A-Basin no longer offering the Bonus Pass

The dark side of the growing reach of the epic passes is that neighboring little guys are getting the squeeze.  It would seem that if A-basin adopted the Monarch model and included some reciprocal days at a few other good, smaller mtns it would take the sting out of the lost Vail Resorts days, but I have no idea how all that works out for their bottom line?  They probably need VR more than VR needs them. 

Quote:

Originally Posted by Jamesj 

The dark side of the growing reach of the epic passes is that neighboring little guys are getting the squeeze.  It would seem that if A-basin adopted the Monarch model and included some reciprocal days at a few other good, smaller mtns it would take the sting out of the lost Vail Resorts days, but I have no idea how all that works out for their bottom line?  They probably need VR more than VR needs them. 

This. In my eyes, the type of skier that is interested in skiing A-Basin is the type of skier that buy Monarch's pass- folks looking for the best skiing experience that do not care about the frills.  I know several folks that purchase bonus passes because they view it as a cheaper way to ski Vail, yet have little interest in skiing A Bay.  While it may sounds like a good thing for passholder to buy a pass yet not really ski your area much, it means you lose out on concession/food sales and have a less dedicated skiing base.

Arapahoe Basin has not participated in the partner-sharing that is now typical for most of the smaller ski areas in Colorado, and their Gems card discounts are pretty minimal.  I really like A Bay, but haven't skied there in about 5 years because Loveland DOES participate in both partner shares and agressive gems card discounts, and I can't justify spending more to ski at A Bay.

I'd love to see A Bay get in the partner sharing biz. I bet they will see more ski traffic that way than partnering with Vail, where they will always be considered the little ski area that has the audacity to have fixed grip chairs, "poor grooming," and no base condos.

I've had the Summit pass for the last several years.  It has only a bit more than the A-Basin Bonus pass, and gives you more flexibility.  Next years Summit pass still includes unlimited days at A-Basin, so I suspect that A-Basin will sell the Bonus Pass again next season.  In past years they stop selling them early in the season, so I suspect there may be a limited number.  The poor season this year may have reduced sales so they were available longer.

I would love to see A-Basin completely defect from the VR passes and go in either with Copper or Loveland.  If they went in with Loveland they would return to having the same vibe as the old days.  If they went in with Copper/WP/Steamboat I think they would really give the VR pass a run for its money.  With skier visits down at Copper/WP you would think they would court A-Basin to jump ship.

The advantage of the Bonus Pass was that you could buy it in April, and get two years of spring skiing on one pass.  I'm in the habit of buying an A-Basin pass every other year to complement my Loveland pass, since I mostly want to ski the Basin late in the season anyway.  If they partnered with Loveland somehow that would be totally awesome; I'd go for a $450 Loveland-Basin pass in a heartbeat.