Vail Resorts Revamps Lift Ticket Sales—Here's What Skiers Gain

New Discount Strategy for Spontaneous Skiers

As the ski season approaches, Vail Resorts is introducing a new discount program designed to attract more spontaneous skiers. This initiative applies to 12 of the company’s ski resorts and offers an average discount of over 30% on tickets purchased at least a month in advance. The resorts included in this deal are some of the most popular in the industry, such as Vail Mountain, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Keystone, Crested Butte, Park City Mountain, and Whistler Blackcomb.

At certain resorts, skiers can save over $100 per lift ticket depending on the day they choose to ski. This is a significant shift from Vail Resorts' previous offerings, where skiers who missed out on an Epic Pass often had to pay full price for a single day of skiing. Now, with the new discount, skiers can plan their ski day up to four weeks in advance and enjoy substantial savings.

In addition to the discount, Vail Resorts has announced that skiers who purchase a lift ticket at its North American mountains can apply up to $175 of what they paid towards buying a 2026-27 Epic Pass, provided they didn’t have a 2025-26 pass. This move aims to encourage more people to invest in longer-term passes, which offer greater value over time.

Vail Resorts CEO Rob Katz highlighted the importance of this new strategy in a release. He stated that previously, skiers had two main options to save: purchasing an Epic Pass or an Epic Day Pass ticket bundle, or saving less by buying a lift ticket seven days in advance. “Our goal is to fill that gap,” he said.

Katz emphasized that while the company will always provide the best deals to Pass Holders, the new discount is intended to make skiing and snowboarding more accessible for guests who only start thinking about winter sports as the season approaches. “With this new discount, our hope is to make the sport more accessible for guests who aren’t thinking about skiing and snowboarding until winter arrives,” he added.

The discount aligns with comments made by Katz earlier this year during an earnings call, where he hinted at changes to the company's lift ticket pricing strategy. He acknowledged that Vail Resorts hadn't been focused enough on engaging people who weren’t ready to buy a pass before the start of the season.

The early-commitment approach, which encourages people to buy season passes well before winter for the best deals, has helped push skiers away from expensive day tickets. This trend is reflected in the data shared by Vail Resorts. Nearly 75% of the company’s visitors have season-long Epic Passes or Epic Day Passes bought before winter started. About 25% of visitation comes from people who buy lift tickets, while fewer than 2% use the old school method of buying lift tickets at the window.

To illustrate how the new discount works in practice, Vail Resorts shared a graphic using Vail Mountain as an example. Off-peak window tickets cost $307, but if purchased a week in advance, they drop to $259. Buying a month in advance brings the price down to $199.

This discount rollout follows the announcement that the company was giving Epic Pass holders 50% off tickets that can be shared with friends and family. This initiative, according to Katz, is another step toward boosting accessibility to skiing.