Got a text message from Vail [Resorts] the other day encouraging me to use my “bring a buddy” discount passes of which I received two 50-per-cent off and six 25-per-cent off with my Whistler Blackcomb season pass.
I have two adult children (over 30) whose mug shots have appeared under my profile for 10 years. When you buy a “discount pass” you “assign a name” making them non-transferable and thereby eliminating any potential of scalping.
Herein lies the problem. Although I paid $99 each for the 50-per-cent-off and $140 each for the 25-per-cent-off passes, the rule is you have to accompany your “buddies” up the hill. You have to have a reservation for that day and be at the load with your buddies or, and I quote the Vail [Resorts] supervisor “we will charge you the discount back.”
The reason my adult children are able to come to Whistler on a Friday night to ski Saturday is because I vacate my home here to care three days each week for my 90-year-old mom in Burnaby. I choose the weekends because it’s much busier and thus I free up a spot for the working weekenders, and avoid my boys who are not in my “bubble,” which is my mom. By the time I return Monday, my house has had time for potential germs to be gone.
Vail [Resorts’] text encouraged me to “bring a buddy” skiing who cannot by [COVID-19] rules stay at my home, eat at the same table in one of the lodges, or ride in a gondola with me. Truth is, I have not been able to see more than the backend of my Whistler Mountain Ski Club alumni son since he was nine years old, and he would have a “love-ya-Ma run” with me, but that would be about it.
While I was able to escalate and get an exception, I was assured it was not going to be permitted again. I have many friends who would happily give their Buddy passes to my kids as they view them as their friends too.
I don’t understand why [Vail Resorts] doesn’t want the $99 and $140 per day in a lean season. Seems like a no-brainer. Encouraging people to “bring a buddy” with them under the current Vail Resorts policy is a blatant disregard for provincial [COVID-19] rules and makes it virtually impossible for passholders to use them.
Cheryl Springman // Whistler
