Hello Swifties. Tough time, innit? If you’re anything like me, you might recall spending your entire day watching a very annoying blue line make its way across the Ticketek Lounge of Doom, taunting you as you pray for Taylor Swift Eras Tour tickets.
Such fun! Such joy!
Well, now thanks to Tiketek releasing a new bunch of tickets for the Melbourne and Sydney shows, it looks like we might be going through that sick hell again.
But the whole ordeal back in June had us all questioning how TF the Ticketek queue system works.
Well, save those high cortisol levels for the next round of ticket sales, my dear sweet Swiftie, because we had an exclusive chat with Ticketek before the first round of sales to learn about how their elusive and mysterious queue system works and whether you should actually be queueing up a day before tickets go on sale.
How does the Ticketek queuing system work?
Is it randomised? Is everyone assigned a number that we just can’t see? Well, it’s actually neither of those.
PEDESTRIAN.TV was the first to learn about Ticketek’s mysterious queueing system.
A representative at Ticketek told PEDESTRIAN.TV that Ticketek’s queueing system doesn’t necessarily work chronologically.
“Everyone in the Ticketek lounge has an equal opportunity to get into the site regardless of when they have arrived,” he said.
In other words, if you entered the Ticketek Lounge at 10am and someone else entered it at 11am, the person who arrived at 10am wouldn’t take priority over the 11am person.
While that might sound like it’s all simply an act of chance, Ticketek says that it’s anything but.
“It’s not randomised.”
Yes, it sounds mysterious and vague and kind of has us scratching our heads even more, the Ticketek spokesperson says the process is created in a way that promotes “fair access for all fans.”
Now, this is how I interpret that process: everyone is in the same pool without a tiered numbered system. Then, when someone checks out and buys their ticket (lucky bastards), the system then picks someone out of the pool. It doesn’t matter if they’ve been lining up for longer — everyone is equal.
It’s kinda the ultimate socialist environment. We love our commie overlords!
In a way, you can take solace in knowing that it doesn’t matter when you queue up, you’ve got the same chance as everyone else.
The Ticketek representative also told PEDESTRIAN.TV that their lounge also works in a way that only allows genuine fans to buy tickets.
“We only allow genuine fans into the lounge for fair access. The security and the protections that we have in place will not let bots into the lounge.”
Should I get in the queue way before tickets are on sale?
No, there’s no benefit to being in the queue earlier than everyone else.
Because it isn’t a tiered system, the computer really doesn’t care if you’ve been hanging around longer than old Sally over there.
Moreover, the lounge is only opened 10 minutes before tickets go on sale, which makes all of that time overnight you spend hanging out in Ticketek’s Lounge of Doom kinda redundant.
“There’s no advantage as we open the lounge to the transacting site 10 minutes before tickets go on sale,” they say.
“The randomisation starts once the on-sale commences, so there is no advantage for fans to jump on hours before. We recommend that fans log on 15 minutes earlier just so they are ready once the on-sale kicks off.”
“Once in the lounge and the on-sale has started, the system continuously checks whether there is an available spot for fans to be let in to purchase tickets to the event.”
But if you’re in the queue from the beginning of the ticket session, you’ll statistically have a higher likelihood of being picked as you’ve been in there longer than someone who might come an hour later. Ya dig?
While it might be tempting to chuck a sneaky refresh in there to increase your chances, he also warns against this as refreshing your browser will mean that you “lose your session”.
“Refreshing your browser does not increase your chances of getting tickets,” the spokesperson said.
How many Taylor Swift tickets will be available for Friday’s additional Melbourne and Sydney sale?
We don’t know for sure how many tickets will be available during the upcoming sale.
According to Tiketek, there are “limited additional tickets” which include “partially-obstructed side view” seats.
Personally, that doesn’t sound like there will be too many but it’s always worth a shot. Thank god the Taylor Swift: The Eras Tour film is a pretty good backup so no one misses out on seeing the show altogether.
Will Ticketek be releasing more tickets?
Sometimes ticket sellers will periodically release a bunch of tickets on their site in an effort to stop scalpers from scalpin’ (assholes).
But this Friday seems like the absolute last shot if you want to see the show in person.
SAD.
But don’t worry, hope is not lost as Ticketek is launching its official resale site. The Ticketek Marketplace will open for the listing and resale of tickets from 10am AEDT on Friday November 24.
It’s through here that fans can cop tickets through the official reseller. Tickets won’t be able to be priced for more than 10 per cent above their original cost, which means that you won’t fork out an arm and a leg for ’em.
Finally, some good news.
