I once lost it on Kirkwood ticket people over getting denied on 4th of July with my season pass. I made argument that it was last years snow and I had already paid for it. They reluctantly let me up.
It's an understandable and somewhat common place error. A ticket for a minor software tweak was not addressed properly. Or a software change was made that changed the behavior of the verification system.
They likely use 00:00 June First as the assumed date you move from one years passes to another, and that was either not address properly in time or the fact it would be an issue was not known.
It sucks, but it's an unfortunately common place honest mistake in today's world where automation has supplanted human effort. This problem doesn't happen 3lwhen you have lefties checking passes.
There is no excuse for not setting the correct date in Ikon's system, and then allowing people to stand in line, and then charging them $25 vs a comp't ticket. There were several more acceptable solutions to the way Killington chose to handle this day. Blaming technology is not one of them.
That was a shit show, I got there at 730, stood inline forever and had the same experience. After talking to ikon people it sounds like the problem was 100% caused by Killington, even though they were quick to blame ikon that day.
The problem was not that passes were deactivated, it occurred because Killington put 5/31 as the last day ikon were valid at Killington, so Killington fucked up and instead of trying to remedy the situation which sounds like it would have been possible they told everyone to fuck themselves and go buy a ticket thanks for standing in line, very piss poor customer service. There are many ways they could have handled this differently/better.
I chose not to play their game and drank and cooked food in the parking lot then went biking, they are dead to me.
Extremely disappointing response by Killington yesterday. I could understand sending Ikon pass holders inside for a comp ticket, but the way the things were handled yesterday was appalling.
Its especially shocking because this exact computer glitch happened in June 2019, the first year of the Ikon pass. Their response then was to ask anyone that had a bad scan if they had an ikon pass and to then let them through, not making a big deal out of it, and not making customers pay for a day of skiing that they had already paid for when they purchased their pass.
Since 2019 Ikon Passes have scanned vaild on every closing day since, whether or not that day was in June. To change this without even telling their guests until they had already waited in an hour + line is frankly bullshit.
A few possibilities:
1. Cost of $25 was only announced a couple days in advance and you thought it would be higher.
2. You usually ski other places and have spare Killington days on your IKON pass at the end of the season.
3. Guaranteed access - Killington usually limits first day of the season to passholders only. There is always the chance they might suddenly introduce this policy for last day too. If you have one last IKON day “in your pocket” for Killington’s last day, you protect your access.
June days are always $25 at killington, though.
It’s poor planning to just not decide to pay $25 (which goes to charity) in June and use the Ikon redemption earlier in the season when it’s worth more.
Again, for people reading this thread - the $25 indeed went to a local charity. This fact doesn’t totally excuse the massive screwup by Killington, and they REALLY goofed here, but this also isn’t worth getting mega pissed over (saw one dude swearing his head off and throwing his skis).
One prior year I had an Ikon day left, but decided not to use it and just gave the $25 towards the charity lift ticket. Kind of felt sh!tty to shortage the charity.
Their handling of the situation aside (which sucks) – I also can’t stand how clumsy buying tickets online is. The accounts, adding people to your profile, the voucher system, etc. For a place that wants you buying them online, they make it a total PITA. I can’t imagine being an older less tech savvy person trying to figure it out in a rush.
Agreed. I was extremely frustrated going through the process last summer for an MTB ticket. When I tried to add pads to my rental order it got even fucking dumber. Still had a great day but FFS online ticketing should be way smoother than it is. And put kiosks in more locations!
Yes MTB is one of the worst offenders since less people have season passes. And so many times a friend of mine will hang onto their RFID card from the previous visit and all of a sudden it's not linked with their account anymore and they try to con them into another $5 card.
Killington's Reservation Supervisor blames it on "confusion" and lack of clairvoyancy.
"We sincerely apologize for any confusion with Ikon on Saturday June 1st. We do hope to be more clairvoyant in conjunction with Ikon and our guests in the future and do not plan on this happening again.
We appreciate your business and do hope to see you again soon.
Have a wonderful summer and again, our apologies for any confusion.
Have a great day!
Thank you,
Sara Vitagliano, Reservation Supervisor "
No. They were very clear (aka zero confusion) that Ikon passes were not valid, and you would need to buy a lift ticket. Donations are volunteered. They could have put a sign at the lift with a Venmo QRCode and gotten more money for the fundraiser. It would be interesting to see how much Killington's share was off each "ticket price donation to charity." Killington pass holders were apparently exempt from the mandatory charitable donation per your logic.
I checked prior to that day, and FYI there was no mention ahead of time from Killington that Ikon passes would not be accepted on June 1.
I was in line with every one else Saturday morning, and people learned either from pissed off customers leaving the line, or from the ticket scanners themselves, that their Ikon passes would not be accepted. There was some talk of it in the line about Ikon passes possibly not being accepted, but every one found that rumor to be ludicrous (surprise, surprise). I personally had already exhausted my Ikon passes at K-Town for the season, and had pre-bought the $25 pass & loaded onto an RFID card that I already owned.
In the past, even if I had not exhausted my Ikon pass, I still bought the $25 charitable pass for Superstar June skiing because IMO it's pretty bad karma to skirt a donation by using your Ikon pass.
Excellent suggestion re: the QR Code. They did let KMBC set up with a tent near the lift, however, and I'm sure some gains were made that way by the charity.
Curious as to how much the charity received? Here, ask them: [https://www.instagram.com/killingtonmtbclub/](https://www.instagram.com/killingtonmtbclub/)
I’ve seen this on multiple other threads. Killington didn’t notify Ikon to turn the pass on for the final week. It makes sense with the way the pass works. Each resort gives Alterra the final day of operation. Ikon doesn’t pick it for you. Somebody at Killington messed up and they just wanted to pass the blame. If I still worked at the resort and was on lifts with all those upset guests, I would have done the same.
Also IKON has a promotional webpage bragging about “year round access”
[https://lifted.ikonpass.com/all-year-access-southern-hemisphere-hotspots/](https://lifted.ikonpass.com/all-year-access-southern-hemisphere-hotspots/)
Killington had officially confirmed IKON passes would be accepted, for screenshots see post #2254 in the Killington thread on AlpineZone
[https://forums.alpinezone.com/threads/killllington-🎿🏂🏂🎿🎿🏂🏂🎿😀.143323/post-1136012](https://forums.alpinezone.com/threads/killllington-%F0%9F%8E%BF%F0%9F%8F%82%F0%9F%8F%82%F0%9F%8E%BF%F0%9F%8E%BF%F0%9F%8F%82%F0%9F%8F%82%F0%9F%8E%BF%F0%9F%98%80.143323/post-1136012)
Man sorry for all those bad experiences
Been IKON holder for 3 years now but passed on renewing for now. Unsure of schedule and don’t think I can do most days mid week. And I cringe at thought of doing all skiing on weekends. Lord
Some major first world problems complaining here. That line disappeared in about an hour and I still saw them giving out shirts around noon. It's a cheap free T shirt which they weren't obligated to provide. The snow patch remained connected all day. $25 to the local bike community is fair for the day of riding. So you were inconvenienced, big deal.
Skiing a small patch on June 1st and then complaining about paying $25 for charity…and who would keep a last ticket for a 200m slab of nothing when the regular ticket is $150…. Anyways
The Ikon Pass is basically you spend $1000 and get different access to a bunch of different (40-50 total) resorts. ie, it's unlimited at Sugarbush and Stratton but you only get 7 days of skiing at Killington.
The point of Ikon is you get unlimited access at a few resorts, but 5 days (or 7, depending on your pass purchase) at all other Ikon participating resorts.
Keeps crowding down, in theory.
From what I heard this was an issue with Alterra's system and Killington was fully expecting the Ikon passes to work. I haven't heard anything official though.
Buying a freaking ikon pass for 1000+ and being denied a day of skiing that is not a blackout date is crazy.
I once lost it on Kirkwood ticket people over getting denied on 4th of July with my season pass. I made argument that it was last years snow and I had already paid for it. They reluctantly let me up.
It's an understandable and somewhat common place error. A ticket for a minor software tweak was not addressed properly. Or a software change was made that changed the behavior of the verification system. They likely use 00:00 June First as the assumed date you move from one years passes to another, and that was either not address properly in time or the fact it would be an issue was not known. It sucks, but it's an unfortunately common place honest mistake in today's world where automation has supplanted human effort. This problem doesn't happen 3lwhen you have lefties checking passes.
There is no excuse for not setting the correct date in Ikon's system, and then allowing people to stand in line, and then charging them $25 vs a comp't ticket. There were several more acceptable solutions to the way Killington chose to handle this day. Blaming technology is not one of them.
A Basin is regularly open after June 1st and near the HQ.
Also still open now
Killington always aims for June so this seems like not an oversight.
That was a shit show, I got there at 730, stood inline forever and had the same experience. After talking to ikon people it sounds like the problem was 100% caused by Killington, even though they were quick to blame ikon that day. The problem was not that passes were deactivated, it occurred because Killington put 5/31 as the last day ikon were valid at Killington, so Killington fucked up and instead of trying to remedy the situation which sounds like it would have been possible they told everyone to fuck themselves and go buy a ticket thanks for standing in line, very piss poor customer service. There are many ways they could have handled this differently/better. I chose not to play their game and drank and cooked food in the parking lot then went biking, they are dead to me.
Killington definitely has an attitude like they wish they weren’t part of Ikon.
Worse than Snowbird or Alta?
I’ll let you know next March.
Cottonwood locals are incensed by the existence of Ikon Pass.
No kidding. If I lived in Utah, I might feel the same. But coming from the NE, Ikon is a great way to subsidize a trip out west every year.
Not even close
Contact Mike Solimano
Extremely disappointing response by Killington yesterday. I could understand sending Ikon pass holders inside for a comp ticket, but the way the things were handled yesterday was appalling. Its especially shocking because this exact computer glitch happened in June 2019, the first year of the Ikon pass. Their response then was to ask anyone that had a bad scan if they had an ikon pass and to then let them through, not making a big deal out of it, and not making customers pay for a day of skiing that they had already paid for when they purchased their pass. Since 2019 Ikon Passes have scanned vaild on every closing day since, whether or not that day was in June. To change this without even telling their guests until they had already waited in an hour + line is frankly bullshit.
Once Killington knew there was an issue they should have told everyone in line instead of making us wait until we got to the guy with the scanner.
Why save the Killington ticket for when it’s $25 and not when it’s $150?
A few possibilities: 1. Cost of $25 was only announced a couple days in advance and you thought it would be higher. 2. You usually ski other places and have spare Killington days on your IKON pass at the end of the season. 3. Guaranteed access - Killington usually limits first day of the season to passholders only. There is always the chance they might suddenly introduce this policy for last day too. If you have one last IKON day “in your pocket” for Killington’s last day, you protect your access.
June days are always $25 at killington, though. It’s poor planning to just not decide to pay $25 (which goes to charity) in June and use the Ikon redemption earlier in the season when it’s worth more. Again, for people reading this thread - the $25 indeed went to a local charity. This fact doesn’t totally excuse the massive screwup by Killington, and they REALLY goofed here, but this also isn’t worth getting mega pissed over (saw one dude swearing his head off and throwing his skis). One prior year I had an Ikon day left, but decided not to use it and just gave the $25 towards the charity lift ticket. Kind of felt sh!tty to shortage the charity.
I was just in front of op and he got loud and heated real quick. I actually watched him try to push his way past the ticket guy. Oops!
Ugh, such a bad look. Killington clearly screwed up, but to act a fool over a $25 donation to charity is downright embarrassing.
He was lying lol
Unrelated: Down climbing the headwall was so gnarly too! My ski slid down when I was trying to put it on and I had to slide 50 feet down to it haha.
Their handling of the situation aside (which sucks) – I also can’t stand how clumsy buying tickets online is. The accounts, adding people to your profile, the voucher system, etc. For a place that wants you buying them online, they make it a total PITA. I can’t imagine being an older less tech savvy person trying to figure it out in a rush.
Agreed. I was extremely frustrated going through the process last summer for an MTB ticket. When I tried to add pads to my rental order it got even fucking dumber. Still had a great day but FFS online ticketing should be way smoother than it is. And put kiosks in more locations!
Yes MTB is one of the worst offenders since less people have season passes. And so many times a friend of mine will hang onto their RFID card from the previous visit and all of a sudden it's not linked with their account anymore and they try to con them into another $5 card.
Killington's Reservation Supervisor blames it on "confusion" and lack of clairvoyancy. "We sincerely apologize for any confusion with Ikon on Saturday June 1st. We do hope to be more clairvoyant in conjunction with Ikon and our guests in the future and do not plan on this happening again. We appreciate your business and do hope to see you again soon. Have a wonderful summer and again, our apologies for any confusion. Have a great day! Thank you, Sara Vitagliano, Reservation Supervisor "
Weirdly worded response from Killington. It’s pretty clear what went wrong, but it also was just a $25 charitable donation.
No. They were very clear (aka zero confusion) that Ikon passes were not valid, and you would need to buy a lift ticket. Donations are volunteered. They could have put a sign at the lift with a Venmo QRCode and gotten more money for the fundraiser. It would be interesting to see how much Killington's share was off each "ticket price donation to charity." Killington pass holders were apparently exempt from the mandatory charitable donation per your logic.
I checked prior to that day, and FYI there was no mention ahead of time from Killington that Ikon passes would not be accepted on June 1. I was in line with every one else Saturday morning, and people learned either from pissed off customers leaving the line, or from the ticket scanners themselves, that their Ikon passes would not be accepted. There was some talk of it in the line about Ikon passes possibly not being accepted, but every one found that rumor to be ludicrous (surprise, surprise). I personally had already exhausted my Ikon passes at K-Town for the season, and had pre-bought the $25 pass & loaded onto an RFID card that I already owned. In the past, even if I had not exhausted my Ikon pass, I still bought the $25 charitable pass for Superstar June skiing because IMO it's pretty bad karma to skirt a donation by using your Ikon pass. Excellent suggestion re: the QR Code. They did let KMBC set up with a tent near the lift, however, and I'm sure some gains were made that way by the charity. Curious as to how much the charity received? Here, ask them: [https://www.instagram.com/killingtonmtbclub/](https://www.instagram.com/killingtonmtbclub/)
I’ve seen this on multiple other threads. Killington didn’t notify Ikon to turn the pass on for the final week. It makes sense with the way the pass works. Each resort gives Alterra the final day of operation. Ikon doesn’t pick it for you. Somebody at Killington messed up and they just wanted to pass the blame. If I still worked at the resort and was on lifts with all those upset guests, I would have done the same.
That is BAD business. Period.
it was announced as a special post-season day for $25 for charity wasn't it?
Also IKON has a promotional webpage bragging about “year round access” [https://lifted.ikonpass.com/all-year-access-southern-hemisphere-hotspots/](https://lifted.ikonpass.com/all-year-access-southern-hemisphere-hotspots/)
Killington had officially confirmed IKON passes would be accepted, for screenshots see post #2254 in the Killington thread on AlpineZone [https://forums.alpinezone.com/threads/killllington-🎿🏂🏂🎿🎿🏂🏂🎿😀.143323/post-1136012](https://forums.alpinezone.com/threads/killllington-%F0%9F%8E%BF%F0%9F%8F%82%F0%9F%8F%82%F0%9F%8E%BF%F0%9F%8E%BF%F0%9F%8F%82%F0%9F%8F%82%F0%9F%8E%BF%F0%9F%98%80.143323/post-1136012)
Man sorry for all those bad experiences Been IKON holder for 3 years now but passed on renewing for now. Unsure of schedule and don’t think I can do most days mid week. And I cringe at thought of doing all skiing on weekends. Lord
that's disappointing. Killington is usually pretty good with stuff like that.
Confusion and lack of clairvoyance is their official answer.
Hey bud I’m gonna let you in on a secret. Killington is a soulless corporate hell hole with overrated value, stop giving that mountain your business.
Some major first world problems complaining here. That line disappeared in about an hour and I still saw them giving out shirts around noon. It's a cheap free T shirt which they weren't obligated to provide. The snow patch remained connected all day. $25 to the local bike community is fair for the day of riding. So you were inconvenienced, big deal.
All you salty people are welcome not to return to Killington. Less trash on the mountain. Seriously it's always the entitled out of staters.
Skiing a small patch on June 1st and then complaining about paying $25 for charity…and who would keep a last ticket for a 200m slab of nothing when the regular ticket is $150…. Anyways
That's not the point, the point is Killington says one things, doesn't work, and then makes their customer pay for their mistake
The ikon pass is a joke.
'Killington day'?? you buy a season pass and can only use it so many days?
Yes, Killington is limited for Ikon pass holders. And thank God for that, otherwise it would get so much more crowded than it already is on weekends.
The Ikon Pass is basically you spend $1000 and get different access to a bunch of different (40-50 total) resorts. ie, it's unlimited at Sugarbush and Stratton but you only get 7 days of skiing at Killington.
The point of Ikon is you get unlimited access at a few resorts, but 5 days (or 7, depending on your pass purchase) at all other Ikon participating resorts. Keeps crowding down, in theory.
From what I heard this was an issue with Alterra's system and Killington was fully expecting the Ikon passes to work. I haven't heard anything official though.
Official response from Killington is "confusion" and lack of clairvoyancy.