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Ticket Limits for ROH Friends


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As BBB says above - 6 tickets per performance was a serious mistake.

 

But, to go to the other extreme - 4 tickets per production - is not the answer.

 

Surely, someone 'in high places' could come up with a fair solution. 

 

Wasn't it the other way round?  For almost all ballet productions the recent limit has been 4 tickets per performance.  The new limit is  6 tickets per production.

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This sounds a bit as though someone from the opera side has decided to go one-size-fits-all and apply what works for the opera to the ballet as well. Which doesn't work, because operas don't have as many different casts in leading roles over the course of a production; the ballet is still mostly casting from its own roster of principals and soloists rather than engaging a couple of expensive international stars for the whole run, and for serious ballet fans, seeing several casts is a large part of the fun.

 

As far as Sim's comment about joining the public scrum, I understood from the OP that the limit applied across the whole booking period, not just the Friends' early booking. That doesn't begin to make sense, but then these decisions are sometimes made by bureaucrats who don't inhabit the real world. If they really think this will force people into becoming Patrons, they're fantasizing. I know London is rapidly getting priced out of the reach of most people, but that would be ridiculous.

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Maybe I've misunderstood, but I thought that after 'Additional Tickets' day ROH allowed Friends to buy tickets beyond the initial restriction (whilst a 4 ticket restriction applies for rehearsals). For example, this is stated on my ROH account page under Booking Dates - Period 3:

 

'13 January - All Friends are able to buy additional tickets for performances and rehearsals (up to 4 rehearsal tickets within one booking period).'

 

This additional tickets period for Friends opens two weeks before general booking on 27 January.

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Just for the fun of it I popped into public booking just now to see whether I can book another Chenier which has a restriction of 2 tickets per person. Nope, as soon as I log in it comes up with a message that I exceeded my limit.

 

I guess that answers whether friends will be able to book more than the allocated limit once public booking has started unless the 6 per friend limit is managed entirely differently from the previously existing limits.

 

I assume this limit will also apply to non-friends?

Edited by Coated
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Well Coated, it is extremely unlikely (unless I win a Euromillions jackpot) that I would exceed the imposed limits, but I was wondering exactly the same.  If I, as a non-Friend, had wanted to book for all nine casts of Manon would I be able to?  If I could and Friends could not that is an incredibly unfair system.

 

Is ROH trying to stamp out the possibility of ticket toutery?

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Just for the fun of it I popped into public booking just now to see whether I can book another Chenier which has a restriction of 2 tickets per person. Nope, as soon as I log in it comes up with a message that I exceeded my limit.

 

I guess that answers whether friends will be able to book more than the allocated limit once public booking has started unless the 6 per friend limit is managed entirely differently from the previously existing limits.

 

I considered doing so, but was put off by the obscenely high prices.  I mean, £18 for a stalls circle standing?!

 

I'm not sure we can draw conclusions from that, Coated.  These restrictions on specific productions which are expected to have very high demand are, I think, different from normal Friends' restrictions.

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I assume that - regardless whether you are officially 'Friend'ly or not - everyone can still queue on the day for the held back allowance (as mandated in the ACE stipulations) .... or do they (i.e., the ROH BO powers that be) - check on quotas there too????????  Anyone know?????  

 

If so, it's getting a bit like boarder control.  Soon you'll need to bring your passport ....  as well as money :)

Edited by Bruce Wall
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It's all very well for those based in the London area to be able to queue on the day (assuming they are available to do so during the day) but there are many members of this Forum who are not London-based and who travel many miles to go to ROH.  I myself would not travel a significant distance, with the possible need of an overnight stay and, of course, travel costs, without knowing I had a ticket for the performance I wanted to see.

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It's all very well for those based in the London area to be able to queue on the day (assuming they are available to do so during the day) but there are many members of this Forum who are not London-based and who travel many miles to go to ROH.  I myself would not travel a significant distance, with the possible need of an overnight stay and, of course, travel costs, without knowing I had a ticket for the performance I wanted to see.

 

It is perhaps ironic, Janet, but part of the stated rationale for the ACE stipulation that a portion of tickets should be held back for day sale (as is also the case with the heavily subsidised NT and RSC companies) is exactly that these tickets should be made more readily available (i.e., be given a fair chance for access) to people who do not live locally.  Obviously even this is sadly not cost effective in your case.  

 

Still would love an answer to my question in post #40 if anyone has one.  Much thanks for your kind consideration in advance.

Edited by Bruce Wall
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Is the day tickets thing an ACE obligation?  I always assumed it was recognition by the ROH that because of their habits of putting things on sale 6 months or more in advance, and tickets tending to sell out, they needed to make some provision for people unable to commit that far in advance.  Sadler's Wells used to do day seats, but I think that was before the new theatre opened.

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Is the day tickets thing an ACE obligation?  I always assumed it was recognition by the ROH that because of their habits of putting things on sale 6 months or more in advance, and tickets tending to sell out, they needed to make some provision for people unable to commit that far in advance.  Sadler's Wells used to do day seats, but I think that was before the new theatre opened.

 

I know it is an ACE stipulation for the ROH, NT and RSC as they go over a specific funding barrier.  There was talk at one point about ring fencing their funding away from the other ACE commitments but that was dropped - wisely I think.  

Edited by Bruce Wall
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I assume that - regardless whether you are officially 'Friend'ly or not - everyone can still queue on the day for the held back allowance (as mandated in the ACE stipulations) .... or do they (i.e., the ROH BO powers that be) - check on quotas there too????????  Anyone know?????  

 

If so, it's getting a bit like boarder control.  Soon you'll need to bring your passport ....  as well as money :)

 

Seems very unlikely to me that the 67 day tickets would be part of any quota system. The box office opens to the queue at 10am and the rule is one ticket per person, though you can go to the back of the queue again and hope to get another.

 

Any day tickets not sold to queuers are made available online and by phone - I reckon it's worth trying this route from about 10.20.

 

Getting back to the original discussion, over the years there have been so many changes in the way that ROH allocates tickets that I've lost track. Maybe one day they'll come up with a system to please everyone, but I doubt it. 

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Seems very unlikely to me that the 67 day tickets would be part of any quota system. The box office opens to the queue at 10am and the rule is one ticket per person, though you can go to the back of the queue again and hope to get another.

 

Any day tickets not sold to queuers are made available online and by phone - I reckon it's worth trying this route from about 10.20.

 

Getting back to the original discussion, over the years there have been so many changes in the way that ROH allocates tickets that I've lost track. Maybe one day they'll come up with a system to please everyone, but I doubt it. 

 

Thank you, John. 

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I haven't yet received the magazine or letter, but I'm pretty sure this is simply a return to what the allowance was when I joined the friends a few years ago.

You can initially only buy 6 tickets per production, and as Josephine points out, the limit is lifted two weeks before public booking.

 

Given that I remember a correlation between the limit being lifted in the first place and my inability to find SCS tickets outside of public booking, I won't be complaining.

 

However if this restriction also now applies to premium friends, I can see some of them being upset, one of their advantages then was to be able to buy 2 tickets for each performance (and I actually seem to remember some grumbling when every level of friends was allowed the same).

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Being in possession of a few opera going friends, I have hit the opera limits a few times, including for a run of the mill Boheme. Restrictions stayed in place until well after public booking opened but were eventually lifted

 

But instead of getting lost in assumptions, I rang the Friend's office to ask how the limits will work

 

  1. The limit is decided for each booking period prior to the magazine being send out. It might be different for the next period anyhow (maybe wait a bit before we all sink into despair) but I guess we'll need to wait to find out for sure. More information might be available for friends enquiring via email beforehand.
  2. The restrictions work in the same way as they do for Opera ticket limits. The 'if and when' of lifting the restrictions is at discretion of the box office. So if the production sells well, they stay in place for longer, if it's extremely popular, they might not be lifted until it's aaaaaall sold out.
Edited by Coated
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If the restrictions work in the same way as for the opera, which has a quite different set-up, then the ballet Friends need to be complaining loud and long to the Friends bureaucracy and explain clearly why the situations are quite different and why it won't work. They're asking to have all the Osipova (or other flavour-of-the-month) principals sell out and all the others end up barely half full. Which may well eventually lead to an opera-type system where a few international superstars are given most of the performances and the rest of the principals get a few dregs, which would be an awful shame.

 

Seriously, once public booking starts, why does it matter how many performances you book for? I can see a problem with someone coming along wanting 50 tickets for one performance if an international superstar is featured, but what on earth is wrong with two or four tickets to see each cast once?

Edited by Melody
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No system in which Friends, who are effectively donors to the organisation in question, are put in a worse position than members of the public in some way is going to work long term. I appreciate that there has to be some limit on the number of tickets which may be purchased in the 'closed' booking periods but once public opens it's a free for all and that should include Friends. I wonder how many tickets I, as a non Friend, could buy for a single performance or production. Presumably, as many as I like. 

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Far be it from me to defend the wild swings that have occurred in Friends’ ticket allocation in the last few years.  However in the interests of accuracy I feel I have to comment here.  Unless things have changed since we last had this sort of restriction, the ticket limits for most productions are for the first phase of Priority Booking.  Once Priority Booking is over and before Public Booking begins, Friends have, in the past, been given the opportunity to buy tickets over and above their allocation.  For a few, highly sought-after, productions (eg Andrea Chénier), ticket limits have applied up to and including Public Booking.

Edited by Bluebird
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I go to more opera than ballet and usually only browse your forum out of interest.  However reading this thread has given me the urge to post as I want to draw attention to the seemingly almost limitless allocation for seats that can be bought within the new flexible packages.
http://www.roh.org.uk/help/package-faqs
There is a specific allocation of seats set aside for these packages and they do not include the  cheaper seats.   Even so it is a strange policy that allows such a generous allocation of seats at a discounted price (even for the most in demand productions)  yet puts a strict limit on other purchasers. 

As many other friends have found, it seems the choice of seats is now very limited after the higher levels have had their pick and I often get a better choice when general booking starts. Yesterday I was able to pick up Clore opera Insight seats when there were non available when priority booking started .

 

ps It is good that pick your own seat is now available in the Clore!

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Yes, welcome.  If you want to discuss Other Things, opera included, we have a "Not Dance" forum for that very purpose.  And there are quite a few forum members who go to the opera as well as the ballet, to my knowledge.

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Do I understand it correctly that even public booking is restricted to 6 tickets at a time? That is presumably per booking and not per performance. I have just booked 5 individual tickets for Onegin (single tickets for different performances)  in public booking so was unaffected by this ruling. However, if my husband had been able to accompany me it would have been different. Living 200 miles from London a visit to the ROH entails getting time off work, booking trains, usually as near 3 months in advance as I can to get the maximum discount, and also booking overnight accommodation. So the idea that I will be able to take advantage of any later released tickets or discounted offers is totally unrealistic. it is just discriminating against those who don't live near enough to get home the same day.

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  • 3 weeks later...

They can buy whatever tickets they like, capybara, as that is their right according to the terms of their Friends' memberships. It is not sensible to deal with this by way of gentleman's agreements. Six tickets per performance seems excessive to me. Two is reasonable. Four per *production* is stingy. Friends should, of course, be able to join the scrum on public booking day.

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I agree that it is difficult to fathom the official thinking here. Two per performance would have been fine, surely. But perhaps the lower than expected take up of tickets for Manon, the current Triple and, so far, Don Q has made the ROH nervous about Fille as well?

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Poor old ROH, damned if they do and damned if they don't.

 

I think it's fair to say that this forum is a little specialist and extremely fond of standing tickets, but there are friends out there who just want to book some semi-decent amphi seats for themselves and their visiting in-laws for the same performance....

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Why do i think the change won't make a substantial difference.  For those very special (largely operatic) performances with ticket-selling names - e.g., kaufmann, Domingo, etc. - there will ALWAYS be ticket limits I think.  For the majority of other events it will be merely business as usual ... and, of course, the ACE mandate (given that is a substantial portion of one quarter of the overall ROH budget) will STILL require that 20% of the house be reserved/retained for the 'general booking' period.  

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