Pass Perks

Back in January 2019, it was discovered that Cedar Fair was looking into implementing a new rewards program, similar to the ones guests could find at a Six Flags amusement park. The idea is to encourage engagement (and spending more time, which equals more money).

The Six Flags programs lets guests earn points when they visit the park, go on rides, see a show, or make a purchase. Members can also earn additional bonus points for participating in contests, taking surveys and reading newsletters. It is a smart business move to gain loyalty among your most dedicated season passholders.

So we were really excited to see where the new Cedar Fair program would lead. During the Cedar Fair 2018 fourth-quarter and year-end conference call, it was announced Cedar Fair was testing the rewards program for season passholders at select parks in 2019, with full rollout in 2020.

In May 2019, we learn details of the new program: Pass Perks

The Pass Perks program is Cedar Fair’s way of rewarding passholders for going to the parks. Guests visit a park, and then may receive an email with a future discount. The more you visit the parks, the more rewards you will earn.

What are the rewards? We will have to wait and see as there is no rewards table.

Currently the Pass Perk program is being tested at Carowinds, Dorney Park, Kings Dominion, and Kings Island. UPDATE: The Pass Perks program was announced 11/20/19 to be coming to California’s Great America, Cedar Point, Dorney Park, Michigan’s Adventure, Valleyfair and Worlds of Fun.

Pass Perks Analysis

We may not often say this, but the new Pass Perks program on the surface is a huge disappointment in rewards program implementation. I am a rewards and deal minded guy, so if there is a way for me to save our family some money, sign me up. However, as simplistic as sending me an email with no knowledge of how I earned it or giving me a goal of something I can work towards is a big failure of the Pass Perks program.

If guests can physically see a rewards table of different prizes they can earn, it gives them motivation to remain loyal and active in the program. If they can log into the app and see points go up and up based on their interaction with the brand, that is valuable information not only to the company, but again gives those loyal customers a chance to continue earning points.

The new Pass Perks program is all secretive with maybe a random email showing up in your account.

We are skeptical at best considering Cedar Fair’s track record of email newsletters has been terrible. We are signed up to receive every Cedar Fair parks newsletters via email. When the newsletter program was fully implemented a couple years ago, we regularly received them to keep up-to-date on the latest information. Then the Connections newsletters stopped coming with the exception of the park we renewed our season passes.

For example, we used to get the Cedar Point newsletters since it is our home park. However, as soon as we renewed at Canada’s Wonderland in 2018 for the 2019 season, we immediately started receiving their newsletter and stopped receiving the Cedar Point ones, despite in our online account stating we want to receive them from ALL the parks.

We even pointed this out to Carowinds back in October 2018 and escalated the issue, and all we were told was they were looking into it.

So can this new Pass Perks program be something of value? We shall see at this point, but on the surface, the lack of details and meaningful rewards structure gives us little to be excited about.

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