Six Flags Season Pass 3 Payment Plan

3 Payment Plan

So now you can pay off that $50 pass in three easy installments of $16. ;)

Awesome sauce.

Hmph. Who would've thought that Six Flags is bad with math?

No. The math is mine.

The humor is splitting a $50 charge into 3 payments. Six Flags passes are already stupid-cheap, let's offer a payment plan!

Do they offer a payment plan for single-day tickets as well? Based on the pre-discount ticket cost, it seems just as logical.

Exactly. It costs more than some SF passes for a one day ticket to Busch Gardens. I wonder if I can make payments on my ticket to one of their parks?

I agree that the dollar amount of the season pass is low to want to go with a payment plan. But they must have some reason to believe that they can increase sales with the payment plan.

And though the dollar amounts may be the same, the logistics of a payment plan for a one day ticket aren't the same as for a season pass. One day pass is over in that one day. Season pass lasts the whole season. Makes sense to pay for the season pass over time but doesn't for a one day pass. Matching expense of the item with the benefit you get from it. Small dollar amounts not withstanding.

And if you're buying season passes for, say, a family of five, I can see where it would benefit some to have a payment plan offered.

Wow. This has to be aimed at kidlets whose main income is allowance and birthday money. Get 'em ready for car payments and student loans while they're young. Or something.

I guess I can see trying to hook a family who might not have been able to afford a one time payment otherwise and skipped the parks altogether.

Even for a family - a family of five is looking at $250 in some cases.

That's less than two regluar price passes to Holiday World.

I dunno. I just find humor in making installment payments on a $50 purchase. It's like the Home Shopping Network.

PARC Management had that last year. They call it PlayAway.

I tend to agree with Gonch on a 3 payments for $50- That said - the few times I wander into a Walmart or similar retailer, there is an obscenely long line at that Layaway counter. Could this be a new untapped demographic that they are trying to cater to?

Does this mean we may see a peopleofsixflags.com website in the future?

Walmart hasn't had Layaway in a few years...they discontinued it because they said there were too many other payment options and the cost vs. return wasn't good enough. Wonder what the cost vs. return is for Six Flags to do this?

I've never understood layaway or payment plans like this.

What's the difference between payments on the back end or saving on the front end?

If you can afford $17 a month, but not $50 as a one-time payment, then save $17 the next three months and buy a pass in March? (which is what presumably was happening prior to this offer)

The only difference is that the pass is in your hand now, but if your park opens earlier, then you would have been saving earlier.

And if you have to make installment payments on a $50 pass, is it really the best purchase decision you could be making right now?

So much seems funny to me.

Lord Gonchar said:
And if you have to make installment payments on a $50 pass, is it really the best purchase decision you could be making right now?

All of your statements illustrate exactly how I feel, but I thought this one needed to be QFT. Of course that's not Six Flags' problem, and is in fact trying to feed on the impractical (and irresponsible) impulses that some have in order to sell more passes.

Inadvertently, of course.

Layaway only makes sense to me if you are talking about a unique item that may be sold by the time you save the money for it. But with stores filled with piles and piles of homogeneous stuff with more of the same following later in the week, next month and beyond, its purpose has gone the way of the dodo bird. But as a country, we are pretty bad at saving. Look at the number of folks who use the IRS's forced savings plan looking forward to big refunds. And folks also make some pretty bad purchase decisions every day. Look at the ads on TV selling stuff for x easy payments of $19.99. Just seems to me to be aimed at folks who are bad at math. Maybe Six Flags is just looking to get in on the action. :)

One need look no further than the "rent to own" type establishments to see that Americans are moronic when it comes to saving/spending money.

You can own this $750 couch for 52 weekly installments of $25!

As the number of "rent to own" and check cashing places increases, the quality/safety of the neighborhood typically decreases.

It's really no different that putting it on a credit card, though. I have some cards that I rarely use or just use for specific things, and I'm always amused when I charge something that's $30 or 40 and the bill comes in with a minimum monthly payment of $10. I use credit cards for convenience, but apparently others use them because the cost of a dinner at TGIFriday's is kicking their ass.

I think check cashing and payday loans businesses are a dying breed. States are coming down too hard on them with regulations intended to curb predatory lending.