RFID Rant

[PAabe]

I am getting a bit annoyed with all the ski areas switching over to RFID - many do not include the price of the RFID in their ticket price, and they pass it off as an "improved customer experience." Climbing though the massive RFID gates and trying to get the thing to beep is not my idea of an improved customer experience.
I get that:
1) They need to hire one less person to check tickets
2) It is easier for them to catch people not paying
3) It is, in some cases, possible to bypass the ticket window and reload a card
But passing it off as an improved experience to the skier, and not including it in the advertised lift ticket price, is kind of annoying.
End of rant, carry on. Temperature is dropping here and I look forward to a cold week...

 

[JimG]

I like RFID and rarely have any issues with it.

 

[djd66]

Same here,… RFID is definitely an improvement over the guns that they had previously. As far as the cost of the card, I think they are $5.00 - not a big deal in the scheme of things.

 

[PAabe]

It is a stupid thing to complain about, I am bored lol

I do agree ORDA has implemented it well, since they don't charge you extra for it, only have the gates at the base lifts, and allow you to print it out at the printer things without having to wait in line at the ticket window. Now that you mention it I don't recall really having issues getting their gates to beep either, unlike at Blue mountain, and they don't lock you out if you fail to get through in time unlike at Blue

 

[skef]

(1) Being able to go direct-to-lift from the car is worth >> $5.00.
(2) The RFID card slot found in the sleeve of a modern (21st century) ski jacket makes things absolutely frictionless.

 

[PAabe]

Oop maybe I just need to get a jacket with a RFID slot

 

[abc]

I'm in different to RFID, as long as I don't have to pay extra for it.

It's no "improvement" for the customers. At least not until they have vending machine that dispense RFID cards like they do in Europe.

As for now, the benefit of re-loading is offset for the extra charge for the card itself.

 

[Zermatt]

Disagree.

In fact, I'm annoyed at any ski area that isn't using RFID (Stratton are you listening?).

 

[deadheadskier]

I agree with the concept, but the current tech blows. If I can be blasting down the highway at 75mph through an electric toll and every time have it either register my EZ pass or capture a license plate number to bill, then why are the readers at the gates so piss poor?

I have the pass position in our jackets dialed for me and my kids and rarely have an issue, but newbies have issues constantly at Gunstock and other places I've skied with the gates. The result can often be empty chairs going up. That's annoying on busy days with long lift lines.

 

[jaytrem]

I hate RFID, had 3 brand new cards fail on me over the years. Thus 3 times had to waste time going to guest services. Been a couple years though, so maybe they're better now.

 

[Hastur]

Disagree.

In fact, I'm annoyed at any ski area that isn't using RFID (Stratton are you listening?).

I've always wondered why Stratton doesn't have them. For like the past 5 years. There must be some reason they stick to the guns.

Does anyone know if any other Alterra owned ski resort uses the hand held gun style scanners and not the gates?

 

[cdskier]

Some days I tend to have issues with the pass not always scanning at some of the gates at SB. I feel I had less issues with the old SB RFID pass before the switch to Ikon. And my pass is always in the same place, so I have no idea why sometimes it works fine and other times I have to move around a lot to get it to scan.

Meanwhile today I went to Windham and it worked flawlessly every time through the gate.

 

[Smellytele]

My son had a few ikon passes fail this year and had to waste time going in to get it replaced.
My other son has the sleeve pocket but some reason seems to have an issue having it read sometimes. Mine usually works but sometimes I have to roll my wrist around and move my arm around.

 

[thebigo]

Between loon, sr and ragged I have probably had rfid read 300+ times this year, had an issue once that I can remember. RFID is a huge improvement over the vail scanners from last year.

 

[ne_skier]

I used to hate RFID as well, but when I found out about that RFID pocket I actually began to find it pretty useful if a resort insists on checking tickets. Ticket scanners generally hold up the line and RFID gates, while still causing occasional bottlenecks, let lines flow easier based on my observations.
This does bring up a bigger question though, do resorts really need to check tickets? I can't imagine that fraudulent/fake tickets are that common, but I could be wrong. There must be some sort of financial incentive in either hiring ticket scanners or installing these machines to curb ticketless skiers, or else everyone would stick to the old wicket tickets.

 

[abc]

do resorts really need to check tickets? I can't imagine that fraudulent/fake tickets are that common

If they don't check pass at all, I bet everybody's brother will be skiing with day old (or month old) passes!

 

[cdskier]

This does bring up a bigger question though, do resorts really need to check tickets? I can't imagine that fraudulent/fake tickets are that common, but I could be wrong. There must be some sort of financial incentive in either hiring ticket scanners or installing these machines to curb ticketless skiers, or else everyone would stick to the old wicket tickets.

The simple act of checking itself deters fraud for sure.

However another reason for RFID (that benefits resorts) is the pure amount of data they can get. They can easily see usage patterns not just of people over the course of a season, but also of traffic flow around the mountain and what lifts are utilized at what times, etc.

 

[PAabe]

You can get a real time visualization of ski area traffic flow by sticking your head out of the office and taking a glance at where people are actually skiing or perhaps even counting them in line. This may be hard to do from locations such as Broomfield though

 

[PAabe]

A few place use color codes tickets (like Montage before this year) based on the day, once in a while the lifty actually checks the date on someone's pass which is enough to deter theft of service

I do not remember ever having my pass checked at an XC area

 

[ss20]

You can get a ton of internal data from it that's very valuable. Also huge for theft detection (yes...the lifties actually check....they can get bonuses/incentives for busting on people). And a skier that goes missing...at least they know which lift they rode last so you can look for them.

I agree it's a minor plus/minus for customers depending on if you like RFID or not, but inside the resort it's got big benefits. Hence you've seen quite literally 90% of major mountains adapting in only a decade. Heck I heard Mohawk is now RFID.