Proms 2017

[Anastasius]

Andrew S and Simon B..much appreciated thanks. Now why can't the numpties who 'design' (can it be said to be a design when it is so excruciatingly bad?) at the BBC get it right ? They produce this lousy website year in and year out. But too arrogant to listen to any criticism.

To reply to a question by team saint that I recall reading ....my last train home where I used to live is 8.20pm. Just about time to see the conductor lift his baton for the first item before having to leave to get to the station. Having moved, the last train out is now a much more respectable 10pm but since the train journey is then many hours plus an hours drive home at the other end, I think I will pass.

[Norrette]

I tend to sit pressing F5 from about 08:58:30 hoping to get in the queue... Normally I land around the 1500 mark.

Regarding your point about choosing seats, I think (if memory serves) you can do this via the Proms Planner. The computer will allocate you the "best" seats in the section you specified, but you can hand tweak those as part of the online process.

I am ready for the click fest tomorrow. If I can't get what I want then I don't usually bother waiting for returns. I don't think we can choose individual seats on the opening day as so many people will already be 'virtually' allocated seats on a first come first served basis.

[VodkaDilc]

Whether by luck or good judgement (I went onto the site about 15 seconds before 9am), my bookings were all complete within 10 minutes. Initally I was number 144 in the queue, but it moved quickly. Having the card details stored helped a lot.

Have we seen an end to those three hour sessions on the computer on Proms booking day?

[mrbouffant]

Whether by luck or good judgement (I went onto the site about 15 seconds before 9am), my bookings were all complete within 10 minutes. Initally I was number 144 in the queue, but it moved quickly. Having the card details stored helped a lot.

Have we seen an end to those three hour sessions on the computer on Proms booking day?

Well done!

My experience was slightly weird. Refreshing madly, got taken from the holding page to the RAH front page with a big 'redeem proms plan' button. Clicked that and went back to the holding page. Repeated this half a dozen times. Then clicked on the little man icon at the top right and selected My Proms Plan and then joined the queue at position 709.

It certainly seemed to move quickly, I was into the ticketing system by 0916 (so about 40 places/min) and checked out by 0920.

Roll on the summer!

[Norrette]

Just reached the 3000 at 09:25 mark. I've never got in under 3000 despite being at the ready at 8:45 every time

[Anastasius]

I couldn't work out why, when I awoke this morning, that I had such a spring in my step. Then I remembered. No Proms for me this year. No angst-ridden, teeth-gnashing F5 pressing for me this time round.

Bliss.

Hope it's not too traumatic for the rest of you.

[Norrette]

Reading that Prom 5 likely to be sold out before I get there

[Rcartes]

W ell, after a fraught 10 minutes or so when I was told the website was closed/too busy for me to join the queue, I made it at No 3576. Oh dear, envisaged hours of waiting, but it went down very quickly so I was all done by 9.49. Was I lucky? Who knows? But in the end it worked OK - it was just that initial 10 minutes when I wasn't even in a queue.

And I booked for 4 Proms, the only difficulty being Prom 21 (the Choral Symphony) for which the front of the Circle was gone. But we did get the middle, so I'm happy.

You'd think, though, that after every year having trouble with the waiting room, that they'd make the damned thing bigger....

[Norrette]

But it wasn't sold out - although my seat might be in the double bass' lap! Also proms 68 & 45

Edit: Idiots on Twitter showing screen shots of multiple places in the queue on multiple devices. Pointless I'd have thought. But making it worse for the rest of us.

[Petrushka]

W ell, after a fraught 10 minutes or so when I was told the website was closed/too busy for me to join the queue, I made it at No 3576. Oh dear, envisaged hours of waiting, but it went down very quickly so I was all done by 9.49. Was I lucky? Who knows? But in the end it worked OK - it was just that initial 10 minutes when I wasn't even in a queue.

And I booked for 4 Proms, the only difficulty being Prom 21 (the Choral Symphony) for which the front of the Circle was gone. But we did get the middle, so I'm happy.

You'd think, though, that after every year having trouble with the waiting room, that they'd make the damned thing bigger....

Pretty much my experience too. I got in at 4661 at 9.08 and done by 10.03 which compares well enough with last year. The real stress occurs trying to get into that waiting room having to persistently log on, come out, log on again. Made sure I took my blood pressure pill before 9am!

All tickets successful and in seats I wanted so the stress is now draining away and I'm happy. There must be a better way of doing this...

[Richard J.]

You'd think, though, that after every year having trouble with the waiting room, that they'd make the damned thing bigger....

I suspect that in the first few minutes after 09:00 the problem is not the size of the waiting room but the width of the door into it, i.e. the number of people that they can accept simultaneously. I managed to get into the waiting room at 09:04 at number 2062 in the queue, and was able to log in after 30 minutes. At the end of the booking process, I clicked on a button inviting me to give some feedback, but that opened a new window and took me into the waiting room queue at number 11500, so they won't get my feedback.

[VodkaDilc]

All tickets successful and in seats I wanted so the stress is now draining away and I'm happy. There must be a better way of doing this...

Now that I have looked carefully at the tickets I was given, the RAH ones are fine. I have realised though that the 'best available stalls' seat allocated to me for a piano recital at Cadogan Hall is four seats from the wall on the 'wrong' side for the piano. Does anyone have experience of exchanging seats for this venue? Are the Cadogan Hall Proms tickets just handled by the Proms box office or by the Cadogan box office too? My experience of the hall's box office is that they are very flexible.

Any advice would be valued. As others have said, it's a pity that more degree of choice isn't available in Proms booking.

[VodkaDilc]

At the end of the booking process, I clicked on a button inviting me to give some feedback, but that opened a new window and took me into the waiting room queue at number 11500, so they won't get my feedback.

That was my experience too, at about 9.10am. I wonder if they really want to hear any feedback.

[Cockney Sparrow]

I'm turning into a misanthrope - well, bitter and twisted as far as RAH, the Proms and the booking process. I wasn't really galvanised enough by anything to think I might not find some tickets nearer the date, or be happy to listen at home if not available. For example - wonderful as Barenboim is, there are other performances of Elgar which will be just as wonderful.

For me, hardly anything stood out, which would also likely to be a sell out, to make setting aside hours for frustration this morning.... (Prom 6 - sold out - the power of marketing - this is the NOW we're talking about, right?)

They can keep their booking system.....

[Simon B]

I'm turning into a misanthrope - well, bitter and twisted as far as RAH, the Proms and the booking process... ...They can keep their booking system.....

A post some time ago by mrbouffant neatly summed up some of the paradoxical aspects of the whole business in my experience (selectively quoted, see original for authentic feel) :

- Immediate disappointment with the programming (none of what I would programme myself in my 'fantasy Proms')

- A gradual realisation that there are some concerts which could be intriguing, even if at first sight on paper they seem rather dull and/or predictable. Optimism.

- The "joy" of trying to get into the RAH ticketing queue on online booking day. Lots of cussing. A sense of achievement once I've achieved checkout.

followed by:

- The annual realisation that the RAH, for all its history and atmosphere, is an uncomfortable place to sit for 2 hours

- The annual realisation that £8 for a large tumbler of mediocre wine is taking the mick

The finest provincial tapwater bottled at nearly sea level in an atmosphere of mainly nitrogen and oxygen being my solution to this one!

- Final concert relief, knowing that I don't need to put up with people kicking my seat, sniffing incessantly or just being generally annoying for another 10 months

You may rightly ask, then why bother with the Proms? I don't know - the fact is I feel compelled to go to a number of concerts per season and, notwithstanding all the moans above, I absolutely love it !!

...though I only intermittently concur with that last bit (e.g. when it does all come together such as LSO/Haitink/Mahler 3 in 2016).

It does still have... something... which is unobtainable anywhere else, despite all the many downsides.

That said, I have booked for the fewest concerts in 15 years at this stage, partly due to programming but mostly a combination of dramatically escalating costs plus various irritations.

At least the booking system is more reliable now that the RAH have gone over to using outsourced IT which can be scaled dramatically to cope with a massive spike in demand for just one day. If they'd only introduce select-your-own-seat from zero hour like every other classical venue in the country it'd be a usable system...