anyone else getting sick of rfid cards yet?

[cloud cult]

our season pass gives us days at copper, and when we went the first time we had to pay $5 each for RFID cards. then this week we went to monarch and now they require rfid cards. We also got the Indy Pass and the first two places we go do require rfid cards -- sunrise and pomerelle. at pomerelle to get my card i had to go online, create a profile, upload a picture, provide all sorts of information, and opt out from receiving the daily snow report email, summer fun activity updates, and polite reminders that there is night skiing this Friday - keep in mind that pomerelle's target demographic is very casual skiers from burley, Idaho. for a family of 3 we now have $60 invested in RFID cards and we are only 3 weeks into the ski season.

rfid cards provide no benefit to skiers and a lot of drawbacks. they are easy to lose or forget on the desk at home, they are not refundable, and they can snarl liftlines since you usually don't pass through the scanner until seconds before you get on the lift. plus, there is no one controlling the lift line since that person is now behind the turnstile to help people who had the misfortune of misplacing their cards or putting them in the same pocket they are using to hold medium-power magnets.

supposedly i could take my RFID card, go online, and recharge it for a day of skiing from the comfort of my home computer except that never works for reciprocal pass holders or the indy card.

i know they are all over Europe but at least there you can drop them into a machine and get your money back.

what was so wrong with printed tickets that you attached with a zip tie?

sorry, end of rant

[Danno]

My thoughts on them are that they are great for season passes, but agree that for the consumer they suck for day passes. And also agree that most resorts have poorly placed scanners, because when the scanners are right before lift loading you end up with a clusterfuck and inefficient loading.

[Core Shot]

A sticky wicket indeed.

But by installing them, the ski areas have saved on theft and also reduced employee expenses, which is why lift tickets have finally gone down in price!

On the other hand, I don’t mind. If it’s a season or I can’t pass, you roll up and ski no problem.

I also have some Indy cards that I’ve loaded online, thus saving me the pain of standing in line.

I do agree that every Indy having their own pass does blow. I’ve got a deck of cards now. Hopefully their will be an rfid consortium that charges minimal fees. Kinda how open road tolling has gotten better. When it started each state had their own transponders.

[Brownski]

I dislike them but I'm willing to consider that it may be because I'm getting old and feel nostalgia for wickets. I do resent feeling like I'm getting nickel & dimed so the extra $5 some hills charge for the card bugs me too. At some point I'm gonna make some wall art with all the old lift tickets I've accumulated.

[brutah]

it would be nice if you could upload a pass onto any RFID card, sometimes the resorts won't even reload their own cards. Additionally, I don't like the added fees either. No one likes getting nickel and dimed.

Makes it easier to clip an old ticket in the afternoon tho lol

[m2711c]

I actually wouldn’t mind getting nickel and dimed. It’s the five bucks a shot for something that should cost a fucking nickel or a dime that pisses me off.

[Toadman]

Yes, I am sick of people who put them in a pocket with another RFID card and hold me up from getting through the turnstyle/gate.

I have a sleeve pocket in my ski jacket. I put it in there and leave it. I don't put anything else in with it. It is actually pretty user friendly.

And if you want to share it with your almost identical looking younger brother, you don't need to clip your wicket ticket. Not that I would ever do that...

It's 2022 FFS. Learn to use an RFID card properly!!!

End of rant.

[jmedslc]

I hilariously discovered the other day…. After skiing 20 some odd days so far this season and getting a sporadic “card not supported “message from certain readers… I reached into my pass pocket in my jacket and realized I had last year‘s pass in the pocket as well as this year‘s pass.

This after emphatically stating to various left attendants “ what do you think I am some kind of idiot?”

Yes, apparently I resemble that remark. Duh. Oh man…..

[byates1]

I emailed Indy and told them it was shady to charge each place. It is what it is.

[Sessiøn]

No. I'm not sick of leaving the same ID card in the same pocket of my jacket for multiple seasons, nor am I tired of not having to pull my pass out of my pocket to be scanned or looked at every time I load.

[Bunion 2020]

which is why lift tickets have finally gone down in price!

/S

[blazes_boylan]

yes, they blow. at least half the people can't figure out where to put them and they slow down the lift line. But on the plus side, you get a little shot of radiation sent through your body every time you pass thru the gates....so I got that going for me, which is nice!

[Yukonrider]

If you ski into the gate hard enough it opens.

[paulster2626]

Should just be an app on a phone by now. All phones are RFID these days aren't they? The $5 for a $0.02 piece of plastic is bullshit.

[twat]

I am very sensitive... the scanners give me slight headache. If i get jammed in a scanner for more then 20seconds i have to vomit.

The rfid chip itself isn´t problem.... the scanners are the problem....
Skidata scanner is better then the axess scanner imo : )

[The Tortoise]

So you're saying you're literally sick of them.

[Bobcat Sig]

Really, RFID cards?

No, not an issue. And I don't care. If I have to throw a few extra sheckles to an indy resort; so be it. They probably need it, anyway.

It's easy technology. Try to keep up.

[scmartin69]

As I have two passes locally and also travel to other areas to ski. I bought a packet of RFI blocking sleeves, put the pass you're using that day in the jacket pocket, the other pass(es) in the sleeves (and a different pocket seems to help) and Bob's your uncle.

Sent from my SM-G986U using Tapatalk

[Snow Dog]

Last Winter Big White went to "online only" for [rfid] day tickets - something about a pandemic. Since there was no cost advantage for buying a 3 or 5 day I tried adding to my card every night. It took my money but the next day the card never worked so I had to go to customer service every day to sort it out. I ended up with a new card every day.

In the past you could buy a "Biggie" card that could be reloaded all season long but their improved pandemic day ticket software had a few issues.

[MyNameIsAugustWest]

Radiation comment is laughable if you own a cell phone. Do you know what kind of radiation you're exposed to in an airliner? You might be surprised if you look it up.

I got no issues with RFID but if you think they only cost $0.02, you've never tried to buy them.

[Peruvian]

Why can’t they just be rolled into the price of the pass or ticket?

[nickwm21]

Non-issue for me. The season pass stays in the arm pocket of the jacket most of the season and works every time.

In my boot bag I have a little container of all the day ticket RFID cards I’ve bought over the years. When I ski outside of my pass, I’ll try to reload the old RFID if I can or bring it to the ticket window day of… most of the time they don’t charge you the fee if you bring the old card…


Sent from my iPhone using TGR Forums

[Toadman]

Why can’t they just be rolled into the price of the pass or ticket?

Going one step further, why can't they figure out a way to upload my Ikon pass onto my Pfizer chip? No COVID vax, no ski. Works for me!

[m2711c]

Should just be an app on a phone by now. All phones are RFID these days aren't they? The $5 for a $0.02 piece of plastic is bullshit.

Why can’t they just be rolled into the price of the pass or ticket?

All I want to know is what the fucking price of admission for the day is going to be…. Just the straight up total price.

Don’t tell me it’s gonna be $10 and then when I get there tell me it’s gonna be an extra dollar on top of admission to park me car, and then another dollar on top of that to buy an RFID card and another dollar on top of that for whatever the fuck the fuck extra charges is.

Just tell me the total fucking amount of the money that you need from me for that day so I know what the fuck it is upfront. if the actual cost is going to be $15 that day then fucking tell me it’s gonna be $15 and don’t fucking yank me around with a fucking $10 bullshit price and then fucking nickel and dime the crap out of me for the extra five dollars that you should’ve set as your real base price for in the first place.


That’s all I’m asking.

[ticketchecker]

Why can’t they just be rolled into the price of the pass or ticket?

Oh it could be if you really wanted it to be.

If you actually re load the card the way the system is designed you aren’t continuing to pay for the RFID tech. The cards are reusable year over year.

Many season passes have companion or buddy discount tickets that come with them and are easily transferable through the system. If the rfid charge was built in and your friend transfers you a discounted ticket code because you’re blacked out and it’s snowing you’d be paying that extra five bucks, again.


Sent from the Utility Muffin Research Kitchen