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IKON Adventure Insurance. Which option is best?

ski diva

Administrator
Staff member
As if choosing a season pass isn't hard enough, now we have to choose our season pass insurance, too.

Okay, this sounds cranky. I'm just glad there's insurance, given the current situation. But IKON is offering two options for pass holders to choose from, and it's making my head hurt.

Here are the options:

Screen Shot 2020-08-28 at 3.29.34 PM.png
I bought the IKON so I could ski at both Stratton and Sugarbush from time to time, with maybe a trip to Sunday River thrown in. So Option 1? I guess?

Option 1 is automatically applied to everyone's pass, though pass holders can choose Option 2, if they so desire.

What are your takes on this whole thing?
 
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gingerjess

Angel Diva
Vail's setup for Epic Coverage is similarly inscrutable. I think at the end of the day, you pick option 2 if you think that the resort(s) you frequent most are more likely than the rest of the resorts on your pass to close due to COVID, while you pick option 1 if you think the resort(s) you frequent most are less likely to close due to COVID.

My guess is that it probably won't make too much of a difference on the larger scale; if COVID is resurgent to the point where they need to close down one resort, it seems likely that they'd close down the rest of them too.
 

Olesya Chornoguz

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I think option 1 is better, because I bought Ikon pass to ski multiple resorts. I didn't realize they offer 2 different insurance options now. I bought my Ikon pass back in June when they announced that can defer the pass to next year if necessary and they didn't have the 2 options then.
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
Option 1 is automatically applied to everyone's pass, though pass holders can choose Option 2, if they so desire.
When I first saw Option 2, I didn't pay much attention to it since I also bought Ikon to ski at multiple locations. My thought was that it could apply to someone who is using Ikon Base more as a season pass to their home mountain, meaning one of the resorts owned by Alterra.

Suppose Vermont or Colorado had to make the hard decision to shut down all ski resorts for a month during the season because of a COVID-19 outbreak. That would close Stratton and Sugarbush, as well as Winter Park, Eldora, and Copper. All those provide unlimited access for Ikon Base. Ikon partners Killington/Pico, ABasin, and Steamboat would also be closed. Now suppose that all the other Ikon locations remained open during those four weeks. I think someone who was mainly planning on using their Ikon pass at one mountain would be better off in terms of the amount of credit they would get towards 2021-22 with Option 2. If we simplify and call the season 4 months long, a month long closure would be 25%. However, across all Ikon locations the number of closed days for those VT and CO locations wouldn't be nearly 25% of the total days available for all locations.

Does that make sense?
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
The experience in Australia in June-August was that ski resorts in one state, New South Wales, were as hoped. The discussion among people who ski at Perisher after they got used to the Vail Resorts reservation system was about snow conditions and slow going on the one 2-lane access road more than COVID-19. Thredbo is near Perisher and on Ikon. But in the other state with ski resorts, Victoria, the changing COVID-19 situation led to closures of ski lifts. In the case of Mt. Buller, the closure was involuntary due to travel restrictions and government mandates when a lot of community spread was detected in Melbourne. VR opted to close Falls Creek and Hotham after they were open for only four days in late June.
 

ilovepugs

Angel Diva
When I first saw Option 2, I didn't pay much attention to it since I also bought Ikon to ski at multiple locations. My thought was that it could apply to someone who is using Ikon Base more as a season pass to their home mountain, meaning one of the resorts owned by Alterra.

Suppose Vermont or Colorado had to make the hard decision to shut down all ski resorts for a month during the season because of a COVID-19 outbreak. That would close Stratton and Sugarbush, as well as Winter Park, Eldora, and Copper. All those provide unlimited access for Ikon Base. Ikon partners Killington/Pico, ABasin, and Steamboat would also be closed. Now suppose that all the other Ikon locations remained open during those four weeks. I think someone who was mainly planning on using their Ikon pass at one mountain would be better off in terms of the amount of credit they would get towards 2021-22 with Option 2. If we simplify and call the season 4 months long, a month long closure would be 25%. However, across all Ikon locations the number of closed days for those VT and CO locations wouldn't be nearly 25% of the total days available for all locations.

Does that make sense?

@marzNC - option 2 is what tipped my buying decision since I wanted to ski at Sugarbush for the season. My philosophy with these multi-resort passes is that I will buy to ski at one home mountain, and any other resorts are just a bonus. This year I’m not counting on the bonus resort trips, although Sunday River and Sugarloaf are still on my agenda for the season.

I don’t think it’s worth my brain space to try to maximize the dollar amount I might possibly get back in the event of resort closure. When I bought the pass, my main consideration was that it would meet my primary goal (to ski Sugarbush) and offer a credit option if I wasn’t able to ski.

For people who don’t live close to the mountains, I guess it’s a matter of whether you prefer some certainty on going to a specific resort and being refunded if you can’t go to the resort (for example if your heart was set on going to Big Sky) versus whether you didn’t have a specific trip in mind.

There are so many unknowns that I just don’t think it’s worth overthinking - so my take is that if you know for sure that there’s one specific place you want to go, then option #2 might make sense, otherwise if you’re looking to keep your options open, option #1 probably makes more sense...
 

SkiBabyMD

Certified Ski Diva
Our family is going with Option 2 at a California resort, either Mammoth or Squaw. If Covid returns in the winter, California is most likely to lockdown compared to other states. This would likely yield the most future credit and we can still use the pass elsewhere.

Option 1 didn’t seem to yield as big of a discount given how many resorts there are proportionally.
 

Jilly

Moderator
Staff member
I'm working through this too. Tremblant and Blue Mountain are the only 2 in Canada. And our rates are so much better. So if the border stays closed, there is a good chance of skiing this winter. So deferring the pass is still an option, but I think we'll be open.

I can't see places not opening, but staying open is going to the problem.
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
Ah, there is "fine print" related to Option 2 buried in the FAQ for choosing a single resort. Makes it clearer that Option 2 applies only to Alterra resorts, which are the ones with unlimited access for Ikon Base.

Screen Shot 2020-08-30 at 9.57.50 AM.png
 

Jilly

Moderator
Staff member
The decision to close is the sole discretion of management.

Ah, not around here. Public health can close you and fine you for being open. So the 2 Canadian sites could be that way. Tremblant closed because Alterra was closing all the American sites. But the province would have closed them the next day anyways.
 

ski diva

Administrator
Staff member
The decision to close is the sole discretion of management."

That's not necessarily true in the US. It seems like it's up to the discretion of the governors. In March, the governor of Colorado issued an executive order shutting down the resorts, just hours after many said they were shutting down in response to the virus.

In Vermont, the governor issued a mandate in March cancelling gatherings of more than 50 people. That effectively caused the resorts to shut down, too.
 

Abbi

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
As if choosing a season pass isn't hard enough, now we have to choose our season pass insurance, too.

Okay, this sounds cranky. I'm just glad there's insurance, given the current situation. But IKON is offering two options for pass holders to choose from, and it's making my head hurt.

I don’t think you are cranky in the least! My head is spinning like something out of The Exorcist!!! :eek::eek:
 

marzNC

Angel Diva
The decision to close is the sole discretion of management.
I read that as meaning the leadership team of a given Alterra resort, as opposed to the CEO and executive leaders of Alterra. In contrast to Vail Resorts. Remember that all VR resorts in N. American closed on the same day in March, regardless of location.

The existence of Option 2 only makes sense if there is a possibility that at some point there are Alterra resorts that are closed while others are open. Given the variation for COVID-19 rules and prevalence across the U.S. and Canada, that's probably likely. But hopefully less likely that all resorts will be closed for any extended period.
 

Moonrocket

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
Thanks for posting! We bought way back when they went on sale and definitely are impacted more if Winter Park closes than if the others do. We usually do 2-3 weekends somewhere else but 20 ish days at WP.
 

VickiK

Ski Diva Extraordinaire
I picked Option 2 for Mammoth. By the way, I'm cranky too.
 

SkiBabyMD

Certified Ski Diva
I picked Option 2 for Mammoth. By the way, I'm cranky too.
We were going to do Squaw, but switched to Mammoth. Placer County decided that Covid is over so it’s unlikely that they’d shut resorts down if they saw an uptick unlike Mono County.
 

SkiBabyMD

Certified Ski Diva

“We cannot continue to keep our community shut down for some unknown amount of time as determined by the ever-changing metrics according to the Governor,” Placer county wrote in a press release. “Health emergency declarations are obligated to be terminated at the earliest possible date that the conditions warrant and, based on the number of COVID-19 cases in our county, there is no longer a health emergency with regards to COVID-19 in Placer County.”

In the resolution, county supervisors wrote that most deaths are “not by COVID but with COVID,” arguing that California is exaggerating the death toll of the virus by including people with underlying health complications. Health experts refuted a similar claim made by President Donald Trump earlier this month, stating that even when someone has a preexisting condition, COVID-19 is still the cause of death.



https://www.capradio.org/articles/2...rd-terminates-covid-19-emergency-declaration/
 

santacruz skier

Angel Diva
“We cannot continue to keep our community shut down for some unknown amount of time as determined by the ever-changing metrics according to the Governor,” Placer county wrote in a press release. “Health emergency declarations are obligated to be terminated at the earliest possible date that the conditions warrant and, based on the number of COVID-19 cases in our county, there is no longer a health emergency with regards to COVID-19 in Placer County.”

In the resolution, county supervisors wrote that most deaths are “not by COVID but with COVID,” arguing that California is exaggerating the death toll of the virus by including people with underlying health complications. Health experts refuted a similar claim made by President Donald Trump earlier this month, stating that even when someone has a preexisting condition, COVID-19 is still the cause of death.



https://www.capradio.org/articles/2...rd-terminates-covid-19-emergency-declaration/
Wow, just wow. That is crazy.
 

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