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re: what changed ?

Posted by: Guillaume 11:38 am EST 11/21/14
In reply to: Met abandons online drawing for rush tickets - bwayjoey 04:29 pm EST 11/20/14

Was it a lottery before, for that evening's performance?

I'm surprised they let you buy a pair of tickets every seven days, that seems very generous. If you live in relative proximity to the Met and can sit by your computer every time at noon, you could see a lot of shows cheaply over the course of the season, and effectively block others from seats. I'd rather see them block a person from re-buying a seat this way until others who have not won a seat get to go first, to broaden the audience.

I wonder if you will know where your seat is before you buy it?


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re: what changed ?

Posted by: sirpupnyc 12:36 pm EST 11/21/14
In reply to: re: what changed ? - Guillaume 11:38 am EST 11/21/14

Before this season, it was line up and wait at the box office, same-day, with a portion set aside for seniors, who could buy online.

This season (until today) it's been a lottery like the weekend lottery: enter online starting the evening before, get an email at noon, purchase by two hours (I think) before curtain.

There's no choice of seating, and I haven't used either version of this season's system yet. But with the weekend lottery a few years back, the specific seats went into my cart when I went to redeem my win, so I knew exactly what I was getting.


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re: what changed ?

Posted by: Guillaume 01:33 pm EST 11/21/14
In reply to: re: what changed ? - sirpupnyc 12:36 pm EST 11/21/14

hmm, thanks. i agree that the lottery seems more user friendly; you don't have to be by a computer at noon.


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re: what changed ?

Posted by: sirpupnyc 03:05 pm EST 11/21/14
In reply to: re: what changed ? - Guillaume 01:33 pm EST 11/21/14

The lottery seemed like a good idea in theory--at least in that it expanded the availability beyond those who were free to go sit in line for a chunk of the day and the aged--but the implementation worked against it, I think.

The old weekend lottery had a waiting list, since it was drawing on Tuesday for purchase Wednesday for Friday and Saturday's performances. So if a winner didn't buy, someone else got in. The new system, since it was all same-day, didn't have that and if a winner didn't buy the tickets reverted to regular full-price tickets. I think they were seeing more of that than they expected, people entering who decided not to go, or couldn't.

If the lottery seats are some of the less desirable ones that are harder to move at full price on average nights, they were probably ending up with empty seats and losing the donation that subsidized the lottery price.


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