I'm surprised they're charging for this. We did the home printing thing last summer in Dallas and it was a huge pain - the link they sent didn't work the first time, but somehow managed to register that we printed, then wouldn't let us try a second time, then we had to go stand in line at the customer service booth for 30 minutes to get in. But we didn't have to pay $5 for the privilege of being inconvenienced. Apparently inconvenience is getting expensive these days.

I was pretty pissed off at Ticketmaster when I saw that it would ost me extra to print tickets at home -- using my own ink, paper, and time! (I already knew they were serious WCIA contenders, but UGH.)

But if Ticketmaster gets away with it, and for Six Flags it's still the best of all bad deals, then they'll keep doing it. Grr.

Don't forget, most Six Flags parks also charge $12 for parking once you get there, or $18 for "premium" parking.

Ticketbastard also makes you pay to print your own tickets.

It should be called a "Really Convenient Fee".

Pretty soon, they're going to tack on some kind of "GIF Barcode Rendering Surcharge", a "Server Farm Processor Timeshare" subfee, and a "Co-Located Bandwidth Utilization" premium.

Is it Theme Park Day on Consumerist?

Really? That works? Ok, then...

Everyone who reads this comment owes me $5.

Pay up, deadbeats.

To be fair, this is probably covering some cost, either of new ticket reading equipment, the service, or both. You can see "Powered by accesso" in the logo - presumably accesso isn't just giving away service to Six Flags. They're paying for the convenience, and so are you. I don't find this particularly outrageous.

Most Six Flags parks are extremely overpriced, try to find a local amusement park that you can take the kids to that is not filled with tons of corporate advertising and insane rules and policies.

I am not keen on SF after they left our local park in ruins, only to leave the buyer of the park to clean up the mess and restore the reputation of the park to working order so they could actually get customers to come again. After a season of closed rides (for no reason) and general chaos, no maintenance and removing features of the park that they instituted at the beginning of the season. Not to mention trying to get the public to come back in an economy that can only go downward.

SF seems to be designed to take your money regardless. You have to pay for tickets and parking before you even get into the park. Then you find out the rides you want to go on are closed (the rides closed sign is after you pay for admission). Of course there are no refunds and they seem to have a "policy" for everything to make your day miserable. Including not being able to bring your own food into the park and in some cases no re-entry at all. So your forced to eat overpriced and nasty processed theme park food. Everyone at the park complains, there are no happy guests. I don't care to be around a group of people who are nothing but miserable (especially if I paid to do that). These have been my SF experiences in the past.

The first test a park has to pass for me to go to it is to have free parking, and allow you to bring food into the park, and re-entry. You are always going to need to go to the car for something.

Six Flags, at least the one in Arlington, Texas, went to hell when they got rid of the six distinctly themed areas in the park and began pimping Warner Bros. all over the park. (Yeah, yeah, I had to walk uphill both ways to get there and "Get of my lawn," yadda, yadda, yadda.)

For the same money, I'd let them send me the tickets rather than use my resources to print them.

@Etoiles: I'm wondering when companies will start to realize that a larger ticket price with NO hidden fees anywhere is more attractive than this sort of stupidity.

If my airline ticket costs $500, fine. But charging me $400 and making me pay through the nose when I want to eat, drink, pee, park, or use the internet... I start to get really annoyed.

This isn't new. I had to pay this convenience charge for the tickets I bought last summer.

@Etoiles: I personally like how Ticketmaster puts the "Print Ticket" option at the top of the delivery options list, big and bold, but then they bury the free mail via USPS on the bottom of the list so that you don't see it. The last time I bought tickets I accidentally chose the Print Ticket option because you always feels so rushed by the "You have 60 seconds to fill out all your billing information or you lose your tickets hurry hurry you're gonna lose them ohmigod when did you start you don't know how much time you have left click submit!"

Seems like a bad approach. If Six Flags is TRULY losing money, why not just up the base price of the ticket to $44.99, and either have the option to print at home, or mail via First Class for "free." I bet this article wouldn't even be here if they just built it in to the price and didn't tell us.

@Outrun1986: The closed rides thing really gets me. A few years ago my girlfriend and I wanted to go to the water park at the SF New England. It was late in the season so I called to make sure the water park was still open and then assured me it was. When I got there I discovered than only the fake beach thing was open, the one without waves, and all the rides were shut down for the season. So after driving about an hour to get there, paying for parking and admission the one thing we wanted to do, and called to make sure was open, wasn't really open.

Just paid (and tweeted) about the ridiculous nature of that fee from Ticketmaster. My friend and I are planning a Disney/Magic Mountain trip in June/July, and I am very disappointed to see that Six Flags has taken this course of action. Esurance (as with most other companies) advertises the savings they pass to you by eliminating paper statements and bills, but these companies feel they have the right to CHARGE for the privilege of doing their job for them? Outrageous.

If I did not need the tickets immediately I would have them mailed out of spite. Printing the tickets yourself costs them nothing. Having to mail them costs them in labor and postage costs. But then again charges like these are a big incentive for me to look for something else to do. For what you spend on tickets to Six Flags you can go to a Museum or Aquarium or some other short day trip and have money left over.

I think I am lost here... Who is pocketing this fee, Six Flags or Ticketmaster?

I think our anger is misdirected.

@Smoking Pope:
Not a bad profit. You put in your 2 cents and get back 5 bucks.

@Outrun1986:
I used to go to the one in Jersey, and it was a ripoff 10 years ago. You're correct about rides being down all the time.

There was an amusement park closer to my house called Dorney Park, and it was about $75 for a season pass back then, which included their water park. That was a MUCH better deal.

@dohtem: Six Flags is collecting the fee. They are just referencing Ticketmaster because they do the same thing.

Six Flags is always a rip-off. I don't work to earn money to pay $60 for the right to be in a captive-audience park with corporate advertisements and Warner Bros crap thrown at me.

Give me a day at the beach over that nonsense any day.

Sweet, one more place that's never getting my money.

@Smoking Pope: Put it on my tab

It's not 6 Flags, it's Ticketmaster. I recently bought several tickets through them. Free to send physical tickets through US Mail. Fee to print them out.

I wouldn't have a problem with this type of charge if it were disclosed up front on the website while you are preparing to buy.

In other words, I wouldn't mind them trying to give people the illusion that they were getting a deal by chopping five dollars off the ticket price and adding a convenience charge instead. Silly marketing thing.

I do have a problem with people budgeting their money and getting ready to make a big purchase and then, when they have made up their minds, being roped into additional fees they didn't anticipate.

But I'm sure they know they'd lose business if the link said "Tickets $39.99. Only $5 to print from your own computer

@TheGuinnessTooth: From what I know they shut down some of the rides in the local Six Flags (before it was bought out by PARC, the company that bought the park), because they can't get enough employees at the end of the season because of college coming back into session. I don't see how this is a problem for SF though, there are many other parks that run at full capacity in late august just fine and school goes back into session earlier in those parts of the country too! You think they would have this figured out after 10+ years in the area....

But yeah, when Six Flags was selling a few parks and leaving ours to die they just started closing rides for seemingly no reason at the end of the season. Naturally people then developed a very negative attitude towards the park, and PARC had to clean all of this up. I think you could see the rides closed sign before the gates though, unlike some other parks where the sign is placed AFTER you pay admission. I have been going on amusement rides for more than 20 years (without incident might I add), and I am a fan of them, but let me tell you those rides in that park as Six Flags was selling it were NOT safe to go on!!! There was basically no maintenance or upkeep. You have to wonder how a chain that is nearly in bankruptcy is keeping up with their rides as well...

@Smoking Pope: Just give me your bank account number and I'll transfer the money tonight. While you are at it, your pin number and mother's maiden name are needed by my bank to set up the wire transfer.

Screwing people over for the past 20 years has not helped them. They need to find more ways since the $10 hotdog, $6 soda, and $35 entry fee is not enough. Ohh...did I forget to mention the $2.25 cans of Coke?

I have no problem with this since they probably will not see my money.

@Jeremie D. Harget: Try a local park, good rides, none of the advertising. When I go to a park I go to a park to escape things like TV and the Internet, not to be bombarded with corporate advertising and policy after policy after policy (some of which make no sense). I am not paying 60$ + 12$ parking to be bombarded with ads.

Day at the beach is very peaceful and probably free or close to free depending where you live. I am better off taking a walk in a park if I want to get away instead of going to Six Flags, free and gives me exercise.

I live in the northeast, when summer comes I want to get out a bit, but I don't want to be stuck in a captive place where I am bombarded with the things I have to deal with every day, like fees, ridiculous policies, overpriced goods I don't need and tons of ads, I want to escape and get away. I honestly would rather be in Walmart than Six Flags, so that is not saying much!

Six Flags is the Walmart of the theme park industry, except they aren't as successful as walmart.

When given a choice of paying for "print at home" or "first class mail", I pick "print at home" every time UNLESS they want to charge me for the privilege (ala ticketbastard). This way, THEY have to, at a minimum, pay for printing costs, envelopes & postage.

I'm always amazed at any company that charges a premium for the cheaper, labor free method of ticket delivery.

I used to work at Sea World Ohio, which was across the lake from a small local amusement park (locals would go there mostly to avoid the tourist crowds at Cedar Point). About ten years ago Six Flags bought that park. The way it was put to us, basically Six Flags was under mountains of debt, but so long as they kept buying new properties, investors wouldn't look to closely at the books. Something along the lines of the whole "you have to spend money to make money" thing. Even at 20 years old I knew that such a business strategy was insane. Six Flags continued to gobble up other small regional parks until it finally began a slow implosion towards bankruptcy a few years ago. To make matters worse, a lot of the safety and inspection people at the old park quit under 6 Flags management saying they just weren't as committed to safety, always a bad sign for any workplace.

Capitalism. Yer Doin it Rong.

Heck, go for the First Class Mail option. It's still $5, but THEY pay for the tickets, the envelope and the postage.

If you're lucky enough to live around Indiana, I highly recommend Holiday World. It's family owned and operated, but don't let that fool you - they compete very well with the big boys. Three of the best wooden coasters ever built, one of the highest-rated water parks in the country, free parking, cheap food (how about a whole meal for $5?) .. unlimited free soft drinks and suntan oil throughout the park, affordable shirts and toys, etc. Cleanest park you'll ever visit - even cleaner and friendlier than Disney. Oh, did I mention the coasters? Best wooden coaster EVER, winner of the top wood coaster poll last three years

So it costs the same for me to print the tickets or 6 six flags to print real tickets and mail them to me? yeah, I'll wait out 6 flags break-up. Also my chooses of 6 flags parks are GA (filled with loud, ghetto, ignorant new yorkers) or America (small, outdated).

Don't even get me started on Six Flags. It's easily the most dismal operation I've ever seen. I went to Six Flags New England (formerly Riverside Park) on a weekday last June. Bought my tickets online, including $20 for "preferred parking" (as opposed to $15 for "regular" parking). Pulled up to the "preferred parking" only 30 minutes after opening, was told it's full, I had to go to "regular."

Got to "regular" parking after waiting in a long line (c. 20 minutes), they saw my "preferred" ticket and told me I went to the wrong place. I told them I'd been sent there 'cause "preferred" was full, they told me that more "preferred" space had just opened and I could go there after all. I said, "Can you GUARANTEE that by the time I work myself back out of this lot and to the "preferred" parking, that they will still have space there?" I didn't want to have to drive back to the "regular" if it wouldn't work out.

The parking attendant looked at me as if broccoli had sprouted from my ears, and just repeated what she'd said already, as if that meant something. I said, "I heard you the first time. But I'm not going there unless I have a guarantee." She refused to give one. I had to pay them $15 to park at the "regular" and once in the park, get a refund of my $20.

Inside the park there were HUNDREDS of people waiting, packed into a very small area -- basically everyone was touching, standing in the hot sun because there was NO cover -- and waited 45 minutes to get through the metal detectors into the park itself. At Guest Relations I tried to get my money for my $20 "preferred parking" that didn't exist. They insisted there WAS "preferred parking" available, as if for some reason I'd chosen to pay for "preferred parking" then choose not to use it and park in "regular" anyway.

The automaton that waited on me there eventually did cough up my $20 because I simply repeated my story several times and I wasn't going away. The word "automaton," by the way, is an apt description of the employees at SFNE ... they all have vacant eyes and only give scripted responses.

I would have asked why the park was selling vouchers for "preferred parking" that doesn't actually exist when you pull up to use it, but that was a lost cause with her just insisting that there was, in fact, "preferred parking."

I could go on with my story, including the rides that broke down while we were on them, and one halted in the middle to take an item from someone on it, ALL without even so much as a whiff of an apology or explanation from the staff. Or the food we paid WAAAAY too much money for after waiting 20 minutes in line (with only one person in front of us, it took that long to fill their order).

Or the janitor who was apparently Spanish-speaking, who was asked by a woman where there was a telephone ... he pretended not to understand, she gestured with her hand in the shape of a phone, he smiled and said, "Ah! There," and pointed into the men's room. Another janitor came by, and finally told her where the phone was. When she left, the two of them were laughing, the first one joking in Spanish that he'd tried to get her into the men's room.

All without knowing that a bystander -- an "Anglo" who happens to know Spanish -- was eavesdropping. In fact the first one had known EXACTLY what she was looking for, but maliciously tried to send her elsewhere. How nice.

When I got home I drafted a complaint to the park's manager, listing all of these problems and more, and asked if any of this appeared to be acceptable business practices. I listed the names of all the employees I saw doing things wrong, including the two janitors who tried to send a woman into a men's room. The manager replied that it was a busy day, that problems happen, rides are shut down for my safety, and that there was no "Rodolpho" working at the park so he did not believe my "send the lady into the men's room" story.

Essentially he called me a liar, and even intimated that I hadn't actually been entitled to the $20 refund for the non-existent "preferred parking."

Note: My niece was with me. Her family all had been faithful season-pass holders, frequently attending the Six Flags near them (on the opposite coast). They sent a copy of my letter to their park's manager and told them they would no longer be purchasing SF passes. They didn't give a damn.

SF has made HUNDREDS of dollars a year on my family. But not any more. That gravy train has pulled into its last station and is retired from service. SFNE chose to act like a bunch of buffoons and idiots, and they lost out on all of that. The problem is, no one else in the corporation even understands this. They threw away lots of steady future business and haven't the first clue that they should even try to retain it.

If SF goes bankrupt, all I can say is, "good riddance," and "it couldn't have happened to a company that deserved it more." Horrible people, all of them, who deserve the horrible fate of going out of business.

@chiieddy: Interesting... I looked at buying some tickets to an event on the other side of the state next month (about the only thing Ticketmaster is good for, buying tickets to a venue you don't have access to...), and they quoted me shipping for free, provided I was willing to take the tickets in an unmarked white envelope sent via 1st class mail "48 hours before the event."

I kind of wonder why they didn't also have a free option for leaving the tickets at will call (it costs $2.50 each for that), but c'est la vie.

Still, the $8 "facility charge" and $2.50 "convenience fee" irked me. But, at least, physical tickets could be delivered for free.

I could have sworn that Six Flags did this last summer, and it is no surprise, they love to nickel and dime their customer every which way they can. Many of the parks have done away with letting you leave your bag at the other side of the coaster, now you get to pay $1 for a locker before you even hit the line to board, and the $1 only lasts for 2 hours.

I'm still a season pass holder (access to two parks in my area? you betcha) but I find every way I can to avoid paying their extra fees.

Ticketmaster is the reason I rarely go to concerts anymore. Six Flags isn't much better. I don't feel sorry for them at all.

DOWn, baby, DOWn!

@PsiCop: I used to work at Six Flags and let me tell you, not only is it absolutely shitty operation to attend but also to work at. We were always understaffed so I would work twelve hours a day, seven days a week, most days with no bathroom breaks because no one was there to cover.

We were constantly being stalked by middle management to "ensure safety", as if we would really could've done anything worse to the already breaking rides. One day my ride broke down and when maintenance came to fix it, they completely crushed the body of it by moving one of the cars. Seatbelts and the traction on the floor were always problems too.

One of my friends worked in the theater part when he was 16 and they thought that they could pay him under minimum wage and get away with it...his parents found out and threatened to sue so they gave him all the money he was missing.

The customers were the most vile people I've ever encountered, but I'm sure they had their reasons. I honestly will never set foot in another amusement park after working that ridiculous job. It made me realize just how seedy they can be.

@skizsrodt:

Put mine on skizsrodt's tab.

@PsiCop: despite this being a long story, I read every word. Well written!

This is just poor marketing. If it's $20 less to buy your ticket online but then you have to pay a $5 fee that makes you angry you have to wonder why they couldn't have just made it $15 cheaper to buy your tickets online and made it seem like you were getting a deal. I wonder if there is a third party involved in this that is promised a portion of online sales (maybe a ticket broker). It's hard to imagine someone could come up with this without some weird contractual obligation causing it.

@Outrun1986: I know what you mean. I stopped going to the local six flags long ago. Jacked up ticket prices, jacked up food/drink prices, and jacked up parking prices.

Nowadays, places like that just look at customers as sheep to be clipped, and it's gotten more and more obvious.

I'm not sure if it's just that demand is down or if they get gouged in turn, but it wouldn't surprise me either way. You can only clip the sheep so close before the sheep die from blood loss and the farm goes under.

The Mets started doing this last year. Will-call pickup for Internet orders are free. Print at home has a fee.

@Outrun1986: To be fair...I would think that their poor financial state implies that they are NOT overpriced...

The $5 fee is per order not per ticket. That fee is collected 100% by Six Flags. The online ticketing site is run by a third party that collects a percentage of sales. Six Flags introduced this fee to offset losses on ticket prices (which are vastly discounted when buying online). This fee is also not new and has existed since at least 2005 - although it was originally only $3 per order.

@RedwoodFlyer: Obviously something isn't working right, but if full price tickets are $60 plus $12 to park and $7 for a hamburger that's worse than McD's. That money has to be going somewhere. If they're not spending it on maintenance, and they're laying off staff, and closing rides.. Where else..

Real estate/taxes? Should have long been calculated into admission prices.

Insurance: Ditto

Character licensing/royalties: same

Litigation from dissatisfied or injured patrons: Possibly.

Executive bonuses and golden parachutes: Hmmmmmmmmm...

This is the reason I love living so close to Hershey Park

Nothing new at all. Yet, I still find myself at six flags great america at least three times a year. I find it to be quite inexpensive when compared to other full day entertainment options. Season pass is under $70, $10 parking per visit, bring own food, making it just a little over $35 per visit, which is much much less than a football game, basketball game or a concert that only lasts for four hours.

Why should they be any different from anyone else. Ticketmaster and many other online ticketing services charge extra for the priviledge of you saving them labor and postage.

@Smoking Pope: Sorry, it's free to read it. If I choose to print it, however, I'll put a check in the mail. ;-)