Six Flags [FUN] Corporate Discussion Thread

[tndank]

Not sure all SF did this or will do it again, but when they had pay up front for the memberships they were ~ double the monthly price.  I think I'll just set a calendar event and cancel after a year if I need to.

I've cancelled memberships in the past with no problems.  

[anonymouscactus]

The thing that kills me is the processing at your home park. My home park doesn't open until May, so if I visit any park before that (spring break, etc) I will have to buy the membership from another park unless I buy it before the season is over this year, but it wouldn't make sense to double pay because I already have a non local park season pass. If they had the GOOD perks for every park it would make sense, but the bring a friend, etc only work at your home park. I hate it. The percent off discount that's good at every park is usually more than the online prices anyways.

Not that I want to bring a friend to suffer at Darien Lake, but still... to make it financially worth it there's no good way to do it for me.

[Satans Hockey]

Personally the main reason I switched to membership years ago was because with the season passes you had to show up by some point in October to activate them to get the free parking benefits and September/October was always a time we had trouble getting to the park. Switching to membership avoided this issue. It's also quite a bit cheaper too so that's another bonus. 

In terms of being able to cancel unless they changed it you can just go on the website and cancel at any time after your first 12 months.

[bert425]

^ yeah. . I can "cancel anytime" my Amazon Prime Membership too. . and yet, it renews every year (sometimes despite my intention to cancel it, as they don't send out a notice that it's about to renew).

 

so. . yeah. . not interested in signing up for anything "recurring"

[RaceBoarder]

Do you honestly think that you will be skipping every other year on a SF pass?

 

Cause that is what you are paying.   Even if you run a month or two extra before cancelling, you are only $50 or less over the yearly membership cost instead of double.  Over 5 years, you are paying an extra $500-1000.   That's an entire theme park vacation in many cases.

It's your money, you can spend how you want.   But this is NOT solid financial advice for anyone who actually has to watch their income/spending, and can't just throw money away without thinking...

[bert425]

^ you said it yourself. . my money can spend how I want

[hoppedup]

With Amazon Prime you are paying a flat fee for a year of service. I have no idea if they pro-rate if you cancel. With Six Flags, after twelve months you are essentially on a monthly contract that you can (and at least two of us in this thread have done) easily cancel.

I can easily afford $220 a year. But if somebody wants to sell it to me for $90, I'm taking that. I don't understand the disdain for monthly payments. But I don't have to, it's your money.

[AmyUD06]

56 minutes ago, RaceBoarder said:

Do you honestly think that you will be skipping every other year on a SF pass?

 

Cause that is what you are paying.   Even if you run a month or two extra before cancelling, you are only $50 or less over the yearly membership cost instead of double.  Over 5 years, you are paying an extra $500-1000.   That's an entire theme park vacation in many cases.

It's your money, you can spend how you want.   But this is NOT solid financial advice for anyone who actually has to watch their income/spending, and can't just throw money away without thinking...

Or we could just continue to buy the $50-60 season pass, and have it be good at every park, as it has been forever, if that was still offered.

I too do not want to sign up for a recurring thing (I have enough of those already).  Granted, I never spent a time inside SF parks and got my money's worth from the season pass, but will likely not be doing that next year.

And yes, I only get SF passes when I anticipate going to a bunch of their parks in a given year.  I had one in 2017 and then again this year, but no other years since I was a little kid.

[tndank]

I'm skipping passes and memberships for now.  I don't have a home park really, so I'll use my current pass til it ends.  Then when I visit another SF park at some point in time, I'll probably get whatever the cheapest membership is at that point.  Cancel at 12 months, take the free months or discounted rate offer, then repeat again.

 

 

[VegasBaby]

38 minutes ago, tndank said:

I'm skipping passes and memberships for now.  I don't have a home park really, so I'll use my current pass til it ends.  Then when I visit another SF park at some point in time, I'll probably get whatever the cheapest membership is at that point.  Cancel at 12 months, take the free months or discounted rate offer, then repeat again.

 

 

In the past, when you go to cancel your membership, they present you with a cheaper offer.  I don't know if they will continue this practice, but it's worth a shot once your 12 months is up.

[grsupercity]

I went to finally cancel my membership. They offered some crazy stupid inexpensive rate to stay members so we did not cancel. Well turns out doing so I lost all my free upgrades I had gained during the pandemic and have to get all new membership cards. What was the point in not canceling then. Very annoying 

[ALT2870]

So has anyone verified then if you can buy the pass at La Ronde and not have to activate it there? Website has conflicting information.

[anonymouscactus]

If you could buy a membership anywhere and not go to that park then everyone would just buy from Six Flags Mexico. It says season passes don't have to be processed by a certain date and are immediately active. And since season passes are only good at the park you buy it at, that makes sense.

[Satans Hockey]

4 hours ago, bert425 said:

^ yeah. . I can "cancel anytime" my Amazon Prime Membership too. . and yet, it renews every year (sometimes despite my intention to cancel it, as they don't send out a notice that it's about to renew).

 

so. . yeah. . not interested in signing up for anything "recurring"

 

I totally get ya just wanting to pay up front and being done with it for the year but just letting ya know it's not like prime where it automatically renews after a year. You also should be receiving emails for prime every year when it's about to renew. I get them warning me when it's gonna renew.

For membership you have to pay for 12 months then after that you can cancel at anytime, you're not locked into another 12 months. You can cancel at 13, 14, 15 months etc and that's it, no penalties or fees or anything. That only happens if you cancel under the first 12 months. 

[CP_RULES]

7 hours ago, Mike240SX said:

Or we could just continue to buy the $50-60 season pass, and have it be good at every park, as it has been forever, if that was still offered.

I too do not want to sign up for a recurring thing (I have enough of those already).  Granted, I never spent a time inside SF parks and got my money's worth from the season pass, but will likely not be doing that next year.

And yes, I only get SF passes when I anticipate going to a bunch of their parks in a given year.  I had one in 2017 and then again this year, but no other years since I was a little kid.

I agree with the vast majority of this. Looking at the membership prices, they are not going to get me to join in on the scheme. I get the business reason, but they are also doing a complete turn-around on what has forever differentiated them from Cedar Fair. I get it, memberships helped you survive the pandemic. I would not have toured all the parks I got to this year and bought food at each one otherwise. We all know you're making bank on your $25+ parking and $9 drinks.... I'll pick my years carefully now.

[TEDodd]

11 hours ago, Mike240SX said:

Or we could just continue to buy the $50-60 season pass, and have it be good at every park, as it has been forever, if that was still offered.

This. Exactly. 

I've never paid more for the gold pass (or whatever name, all parks and parking) that the price of the cheapest membership ($72/yr now).

 

And I'd have to check, but last few years, the season dining with 2 meals was cheaper than the same member dining.

 

The membership perks were useless to me, so not worth the extra cost.

[bill_s]

One thing I've done is a 13 month membership. The best thing of the year -- haunts, earlier opening season, or whatever you like most -- you get 2 years in a row, for barely more than the price of one year. However my SF membership is so cheap after the attempted quit deal that I've only used that at Busch Gardens, which is now open year-round so they probably got me fully hooked too.

[tndank]

Just to follow up here. Appears one park is now offering the lump sum option. Ex here is gold pluss for ~$84 via monthly or $230 in one payment.  

[bert425]

^ which park is that? 

[tndank]

Great Adventure

[VegasBaby]

SFMM also gives you the same option of paying the membership up front for an entire season.  Not sure why anyone would do that though as it is nearly 3x as much as the monthly cost. 

[TEDodd]

1 hour ago, tndank said:

Ex here is gold pluss for ~$84 via monthly or $230 in one payment.  

 

Ridiculous. 

[TEDodd]

26 minutes ago, VegasBaby said:

SFMM also gives you the same option of paying the membership up front for an entire season.  Not sure why anyone would do that though as it is nearly 3x as much as the monthly cost. 

Some people (like me) just don't want the hassle of recurring payments.

That's why I pay for my car insurance the full 6 month premium, not monthly. And lots of other services.

And no other place charges more to pay in advance. Usually there's a discount for paying upfront.

 

So if I stay with SF I'll open a new account, deposit the annual cost and  use it for payments.

[liltrekkie]

Month to month memberships look better for quarterly profits. Which is probably why they want to switch everyone to them.

[ALT2870]

I don't get that, at least at that price point. Sure they'd rather you pay monthly but I think they could turn this into a better thing and make MORE money if they reduced it into the 100's, say around $150. (I guess the idea still is people will forget and they'll get free money.) I'm sure me and Bert aren't the only ones who like to pay all up front for things like this. I do appreciate that it is at least an online option now, guessing they had people complain and thought this would solve it at least in their minds.

Coming back to the LaRonde thing I spent over an hour on a chat trying to get an answer an their deal last week. We were about to figure it out then it disconnected me for inactivity while I was waiting, go figure. Going to try again later today.