Wednesday, August 30, 2017

They Had Me Scared for a Minute

The enveloped arrived today that contains membership materials, aka subscriber benefits, for SF . Opera's 2017-18 season. Under the list for Medallion Society members, I saw "Complimentary ticket exchange" and my eyes got wide. Ticket exchanges have been free for subscribers more or less forever, and SFO has had extremely reasonable ticket exchange policies for as long as I have tracked this issue.

However, the web site makes it clear that if this is a change, it's small. Full subscribers can exchange up to three performances for the fall, half-subscribers up to two. (I assume that some other policy applies for the upcoming Ring performances, and that might be: you're out of luck trying to do this through us; look for private individuals if you must swap.)

One benefit is completely gone that I wish had continued: the ability to swap to a better seat in a different section on the day of the performance. Oh, well.

4 comments:

Mike A. said...

Yes, I was wondering about the free upgrade vouchers myself. The website STILL advertises about the free upgrades (https://sfopera.com/buy-tickets/subscriber-benefits/), so they have to either honor it, or take it completely from the website, IMO.

Lisa Hirsch said...

Oooooooh, GOOD CATCH. Thank you.

Anonymous said...

I got an upgrade voucher in the mail in a separate envelope. Guess they forgot to include it in the package.

The thing is, I have never used my upgrade voucher because there is no higher-priced seat that I want. I sit in Row A of the Balcony right in front of the Opera Vision screen. I have leg room, extra toe room, no heads in front of me, and Balcony sound. And the top level seems to be the only one that has the new, supportive seats that were installed a few years ago. (The Dress Circle seat I sat in for the Elektra dress rehearsal was pretty bouncy.)

Lisa Hirsch said...

Yes, mind came yesterday, in time for me to upgrade my Elektra ticket. Here's the story on the seat replacement project. I am VERY sorry about the delay in replacing the Dress Circle seats.

You've got a nice seat. :)