Prom Planner - booking today....

[Dave2002]

Last year we tried the Prom Planner, but in the event it did not seem to have been very useful, and we still had to make phone calls and even pick up returns later to get the selection we wanted.

Is it worth trying the Prom Planner this year? OK - we won't actually know until the weekend, but is there a general feeling that it does save time and effort? Our experiences last year were that we thought it should have done, but seemed in the event to be about as frustrating a way of ordering tickets as in previous years.

Are there any special provisions for group bookings?

[Petrushka]

According to the Proms guide (page 163), group bookings can only be made by phone or in person at the RAH. The Group Booking Information phone line is 020 7070 4408.

I've restricted myself to 8 concerts this year and that is costing over £330. Prices do seem high for some of the prestige events this year.

[Richard J.]

I have found that the Proms Planner system works very well. If you're going to several concerts, it certainly saves time, as you can develop your plan at your leisure (though you need to do so today). Then on the morning when booking opens, once you've got in after queuing, it tells you which choices have been successful, and offers alternative seats where your chosen area is full.

[Anastasius]

I agree with Richard J. Certainly for me the Proms Planner has been very good and I see from the Waiting Room that there are quite a few people who have woken up to the fact that tomorrow it all kicks off!

[Norrette]

I've forgotten how it works. I have a completed plan, but can't see how to get into the waiting room. I thought that was something that happened tomorrow at 9.

[Anastasius]

I've forgotten how it works. I have a completed plan, but can't see how to get into the waiting room. I thought that was something that happened tomorrow at 9.

You can't. Not until tomorrow. The only part 'selling' today was for the prom season passes. You just need to hope that when you get into the waiting room and are 2,308th in the queue that as you move up the queue to become 28th after an hour or so wait that you don't lose the connection or the IT Gods take a dislike to you and throw you out of the queue!!

Good luck to you and everyone else.

[Dave2002]

You can't. Not until tomorrow. The only part 'selling' today was for the prom season passes. You just need to hope that when you get into the waiting room and are 2,308th in the queue that as you move up the queue to become 28th after an hour or so wait that you don't lose the connection or the IT Gods take a dislike to you and throw you out of the queue!!

It was precisely that issue last year which I thought was really poor last year. Is it really worth the bother? Surely there ought to be a better system - I actually think that sometimes paper based systems are preferable, but presumably the organisers want to use computers, and what they see as more efficient methods. As long as they sell the seats they don't really care about the aggro mere customers have to go through in order to buy tickets - they're running a business!

I don't see why a lot of this can't actually be done "off line", without the need to hang on the end of a phone or computer connection. That was effectively what happened before on line booking became more common.

Ah well, now to try the Proms Planner yet again but I think it'll prove to be a triumph of hope over experience.

[Anastasius]

Ah well, you see this year I have a screen-scraper that monitors the number of people in the waiting room and so I'm not fussed how many there are as I can carry on with my other activities and don't need to sit waiting in front of the computer. Then when the number gets down to something sensible, my wee program sends my phone a text message and also rings it. So all I need to do is stop whatever I'm doing and toddle down to the old computer. Cunning, huh ?

[Dave2002]

Now that I've tried the Prom Planner this year so far so good. The first problem was to persuade the system who I was - eventually managed to recover last year's login details, but not after having tried to re-enter all the details, and then being rejected on the grounds that I already had a login. There was, "of course" a reset login option, but it was hidden away at the bottom of the login screen where it's not likely to be seen.

I didn't actually bother with going through the proms by date, but simply searched for performers or composers. "Labeque" was easy. However "Wilson" was totally useless, and didn't find any of the Proms, though several concerts later in the year. However searching for "Bernstein" found the concert I wanted.

Changing the booking details is not too bad, though there's no amend option to change seating. One has to remove an earlier entry to the Proms Planner, and then put in a new one.

Having got this far, now for the "fun" tomorrow. Having a screen scraper is all very well, but if the line drops out, or there are other problems, that can be a real pain. As I recall it may be necessary to stop the display from going - so turn off energy saving options such as screensavers, and sleep options until all this is done.

Maybe this year it'll be less painful.

[Petrushka]

Ah well, you see this year I have a screen-scraper that monitors the number of people in the waiting room and so I'm not fussed how many there are as I can carry on with my other activities and don't need to sit waiting in front of the computer. Then when the number gets down to something sensible, my wee program sends my phone a text message and also rings it. So all I need to do is stop whatever I'm doing and toddle down to the old computer. Cunning, huh ?

I do something similar. The queue goes down at around one number per second so it's simple enough to calculate when to return to the laptop. Past two years I've gone out and done the shopping while the computer moves down the queue back home!

[Anastasius]

.....
I didn't actually bother with going through the proms by date, but simply searched for performers or composers. "Labeque" was easy. However "Wilson" was totally useless, and didn't find any of the Proms, though several concerts later in the year. However searching for "Bernstein" found the concert I wanted.

You must be a masochist! Why didn't you use Andrew Slatter's excellent listing. So easy to search. If you searched the RAH website then, of course, you're going to get mis-hits.

Changing the booking details is not too bad, though there's no amend option to change seating. One has to remove an earlier entry to the Proms Planner, and then put in a new one.

I changed my seating request without having to delete first.

Having got this far, now for the "fun" tomorrow. Having a screen scraper is all very well, but if the line drops out, or there are other problems, that can be a real pain. As I recall it may be necessary to stop the display from going - so turn off energy saving options such as screensavers, and sleep options until all this is done.

Maybe this year it'll be less painful.

Well, your computer could die, a meteorite could drop out of the sky. At least with the online booking system you know if you are successful and/or can make an alternative suggestion there and then. Sending off a paper booking form and waiting...and waiting...only to find out that you didn't get the seats. I know which one I prefer.

[Anastasius]

I do something similar. The queue goes down at around one number per second so it's simple enough to calculate when to return to the laptop. Past two years I've gone out and done the shopping while the computer moves down the queue back home!

Much more elegant than my solution!

[Dave2002]

Much more elegant than my solution!

Maybe, though in some situations that might not work. In Sweden in many banks there are queuing regimes. In order to get service one takes a ticket, then waits for one's number to come up. Sometimes it's seemingly quite easy to calculate how long it will take to get service, but on a number of occasions people who thought they had enough time to go to do shopping next door, and had (say) number 935 were seen to come back in just as number 936 flashed up.

I quite like the idea of monitoring something on one machine, and then using it to trigger a notification event on another one, such as a tablet computer (not recommended for actually booking the Proms tickets) or a smartwatch.

Now, more relevant to the immediate circumstances - at what time should we start to access the Proms site? 8.45 am, or is it not going to work to "stand at the entrance waiting for the doors to open"? Logging in to the site could take a few minutes, or more if others are trying to get in.

[Anastasius]

It's all explained on the RAH website now.

[Dave2002]

You must be a masochist! Why didn't you use Andrew Slatter's excellent listing. So easy to search. If you searched the RAH website then, of course, you're going to get mis-hits.

No, I am not a masochist. I used Andrew's listing in paper format to decide which concerts to bid for - and also circulated it to others. Once we had considered the concerts to go for, not always the same ones for each person, I used the search method I mentioned on the site in order to put the concert into the Prom Planner. It was very quick.

You are right that anyone who tries to use the web site to actually find details of the concerts on offer is almost certainly a masochist. This applies to many sites, including the Barbican and Southbank sites, so I always try to get some form of hard copy before the decision making stage.