If anyone gets in the queue...

[Rolmill]

I was unavoidably out at 9am, so my wife volunteered to get me into the queue - not sure why, but she wasn't able to get in until 9.45 (says she was trying every 2 minutes from 9am onwards) at which time it was over 5,000. Just completed purchase at 11.05: only 1 of 3 on my planner had the requested seats, the other two I've ended up in the central stalls (aaargh - but both were sell outs when I checked for alternatives, so it was either that or cancel). My worst proms booking result ever.

[Simon B]

Hateful.

As an added bonus, the system found a new way to make the experience that little bit more infuriating today. It's a good one this...

"
WEBSITE UNAVAILABLE
Your connection to the Royal Albert Hall website has been blocked as we have detected unusual traffic activity originating from your IP address.

If you believe you have reached this page in error please contact Customer Service at blahblahblah@oursystemdoesntworkproperly.com
...
"

For "unusual activity" read "a frustrated punter trying to use the website". Don't navigate too fast when throwing out the hopeless seat the system has randomly allocated and try again or the RAH will lock you out!

Obviously, emailing them is going to go really well today, I'm sure a timely and cheerfully effective response would be forthcoming. A week Wednesday perhaps...

Just as well I'm technically savvy enough to have an alternative available, otherwise that'd have been the end of that.

The RAH booking system is, without exaggeration, the worst of any major venue I know of.

Covent Garden's system has now mostly been sorted out at least in terms of approach, if not always execution. (It fell over in a heap a few public booking days back due to a bug in the payments system IIRC).

The RAH really should go the same way imv. It is sufficiently distributed, scalable and demand-adaptive that thousands of people can all go in without waiting around for hours. Then, they can simultaneously select their own seats, not be lumbered with the antiquated farce of random allocation still persisted with by the RAH... It'd be a vast improvement.

[Petrushka]

Dave2002 and SimonB are among the more technically savvy people on the Forum but a technical ignoramus like me on a laptop that crashed last week found little to complain about. My blood pressure stayed normal as far as I can tell. I got the busy page the moment I logged in at dead on 9am but got into the waiting room at 9.23 at number 5627. Previous experience showed that the queue goes down at 1 per second so a simple calculation revealed a wait of about 90 minutes. In the event that was pretty much spot on.

I got tickets for all the Proms I wanted but find myself in the Grand Tier () for the first BPO/Rattle Prom and in the Circle for the Beethoven 9.

[amateur51]

Dave3002 and SimonB are among the more technically savvy people on the Forum but a technical ignoramus like me on a laptop that crashed last week found little to complain about. My blood pressure stayed normal as far as I can tell. I got the busy page the moment I logged in at dead on 9am but got into the waiting room at 9.23 at number 5627. Previous experience showed that the queue goes down at 1 per second so a simple calculation revealed a wait of about 90 minutes. In the event that was pretty much spot on.

I got tickets for all the Proms I wanted but find myself in the Grand Tier () for the first BPO/Rattle Prom and in the Circle for the Beethoven 9.

Bravo Pet, grace under pressure

[Nachtigall]

I don't know what exactly determines how soon you are admitted to the waiting room. Astonishingly I managed to get in only a minute or two after 9.00am with a mere 500 ahead of me in the queue, whereas a friend of mine adopting exactly the same technique (i.e. refreshing the page every one or two seconds as soon as 9.00am arrives) had to wait for three hours with 8,000 in the queue. I got the tickets I wanted but it's not a season which fills me with much excitement this year.

[teamsaint]

So, not a good morning to oversleep, then......


Hope folks got what they wanted, looks like promming for me again this year.

[amateur51]

I don't know what exactly determines how soon you are admitted to the waiting room. Astonishingly I managed to get in only a minute or two after 9.00am with a mere 500 ahead of me in the queue, whereas a friend of mine adopting exactly the same technique (i.e. refreshing the page every one or two seconds as soon as 9.00am arrives) had to wait for three hours with 8,000 in the queue. I got the tickets I wanted but it's not a season which fills me with much excitement this year.

In one of his many Proms booking aside on CDR this morning, Andrew alerted bookers to some advice re refreshing - DON'T under any circumstances hit your refresh button for you risk going to the back of queue.

How refreshing to hear of your experience Nachtigall .

[Nick Armstrong]

How refreshing

*GROAN*

[Nachtigall]

In one of his many Proms booking aside on CDR this morning, Andrew alerted bookers to some advice re refreshing - DON'T under any circumstances hit your refresh button for you risk going to the back of queue.

How refreshing to hear of your experience Nachtigall .

Refreshed to learn that you found my experience refreshing, amateur. Yes, I heard Andrew's advice. Obviously you don't refresh once you're in the waiting room, but the pre-waiting room page won't refresh of its own accord so one has to give it frequent encouragement.

[Colonel Danby]

Basically I've just given up trying to get to grips with the new fangled technology with the Royal Albert Hall website, with all this Waiting Room nonsense. I had a season ticket for the Proms for many years, but it is no longer cost affective and I'm quite happy to slum it with the day side troops on the south side, where there are very many dear friends I know from yonks ago (including Barbara: I hope you're well, and intend to make the trip from Reading for the occasional Prom this year: you are among the reasons the whole thing is worth turning up to hear the best music concert season in the world) despite the almighty immense load of crap and needless garbage from the Hall.

[Ferretfancy]

My Season Pass for the Arena has just arrived, so this time it's been less of a cliffhanger than usual wondering when it will turn up.

[amateur51]

My Season Pass for the Arena has just arrived, so this time it's been less of a cliffhanger than usual wondering when it will turn up.

Triffic news Ferret! Enjoy!