Six Flags drops surcharges at legacy parks

That California law is one of the best and most common sense consumer protection laws in a long time. Its impact has been pretty wide, beyond California, too. Cruise lines (not Disney) were notorious for hiding even the port fees and such from fares, so you didn't know what your real total would be until you were ready to pay. It's forced a lot of industries to change the way they advertise stuff to sell.

I feel like this is proof that Six Flags 2.0 is going to very much be a continuation of Cedar Fair

Nice to hear that laws are beginning to come in to outlaw this sort of thing.

I wonder if the US will ever eliminate the ridiculous policy of showing prices without mandatory taxes that only appear towards the end of the purchase process (or worse yet, at a cash register)?

The EU mandates that the price you see initially is the price you pay, in all circumstances.

That might be a good idea, but I think Americans kind of expect sales tax. Also, some states have "tax holidays," others have more rules about what is taxed and what isn't (food, certain services, etc.). And VAT is crazy compared to the 6-10% sales tax we have here.

Richard Bannister:

The EU mandates that the price you see initially is the price you pay, in all circumstances.

It is amazing, it took a moment to get used to but it is the only system that makes any sense. Combine that will minimal if any tipping involved for services and it just makes everything feel so much more honest.

So I wonder how many signs have needed to be redone as well that advertised this procedure.

They're probably pretty simple to cover up with tape, paint, or marker. A lot of the CP menus are digital now so it's only a matter of editing the menu "program."

This is a good move.

Interested to see what is announced as far as passes for next season in a few weeks.

Jeff:

others have more rules about what is taxed and what isn't (food, certain services, etc.).

I think you're kind of making my argument for me there.

How is the average Joe expected to know what's taxed and what isn't?

Why not just list the price people pay? It's not hard....

I don't know how widespread it is becoming, but during my two CA/NV trips this year, I was surprised how many places were showing the 'final' costs of things, in the way that you would expect across Europe.

I can't recall exactly how Magic Mountain was doing things - but that extra $1.30 was slightly galling, not least because I did two laps of the merch shop and ended up checking out twice ... one of my purchases was pretty small so the $1.30 was a ~40% uplift on what I bought, where it felt negligible on my food purchase.

I'm not saying that you're wrong, Richard, I'm just saying that I don't think it matters. The only time I ever think about sales tax is when buying a car.

Richard Bannister:

How is the average Joe expected to know what's taxed and what isn't?

Because the average Joe lives there?

(Enthusiasts are not average Joes)

I think a hidden fee or surchage should be disclosed because the average person has no idea what it will be. But I can see the point about not showing the sales tax as everyone knows what it is.

As an aside: even the California thing ended up exempting restaurants, thanks to intense lobbying by the latter. Having just returned from San Francisco, I am bummed that they got themselves out of it, because no two places did it exactly the same way. It's the difference of a handful of dollars, and not material at the end of the day, but it was annoying.

https://www.kcrw.com/cultur...rt-tickets

Shades:

I think a hidden fee or surchage should be disclosed because the average person has no idea what it will be. But I can see the point about not showing the sales tax as everyone knows what it is.

Out-of-state (or country) visitors generally don't.

Brian Noble:

Because the average Joe lives there?

Fair :)

I sometimes see signs in tourist areas about the amount of tax added to the purchase, especially at hotels.

Hotels are the worst, all of that should be rolled into the room rate advertised. Break it out however you want on the invoice, but if you room says 150/nt, then the final invoice should be 150 for that night.

Looks like Six Flags (at least Discovery Kingdom) is instituting a chaperone policy similar to the legacy Cedar Fair parks.

My understanding is that the surcharge was around $1. Bad? Yes. However, drop in the bucket compared to the 5% fine print surcharge that the SeaWorld parks are charging.