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S-360 already provides the possibility for a season ticket holder to keep the same seat across the whole season if all the performances contained in the season ticket use the same logical configuration. This will often be the case for a championship season ticket containing the home games taking place in a given arena but more rarely in the life entertainment domain where seat configurations may vary. The Fest Abo pushes the "fixed seat" logic one step further by guaranteeing the same seat across several logical configurations belonging to the same physical configuration. This new logic has also been implemented in the season ticket renewal process and the management of the preferred seat. |
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Although initially foreseen for the German and Austrian markets (Fest Abo is the German word for fixed seat season ticket), this new feature may be used by any customer. In order to avoid any confusion, the term Fixed seat will designate this new kind of season ticket described in this page. |
Solution
Set-up of the
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fixed seat season ticket
When creating a new season ticket, the operator will have to choose its type:
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The types Calculated price and Predefined price already exist. The new type Fixed seat season ticket that matches the Fest Abo this new season ticket is basically a Calculated price season ticket that includes the fixed seat logic described in this page.
The season ticket type of an existing season ticket is recalled at the top of the Parameters tab:
The Fest Abo fixed seat season ticket can only be defined as a season ticket without (fixed) seat category. This means that the operator will define a global quota for a given Fest Abo and fixed seat season ticket and not a specific quota for each seat category. The reason for that is that a given seat (selected by an end customer for the whole season ticket) may have a different seat category for different performances if these performances use different logical configurations. The price paid by the end customer takes the actual seat category into account.
Sales at box office
The sales process is basically the same as for a calculated price season ticket. After having selected the product, the operator selects (as usually) the seat category, contingent, tariff and quantity. The only difference is that the seat category will apply on the first performance of the season ticket, as illustrated below.
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However, SecuTix doesn't recommend this option since it breaks the fixed seat logic. Indeed, the box office will automatically switch to this logic if no seat is available for all the performances sharing the same physical configuration.
The seat map will select by default:
- The preferred seat of the selected contact(s) if the information is available
- Otherwise, the best seat (i.e. the seat returned by the best seat selection feature)
Preferred seat
After the purchase process, the selected seats are stored as preferred seats. For a given contact, there may be one preferred seat per physical configuration. If a preferred seat already exists for the given contact and physical configuration, it will be overridden by the newly selected seat. Preferred seats may be viewed in the Contact module with the new menu entry Preferred seats. The operator may delete a preferred seat, this action having no impact on the purchased tickets. Preferred seats are only stored during a purchase process. They can't be defined directly from the screen below.
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Preferred seats will be used during the purchase of another Fest Abo using fixed seat season ticket using the same physical configuration(s) and during season ticket renewal.
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In this first version, the preferred seat isn't taken into account when buying single tickets that don't belong to a Fest Abofixed seat season ticket . This feature will be implemented in a future release. |
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Preferred seat information that isn't valid anymore (because of major changes brought to the physical configuration) are simply ignored.
Fixed seat season ticket renewal
Summary
The renewal batch selects the seat according to following decreasing priority:
- Reuse as is the seat used in the origin season ticket if both origin and target season ticket use the same physical configuration. Raise an error if the seat isn't available anymore or has another seat category
- In the new physical configuration, search for a seat with same area, row and seat number as in the origin season ticket
- If it doesn't exist or isn't available, define if a preferred seat has been defined for the new physical configuration
- If no preferred seat has been defined or if it isn't available, use the best seat allocation
Detail
The table below describes the behaviour in detail by listing all possible cases. Here are some explanations on the main columns of the table:
- Found seat in new physical configuration with same area, row, seat number: the batch searches for the seat (defined by its area, row and number) that is he most used in the origin season ticket and looks if this seat exists in the physical configuration of the target season ticket. It considers also the seat category of that seat.
- Identified seat based on preferred seat: for a given physical configuration used in the target season ticket, the batch checks if there exists a preferred seat
- Identified seat based on best seat allocation in same seat category: the batch uses the same seat selection logic as in the sales at box office described above. It uses the seat category of the origin season ticket as defined in the first bullet point above.
Identified seat based on origin season ticket | Identified seat based on preferred seat | Identified seat based on best seat allocation in same seat category | Action | Rationale | |||||
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| Same physical configuration in target and origin season ticket | Found seat in new physical configuration with same area, row, seat number | Seat is available | Seat has same category | Info is available | Seat is available | Seat has same category | Seat is available | ||
| Yes | N/A | Yes | Yes | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | Renew season ticket with identified seat | |
| Yes | N/A | One (or more) of the conditions isn't met | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | Don't renew this season ticket | The end customer expects to reuse the same seat but it isn't available or its category (and, therefore, the price) has changed. The venue must take contact with the end customer. | |
| No | Yes | Yes | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | N/A | Renew season ticket with identified seat | Since the physical configuration is different, the end customer doesn't expect to keep the same seat category |
| No | Yes | No | N/A | Yes | Yes | Yes | N/A | Renew season ticket with identified seat | |
| No | Yes | No | N/A | Yes | One (or more) of the conditions isn't met | Yes | Renew season ticket with identified seat | ||
| No | Yes | No | N/A | Yes | One (or more) of the conditions isn't met | No | Don't renew this season ticket | ||
| No | Yes | No | N/A | No | N/A | N/A | Yes | Renew season ticket with identified seat | |
| No | Yes | No | N/A | No | N/A | N/A | No | Don't renew this season ticket | |
| No | No | N/A | N/A | Yes | Yes | Yes | N/A | Renew season ticket with identified seat | |
| No | No | N/A | N/A | Yes | One (or more) of the conditions isn't met | Yes | Renew season ticket with identified seat | ||
| No | No | N/A | N/A | Yes | One (or more) of the conditions isn't met | No | Don't renew this season ticket | ||
| No | No | N/A | N/A | No | N/A | N/A | Yes | Renew season ticket with identified seat | |
| No | No | N/A | N/A | No | N/A | N/A | No | Don't renew this season ticket | |
The batch will proceed in two different steps:
- It will first renew all season tickets that can reuse the same seat (same physical configuration or other configuration containing a seat with the same area, row and seat number).
- In a second step, all renewals requiring a seat change will be performed
The goal is to avoid following scenario:
- A first season ticket uses seat A that has been marked as invalid. The batch allocates seat B
- A second season ticket uses seat B that has been allocated in the mean time for the first season ticket. As a result, seat C is allocated to this season ticket
- A third season ticket uses seat C...
By default, the batch will perform both steps mentioned above. You may change this behavior by adding the custom parameter renewStrategy. This parameter may have 3 values:
- BOTH: performs steps 1 and 2
- NOT_PROCESSED_SSTK: the batch performs only step 1 and stores the season ticket requiring a different seat in a temporary table
- PROCESSED_ERROR_SSTK: the batch performs only step 2 based on the content of this temporary table
However, SecuTix recommends to keep the default behaviour unless you need to handle very specific cases.
This parameter only impacts the renewal of fixed seat season ticket.
Other new parameters
The renewal batch may be run in reservation only mode. More precisely, the Create reservation field proposes following values:
- Always: a reservation is systematically created (no sales order)
- Never: a reservation is never created. In other words, the batch tries systematically to create a sales order and, in case of payment failure or shipment information missing, no order is created at all
- If payment fails: the batch tries to create a sales order and creates a reservation if payment fails or shipment information is missing
Current restrictions
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The fixed seat season ticket can only be purchased from the box office |
Getting started
You don't have anything to do to benefit from the Fest Abofixed seat season ticket. It's directly available.
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