2023 U.S. Nationals in San Jose

MacMadame said:
Why didn't I get one???
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I don't know but this was the email:

Get ready, the Friends of Figure Skating pre-sale for 2023 tickets is Monday, March 14!​

An exclusive all-session ticket pre-sale window for the 2023 Toyota U.S. Figure Skating Championships will open for Friends of Figure Skating members on Monday, March 14 at Noon ET/9:00 a.m. PT. More information, including a link to purchase tickets with a private code, will be provided via email when this exclusive window opens.
Stay tuned for further details!​
 
Coco said:
Was there in 2018, loved it! San Jose is a wonderful place.
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Were you at the same San Jose I know? How did you get to the beautiful part? San Jose is just a big city. There are some magnificent places surrounding it.
"San Jose is a large city surrounded by rolling hills in Silicon Valley, a major technology hub in California's Bay Area. Architectural landmarks, from the 1883 Italianate-style Oddfellows building to Spanish Colonial Revival structures, make up the downtown historic district. The downtown area is also home to the Tech Museum of Innovation, devoted to the exploration of science and technology."

There are so many places in CA that are truly beautiful.

Santa Cruz is kind of near by. Gorgeous beaches there. and fun restaurants.

The redwoods are compelling:
Are there redwood trees near San Jose?


Big Basin State Park, located south of San Jose, is California's oldest state park. Some of the redwoods nestled in this park are more than 50 feet around and as tall as the Statue of Liberty. These trees are between the ages of 1,000 and 2,500 years old.

I am from California, one daughter went to UC Santa Cruz. (south of SJ). IMO - to see this stuff, you are gonna need a car. I just spent $80.00 on 11 gallons of gas. Ah Good times. Good Times.

Things are so crazy right now I think it is a leap of faith to buy tickets to anything. I will mention that I bought SOI tickets (I could simply not help myself.....but it is close enough to me that I don't need a hotel. Also bought tickets for Andrea Bocelli. Very excited about that. But then, I am old, and don't want to put anything off :)
 
As usual, I haven't received the FOFS email. This happens every time tickets go on sale; USFS acknowledges it has some email distribution issues but seems not to have prioritized fixing them. I've called and emailed but who knows when I'll get a response. If anyone can supply a working link or purchase code, I'll be grateful. Thanks so much.
 
I'm so aggravated. I can't purchase a single seat on an aisle. Even though it's the first seat in the row. The woman I spoke to at SAP was not helpful or understanding at all. Said that's Ticketmaster, and told me u could get a single seat in row 17. No! I've never had this happen before. I only need one seat!
 
I got a code. But I have tried for 20 minutes to get tickets and every card I have entered has been declined.
 
kiss-n-cry said:
I'm so aggravated. I can't purchase a single seat on an aisle. Even though it's the first seat in the row. The woman I spoke to at SAP was not helpful or understanding at all. Said that's Ticketmaster, and told me u could get a single seat in row 17. No! I've never had this happen before. I only need one seat!
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The Sharks Box Office told me that you can't buy 1 seat. I don't think that's true. My first attempt with one seat shows a decline on my card because I mistyped something. But all other efforts are not going through to the card. I think TicketMaster just isn't sending them.

ETA OKay, I was able to buy two tickets to the same card that was declined earlier by creating a new TicketMaster account with a different email. I should have tried to just buy one but I have spent an hour on this and I didn't want to have to open a third account with TM.
 
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MacMadame said:
The Sharks Box Office told me that you can't buy 1 seat. I don't think that's true. My first attempt with one seat shows a decline on my card because I mistyped something. But all other efforts are not going through to the card. I think TicketMaster just isn't sending them.
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The issue was with buying one seat on an aisle. I was told Ticketmaster doesn't allow that for this event. I could select the 3rd seat in a row by itself, but not the first or second from the aisle. Crazy. And they also said they were having credit card issues. I didn't really get those details because it wasn't my issue at the time.
 
For anyone looking for seats in the first 6 rows:

The All-Event tickets closest to the ice include the exhibition. There is no option not to include it. At the first screen you must choose the ticket package with the exhibition. If you do not, your ticket choice will include only seats in Row 7 and higher, and you'll see a price slider with a maximum price of $700--not nearly enough for the best seats. There is no warning about the must-buy-exhibition rule. Once you know to choose the with-exhibition ticket package, there are some seats in the lower rows available for purchase.

I didn't know about the blocking of single-ticket sales on the aisle, but I was once unable to buy 4 seats from a block of 5, because it left a single seat. That was really frustrating, too.

I had to switch to Chrome to get past the first TicketMaster screen. Edge did not work. (Bet I won't remember that next year.)

Since I've finally figured this all out, I assume everyone else has, too. In Chrome, it really seems to work fine if you make the correct initial selection (with exhibition for first 6 rows, otherwise your choice). If you're still stuck, the person to contact at SAP Center is Abigail. Her number is 408-999-5738. She is very helpful.
 
I ran into the same issues trying to buy a solo seat on an aisle (or the 2nd seat). I did eventually get one through a total fluke, but I'm still annoyed enough to write an email to USFS and the Director of Giving. This didn't happen at previous events at SAP Center and didn't happen for this year's Nationals, which leads me to think USFS holds some sway of they want to. It really turns me off as a consumer.

My credit card purchases was confirmed, but my card company did reach out to me to check whether it was fraudulent.
 
kiss-n-cry said:
I'm so aggravated. I can't purchase a single seat on an aisle. Even though it's the first seat in the row. The woman I spoke to at SAP was not helpful or understanding at all. Said that's Ticketmaster, and told me u could get a single seat in row 17. No! I've never had this happen before. I only need one seat!
Click to expand...

That is so stupid. Are you supposed to magically conjure up a group of friends to go with you so you can get that one aisle seat?

If Ticketmaster is indeed responsible, I wonder if they are holding back on single seats so they can resell them later on their own authorized resale site for big $$$ :rolleyes:
 
It sounds like an issue with SAP Center, not USFS. I do remember SAP had the policy of not leaving a single seat if you bought a portion of seats out of a group, as acraven describes, so it wouldn't surprise me if they had some crazy thing with single seats on an aisle. I hope it's not a general Ticketmaster thing. I haven't had problems at other arenas and theaters buying single seats on aisles but it's been a couple years.
 
It shouldn’t be difficult to buy these tickets! I thought I was prepared this year as I checked my Ticketmaster and SAP Center passwords yesterday and they were valid. When I tried to buy a single aisle seat I too gave up as I didn’t want to waste time so bought a ticket in row 6 a few seats in from the aisle.

The issue that frustrated me was that after providing all the information I couldn’t finalize the transaction. A friend texted and said he hit a green triangle on the top of the page but my screen didn’t show a triangle. I called the SAP Center and the woman (very sympathetic) said someone would call me back but I ended up being able to complete the purchase a few minutes later by hitting the link “Pay Today.”

I think the issue may have been VISA denying the purchase the first few times I tried because immediately afterwards I had a text message asking if the purchase was legit. Next year I am calling VISA in advance to advise them of this purchase and see if that helps.

One more thing. Roberta at the SAP Center said if there is ever a problem with tickets (losing them if paper; a glitch with the mobile type), the box office will take care of it as long as you have the confirmation number.
 
Debbie S said:
It sounds like an issue with SAP Center, not USFS. I do remember SAP had the policy of not leaving a single seat if you bought a portion of seats out of a group, as acraven describes, so it wouldn't surprise me if they had some crazy thing with single seats on an aisle. I hope it's not a general Ticketmaster thing. I haven't had problems at other arenas and theaters buying single seats on aisles but it's been a couple years.
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The Orleans Arena did it (no sales of solo aisle seats) for 2021 SkAm despite not having done so in 2019. But the Bridgestone Arena didn't do it for 2021 Nationals despite also being sold through Ticketmaster. I'm not sure what the calculus is for when this policy is imposed.
 
I found out today, through trial and error, that you need a mobile phone number entered into your account or purchase won't go through since tickets will only be available via mobile phone. Would be nice if these sites came with directions!
 
FWIW there are many reasons other than not wanting to sit amidst a group of strangers that someone might want a single aisle seat, e.g. accessibility, anxiety. Whoever is imposing this policy should think about how it could discriminate against people with medical reasons for wanting an aisle seat.
 
Debbie S said:
Wow. Yeah, I didn't have a problem buying a single aisle seat in 2019. Why in the name of everything would USFS want to make it more difficult to buy seats for its events?!
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Fortunately for Skate America it wasn’t a big deal. I couldn’t buy an aisle seat but then upgraded to an empty row right below mine (the last row of the more expensive section). Doubtful anyone will get that lucky at Nationals. However, they should not make it so hard for single buyers since a majority of us are.
 
I think the single seat restriction is something with Ticketmaster. I tried to buy 2 tickets the day before a concert a few weeks ago. It's a smaller venue we've been to several times -- but not since 2019. They used to handle their own ticket sales, but it's Ticketmaster now. Anyway, there were only a few seats left -- several sets of 3 seats at the end of rows. I was unable to buy 2 seats because it would leave a single seat. They have some weird aversion to selling single seats, or selling tickets that result in a single seat. I've had the same issue in very large venues using Ticketmaster.
 
Hmm, I'm thinking my tentative decision to skip this US Nats might be a good one (we're finally going to Alaska this summer so I can't afford to drop money on anything else right now). Maybe things will improve with the ticket purchasing later this year when I'm not in the middle of paying for and planning for a bucket list vacation trip, LOL :D
 
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