The Alterra Mountain company, the second biggest of the giant North American multi-ski-resort owning groups, has said it will pay out up to $17.5m to settle a class action brought against it on behalf of skiers disgruntled by not being able to use their 2019-20 passes after the start of pandemic lockdowns in March 2020 prevented ski areas from opening.
Alterra will offer discounts of between $10 and $150 on the future purchase of a 2023-24 Ikon Pass for next winter, depending on how many days the 19-20pass holder had skied prior to the march shutdown, with the bigger credit going to those who had used it least.
According to Outside Magazine this potential means a $17.5 million discount being offered on 23-24 season pass sales, with the lawyers involved, who operated on a no-win, no-fee basis, receiving $2.9m. .
“Although we fully stand by the decision to pause operations in the face of unprecedented and unknown health and safety risks, we wanted to move beyond March 2020 and have agreed to a settlement resolution for our valued pass holders who were impacted,” a statement from the Alterra Group explains.
Outside also report that Vail Resorts announced soon after the first lockdown began that it would offer pass holders 20% to 80% of what they spent on the 2019-20 Epic Pass, in a similar discount on the following season’s pass purchase price, costing then $106 million in pass credits. However it is also being pursued in legal cases along similar ground to the Alterra one, but so far with the case failing in the courts. However further cases are yet to be heard.
The Epic and Ikon Passes are season passes and membership discount programmes which ever offer holders access to dozens of ski areas across North America and around the world and numerous other discounts and incentives on all aspects of a ski holiday at resorts owned by or in partnership with the owning grpup.
Alterra operate 16 North American ski destinations including Mammoth, The Palisades, Deer Valley, Sugarbush, Steamboat and Winter Park and it’s Ikon Pass is valid in more than 50 resorts worldwide.
Vail Resorts, which offer the Ikon Pass, own or operate more than 40 ski areas in North America as well as Australia and Switzerland, more than any other company in the world.
CJBARRET
1st March 2023 9:01 pm
you should have credited the cost of the pass.. not $10
DG
9th March 2023 7:55 pm
I am extremely upset with this credit. $10 for a product that costs us between $899-$1,200 , excluding the cost of staying at some of these destinations.
Just a personal opinion: The 19/20 season was already one of the worst we’ve ever experienced snow-wise and the cost heavily outweighed the experience. Forced a lot of people to barely use the pass for lack of storms or, for those like myself who spent a lot of money in hotels and gas going up multiple times, trying to milk the moneys worth with poor experiences. I was there the day they shut down the mountain. Woke up to a fresh 4″, but also woke up to an Instagram post from mountain stating that they were indefinitely closing due to “COVID”. I have a hard time with these companies who run these mountains already. This year I had conversations with the lift operators and ops team members at my mountain complaining about bare minimum payment and that they are struggling to live near resorts, hearing this already makes me hesitant to give Alterra my money.
Can someone please help me find the positive in this so I can go back to enjoying these mountains after dropping $$$ on a season pass. I know a lot of people opting for split boards and cross country style.