Is there ever a presale for NYCB tickets?

[audreydoll]

I know they usually offer a presale for Nutcracker tickets about a week before the public on-sale date and was wondering if there might be something similar for the regular season. I'm going to be away from home when they go on sale August 2 and won't have computer access until mid-August. Although there will still be tickets available then, there are specific seats I really like and those will most likely be gone. NYCB has an arrangement with MasterCard but I haven't seen anything posted there and before doing more research, I thought I'd ask here if anyone knows whether they even do such a thing.

Alternatively, do you know if it's possible to purchase a Create Your Own subscription over the phone and select your own seats? I usually attend about eight shows per year so a subscription would be fine but the online version only allows you to select by section/price.

Thank you for any advice you can offer.

[abatt]

No presales on regular tixs, as far as I know. Only Nutcracker presales.

Doubt they will let you pick your specific seats on Create Your Own, but it's worth a shot to call and ask.

[KarenAG]

Hi Audrey,

I've subscribed by telephone for the past 3 years (not including this year as I haven't subscribed yet) and the box office agents have been very accommodating about seats. One year I had seats in 3 different locations over the subscription of 4 ballets. It was a create your own series, too. I would guess they do not want everyone doing this, but if you are on the phone with them, they're more willing to work with you. At least that is my experience.

[California]

Once single tickets go on sale at NYCB, you can pick your own seats for Create-your-own on-line. I never buy anything until ABT announces their spring Met schedule and I figure out what trips I want to make. I don't even think I asked to do Create-your-own - the system seems to count up what you bought in one order and add that label. It's worth doing -- by the time spring rolls around, given all the casting changes at ABT by then, NYCB subscribers can do easy exchanges at the box office. (I've never bought NYCB Nutcracker tickets, so I don't know how that works.)

BTW - according to Michael Kaiser's books (which I strongly recommend), performing arts groups used to sell 50% of their seats on subscription. Among other things, that meant they had major cash flow in the summer before the season started. Now, it's down to 20% nationally, although I assume that varies from company to company. People just have lives that are too complicated to count on predictable availability for the next year. I assume this shift explains why smart companies are doing so many things to keep subscribers happy -- free exchange privileges, discounts, etc. NYCB does a pretty good job at providing incentives - ABT, not so much.

[CTballetfan]

My experience with create-your-own series is the same as KarenAG's. The box office was accommodating and offered me exact seating in different sections (all the same price) for all the performances, so my seats were locked in on the phone call.

[audreydoll]

Thank you to everyone who took the time to reply. I'll try calling the box office on Monday to create a subscription and we'll see how it goes.

[audreydoll]

I wanted to update this thread with my experience, which unfortunately wasn't a good one. I tried calling the box office to purchase an eight-ticket subscription and was told I could not choose exact seats, just a general location as you would if purchasing online. Maybe I was just unlucky because I got an agent that wasn't particularly helpful but I didn't end up buying anything today. If there are still a good selection of seats available in a few weeks, I'll try creating an online subscription then.

Thanks for the feedback everyone.

[Drew]

I dealt with someone on the phone and they were very nice and helpful, but even so there is a limit to how precisely they can help with seating choices (in my experience) and unfortunately I do not think my instructions about alternate locations (if seats I requested were not available) were understood. I received a message from subscription office earlier today that suggested as much. I don't know how this story ends, but likely with me not subscribing again.

I think the subscription office has a tricky job and works hard to do it well--from their point of view I am the problem. But this year I had decided not to subscribe, and they peppered me with emails, phone calls and lots of personal attention, and I decided to give it another try. But it's just not set up to accommodate very precise instructions.

One thing that I think I have a legitimate gripe about is that this call about problems accommodating my requests came the day tickets went on sale and, predictably, I did not get the message until after the office was closed...why not Friday or Saturday when I might reasonably have cancelled the whole thing and been able to buy seats the first day they went on sale?

Do I sound fussy?? Well, yeah, I'm fussy. But I'm guessing a lot of NYCB's most loyal customers are...

[CTballetfan]

I went online at 12:03 pm yesterday, just as the box office opened and discovered that there were hardly any orchestra tickets to the high demand fall performances--the evenings with five new ballets and the Oct 11 Sunday matinee farewell performance for Somogyi. This leads me to think that they did a bang up subscription business this year. In the end I opted for seats to my favorite ballet, Jewels, for spring, and even there, there was not much to choose from. If we have a mild winter I'll get tickets at the last minute for the new ballets during the winter season. Very difficult to get from central Connecticut to NYC in snow. One more comment--is it my imagination or have the extra fees tacked on to the ticket price increased? I bought two tickets to a single performance and was charged $6 plus $15 for the privilege. The same thing happened last week when I purchased 2 tickets for a fall performance to ABT-- $6 plus $14 for buying over the Internet. i understand the $6 fee, but what about the $14 or $15 fee? Has this always been standard?

[abatt]

I think they have held back from sale most of the available orchestra seats for the Somogyi farewell. Additionally, I noticed on their website yesterday that there is a special going on for people paying with Mastercard, so some of those seats may have been blocked of from sale for that reason.

I think that they may try to play the dynamic pricing game for the Somogyi farewell.

[volcanohunter]

One more comment--is it my imagination or have the extra fees tacked on to the ticket price increased? I bought two tickets to a single performance and was charged $6 plus $15 for the privilege. The same thing happened last week when I purchased 2 tickets for a fall performance to ABT-- $6 plus $14 for buying over the Internet. i understand the $6 fee, but what about the $14 or $15 fee? Has this always been standard?

For the last couple of years at least NYCB has charged $7 per ticket purchased online. That's not an unusual fee charged these days. Some I've encountered recently:

NYCB - $7 per ticket

ABT (Met) - $6 per ticket

San Francisco Ballet - $6 per ticket

Kennedy Center - hard to say exactly, but it works out to about $9-10 per ticket

National Ballet of Canada - $10 per ticket

Teatro alla Scala - 20% [!!!] of your purchase price

Teatro di San Carlo - nothing, if you choose the print-at-home option

I don't recall paying service charges at the Royal Opera House. West End theaters seem to charge £1.50-2.00 per ticket.

[CTballetfan]

Thank you, volcano hunter, I don't feel so bad now!

[California]

I don't recall paying service charges at the Royal Opera House.

I ordered some Royal Ballet tickets at the Royal Opera House for this fall and they don't add a service charge. They don't have print-at-home (at least for US customers); you pick up tickets at the box office.

For the Colorado Ballet at the Caulkins Opera House, there is no service charge if you use the print-at-home option.

I'm looking at my print-at-home ticket from Pennsylvania Ballet last spring (at the Academy of Music) and don't see any service charges there either.

The Joyce Theatre adds a $6 "handling fee" if you order on-line, even though you pick up the ticket at the box office.

[nysusan]

I think they have held back from sale most of the available orchestra seats for the Somogyi farewell. Additionally, I noticed on their website yesterday that there is a special going on for people paying with Mastercard, so some of those seats may have been blocked of from sale for that reason.

I think that they may try to play the dynamic pricing game for the Somogyi farewell.

The MC special sale ends 8/8, so if you check back on the 9th there will probably be more orchestra tickets available. They are also holding back 3rd and 4th ring seats again, for the whole season at this point. I hate playing that waiting game with them but this is what it has come to.

On the bright side, if you are a subscriber your seat prices are locked in so you don't have to worry about dynamic pricing. You also don't pay the $7.50 per ticket service charge, although you do still pay the $3 per ticket facility charge.

[Drew]

I mentioned difficulties above--so I should also mention that when I got hold of someone today they were all resolved. And subscribing did save me money as well.

I still think subscribing is tricky if you have very precise ideas about where you want to sit, but on the whole I would probably do it again.

CTballetFan wondered if the company's subscription sales were particularly strong this year. I would be interested to know, because I have never been pursued to renew a subscription as persistently as this year and it obviously worked on ME. But I may be an easy target (for this).

[Drew]

I wanted to add as a coda to my comments above that the subscription office was very helpful to me just this week when I was buying additional tickets for later this year in addition to my fall 'subscription.' One could say "that's their job"--but anyway, I am happy with the way they did it.