gmal2003

Im trying to get decent (non-lawn) seats for the upcoming Coldplay Tour when they come to Detroit and I missed out on the pre sale. I dont have enough dough for their VIP seats so I have to take my chances with Ticketmaster online June 4th.

What's the best strategy for getting the best possible seats through Ticketmaster?

Should I log on early and keep refreshing until 10:00 (the time the tickets go on sale) or should a log on at exactly 10. Are their other strategies that could help me? Is going to a Ticketmaster booth better opposed to online.

LMK and TIA

whynotsmile

i usually get a person on the phone with ticketmaster while im on the internet if its a high profile show that will sell out quick. That way, I can just pick the better of the two. You'd be suprised how different they can be sometimes.

For 5 minutes before 10 i would start refreshing over and over and over. Good luck. i want coldplay tix too

Dubya

Keep refreshing but another trick of the trade (which doesn't always work) is to wait until a day or two leading up to the show. It varies but alot of the time ticketmaster puts great seats out there in the days leading up to the show. I've never waited until the day of but I have heard countless stories of people scoring seats in the first 10 rows the day of a show. One example from personal experience happened last year when I landed 6th row seats to Prince two days before the concert. It's risky to wait that long but it can pay off big time because it's amazing being that close.

blinkin_winkin

Pine Knob (now DTE) is notorious for not releasing the good seats to the public. They have a TON of season ticket holders. Almost every concert I've gone to at Pine Knob has been from the back of the pavillion. This is even when I purchased tickets when they went on sale. You may pull ok seats that are to the left to ride side of the venue though. It is a crapshoot.

Don't expect anything great from Pine Knob though.

Michael Sheridan

I always used to get great seats by calling an OUT OF TOWN Ticketmaster agent. Like, when U2 played at Albany, NY, I remember calling the TM in Virginia somewhere. Who is going to call Virginia for a NY show? I got great World Series tickets this way too...

Dont know if this still works, just figured Id share my success stories.

Mike1055

I tried this for the recent Springsteen show here in NJ. I couldn't get through to the local ticketmaster so I found a number for the Baltimore area ticketmaster and got right through but was told they were not handling tickets for that event.

iggystar

I've been to plenty of shows at DTE and I must agree.

However, gmal and myself just want a seat. Closer would be better but I cannot stand the lawn seats at DTE. We don't care how good or bad the seats are. The only time I got good seats at DTE was because a friend's job had the season seats, we were like 7th row for Journey (but w/out Steve Perry so who cared).

If we had an extra $175 each we would get the VIP/Hot Seat package assuring us seats in the first 30 rows. But since we're both broke that ain't happening.

ChiTownAbs, Inc

Also, I have a feeling that TM sends calls to the local TM in your area code. I remember calling a Wisconsin TM from GA, and the call went directly to a GA TM.

Sekots

I did the same thing as the Mike's did. For Eagles playoff tickets I called a ticketmaster in Washington and it worked.

Brain Stew

My sister works a second job at this ticket office that sells tickets to Comcast's venues (mostly the ones here in PA, but she's sold some in Texas!) and last week about 15 minutes until Rolling Stones tickets went on sale, she had people calling asking if they could just "talk to her" for fifteen minutes or so...

Jack's Smirking

This can sometimes backfire, though. Sometimes, if you have refreshed too many times (or too often in a certain timespan), TM will put up a notice that says something to the effect that it thinks you are a computerized program trying to work their system, and it will lock you out for 15 minutes. You can get around it by shutting down your browser, re-opening it and clearing all your cookies; however, the time it takes you to do this is invariably when the tickets go on sale.

SubZeri

Worked for me! I got 2nd row Depeche tickets in 1993 by BS'ing an agent on the phone for 10 mins before the onsale.
Jon

DamingR

My formula (Works 70-80% of the time)

Open up the event window in your browser -- sometimes two seperate windows. Start refreshing your browser about a minute before the onsale, but don't do it too often, or they will shut you out. Most tickets go on sale 2-4 minutes after the official "on-sale" time, so don't freak out. Remain calm. Be sure you have a ticketmaster account and you're logged in.

Get lucky.

That's it.

Calling ticketmaster is very risky. All calls to Ticketmaster get routed to regional offices. You could be on hold for 5-10 minutes. If you call too early and ask for an event that's not on sale yet they might hang up on you. It's very tough to be with a rep at the moment tickets go on sale.

Being at a counter is the best, but it's a crapshoot, too. Try to find a location that is close to your home (Kroger near me is only 5 minutes away). Ask them ahead of time how they will be handling sales -- some do a lottery, so do first-come, first-served. If it's a lottery, ask how far ahead they do the drawing. Most do it 15 minutes before the on-sale. If that's the case, you can hang around for the drawing. If you're first or second, stick around. If not, go home and get online. You can use a cell phone, too, but as I said, it's risky.

I have been known to offer whoever draws first in the lottery some cash to buy extra tickets for me. If they're buying two, I offer them $40 (plus cash for my tickets) to buy four and give me two of them. Sometimes you can get like 4 people together and buy 8. Generally people buying 8 tickets get worse seats than people buying 2. Not everyone knows this, however, so try to take advantage of them.

Of course, I don't know how hot Coldplay tickets are. I usually only go to these extremes for very hard to get tickets, like Smashing Pumpkins at the Metro (only 1200 tickets).

More than anything, it's luck. I got shut out last week, but I have scored lots of tickets to hard-to-get concerts.

Josh H

I doubt there will be many (if any) great seats for any of the Coldplay shows at the public on sale date due to the presale.

whynotsmile

how do presales work? I wanted coldplay tix but didnt get the preseale. do you know how many tix were on presale for coldplay? All the pit and front sections are probably taken huh

paulringodaman

I always keep a IE and Netscape window open...And of course, refresh and hope to be lucky.

Note- (I will use two cities to illustrate):

If I am in Cleveland, and want Pittsburgh tix, I CANNOT go to a Cleveland TM outlet and buy the tickets (B&M, if you will). They make you wait 15 min. after on sale.

Josh H

No idea how many, but all the pit and front sections were probably given out (plus a lot of those are already taken by season ticket holders, radio stations etc.)

I've never gotten pit or front section tickets to any shows at the public ticketmaster on-sale date when there was a presale. Some times there's nothing left but lawn.

ChiTownAbs, Inc

Also trying a little after the "last" ticket was sold will help because sometimes credit cards don't go through and the tickets get released. I've scored some Smashing Pumpkins tickets this way.

Josh H

Yeah, and trying in the days leading up to the concert as some good seats held buy radio stations etc. may come available for sell. Not a good idea to plan on doing, but worth trying if it sells out or you pass as there were no good seats left.

ChiTownAbs, Inc

I think you can generalize the thread by saying "If you don't score in the first 15 minutes, then you'll have better luck by waiting until the week or day of the show".

A typical 'large' music venue holds maybe 20-50k people. You can't convince me that each and every ticket was sold. No way, no how.

ChiTownAbs, Inc

Also, you can almost copy this entire thread to the sports section because it works the same way.

Decker

Dead thread bump:

I was so frustrated today. I knew that Billy Joel tickets were going on sale for Las Vegas today pre-sale for Amex customers, and I knew that not many people knew that yet as this show wasn't listed on the Ticketmaster site until an hour before pre-sale. Well I was ready at the computer the moment the show went on pre-sale. I selected the "Best Available" tickets the moment they went up. It gave me nosebleed seats. I thought "that can't be right", so I hit "Search Again" -- more nosebleed seats. I tried again and again but only got crappy seats. My wife suggested it was because they were only a limited number of tickets available for presale. While that was possible I just couldn't believe that there were no lower bowl seats available for presale.
After contemplating it a few minutes, a thought occurred to me. I went back, changed the search criteria from "Best Available" seats to only the top price tier. Suddenly I got offered great side riser seats. It's so weird and annoying that the "Best Available" selection doesn't come close to giving you the best available tickets. Just a heads-up for any potential future Ticketmaster customers.