Also its with your knowledge as the pic is at point of sale at the window
Montafon has had this requirement for the last few years as have had to do pics there last 2-3 years and always on multi day as I never had a season pass
Obviously, we've not been at Montafon. Your initial point though was that that photo cards are de rigeur in Austria, which they're clearly not. And in my case, the picture was not at the p.o.s., and we were not informed that our photographs might be taken.
Dont let the practice turn you off Montafon is a magnificent area and massively more affordable then Swiss resorts both on the piste pass prices and the cost of acccomodation and food. The austrians have it all over he swiss on how to accomodate skiers.
I don't mind having my photo taken - so long as I'm informed. And if you're going to fine people, then surely you must give a receipt - same if you confiscate a lift pass. I'm afraid my experiences of Austrian skiing have never been good.
Maybe I'll give Montafon a go in a few years.
I think why I didn't hear about it at Montafon is that hubby only went for 2 days last year, and you can only get their all inclusive pass for the whole region (that requires a photo) for 3+ days. For single or 2 day passes it seems like you have to get the individual area tickets?
In Serfaus they definitely don't do this, as I mentioned, some (not all) of the hotels have the capabilities to issue the passes, although maybe it wouldn't be too hard for them to also have a camera at each one as well...
I'd suggest Kirchberg, but it's a bit of a hike from here. We love Serfaus, great for families Really, I could recommend any of the places I mentioned apart from Seefeld - not interesting enough for a whole week of skiing, it's great for x-country, though. I've never had a bad experience in Austria.
Only have seen this in the USA - at Winterpark, and I think Steamboat too. Never ever in Europe - where we've always had to produce out own passport type photos.
Not sure what the situation is like in Nendaz and Verbier for the last 2 years- but they used to have a great system for families - for the 4 of us we only ever bought 2 passes as part of a family deal- which made it much cheaper than most top French resorts. I will check that this is still the case.
PS edit - what a shame- the deal which we benefited from for years does not exist anymore! But they still give 15% for families.
We've just been skiing with the grand-children this week at the lovely small resort of Métabief between Vallorbe and Pontarlier. Great value - and the pass has no photo and they don't check in any way - so sharing would be easy. As it happens we all love skiing- so sharing not on the cards
I don't really understand why you would risk it? Take the example below...
So, you'd save 65€, but if you get caught you lose a 205€ liftpass, have to replace it (if they'll let you), buy another for the second person, plus possibly pay a fine. That's gonna cost a lot more the 65€. Surely it is easier to to pay the extra 65€ and not piss off the bergbahnen?? Or maybe I've been in Switzerland too long and I'm catching their "rule adherence" bug?
Surely this should be right up there with the "I got fined by the railway guard who wasn't very nice to me, who can I complain to?" threads.
I mean, tempting as it may be to abuse tickets for all sorts of things, I can't believe that anyone doing so doesn't know that they're breaking the rules. It's pretty *&(^*( obvious, isn't it?
So all it comes down to is that someone didn't realise that they'd get caught in this particular way. Aaaaw, diddums.
Oh yeah, and this really just underline the fact.
If you take the kids out of the equation, then what you could end up with is a couple of groups coming up for 3 days each first group for the first 3 days and the second group for the next three days, making an agreement that the first group buys the 6 day tickets and then hands the over the tickets after the first 3 days to second group to use, or worse still somebody buying a multi day ticket and then selling it on after 3 days to recover some money and ski more cheaply.
I guess what you need to do is see if the resort will do a parent ticket that is allowed to be used by both parents at different times, though at that point you would really need photo's of both parents one one ticket or registered in the central computer. I think the reality is that the overhead in doing that would be too costly for a resort to bother about it.
The simple solution that I do is ski for 6 days in a row so still dont see the issue its the kids that need the rest. If you go for a ski holiday surely you go to ski not to see who can sit in the apartment
Fully agree in fact when I first saw the post couldnt believe that I was seeing a post recommended breaking a rule that I was always of the believe was against the rules anyway and then people getting annoyed at getting caught. Classic example for the kids on how to break the rules
Not sure I get 100% what you are trying to say...not all kids are skiers
That is why we chose a resort that offers childcare for kids as over 6 months old when our kids were really little. However, there are some babies who dare to be younger than 6 months at ski break time, or other families who go to places that don't have childcare for the little non-skiers. If you can't bring Oma/Opa along to watch the kid(s), then you have to take turns as parents
Although I love my littlest to bits, we weren't quite planning him when I got pregnant (isn't funny how we plan these days!), my first thought when I found out I was pregnant was "oh no, now I can't go skiing" (I was 5.5 months pregnant by ski break time).
Some people may not realize that sharing a ticket (1 use it one day, another the next) is against the rules - it's not like 2 people are using it at the same time. I think I only figured it out the time I couldn't go skiing and I had oodles of extra time to read all the small print. Yes, it is against the rules, but in my book it isn't the same as jumping the turnstiles, and I do thank the OP for pointing out that it is breaking the rules as evidently there are others around who also weren't aware of the infraction.
I think people need to view this differently. Posters seem annoyed that they are getting penalised by not being able to share lift passes. In short the cost of a day pass is the price of a days skiing. The resorts give an 'individual' a discount for bulk buying if you will. The more you bulk buy the cheaper it gets.
What I I'm confused by is that people have said they understand that it's not ok to share a season pass but think it should be ok to share a multiday pass. What's the difference apart from the length of pass? You are still abusing the discount system.
Absolutely correct, they offer a discount to buy multiple days if you want to do other combinations these are also available. Still struggling to understand why there are people who cant work it out and the I didn't know is the same as I didnt know its not ok to speed excuse on the autobahn
Well I for one genuinely had no idea two parents, friends or whatever couldn't share a 6 day lift pass for three days each.
And, no, it's not as obvious as speeding on the motorway.
I guess as I have only ever bought two day pass at the max I have never encountered a photo procedure.
I guess you don't drive a car then? I've had many photos taken of me whilst driving without my consent.
tsk tsk, you shouldn't be speeding, now!?! Or are these general surveillance photos?
Because we all don't know all the rules all the time - thank goodness, what a boring EF it would be if we did! We couldn't come on and unleash our superior-ness on the newbies...
To be fair, the OP didn't come on and whine, cry and say he was being treated unfairly. He admitted the crime was committed, paid the price and was just sharing the info. To say that perhaps you might not agree with the T&Cs doesn't mean that you won't abide by them in the future now knowing the rules...
Anyways, this is starting to feel like beating on a dead horse, or bear
But the tone by the ski gods on here, I have learned some new approaches for my job.
You didn't know your pillar 2 contributions were taxable? haha, moron, suppose you speed too.
You have invested in foreign mutual funds, these a passive foreign investment companies, you have to pay a rate of 35% tax on the backdated holding period as gains, yeah I know, the tax is more than you earned, hahaha, you didn't know that, moron, fire burns too, didn't you know, durrrr
I think I can explain the "I never had to stick a photo on my pass"... I have been skiing all over Switzerland for one week per year with my parents since I can walk (probably earlier, but did not need a pass then). I ALWAYS needed a photo, literally since the 80s. Because we typically rented an apartment and bought the tickets at the lifts directly.
In the last years did my wife and I typically spend the skiing vacation at a hotel - for two does it not really make sense to rent a flat. The hotels more often than not had really good deals on rooms including the ski pass. These passes are transferable season cards they buy from the lifts, so when I was done with the skiing did I return them to the hotel... and they obviously did not have my photo on them. I'd make the educated guess that the transferable season passes for hotels are more costly than the non-transferable ones for locals.