I was recently at an amusement park in Montreal, Canada, called La Ronde, a division of Six Flags.
Anyone that has ever been at any amusement park should be familiar with the standard 45min line for the better rides. This park was full of those lines, but had something unique: an Express Line. For an extra $12 (beyond the $35 entrance fee), a person could walk around the normal line, to a special set of stairs, that lead directly to the loading platform. At the start of each ride, the attendants would open the special-people’s gate and allow four of them onto the ride. The attendant would then seat the rest of the people, who endured the 60min wait.
So for debate, does this sort of queue jumping seem ethical? Is it a positive or negative example of capitalism at work? Is this the sort of situation you’d like to see more of less of?
And a special bonus question for Candopers, does this support or detract your thoughts on two-tiered healthcare?
As a bit of background: The Express Pass cost $12 and offered 5 tickets, allowing the user to by-pass the normal line 5 times. The park limited the number of Express Tickets issued during the day and routinely sold-out. The park further limited those tickets to certain times of the day; for example, a person would by a packaged of 5 express tickets to be used from 2-4pm, or 4-6pm etc. For each ride that had an Express Line, the ride usually reserved 4 seats for those ticket holders, and then the remaining 20 seats went to the normal line. I never saw more than 6 people waiting in the Express Line. In cases where there were no Express People, the ride was filled with normal people.
Disney and Universal have something similar down here, but they don’t charge for it. It’s called FastPass. Basically, you punch a button for a ride and get an “appointment card” for a later time. You go do whatever, then come back and jump to the head of the line. Basically, you’re still waiting, you’re just not waiting in line, which makes it more palatable.
ivylass, I don’t think Disney’s FastPass is really similar. They’re still making folks wait their turn, they just don’t require that the time be spent on line…the FastPass is an acknowledgement that the customer entered the line at time X, when a wait of Y minutes was expected, so he can put himself directly at the head of the line at time X+Y. (this, of course, allows the customer to spend money elsewhere in the park during time that he would otherwise be waiting unprofitably). In addition, Disney does not offer the FastPass for higher-paying customers, it’s available to everyone at no additional cost.
To allow someone to pay extra to get to the head of the line isn’t something I’d like to be the victim of, but it certainly sounds like legitimate capitalism. I’d hate to wonder, though, what happens when so many people pay for the express line that the wait is equal to the normal line. I guess the price of the express ticket gets raised to make it more exclusive? Or do they invent a super-express? Ethics notwithstanding, it doesn’t sound to me like a sustainable long-term profit plan.
It’s capitalism. I don’t see anything ethically wrong with it. No different than flying first or business class. When my HQ flys me back to the States, they pick up business class seats, which allows me to jump to the front of the boarding line, ahead of the riffraff in the back of the bus. Of course, when I fly myself, then there’s no way I’m going to pay $5,000 just for wider seats and better service, unlike all those snobes up in the front.
However, although there’s nothing wrong with the practice, it has the possibility of pissing a lot of customers off. Often people put up with an hours wait if they know that everyone is in it together. If some people get to “jump” the line, then you can get your customer base upset.
I have BIG problems with this, and the OP illustrates them nicely:
“Express people”?? “Normal people”?? What’s next, “some customers are more equal than others”!? This is a disturbing and insidious classisism. It’s beginning to take hold in other places as well, like airports. I realize we live in a consumer culture, but this is patently absurd. I refuse to be treated like a second-class citizen just because I can’t pay as much to jump ahead in a line. :mad:
So you think that in a commercial environment, everybody should be entitled to the same treatment no matter how much or little they pay? Do you expect to be able to buy $10 baseball tickets and sit behind home plate? Do you expect to be able to plunk down $100 as the price of the cheapest TV in the store and walk out with a $5,000 plasma TV?
All Six Flags is doing is offering two types of product. To use the prices from Six Flags over Georgia, where they also have an extra cost queue-jumping system:
$35 gets you entrance and (typically) 45 - 60 minute waits
$78 gets you 10 - 15 minute waits.
Two levels of service, two levels of pricing. I don’t see the problem.
I’m not sure how it’s done at La Ronde, but at Six Flags over Georgia you’re not reducing the wait time, you’re just not forced to stand in the actual line while waiting. The Q-Bot estimates current wait time for those in the queue and makes you wait that long before alerting you that it’s time for you to come get on the ride. Also, while it allows you to stack rides, that also doesn’t reduce the wait. If the wait on Batman is 45 minutes and Superman is an hour, even if you register for both of them upfront, you won’t be riding Superman for at least an hour and 45 minutes. What the Q-Bot does is allow you to spend your wait time doing something else, such as enjoying a frozen lemonade in the shade, playing games of chance, riding a ride without a long wait, etc., instead of standing in the queue.
From what I saw, the system at La Ronde was a full out line by-pass. I wasn’t aware of any extra wait system. Patrons with a ticket simply followed the signs that would lead them out and around the main line to a second set of stairs. Following this path took them right to wear the ride would load. At most, express-ticket holders would wait the length of one ride before getting on.
There are two types of Q-Bot at SFoG: the regular one, which works as you describe, and a Gold one that reduces the wait time by 75% and costs nearly twice as much as the regular Q-Bot. I used the Gold Q-Bot mechanism and price in my response as it is closest to the situation in the OP. There is also a Q-Pass that allows you to pay $5 and go right to the front of a line for just one ride.
The regular Q-Bot is pretty much the same as Disney Fastpass, but you have to pay for it - $23 for a single person, I believe.
I wasn’t aware of this, and have even used the Q-Bot I described at SFoG before. I haven’t been this season yet, so are the Gold and single ride varieties something new?
The single ride version was introduced mid-season this year, so is very new. I don’t know about the Gold Q-Bot - I have only been to SFoG once. I had a Gold Q-Bot (complimentary), and it certainly cuts the waits down significantly. The longest wait I had all day was 16 minutes for one time at Superman. Most of the time it was from immediate to a 10 minute wait.
On Memorial Day, my girlfriend and I went to Six Flags in New Jersey. The lines were absolutely nuts. The wait for the really big coasters was like four to five hours. We each plunked down $95 (or so) to buy the Q-Bot Gold, and we got to ride all the big coasters in one day. With the Q-Bot Gold, we never waited more than 15 or 20 minutes for a ride. On our last ride, we met a fellow that had waited in line six hours for one ride, and that pretty much blew his day.
Yes, I felt bad that he spent all day in the sun for one ride, while me and my girlfriend rode everything in the park. But yes, I think it is fair that if people pay more, they should expect better service. I hear Disneyland has exclusive clubs at which people can get fine meals delivered by waiters in tuxes, all for a fairly outrageous price. Should Disney throw their customers who are willing and able to pay for that service out the door to wait in line for hot dogs and nachos like everyone else?
Keep in mind that these devices, like Q Bot, are not cheap, and a limited number are sold each day. If people are willing to pay substantial sums to not wait in line, and others are willing to stand in line rather than not pay a lot of money, it seems that the amusement park is doing a pretty solid job of catering to its customer’s wishes.
That would be “Club 33”, an exclusive club with very high membership dues.
The difference however is that the service provided to these people doesn’t interfere with the regular paying guests, most of which don’t even know the club exists or where it is located. With a front of the line pass, you are making paying customers wait longer for their rides. With Disneyland, that front of the line pass (fastpass) is free and accessible to everyone. Therefore, it doesn’t upset most people because everyone has the same opportunity to take advantage of it.
Personally, I like the way Disney does it. It just seems more fair to me.
While there was I kicking myself for not taking advantage of it, but most of that was because it was all in French and we didn’t understand what was going on. If I ever go back I will definately pay the extra $12 since I only go for the five biggest rollercosters, that have the 5 biggest lines. On the surface I’m all for this, but only because I can afford it. If they raised the price to $20 or $30 I’d start to reconsider. I know at Disney World/Land people with disabilities often move to the front of the line, and as a person without disabilities that REALLY bothered me. To me that is a class system that I can’t get in on.
The way I see it, the park itself sets up a class system by charging admission. It simply further subdivides the class into those willing to pay a little bit more.
I think what bothered my about this system was that in interfered with the normal patrons.
In contrast to what Amarone wrote:
The problem here is that it isn’t two levels of service. If you paid $12 more to go on certain rides I would understand that. The park had a helicopter tour, and a weird “Sling Shot” ride that each had an extra fee, but that fee was universal. This Rapid Pass system slowed down the normal line by allowing people to jump queue, and I think that’s what bothers me about the system, and the idea of a two-tiered lifestyle. I would have prefered that they simply charge a bit more for the better rides, which is why I feel this is a bit unethical.
At my local science museum there are two lines for the IMAX shows. One for museum members and one for everyone else. The museum members are seated first and get to ride the elevator up to the seating level versus taking the long ramps/stairs. I thought it was quite a cool perk and encouraged membership versus merely buying day passes. Of course there is generally enough seating for everyone and the waits aren’t anything like multiple hours. I guess the size of the discrepancy between what the privileged few(even if they paid for the privilege) get versus what the huddled masses get may make a difference.
Still, membership was open to everyone. As long as everyone has the option of getting the pass I don’t see an issue with it.
Capitalism at its best. Let the marketplace decide.
If the market doesn’t mind, the result will be net incremental revenue and ownership will enjoy more profit.
However, if enough say “No” and don’t visit the park, then ownership profit will suffer (presumably losing out to competition that does not offer such policy).
Moral? Ethical? Let the marketplace speak. Worse possible thing would be to get the government involved. Less is more in that regard.
