ePlaya

Hi all - so this is my first burn (sadly missed last years......soooo close). At the moment; I'm planning to arrive via the Burner Express bus from Reno. I have a camp to stay with, I'm also contributing to another camp. I've got my head around what I need to bring....and so far I'm ok with all of that.

Just one problem..... my ticket was bought by someone else along with his. They're under his name at Will Call. He isn't taking the Burner Bus as he already has a ride (this is his 6th Burn).

Now - I understand you can't split tickets at Will Call until teh first person picks them up - and then they can leave some in another person's name. However - if i'm reading the Burner Bus website properly..the Will Call tickets get dealt with in Gerlach for people on the bus.

So here's my issue....we are both heading for a pair of tickets held at Will Call, but mine (assuming the above is right) will need picking up in Gerlach and his will be on the Playa. Obviously there is no way of judging who will get there first so it's difficult to decide what name to put them in. I don;t want to get to Gerlach and find out I can't get in! Equally - if the tickets are in my name...how does that work for him?

ANy ideas? Anyone had a similar deal before?




Aside from that - VERY excited

Email the support address at the bottom of this page: http://tickets.burningman.com/

It sounds like your case is special enough that they might be able to split the tickets under two names, one in Gerlach and one on the Playa. They might have other suggestions, too.

The key is that you don't know who will arrive first, so it will be near impossible to do it yourself (for example, he arrives first, gets the tickets, pays $20 to come out again and leave your ticket in Gerlach). That alone would probably be 10 hour adventure...so the correct solution is definitely working with Ticket Support to solve the problem.

It's in their best interest to make Burner Express convenient, so I think they'll do their best to help.

Sticky situation,
you and/or your friend could write ticketsupport and ask to have the tickets changes from Will Call to Home Delivery. Then the two of you could arrange to get your ticket to you.

Thanks guys -

I've contacted ticket support and they directed me to the information about changing ticket names and confirmed I don't need an actual ticket, just the confirmation number.

However the latest reply doesn't fill me with confidence I have to say....

"There will only be one box office. The Playa is in Gerlach, so there will be no issues!"

Which seems completely at odds with the FAQ section of the Burner Express site:

There will be a stop in Gerlach to manage any Will Call or Low Income Ticket situations. From there, the buses will proceed to Black Rock City and use a dedicated bus lane at the Gate to bypass the incoming traffic.” http://burnerexpress.com/faq/

That...to me...looks like WIll Call tickets for people on the bus are issued before getting to the Box Office.

SO I've just emailed support again and asked if there is ANY way of splitting the tickets in this instance. However - anyone who can chip in with experiences of the WIll Call ticket thing on ...please do!

It sounds like a bad situation to be in. I would get physicals if you can. The org needs to authorize split ticket orders for future burns because it always seems like an issue. At least for me it is....lol

I'm moving this to the Tickets Discussion board since that's a better fit for tickets discussions.

As always, the ticket order should be in the name of the first party to arrive (make sure to use legal names as they appear on legal ID). The first participant to arrive then claims the ticket order, and then leaves the remaining ticket for the other person (again, make sure to use the legal name). Have a printed copy of the order confirmation info before you get on the bus. Burning Man (who handles the ticketing/gate aspect of Burner Express) is able to process participants with will call tickets arriving by Burner Express - just as they did last year.

Is your friend whose name the tickets are in traveling with anyone else who will have a mailed out ticket? If so you could do a swap, you could take his travel partner's ticket on the bus and they could get your will call ticket when your friend picks his up, if they're in the same vehicle this should be no trouble at all.

Many thanks for the replies folks - it would appear that ticket support are being utterly awesome and trying to find a solution...most likely splitting the tickets into each of our names - apparently they will be processing people for Will Call and Low Income tickets BEFORE they get on the bus...or to put it another way...you will have to have a ticket when you physically board the bus.

I'd just like to take this opportunity to give some public gratitude to the ticket support people....given how besieged they likely are right now I am truly in awe of how quickly they are responding and dealing with what is...after all..my issue. Add in the wholly professional and courteous nature of the responses and frankly...wow. There's a whole bunch of companies that would benefit from learning how to do customer service from these guys.

Truly amazing - I'll re-post here when we finally have everything sorted, if only so others who may experience the same thing can get some idea of what happens.

Right - well it's all resolved. I am truly in awe of how quickly and professionally this got sorted out (given how busy they likely are and the fact that they needed to coordinate between two separate people)

So - the resolution was.... they're sending the tickets to a friend in the US. We will all be meeting up in Reno on the sunday so I'll just grab my ticket then. Infinitely easier than sorting out separate will call tickets.

However - if you're reading this and don't have the option of a friend in teh US to take delivery of tickets then don't get disheartened. BM ticket support were very keen to get it sorted out - you will likely get a stock response to start with ("we can't split will call") but if your situation is anything like mine...just persevere (politely!) and they will help.

And now I need to do more reading/shopping/preparing/getting stupidly excited.

I'm so glad to hear this got resolved so handily, and that you can focus on the fun stuff.

We hear over and over about how hardworking and solution-oriented the Ticket Support people are . . .