Injured Again
Hall of Fame
I’m posting about my experiences trying to buy tickets for the 2027 Australian Open, and hoping to get helpful hints for future years.
Yesterday, they had a pre-sale day for Mastercard holders. We were online right at the time the sales opened. There was a button to enter a waiting room, at which point you would then be moved into a queue, then be allowed to select seats.
From playing on the site, it didn’t appear that I could select seats for multiple sessions before checking out. So since we wanted both day and night session tickers in Rod Laver for both days of the second round, we would have to get back in through the waiting room and queue four times. Before the start of the sale, I entered the waiting room and hit the refresh button, and it put me back in the previous screen, where I had to enter the waiting room and presumably I had lost my previous slot in the queue.
Instead, I opened four browser windows, one each for each session I wanted to buy tickets. It sat for 35 minutes without me ever getting put in queue. At that point, I tried to get in using my phone and was allowed to select seats.
I refreshed each of the browser windows and was allowed in immediately. Much swearing ensued. Who knows how long those windows were hung. By this time, few good seats were available. We would have to spend upwards of $2500 for the four sessions for my wife and I, and would be sitting near the top of Rod Laver. We expected to spend a couple of thousand bucks, but to spend more than that and get terrible seats was something we were not willing to do. Consequently, we cancelled our four week trip to Australia and New Zealand because going to the Open was a main goal of it, and will try again for 2027.
Does anyone have any advice for getting access to tickets earlier, or how the website works so I don’t get caught in the same situation again?
And you know, the real punch in the gut will be that when we watch those days on TV, the seats will be mostly empty. And yes, I have checked with ticket resellers. They can’t guarantee exact seats, but seating in the same sections would make the total cost around $4000. I don’t like watching tennis that much.
Yesterday, they had a pre-sale day for Mastercard holders. We were online right at the time the sales opened. There was a button to enter a waiting room, at which point you would then be moved into a queue, then be allowed to select seats.
From playing on the site, it didn’t appear that I could select seats for multiple sessions before checking out. So since we wanted both day and night session tickers in Rod Laver for both days of the second round, we would have to get back in through the waiting room and queue four times. Before the start of the sale, I entered the waiting room and hit the refresh button, and it put me back in the previous screen, where I had to enter the waiting room and presumably I had lost my previous slot in the queue.
Instead, I opened four browser windows, one each for each session I wanted to buy tickets. It sat for 35 minutes without me ever getting put in queue. At that point, I tried to get in using my phone and was allowed to select seats.
I refreshed each of the browser windows and was allowed in immediately. Much swearing ensued. Who knows how long those windows were hung. By this time, few good seats were available. We would have to spend upwards of $2500 for the four sessions for my wife and I, and would be sitting near the top of Rod Laver. We expected to spend a couple of thousand bucks, but to spend more than that and get terrible seats was something we were not willing to do. Consequently, we cancelled our four week trip to Australia and New Zealand because going to the Open was a main goal of it, and will try again for 2027.
Does anyone have any advice for getting access to tickets earlier, or how the website works so I don’t get caught in the same situation again?
And you know, the real punch in the gut will be that when we watch those days on TV, the seats will be mostly empty. And yes, I have checked with ticket resellers. They can’t guarantee exact seats, but seating in the same sections would make the total cost around $4000. I don’t like watching tennis that much.
