Linkavich wrote: »

Would this be the proper thread to ask for advice on plane tickets? I've been shopping around and getting varying prices depending on the day, but overall the price is the same across every site I visit on that day. Anybody able to advise me on a good site to get a cheaper flight out of Louisiana?

No, this is not a general FAQ or travel thread. Please refer to the FAQ that has been stickied at the top of this forum.

sanovah wrote: »

For next year I think we really need to reconsider the vendor.

I got tickets and think the idea for a queue line is excellent especially if people can't repeatedly cut in line. My only and biggest problem was the fact that the vendor put tickets up for sale about 20 mins before the announcement came through on Twitter.

I therefore hope and think for next year the best solution would be go with whoever handled the second batch last year, give them the ability to use a queue line again, and put the system online a COUPLE minutes before the tweet not 20+

I think if bugs like yesterday can be avoided the above would provide the most stable and fair way to sell tickets.

Changing vendors over and over again is how you get these kinds of problems every year. The better course of action would be to work harder with the current vendor to make sure these issues don't happen again next time. Now that they have a testbed of sorts, they can iron out the bugs and make for a better experience next time.

So, I've seen some people try and suggest an all will-call option.

Let me tell you why this doesn't work, and anybody who went to ECCC this year can corroborate.

1. It takes a huge amount of staff to handle an all will-call situation, which takes away staff from the rest of the event
2. The line for an all will-call registration would be more enormous than anything you've ever seen at PAX before. ECCC had less people from what I could see and the line was insane. It stretched across all of freeway park and back around.
3. It takes so long to work that line that even people who get there early day-of will miss the first couple hours of the event.
3b. Many people used an app to use their phones for the barcodes, and this choked the data connection straight to hell, causing more slowdown

Basically, it's a bad idea to eliminate mailed badges as it would make the first day or two's experience terrible for pretty much everybody involved.

Okay, we're done talking about scalpers in this thread.

We'd prefer not to have to close this thread entirely. So here's what's going to happen. You're going to not talk about scalpers, scalping, ebay or craigslist and anybody who does, will receive a friendly infraction from the robot.

No positive discussion is coming from scalper speculation and it's derailing the thread. Please keep discussion to badge registration and potential questions thereof.

Guys, we're not going to play the tinfoil hat game tonight. We've been over this, PAX after PAX.

We know the following things.
* The great majority of tickets are sold to people who buy and use the passes themselves, or buy them for friends who go to PAX with them.

* Scalpers are a thing that exist and are impossible to avoid. They are also not against Washington state law.

* Naming and shaming them on the forums does nothing but rile people up

* Conspiracy to commit fraud is a FELONY, before anybody gets any ideas.

* It's 2130. I would like to relax after a hard day at work, and play some New Vegas. I just got microfusion cells for my plasma rifle.

* PAX is popular, yes, it's sold-out-in-6-hours popular. A lot of people saw the prices get posted last night, and a lot of people were poised to get passes all at the same time.

* PAX Prime is swallowing more of up downtown, but still has a limited maximum capacity that is easily met by PAX demand.

* No, a scalper botnet did not, as far as anybody knows, somehow bypass everything and steal all the passes.

Okay? So, we're done now.