Bring A Friend Free (Bonus!) July 31 - August 15 2017

[CoasterRiderSC]

Hey, I was wondering if anyone else had this coupon/promo "disappear" from their passholder account when logging in?

I believe I might have received an email about the Bonus 7/31 - 8/15 promo and it was in my list of promos back in early June. Then seemingly after they sent the 6/20 - 6/30 Bonus BAFF email, this first promo (7/31 - 8/15) disappeared!! I have been emailing Customer Service about it.

Unfortunately I didn't save the email as proof for them, but I did happen to send a screenprint of it to a friend to show that the promo was there at some point.

Just curious if anyone else experienced this?

[anewman35]

EXACT same thing here. I thought I was crazy, because how does an email disappear?

[CoasterRiderSC]

Glad to hear I'm not the only one! Thankfully I had screenprinted the promo from my account. I emailed that to Customer Service (the screenprint) and he gave me code to use to get a free day for friend!

If you have the email, that should be good as well. Just email them from the "Contact Us" link on the site.

[anewman35]

The fewer BAFF days the better.

Not for people who have friends they want to bring.

[anewman35]

The weird thing is that I can't find the email, even though I'm pretty sure I got it (and clearly somebody got one, because somebody posted the wording here). If anybody has it, does anybody know the date and subject?

(When I think about it more, I probably never got an email, I probably just saw it here and then checked and saw it on my account. Hmm.)

[Whizzer Whiz Kid]

Just checked and mine is gone as well. That stinks as I already had someone who could go with.

[CoasterRiderSC]

Guys, just email them from the "Contact Us" link on SFGAm site. Tell them you SAW the promo on your account and it's gone now! Make a big deal about it and hopefully you can get a code like I did.

[CoasterRiderSC]

^ It's a great benefit for those of us with a family to be able to take spouse or kid a couple of times a year!
Also, you're assuming that people who come on a Free day are idiots who have never been on a ride and don't know how to put stuff in the bins, and they don't know how to walk around the park!

[Whizzer Whiz Kid]

For those of us who live right around 2 hours away, a lot of my friends have been pass holders in the past and routinely take a year off of being a pass holder. These people know how to be in the park. They don't sit on the handrails or drop stuff off rides. These bring a friend days are perfect days to bring them with.

[Ilovthevu']

^Of course they can take a year or 2 off because they know they can get in free from other friends. Some people don't have to buy season passes or tickets anymore because of Bring a Friend for Free. The park really thinks they can make $53 off of a friend for free not in admission gate or parking. They have to be kidding me.

Sure, they should have Bring a Friend for Free but almost having a full month of Bring a Friend for free is ridiculous + Read to Succeed is more free tickets. It should be like 2 or 3 days at most.

A perk of a season pass holder should be something like 3 rides open (1 flat ride / 2 coasters) at 10 am instead of 10:30am - not just giving people free admission. + 1 off some games. $5 Go-Karts. Buy $10 in arcade / get $1 free in arcade money. Dippin Dots should be part of the dining pass - that's not a season pass holder thing, but a dining thing. If the Go-Karts for season pass holders was $5, I would actually ride them. I'm NEVER going to ride them for $12 a ride. That's stupid.

Villa Park Jus-Fun is $7 for Go-Karts, and Haunted Trails is $7.50 for Go-Karts. Funway in Batavia is also $7 for Go-Karts. Regular price.

[anewman35]

The park can't win with some of you. You complain they give away too many of one petk, but complain about the lack of other perks. You know what would happen if they did give those other perks? They'd get overused and crowded and you'd complain about those the next time. It's how it works...

[anewman35]

I can read and comprend, thanks for asking.

I would be quite upset with less BAFF. I'm not the only one.

And I was talking about things like cheaper go-karts or free dippin' dots. There are always tradeoffs.

[Ilovthevu']

^Dippin Dots are not free because I'm saying that you would have to buy a season pass dining plan. I'm not saying they should be free, but they should be a snack on the dining plan which costs money to have. Right now, a season dining plan is $110. NOT free. The park's ice cream stinks for the dining pass. I went to another park, and got a huge waffle cone with the dining plan. It was awesome. I get ice cream in Hurricane Harbor, and it's the tiniest thing ever. Not worth the time to wait in line at all for it.

Ice cream like a Baskin Robbins SHOULD be a HUGE thing for the park, but they think it's unimportant. At the park I went, everyone and their neighbor was in the Baskin Robbins ice cream place. It's not really Baskin Robbins, but it's in that order. It was hopping even after the park was closed. They are making a mistake by not having a Baskin Robbins like ice cream place towards the front of the park.

They should put this ice cream like Baskin Robbins place in the Bugs Bunny store in Orleans Place, and just move some of that merchandise to other stores. You have all these Breyers flavors to pick from in huge tubs of ice cream, and they put it in a waffle cone. Even the Magic Kingdom has one of these ice cream like Baskin Robbins places at the end of the main street where you first enter.

For the funnel cake stand that is right by V2, the season dining guide says ice cream cone, but than you go there, and they don't even have ice cream on the menu. ?????

Whatever with the Go-Karts. What do I really care if they don't get my money for riding them? At $12, I'll never ride them. I used to enjoy riding Go-Karts at Racing Rapids everytime I went to that water park. I'll save that $12 and go to carnivals, and get unlimited wristbands instead.

SFGAm is in competition with carnivals, family fun centers, other waterparks (like Raging Waves / Magic Waters), and if they don't understand that, I don't really care anymore. A KMG Afterburner or Freak Out has been growing steam in the carnival world for awhile, and if Six Flags doesn't understand, what do I care. This week, one is in Hoffman Estates (Modern Midways), one is in Arlington Heights (All Star Amusements), one is in Palatine (Windy City Amusements), one is in Mount Prospect (Fantasy Amusements), and I don't know where D&J Amusements, Alpine Amusements, All Around Amusements or Rainbow Valley is. I know of one more in IL, but I don't want to say where. That's 8 of them in IL with 1 in Wi. The thrillseekers must really not like that ride. SFGAm should want everyone to go there park instead of these carnivals that go to every town almost. When Six Flags didn't clone the Chance Revolution / KMG Afterburner (like Hersheypark, Dorney Park, now Mall of America, the other Great America, or Knott's Berry Farm has), they made a huge mistake awhile ago. https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=0BE4Va076Ew If they ever got smart and bought it, they should buy a lot of lights too.

From what I know, Larson Fireball / Ring of Fire are not growing in the carnival world at all. Some carnivals just have had them for a long time. I don't know of a new Ring of Fire / Fireball that has been purchased in IL. One carnival wants to sell it for awhile now, and no one is buying it. Another carnival with a Ring of Fire had a major accident, and since has gotten rid of it in IL. D&J Amusements used to have one before too, and they don't have one anymore either. Cloning Tilt-A-Whirls in Six Flags park would make more sense than Larson Ring of Fires. Every carnival in IL about has 1 Tilt-A-Whirl. Some of them even have 2 Tilt-A-Whirls.

Six Flags goal should be for every person to NOT to go to a carnival. They should want me, and everyone else that goes to carnivals to say no to carnivals. It's one of their greatest competition in which it doesn't even seem like they realize it is.

[Guy_With_A_Stick]

Reducing the number of BAFF days is not the solution. In fact, it would worsen the problem. If there were fewer days to get your friend in for free, then those days would be even more crowded than if it were more common. Less supply, more demand. The solution is to give each passholder 4 or 5(or whatever number the park chooses) BAFF days they can use whenever. This would ease congestion seen on BAFF days and spread it out over the rest of the season. Sure, the quiet days might get a few more people, but the previous BAFF days would get significantly less crowds. And if the park gave everyone the same number of BAFF tickets as there are current BAFF days, then they'd probably get the same, if not, more numbers than if they had specified days. Win win situation for everyone.

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[Guy_With_A_Stick]

Reducing the number of BAFF days is not the solution. In fact, it would worsen the problem. If there were fewer days to get your friend in for free, then those days would be even more crowded than if it were more common. Less supply, more demand. The solution is to give each passholder 4 or 5(or whatever number the park chooses) BAFF days they can use whenever. This would ease congestion seen on BAFF days and spread it out over the rest of the season. Sure, the quiet days might get a few more people, but the previous BAFF days would get significantly less crowds. And if the park gave everyone the same number of BAFF tickets as there are current BAFF days, then they'd probably get the same, if not, more numbers than if they had specified days. Win win situation for everyone.

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Actually, it would solve the problem as the nightmare days would be limited to a hand full for season pass holders. Thus, maybe there would not be a post weekly of people asking when BAFF day are so they can plan around them. There should be 1 or 2 BAFF days per month. So there is just a few days for people to avoid if they are not using the BAFF promotion.

But that still means that there are days where the crowds are unbearable. The best solution is to have it where you can go to the park at any time and not have to worry that BAFF is going to spike the crowds. Spreading these crowds over the rest of the season means that you can do just that. Let's take both of our solutions and put them in a little scenario:

A group of friends wants to go to the park in July. Of the 6 people in the group, 3 have season passes. Not wanting to buy a ticket or pass, they choose to go with the BAFF option. The 3 people without the pass probably won't be going back to the park the rest of the season, so they want to make the most of their day. In your solution, the group has 2 days they can go, both of which will have heavy crowds, meaning they won't be able to get much done. In my solution, they have all of July, which will have similar crowds any day they go. Since there's no designated BAFF days, they can go whenever their schedule fits. Since this applies for everyone, each day will have more even crowds which can allow for the group to get more done.

Removing restrictions can and usually will reduce crowds. It's simple supply and demand. If you give people more(unlimited) days they can bring their friends, the less crowded those days will be. If you think every day is another BAFF day, they could easily solve this by limiting everyone to a certain number of BAFF tickets. I really don't understand how less BAFF days would solve this. Yes, it reduces the number of 'nightmare days', but it doesn't fully solve the problem. Like I said, the best solution would result in 0 nightmare days. And, in my mind, the best way to do that is to make it where every day is a viable option for BAFF.

[Ilovthevu']

^^Those 2 or 3 days a season for BAFF days don't have to be perfect. If they are nightmare days, than those people getting in free should buy a season pass already, or buy tickets. It shouldn't be let me sponge off of my friends to get in free all summer long type of thing. For the friends, they get up to 3 days to visit during the year, and than let them decide if they care to go on those days, and be with all these people or not. If not, than let them pay their way, and go any other day with a season pass. Even 3 free days for friends is a $53 gift per day + probably tax, and you know the friends will probably get free parking because of the season pass holders.

Instead having 20-30 days for free friends means I don't have to buy a season pass or tickets to the park. The average guest would say that they would only go twice a year to Great America, so I can choose my day of when to go. Let's see. I have the first week of June, a week in July, and than before it was so much of August + I think they have this thing where you can just choose any day to go with a friend, and get in free too on top of all these other free days. Families of 4 don't even have to buy 4 season passes anymore because it's free so much. Just buy 2 season passes, and bring your family (friends) for free on those 20-30 days.

[CoasterRiderSC]

Reducing the number of BAFF days is not the solution. In fact, it would worsen the problem. If there were fewer days to get your friend in for free, then those days would be even more crowded than if it were more common. Less supply, more demand. The solution is to give each passholder 4 or 5(or whatever number the park chooses) BAFF days they can use whenever. This would ease congestion seen on BAFF days and spread it out over the rest of the season. Sure, the quiet days might get a few more people, but the previous BAFF days would get significantly less crowds. And if the park gave everyone the same number of BAFF tickets as there are current BAFF days, then they'd probably get the same, if not, more numbers than if they had specified days. Win win situation for everyone.

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Cam, I really like your idea! I was thrilled when they added a "bonus" floating BAFF day this year! I took my wife in mid-May and it wasn't crowded! As for having 20-30 BAFF days as someone stated, that's exaggeration.
And, chances are, most people who come free are going to spend money on food, drinks, etc. So the park is still gaining extra revenue that it otherwise would not have had.

However, I do sort of agree with giving us Gold passholders the perk of getting in slightly earlier (like maybe 30 minutes). However, that's going to come out a cost because operators will be needed to run the rides.

I also think they could raise the price of the Gold pass a little bit, to maybe $99.

[Ilovthevu']

^Sadly, that 20-30 days was not an exaggeration. It was supposed to be free July 31 - Aug 15. That's 16 days. Than, you have Aug 21 -25 (5 days) + July 10-14 (5 days) + June 5-9 (5 days).

It would have been 31 days free IF they kept this July 31 - Aug 15 + you get to pick any day. That's 32 days. Without the 16 day stretch, it's 16 days free.

Plus, you have some really cheap days also. $15 for friends compared to $53 gate admission. Aug 14-18 / Nov 4th weekend & 11th weekend.

Again, that's why I'm for 2 or 3 BAFF, and than some 1/2 price for friends days. They are giving the gate too much away for "friends". Friends will never have to buy tickets, or a season pass ever.

[CoasterRiderSC]

^ OK, I understand your logic now. But in actuality, you're only able to bring someone a total of like 4-5 days, because you get ONE of those days for each promo. Again I like Cam's idea of getting 4-5 floating free days to use whenever you want. That will keep the chaos away from a few days/weeks.