I posted this elsewhere, but I'll share it here as well. I know I'm going to sound like a broken record here, but I'll say it one last time: it isn't the cost, it's the utter stupidity of the split format.
Literally every airshow in North America lets you see the entire airshow for the price of one ticket. Every single one. Maybe you can make an argument that Oshkosh or Sun N' Fun don't because their shows are spread out over a week, but it's a pretty big stretch to compare those to what Thunder is doing. You don't pay in the morning, then have to leave and pay to come back in the afternoon to see the rest of the airshow anywhere else - not at Oshkosh, or Reading, or Houston, or Geneseo, or London, or Duxford, or a military show or your local show in a cornfield. There is no amount of "Choose Your Headliner," or "Officer's Club" or other fancy marketing BS that will change that. "Officer's Club" in this case roughly translates to "pay more money for the normal airshow experience you get everywhere else plus a crappy sandwich and a shade tent."
Last year, the morning and afternoon shows were totally different. If one had wanted to see the Mosquito, Hurricanes and F-100 and had only an afternoon ticket, they would have been screwed (assuming everything had shown up). If a morning attendee had wanted to see Mike Goulian, the Lysander, the Vampire and the Axis aircraft, they would have been screwed (again, assuming everything had shown up). If one had paid for a one-day ticket at any other airshow, all of the acts the show booked would have been included. I'm not going to guess which half day is going to have the acts I want to see, and I'm not going to pay twice for what is included in the price of one ticket at every other airshow I could possibly dream of attending. There are zero acts or aircraft that are worth that. It's obnoxious. It's a rip-off. It's insultingly stupid. It's unbelievable to me that people are not only asking for this but actually think it's a good deal.
The White Zone is ... uh, really bad. $99 to either sit 4,000+ feet from the runway or stand in the static display area, while not having any access at all to the hot ramp? You have to pay extra to be able to look at all of the aircraft at the airshow? WTF? Why are they making things that were always included in the price of one ticket "exclusive?" It's an "exclusive" perk to do do something you can already do just about everywhere else? This is laughably and insultingly stupid.
$129 for an entire day of Blue Zone would be completely reasonable. That's about what two people would pay for walk-up tickets and parking under the old format. Sign me up for that any day of the week if it comes with a full airshow, the hot ramp and all the static displays. In the meantime, we'll be spending our time and money elsewhere.
I've said my piece. If you go, enjoy.
_________________ Matt
|