holders and batch 1 was called together. sorry but I pay a lot of money to not stand in the queue, mixed with batch 1. maybe it sounds rude from me, but we paid for it and that really wasn't okay 'only' because there only were 50 fans instead of hundreds? the pit boss doesn't care at all when I said that I have a gold pass.... 

 

for the carrie anne moss panel it was okay that diamond passes has reserved seats in the front but behind them it was mixed and no staff cares about it. dp holders, then goldies, then the rest. we paid for it. 

 

the last 2 years were well better organized for goldies in my experience. this year I really wish half of the money back from the ticket ... 

Edited July 29, 2019 by chayanua

[Persephone1]

3 hours ago, gobo1979uk said:

 

Second bit not so good. Was refused entry to two different queues (Billy Dee Williams Saturday and Tara Fitzgerald Sunday) as they had been mismanaged and got too busy. I don't expect to pay £260 for a pass that gives me the ability to join queues and then be told I can't join the queue because its too busy.

Wasn’t Billy Dee Williams a diamond pass guest? So you wouldn’t have had any priority for him.

[GreenArrow2046]

45 minutes ago, Persephone1 said:

Wasn’t Billy Dee Williams a diamond pass guest? So you wouldn’t have had any priority for him.

Correct 

[MAGIC MONKEY]

With Billy Dee Williams, I would have expected as a Gold pass holder to be able to get his autograph as long as I had a low enough VQ ticket. Personally speaking I got him a few years ago when he was a 'regular' guest. I did like where we were located so as to get to the autograph queues quicker,  but as said elsewhere the people giving out the VQ tickets should be doing it from the moment we reach the guests booth. Not telling us that we need to wait 5 minutes for the show to start when other guests are having VQ's dolled out immediately. The £10 guest voucher, I managed to use it. But ideally it should be that it can be used as part payment for any guest autograph. I can't help thinking that the gold pass is going up in price yearly but in terms of its actual value it seems to be going down year on year. I have been a gold pass holder for four years now. I can't say it's not gone unnoticed the things that gold pass holders used to get that have now been removed.

[benweblight]

4 minutes ago, MAGIC MONKEY said:

With Billy Dee Williams, I would have expected as a Gold pass holder to be able to get his autograph as long as I had a low enough VQ ticket. Personally speaking I got him a few years ago when he was a 'regular' guest. I did like where we were located so as to get to the autograph queues quicker,  but as said elsewhere the people giving out the VQ tickets should be doing it from the moment we reach the guests booth. Not telling us that we need to wait 5 minutes for the show to start when other guests are having VQ's dolled out immediately. The £10 guest voucher, I managed to use it. But ideally it should be that it can be used as part payment for any guest autograph. I can't help thinking that the gold pass is going up in price yearly but in terms of its actual value it seems to be going down year on year. I have been a gold pass holder for four years now. I can't say it's not gone unnoticed the things that gold pass holders used to get that have now been removed.

As a gold pass holder, you don’t need any VQ tickets. I believe you just join the back of any line behind any diamond pass holders and VQ ticket holders that are already in line.

You wouldn’t be able to join any line that was still only open to Diamonds only though.

Gold pass has never included any actual guarantee for specific autographs either 

 

 

Edited July 29, 2019 by benweblight

[StuartG2198]

2 minutes ago, benweblight said:

As a gold pass holder, you don’t need any VQ tickets. I believe you just join the back of any line behind any diamond pass holders and VQ ticket holders that are already in line.

You wouldn’t be able to join any line that was still only open to Diamonds though.

Gold pass has never included any actual guarantee for specific autographs either 

 

 

Gold Pass holders DO require VQ tickets for diamond guests.  This is how it was set up a few years ago and hasn’t changed since, the gold pass just gives those holders a bit of a head start on getting VQs for Diamond Guests.  

Edited July 29, 2019 by StuartG2198

[Raylenth]

Just now, benweblight said:

As a gold pass holder, you don’t need any VQ tickets. I believe you just join the back of any line behind any diamond pass holders and VQ ticket holders that are already in line.

You wouldn’t be able to join any line that was still only open to Diamonds though.

Gold pass has never included any actual guarantee for specific autographs either 

 

 

Not correct I'm afraid Ben, Gold pass holders need VQ's for any Diamond pass guest.  However as Magic says there are occassionally issues when firstly, they aren't ready to give the VQ's out straight away, and some crew forgetting and telling Golds they don't need VQ's so taking time to give them to them.

[Queen_Sindel]

6 hours ago, gobo1979uk said:

Second bit not so good. Was refused entry to two different queues (Billy Dee Williams Saturday and Tara Fitzgerald Sunday) as they had been mismanaged and got too busy. I don't expect to pay £260 for a pass that gives me the ability to join queues and then be told I can't join the queue because its too busy.

Didn't have time to do any talks in the end so can comment on seating. However, I think in general there needs to be better training of the blue shirts so they know what gold pass holders are entitled to.

This misunderstanding seems to pop up each year.

When a line is closed - guest leaving for shoot, line too long and thus safety concerns - no one gets to join. Not even if Trump and his entourage showed up. A Gold Pass does not give you entry to a closed line.

I will bring this up - maybe time for a rewording.

[gobo1979uk]

4 hours ago, Persephone1 said:

Wasn’t Billy Dee Williams a diamond pass guest? So you wouldn’t have had any priority for him.

You don't have priority over diamond pass holders and the queues often start diamond only. But this wasn't the case -  I had gold pass and a low VQ ticket and the queue was 0-100 for VQ tickets.

[Chris1970]

1 hour ago, Queen_Sindel said:

This misunderstanding seems to pop up each year.

When a line is closed - guest leaving for shoot, line too long and thus safety concerns - no one gets to join. Not even if Trump and his entourage showed up. A Gold Pass does not give you entry to a closed line.

I will bring this up - maybe time for a rewording.

[gobo1979uk]

1 hour ago, Queen_Sindel said:

This misunderstanding seems to pop up each year.

When a line is closed - guest leaving for shoot, line too long and thus safety concerns - no one gets to join. Not even if Trump and his entourage showed up. A Gold Pass does not give you entry to a closed line.

I will bring this up - maybe time for a rewording.

This isn't in the T&Cs for the gold passes! If this is the case it doesn't need REWORDING it needs ADDING to the t&c's otherwise they are being sold under false pretences. If queue is closed because the guest is going somewhere obviously thats fine otherwise you would be queuing for no reason. But if its because the queue has been mismanged, why is that the gold pass holders problem? Personally I hope gold and diamond passes are scrapped and SM just start selling autograph tickets.

 

[Ravogd]

13 minutes ago, gobo1979uk said:

This isn't in the T&Cs for the gold passes! If this is the case it doesn't need REWORDING it needs ADDING to the t&c's otherwise they are being sold under false pretences. If queue is closed because the guest is going somewhere obviously thats fine otherwise you would be queuing for no reason. But if its because the queue has been mismanged, why is that the gold pass holders problem? Personally I hope gold and diamond passes are scrapped and SM just start selling autograph tickets.

 

Ok yes, technically it is the organisers fault if the queues get mismanaged but sometimes there is nothing they can do. This happens every year. Meatloaf last year springs to mind. People get told they can’t queue yet and they still stand there refusing to move. Blue shirts are volunteers they cant force people physically away. Before you know it queues get out of hand. Once this happens the easiest thing to do is shut it for a while, get it back under control and then get everything back on track, For them to keep allowing golds to join would be stupid and only add to the chaos. It wouldn’t even have benefitted you as you as when queues are that long it becomes harder and harder to tell how long they will take to get to a guest. You could have joined and waited for an hour to be told he has to go to a photoshoot. Is that really what you want? As for your last wish that’s never going to happen. When the system works it works well.

[GreenArrow2046]

21 minutes ago, gobo1979uk said:

This isn't in the T&Cs for the gold passes! If this is the case it doesn't need REWORDING it needs ADDING to the t&c's otherwise they are being sold under false pretences. If queue is closed because the guest is going somewhere obviously thats fine otherwise you would be queuing for no reason. But if its because the queue has been mismanged, why is that the gold pass holders problem? Personally I hope gold and diamond passes are scrapped and SM just start selling autograph tickets.

 

Won't happen, diamond passes are very popular and showmasters made the move this year to even have them day specific which has helped a lot in regards to problems in previous years of having them valid all weekend 

[only_jay]

Definitely felt an improvement with the Gold Pass this year, the change to how we queued in the morning made a massive difference!

Only downside for me is the way the the £10 vouchers are structured just ended up using them on random guests in the end.

[Queen_Sindel]

4 hours ago, gobo1979uk said:

You don't have priority over diamond pass holders and the queues often start diamond only. But this wasn't the case -  I had gold pass and a low VQ ticket and the queue was 0-100 for VQ tickets.

As I said above, if the line is closed that doesn't matter. I had a really low VQ ticket for Lana too and needed 3 tries because the line was too long. 

4 hours ago, gobo1979uk said:

This isn't in the T&Cs for the gold passes! If this is the case it doesn't need REWORDING it needs ADDING to the t&c's otherwise they are being sold under false pretences. If queue is closed because the guest is going somewhere obviously thats fine otherwise you would be queuing for no reason. But if its because the queue has been mismanged, why is that the gold pass holders problem? Personally I hope gold and diamond passes are scrapped and SM just start selling autograph tickets.

 

I said rewording because to me it has always been pretty clear that you can't join a line when you become a fire hazzard because you are blocking the walkway. 

Is this the first time that ever happened to you? I'm not trying to be patronizing or anything, but this has happened to me for years, first time I recall was the LFCC where Michael Biehn appeared first. That has been over 10 years ago. You seem to have a way better timing than me.

As ravogd has said, unfortunately sometimes these things happen. Sometimes the queue comes to a screeching halt if the guest decides to chat to someone, or they go on at their own speed no matter how long the queue is. *cough* Ian *cough*
 

 

[dilbert34]

Great to have the pre opening wait upstairs / great to have early entry / this year I personally felt all crew we interacted with we're genuinely helpful and happy to show a little flexibility on queue joining when queues were short but weren't quite up to your number - common sense - no point not having enough people in a queue (I'm talking about the need for VT for diamonds). I'd say best July run show we have attended (and we've done most of them in the last 15 years). Slight annoyance was the late running Hayden VTs but that's all negativity speaking.

[MagicalMimi]

I'm sorry that some of you seem to have had some issues with talks as a gold pass holder. I wasn't a gold this year, but was told for a couple of the free talks I attended that I couldn't sit in the front two lines because they were reserved for gold only. It might have been a mistake on the talk you went to, and that's a shame, as obviously you should have priority seating for a free talk. But for the talks I went to they seemed to have it sorted and were even checking to make sure the people sitting in the front two rows were gold and moved a few people on who weren't.

[Ladyuna]

1 hour ago, MagicalMimi said:

I'm sorry that some of you seem to have had some issues with talks as a gold pass holder. I wasn't a gold this year, but was told for a couple of the free talks I attended that I couldn't sit in the front two lines because they were reserved for gold only. It might have been a mistake on the talk you went to, and that's a shame, as obviously you should have priority seating for a free talk. But for the talks I went to they seemed to have it sorted and were even checking to make sure the people sitting in the front two rows were gold and moved a few people on who weren't.

They did it on friday and Saturday perfectly. Each day a very effective blue shirt girl (not the same friday and Saturday) was cheking who sat on the firsts rows (thanks a lot to them they did an amazing job)

But apparently they decided to change this on sunday that is why I am telling it here ;-)

 

I understand the autograph issue, but it is really complicated for them to do it differently and last years it still helped me a lot to have a gold pass but I know if I really want an autograph I buy the diamond.

 

I always find a way to use my 10 pound guest but a little randomly. I would prefer one 15 pound voucher for a 15 pound guest than 2 10 pounds.

 

And about closing the queues I had the opposite issue. I queued for 45 min for nothing for rick gonzales because they made us wait 30 min for his photoshoot (I was 3rd in line so I staid) before they realize he wasn't coming back to sign before lunch... so I would have prefer to be refused to queue... (and at least 10 or 15 people were in my case)

[CelticRob]

:)

 

Edited November 15, 2022 by CelticRob

[Owls]

I had a pretty good experience with the Gold Pass. Loved the waiting in the main stage area part. What I think needs addressing is, please do educate blue shirts a little more. Had a few troubles when joining queues of non-diamond guests, was asked for my VQ, showed my wristband and got big eyes and "I don't know what that means." 

 

At the photo shoots it worked pretty well. Pit Bosses were awesome. 

 

I would take a Gold Pass again!

[MVronsky78]

I've been getting a gold pass since 2015, and the last couple of years I've been wondering if it was worth it, but on the plus side it did ensure I was able to get low VQ tickets for many diamond guests and also low guest VQs for a friend who chose to come on a 3 day pass.  This does remove a lot of anxiety from the day although rushing around like a blue-arsed fly is also part of the fun.

I also really appreciated the use of the main stage as a waiting area, although on Saturday I was part of a mysterious group of about 20 gold pass holders who were kept downstairs as the guy managing the stair area had to wait for approval from his supervisor before letting us up - when we were eventually allowed up the stage area was completely vacant, so not sure what that was about.  Couldn't have been crowd control as there weren't enough numbers dwelling around at the time.

All things considered will I get a gold pass next year?  Yeah, probably...

[Ravogd]

9 minutes ago, MVronsky78 said:

I've been getting a gold pass since 2015, and the last couple of years I've been wondering if it was worth it, but on the plus side it did ensure I was able to get low VQ tickets for many diamond guests and also low guest VQs for a friend who chose to come on a 3 day pass.  This does remove a lot of anxiety from the day although rushing around like a blue-arsed fly is also part of the fun.

I also really appreciated the use of the main stage as a waiting area, although on Saturday I was part of a mysterious group of about 20 gold pass holders who were kept downstairs as the guy managing the stair area had to wait for approval from his supervisor before letting us up - when we were eventually allowed up the stage area was completely vacant, so not sure what that was about.  Couldn't have been crowd control as there weren't enough numbers dwelling around at the time.

All things considered will I get a gold pass next year?  Yeah, probably...

They were probably moving stuff around and don't want people all over the area getting in the way. Health & safety etc.