Is anyone poised over the keyboard .... ???

[Pabmusic]

Shamefully, I have to admit that I have seen this thread for several hours , but thought it said: "In anyone p----d over the keyboard?" (or even something with all the letters there).

Another, anyone??

[VodkaDilc]

Surprisingly I got the tickets I wanted - including excellent seats for Dudamel, which I thought would be sold out quickly. I think I am right in saying that the big improvement this year has been being able to pre-register a credit card. I think that's had to be done in the final stages previously, with all the scope for entering wrong numbers and so on.

Not as long-winded as previous years (last year, when I was finished by 9.15 was a fluke, I think.). I notice the handling fee for my order is £19.28 - seems a bit excessive perhaps.

[Simon B]

What you actually have to do is to, by some means, keep trying to access www.royalalberthall.com, which it does say but in terms which you do have to read with a lawyer's/techie's eye to not potentially misunderstand IMO.

Meanwhile, from various technical clues it looks like the RAH ticketing system is now using Amazon Web Services to provide some sort of scalable virtual cloud front end which is effectively a way of buying capacity for massive surges in demand on a temporary and therefore cost effective basis. It appears to be working, up to a point, on this occasion...

Also I think I scanned briefly over some stuff in an email that tickets for some of the family type events were going on sale at a different time to the main tranche. Enormous numbers of people piling in to try to get tickets for e.g. the Dr Who Proms in past years have previously greatly increased the strain on the system so perhaps sensibly segregating booking for these type of events has helped?

[Simon B]

For the first time in years, all went smoothly for me today too. Up to a point! In the queue at position 244, got acceptable tickets for every concert requested including a favourite seat for many of them. However, my pre-registered credit card was then repeatedly declined, despite checking and re-checking the details were correct. Reasons unknown. Had I not had another one to hand anticipating disaster, disaster would have been mine to savour.

I'm actually just a tiny bit disappointed. I have to go and play the bass drum in a performance of Verdi's Requiem this evening and was relying on the annual Proms booking apoplexy to provide the necessary level of... vim... for the Dies Irae ...

[Cockney Sparrow]

Well, ahem, I too ended up getting tickets for the concerts I wanted. Although I have been critical I haven't let it affect my blood pressure!
It couldn't give me preferred tickets for Boris G, so I rejected them from the planner, and then carried on checking seat nos, and added the Petrenko RLPO Prom. then went in afresh for Boris and got tickets where i wanted them (side stalls) -must have been released back into the pool, having been previously allocated to a potential purchaser. One of the concerts will be in reasonable choir seats - been on my agenda to give them a try, and of course cheaper to boot.

If I hadn't started disconnecting and pasting in the RaH "What's on" web page address afresh, I would have been stuck up an internet blind alley for longer. So, they've improved the handling and the credit card payment. Modified rapture. they just didn't make the message on that web page clear (not fair to assume we possess a lawyer's eye or an IT expert's background knowledge, is it?

[Petrushka]

For the first time in years, all went smoothly for me today too. Up to a point! In the queue at position 244, got acceptable tickets for every concert requested including a favourite seat for many of them. However, my pre-registered credit card was then repeatedly declined, despite checking and re-checking the details were correct. Reasons unknown. Had I not had another one to hand anticipating disaster, disaster would have been mine to savour.

I'm actually just a tiny bit disappointed. I have to go and play the bass drum in a performance of Verdi's Requiem this evening and was relying on the annual Proms booking apoplexy to provide the necessary level of... vim... for the Dies Irae ...

There were problems with credit cards last year (including mine) so in order to ensure it didn't happen again I pre-registered my debit card. The only thing I can think might have gone wrong for you was that you hadn't spotted that you couldn't pre-register the security code and that had to be input at time of booking. It was easy enough to miss this during the booking process.

Regarding your bass drum contribution this evening, just think of someone you really, really dislike.

[Petrushka]

The First Night and Bowie Prom had sold out by 10.06 and Prom 66 (BPO/Rattle) by 10.52.

Rather surprised the First Night sold out so quickly.

[Beef Oven!]

The First Night and Bowie Prom had sold out by 10.06 and Prom 66 (BPO/Rattle) by 10.52.

Rather surprised the First Night sold out so quickly.

Bowie? Sold out? Mueslisinfonieman and Mary will be quite irritated

[mrbouffant]

Was lucky enough to land at position 440 (very musical) at 9.01. Possibly this was because I cheated and used the URL https://tickets.royalalberthall.com/ instead of the front page.

Managed to get what I wanted for 6 concerts so happy with that.

The system was definitely beefed-up this year. Queue seemed to go down 50-60/minute initially which was excellent.

No queues as at 12.15 and only a handful of Proms have sold out - a reflection on the programming and/or increased ticket prices?

[Simon B]

Well, it's only taken them about 7 years to get enough capacity on the website for it to cope - evidently inspired by the example of the multiple continuous 10+ mile blocks of neverending roadworks on the M5 and M6 currently bringing the midlands and NW England to almost daily gridlock mostly thanks to the asinine, cretinous way these are now carried out. Anyway, I digress.

All they need to do now is add Select Your Own Seat functionality and they'll have a usable system...

[Petrushka]

The lack of hard luck stories this year suggests that the RAH have finally cracked it.

[Prommer]

Bernie H in Mahler 3 and Martha n Danny now sold out....!

[Dave2002]

The First Night and Bowie Prom had sold out by 10.06 and Prom 66 (BPO/Rattle) by 10.52.

Rather surprised the First Night sold out so quickly.

I mentioned we outsourced our first attempts. Our friends managed to get all the tickets they and we wanted very early on, including Prom 64 (BPO/Rattle, Mahler 7). We "owe" them for that - bottle of whisky perhaps! We might still go back later and pick up odd tickets as we go along. In previous years I have found that it isn't always necessary to get in on day one, and sometimes there are unsold seats or returns for Proms which appear to be sold out at the start.

Re the opening of booking rush for events, such as Glyndebourne, I have found that even for Glyndebourne it's often possible to pick up reasonable tickets at a fair price after the initial rush. The Glyndebourne box office people are usually very helpful, and phoning up for returns every morning for anything one really wants to go to often gives a good result - and may save a considerable sum too compared with paying full price for expensive seats on day one.

Reverting back to the Proms, in previous years I suspected that using Apple kit to access the RAH site put one at a disadvantage. I'm guessing that iPads, iPhones and other tables (Android) are still a no-no for Proms bookings, though perhaps the site was different this year.

[mopsus]

Reverting back to the Proms, in previous years I suspected that using Apple kit to access the RAH site put one at a disadvantage. I'm guessing that iPads, iPhones and other tables (Android) are still a no-no for Proms bookings, though perhaps the site was different this year.

I booked for Prom 2 using an iPad. Having failed to get on to the queue using my Windows laptop! I thought the system worked quite well - certainly much better than the nightmare that was Covent Garden booking on opening day a couple of years ago - but the holding messages could have been improved - advising the visitor to try again in a new window rather than refreshing, and confirming this was the right page to be on if you had a Proms Plan.

[Dave2002]

I booked for Prom 2 using an iPad. Having failed to get on to the queue using my Windows laptop! I thought the system worked quite well - certainly much better than the nightmare that was Covent Garden booking on opening day a couple of years ago - but the holding messages could have been improved - advising the visitor to try again in a new window rather than refreshing, and confirming this was the right page to be on if you had a Proms Plan.

I think in previous years there was explicit advice not to use iPads and tablets, but it sounds as though mostly things have improved significantly for this year, though some people have still had some painful experiences.