Queueing system

[alywin]

Quite. I had unavoidable work commitments, and couldn't have booked today anyway. Oh well, I always Prom, anyhow.

[LHC]

Ah, no, your problem's not Wagnerophiles first and foremost but a rather more obsessive bunch altogether:

"Please note that tickets for the two Doctor Who Proms (Proms 2 and 3) have now sold out. Please check back for returns and Promming tickets will still be available on the day."

I recall that the Wallace and Gromit proms were also the first to sell out last year, so the popularity of the Dr Who proms might not just be down to the obsessive nature of Sci Fi fans. It could be that these 'family' proms are popular with people wanting to introduce their children to classical music, and also that people will tend to but more tickets for these proms than for others (large family groups rather than just one or two tickets for each prom)

[Nachtigall]

Re the Dr Who cloggers: I got the message that both concerts had sold out at 10.30 before I had even left the waiting room. Assuming a combined seating capacity of, say, 10,000 and putting this against SimonB's working out above I'd say that this strongly suggests a huge demand for just those two concerts. One wonders how many of them came from the professional computers and lap-tops of ticket touts and e-bay sellers.

Looks as though you've got your answer, Petrushka:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2013/may/19/proms-touts-seats

[french frank]

Looks as though you've got your answer, Petrushka:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2013...ms-touts-seats

Hmmm:

"Last weekend the BBC announced that a record 114,000 Proms tickets had sold since booking opened last week, a 17% rise on 2012. The two Doctor Who-themed Proms were the first to be announced as sold out..."

Is there a limit as to how many tickets you can buy?

[Nick Armstrong]

I quite agree. Not being able to select your seats is a pain

In cases where the concert isn't sold out rapidly, and once everything's calmed down, I think I've found a partial solution to this. One can select the area one wants... so I kept choosing the pairs I was offered within my selected area, until I got a pair in the specific position I wanted. By that stage I had 6 pairs of tickets in my 'basket' - I then simply had to delete 5 of the pairs and retain and purchase the ones I wanted.

I needed a seating plan with individual seat numbers visible - not that easy to find, I used this one http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k1...olken/rah4.jpg The seats are just about visible - has anyone got a higher-resolution one which is more legible?

[Petrushka]

Looks as though you've got your answer, Petrushka:
http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2013...ms-touts-seats

Why am I not surprised?

Perhaps next year - and it looks like the Dr Who Proms will be a regular feature - these Proms could be ring-fenced with special ticket arrangements applying, for instance with booking opening on a different day. Ordinary music punters might just have a chance to get through then. Actually, the popularity of the Dr Who Proms might mean they will have their own season ere long! You read it here first, folks!

Ticket touting is a problem and needs looking at. What happens abroad? Anyone know?

[Flosshilde]

Why am I not surprised?

Perhaps next year - and it looks like the Dr Who Proms will be a regular feature - these Proms could be ring-fenced with special ticket arrangements applying, for instance with booking opening on a different day. Ordinary music punters might just have a chance to get through then. Actually, the popularity of the Dr Who Proms might mean they will have their own season ere long! You read it here first, folks!

Ticket touting is a problem and needs looking at. What happens abroad? Anyone know?

Not sure if that would deal with the tout problem. The only way that the re-sale of tickets at vastly inflated prices would be for the BBC/RAH to cancel any ticket so offered & make it available for booking again. It would probably be horrendously difficult to do, & prohibitively expensive. & how would the touts be prevented from simply buying them again?

[Frances_iom]

Ticket touting is a problem and needs looking at.

I suspect any online booking system can be gamed - a scheme successfully used to game car auctions was described sometime ago in a Linux magazine.
Why not make the ticket carry the name of the person booking + say the last 4 digits of the credit card used - entrance can be obtained only by production of the credit card used to book tickets - any secondary market thus has to be via the originating box-office (a similar schme was used by Eurotunnel for 'cheap' day tickets)

[teamsaint]

In cases where the concert isn't sold out rapidly, and once everything's calmed down, I think I've found a partial solution to this. One can select the area one wants... so I kept choosing the pairs I was offered within my selected area, until I got a pair in the specific position I wanted. By that stage I had 6 pairs of tickets in my 'basket' - I then simply had to delete 5 of the pairs and retain and purchase the ones I wanted.

I needed a seating plan with individual seat numbers visible - not that easy to find, I used this one http://i84.photobucket.com/albums/k1...olken/rah4.jpg The seats are just about visible - has anyone got a higher-resolution one which is more legible?

Blimey, I bet you needed a day off after that , Cal !! sounds very stressful .

[teamsaint]

I suspect any online booking system can be gamed - a scheme successfully used to game car auctions was described sometime ago in a Linux magazine.
Why not make the ticket carry the name of the person booking + say the last 4 digits of the credit card used - entrance can be obtained only by production of the credit card used to book tickets - any secondary market thus has to be via the originating box-office (a similar schme was used by Eurotunnel for 'cheap' day tickets)

Plenty of small venues use that kind of simple system FioM.
Perhaps the RAH authorities like the guaranteed sale, truth to tell?

Incidentally, for the recent Wilko Johnson tour, where tickets were being widely touted, the venue i went to in Portsmouth was VERY strict on who could collect tickets booked on line.


EDit: The RAH trialled a photo ID entry system a year or two back IIRC, for a pop concert.

[Petrushka]

Why not make the ticket carry the name of the person booking + say the last 4 digits of the credit card used - entrance can be obtained only by production of the credit card used to book tickets - any secondary market thus has to be via the originating box-office (a similar schme was used by Eurotunnel for 'cheap' day tickets)

Among the more interesting comments on the Guardian/Observer article is one from someone who has worked at the RAH and there is mentioned the difficulty that already exists in getting 6000 people into the hall in time for the concert. Any system of checks will prolong the process to an unacceptable degree.

[Petrushka]

Not sure if that would deal with the tout problem.

I didn't say it would. It would at least give the 'ordinary' punter a chance to get in much quicker and with less hassle.

[Flosshilde]

I daresay it might, but it wouldn't deal with the problem highlighted in the article linked to, which is tickets being re-sold at grossly inflated prices. I assume that the touts manage to get hold of a large number of tickets by paying lots of people to go online (or queue at the box office) to buy tickets for them.

(I'm not sure why the people booking tickets for the Dr Who prom/s aren't 'ordinary' punters, or how they might differ from 'ordinary' punters?)

[Petrushka]

I'm not sure why the people booking tickets for the Dr Who prom/s aren't 'ordinary' punters, or how they might differ from 'ordinary' punters?

Just my shorthand for differentiating between those who were booking solely for Dr Who Proms and classical music lovers interested in the rest of the season.

[Flosshilde]

Surely the latter are 'extraordinary'