Six Flags [FUN] Corporate Discussion Thread

[ALT2870]

Good to see they finally came to their senses, guess those pass sales were low. I'm in Dallas till Tuesday so I'll be heading out there this weekend.

[joelwee]

I was pleasantly surprised to see SFMM change course on these passes. I've renewed our passes for next year.

[ALT2870]

On 11/24/2021 at 10:33 PM, CP_RULES said:

Indeed. A deal worth buying. If only Six Flags would realize they'd get me to do it if they offered the other options too. Taking the SFFT model as an example, Platinum level is only $20 more which gets you unlimited drinks among other things (and two or three drinks alone paid in-full in the park would cover this). I am not sure the extra $50 for a single skip the line pass per visit is worth is in my case, but still, the option would be nice.

If only there were a Mr. Siebert I could call for SFStL... Six Flags appears to be listening to customer feedback, so I hope they see this: please bring the membership style season pass offers provided at SFFT and SFGAdv to all of your parks.

Good news, after you activate the pass, you can then upgrade it to any tier still at flat rate.

[tndank]

1 hour ago, ALT2870 said:

Good news, after you activate the pass, you can then upgrade it to any tier still at flat rate.

Can you elaborate on this a bit? Remember any prices? Do it at the park or online member portal? Thx. 

[ALT2870]

You do it either on the app under "My Six Flags" or you can do it through the pass holder site at sixflags.com/member. For Over Texas here are the upgrade prices:

Plat: $20

Diamond: $70

Elite: $140

[bostonlva]

On 11/15/2021 at 8:37 AM, swfan1988 said:

Mike Spanos it out, Selim Bassoual is in!

General Article: https://www.bloomberg.com/news/articles/2021-11-15/six-flags-abruptly-replaces-ceo-even-as-park-traffic-recovers

More details: https://www.bakersfield.com/ap/news/six-flags-announces-new-ceo/article_28f5aaa0-feb8-5933-9cb3-bdd1c15cf72f.html

Six Flags announced today that Spanos is leaving effective immediately, replaced by Bassoual who was previously non-executive chairman of the board and former CEO of Middleby Corp. Ben Baldanza, former CEO of Spirit Airlines will replace Bassoual as non-executive chairman. (Is it just me or does that sound 100% like Six Flags...) No reason was given for Spanos' departure.

Bassoual is quoted as saying: “I am honored to serve as the next CEO of Six Flags, and I am excited to bring the magic back to our parks. We are a company led by a purpose–to make a positive and meaningful impact on everyone Six Flags touches," [...] "I will do my best to enable our people to fulfill their passion to make a difference, and to harness their creativity to build on a shared vision for guest satisfaction and financial growth. I am passionate about empowering employees and serving our customers, and together with our team, I know we can set up Six Flags for a new level of success in the months and years ahead.”

This doesn't make all that much sense to me, since the company's financial performance seems to have held up well during and after COVID, and Spanos seemed to be taking the company in a good directions (season pass fiasco aside), in my opinion. It will be interesting to see if Bassoul is in Spanos' vein of increasing customer satisfaction and elevating the guest experience, or if he returns to the more Jim Reid-Anderson formula.

Anyone know more about this?

Screamscape was sent the email that  Selim Bassoul the new CEO sent to the company (You can read that email at the link below). It seems like Six Flags will be restructuring the company and returning to a reporting structure where the park presidents report directly to the CEO, which I would assume means they will have a lot more say/power in how they get to run their park.  

 

Quote

    (12/18/21) We hinted at this last week, but I’m hearing that big changes are starting to happen to the management structure at Six Flags, both in the corporate office as well as at the theme park level. All of this seems to be coming down from a restructuring plan from the new CEO who is of the belief that there are too many layers of management in the company, and has set forth a new plan to streamline everything. Unfortunately i’m not sure if this will involve some lay-offs at the management level, or if this is more of a restructure with positions being moved around, or perhaps a little bit of both. 
    One thing that was implied to Screamscape was that the new management structure may actually be more reminiscent of how Six Flags was run decades ago, long before the RedZone take-over and eras that followed. Back in the early days Six Flags Park Presidents were said to hold a lot more power and control over how their parks were run, and a significant amount of say in what kind of new attractions were needed. Under the management system the chain has used for the past couple decades, the power most Park Presidents said to be mostly limited to the point that all the big decisions were made at the corporate levels, leaving the Park President to mostly serve as a General Manager to ensure the corporate will was executed on the local level, but unable to make much in the way of decisions or policy on their own. Even under that system, select Park Presidents have made a name for themselves and were able to gain limited support from the corporate office, but this is the exception and not the rule. From the sound of things, the new CEO seems to be ready to give the power back to the Park Presidents and empower the parks once again, who best know their own demographics, to help guide and lead their own future development. 

http://screamscape.com/html/corporate_park_news.htm#SixFlags

[coasterbill]

There’s some more fuel to the fire of the rumor that the new leadership is removing Holiday in the Park in many locations. The chain has removed Holiday in the Park as a pass and membership benefit from select parks.

I wouldn’t normally read into this, but since these are the parks rumored to lose it anyway, it’s very-much worth noting.

Credit for discovering this goes to “avocadotoastdevil” on Reddit.

Comparing the 2022 Basic Season Pass for each park.

https://www.sixflags.com/greatadventure/store/tickets

Includes Both Fright Fest and Holiday in the Park at Six Flags Great Adventure

https://www.sixflags.com/greatamerica/store/tickets

Includes Admission to Fright Fest at Six Flags Great America

https://www.sixflags.com/newengland/store/tickets

Includes Admission to Fright Fest at Six Flags New England

https://www.sixflags.com/stlouis/store/tickets

Includes Admission to Fright Fest at Six Flags St. Louis

https://www.sixflags.com/america/store/tickets

Includes Admission to Fright Fest at Six Flags America

——

Basically, the chain is rumored to be removing the event from every park in an even-slightly northern part of the country aside from Six Flags Great Adventure.

As a fan, I obviously hate this move a lot. I don’t see the numbers though and they do so it’s hard to really comment too much on it. It’s a shame though…

[ilyf15]

but it appears that HIP has been added to Darien Lake
https://www.sixflags.com/darienlake/store/tickets

[coasterbill]

I was just looking at the section up top. Based on that, they probably mean “Magic of Lights” and they’re just dumb.

[Haymaker]

20 hours ago, coasterbill said:

I was just looking at the section up top. Based on that, they probably mean “Magic of Lights” and they’re just dumb.

You are correct. Although they are using Holiday in the Park branded mugs and popcorn buckets for Magic of Lights. 

Oddly enough, the weather this year mightve made HITP successful. 

[coasterbill]

On 1/8/2022 at 5:54 PM, coasterbill said:

Six Flags Mexico has paused the sale of all memberships but they're still selling annual passes.

No clue what Six Flags is up to, but given the direction they're currently heading in I assume that it's nothing that guests will be happy about.

The Texas parks have discontinued the sale of new memberships also. WTF are they doing?

Most of their recent changes have been cost cutting and things that are just openly negative for guests but attempts to increase profits. I'm actually not sure how this benefits anyone, including them.

PS: Selling season passes and not annual passes to year-round parks is dumb.

[Zand]

6 minutes ago, coasterbill said:

The Texas parks have discontinued the sale of new memberships also. WTF are they doing?

I feel like with the (at one time anyway) change regarding season passes only being good at the home park, they might be going with the Cedar Fair method of cheapish passes for a pass for your home park and a more expensive pass to get to the whole chain. I feel like they lose tons of money on memberships (even my diamond membership with a dining pass membership is only $17 a month) and the new ownership is going to start tightening those strings.

I feel like the price points will still be slightly below Cedar Fair's, but say goodbye to the insane deals you get now... Hopefully they let people already on memberships keep them, but not holding my breath.

[coasterbill]

So… raise the price of memberships?

They’re still offering a dirt cheap season pass that gets you into every park. The structure that you’re describing kind-of already exists.

They’re actually not able to get rid of Diamond Elite VIP memberships. They’re stuck with those forever (though I don’t see any verbiage saying that they can’t raise the price to force people out of them). As for the others, they have a page up calling them Legacy memberships 

[Zand]

I was too lazy to actually go to the page and read it before I posted...my bad. Glad existing memberships are staying intact for now.

I just wouldn't be surprised to see pass prices go up closer to CF prices. And, like you said for memberships, they might raise those prices to a point where people say screw it and move on to regular passes.

[joelwee]

Magic Mountain no longer lists memberships on their website, and instead has multi-tiered season passes.

https://www.sixflags.com/magicmountain/store/tickets

[bert425]

7 minutes ago, joelwee said:

Magic Mountain no longer lists memberships on their website, and instead has multi-tiered season passes.

https://www.sixflags.com/magicmountain/store/tickets

it is still basically a Membership. . with Membership card & membership benefits.    You just pay it up front as you do a Season Pass.

they just hand you the membership card instead of a Season Pass.

I know this, because I bought a Platinum Season pass in early Nov.   And this is what I have:

 

[TEDodd]

https://www.sixflags.com/overgeorgia/store/tickets

So Georgia is now showing tiered season passes but with a monthly payment option on most basically memberships.

Basic Pass - $50
Gold Plus - $6/mo w/ 12mo commitment (membership) or $70 one time for all of 2022 (pass)
Platinum - $8.50/mo or $100
Diamond - $11/mo or $145 *
Elite - $17/mo or $215 *

Diamond and Elite are still more expensive for a one time payment, but Gold and Platinum are $2 cheaper. I guess that's progress.



 

[TEDodd]

3 hours ago, coasterbill said:

The Texas parks have discontinued the sale of new memberships also. WTF are they doing?

Have they? I see Memberships listed farther down the page.
https://www.sixflags.com/overtexas/store/tickets-pick
https://www.sixflags.com/fiestatexas/store/tickets-pick

And it let me click on the Buy button. I didn't go all the way to add to cart though.
 

[coasterbill]

That's hilarious, but it probably won't last. They were gone for awhile and they have a page here where in the FAQ it states that you can't buy them but the website is (and has always been) a five-alarm tire fire.

[tndank]

39 minutes ago, bert425 said:

it is still basically a Membership. . with Membership card & membership benefits.    You just pay it up front as you do a Season Pass.

The difference is the length of time.  Someone in July is paying a full season price and only getting the rest of the year.  With memberships, you can join any time and get a full year for, in theory, the same price.

This update today is strange.  I think there's more coming.  No way they do away with easy payments.  Too many people buy passes simply because it's only $X/mo.

 

[bert425]

1 hour ago, tndank said:

The difference is the length of time.  Someone in July is paying a full season price and only getting the rest of the year.  With memberships, you can join any time and get a full year for, in theory, the same price.

This update today is strange.  I think there's more coming.  No way they do away with easy payments.  Too many people buy passes simply because it's only $X/mo.

 

is that what it says in today's update?

my "Season Pass" is good for a year from when I purchased it.
(but then again, I purchased from a year round park -  that is just up the street from a competitor that also treats their Season Pass this way. . the one I bought in Nov from SeaWorld is good until next Nov).

[tndank]

*Good for 2022 season. 

[coasterbill]

^^I mean, if that’s true then they do a horrible job communicating that…

Edit: Beat me to it. Also, I’m not saying Bert is wrong, he’s very likely right and this chain is just a mess but I can’t tell from this, and I’m not even convinced that the parks know.

[tndank]

What a cluster.  Agreed 

[swfan1988]

It seems to me that all they are doing is eliminating the monthly payment option, and just making each "membership" tier a new season (or annual) pass tier.

Why on earth they would do that when paying month to month seems so prevalent nowadays...I have no idea. Maybe they want to phase out all the benefits and will just discontinue these new "tiers" once they expire at the end of the year, and they're doing it this way so they don't p*ss all there paying members off (totally)? Either way this makes (almost) no sense at all...