Tag Archives: ticketmaster

2026 buying us open tickets

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Last year I wrote a blog complaining about my failed attempt to buy US Open tickets. It’s a year later. Time to blog about it went this year!

Grounds Pass

knew from last year that you had to be on ticketmaster a few minutes before 9am to get a random spot in the queue when it opened at 9am. I was. I got number 48! Lucky me.!

I knew I wanted to buy grounds passes for one day and Arthur Ashe tickets for another. And from last year, I knew that the grounds passes would sell out faster. So I started with grounds. I put them in my cart and it worked. (Last year, they sold out while I was putting them in my cart.) I wasn’t confident that navigating to the Ashe tickets would keep these grounds passes so I took the risk of checking out with just those. Worked great. I gave my American Express card. (you have to pay by amex as it was the amex presale.

I got prompted for an “Amex Safekey Verification Code” which was a number texted to me. Last year, i didn’t get this for Amex. I did get it for another card whre the code didn’t arrive so this was an improvement.

Ashe Ticket

Then I went to buy my Ashe ticket. I did get dumped in the queue again. I don’t know what would have happened if I went to this page with the grounds passes in my shopping cart but I was too afraid to find out. This time I was number 13,567 in the queue. That was just over 90 minutes of waiting. (Last year 2200 was 40 minutes of waiting so definitely a faster rate.) This was fine; I kept it on one screen while I did work until it was my turn.

There was a good selection of tickets at different price points, sections, heights when I got in. Last year, I was annoyed that you only get told the section and row numbers (vs the actual seat number) when buying the ticket. I’m not a fan of that system and it is back. I suppose this helps them manage concurrency but as a customer I like knowing which seat number. In particular, I like to sit in the vicinity of the aisle so I don’t have to climb over a dozen people when it is time to go to tthe bathroom. I wound up with a seat 5 away from the aisle which I’m ok with. But It feels like gambling.

Conclusion to last year

I was able to buy the grounds passes closer to the time when they released more. But it was a project to keep checking. Also my friend and I monitored the morning of to see when the “resellers” would drop their prices. After all, we live nearby so good information for future years. (I won’t pay above face value but if they dropped it to that point, I would.) Moot point. They did not drop the prices. Even 5 minutes before the seats could no longer be sold they were well about face value. At which point their value went to $0 and the “resellers” lost all remaining value. They must make enough from people willing to pay inflated prices that it is worth eating the loss so people know they prices won’t come down.

2025 attempt to buy us open tickets

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Last year was the first year it was hard to buy US Open tickets. In 2023 and earlier, I would buy them after work during the American Presale, no problem. Ok fine, it’s going to be like Comic-Con where you have to buy them the second they become available. Here’s how that went.

Tuesday – American Express Presale

Sales start at 9am. I was on the site before that. Everyone on the site gets a random number. Mine was 3200. The number went down slowly to about 2200 (over about 40 minutes) and then flew down to zero. When I got in, I was able to see Grounds Passes for the day I wanted. I attempted to put it in my cart and it said they were no longer available. I repeated this a few times and then it stopped saying available at all.

I then went to buy my Ashe ticket for a different day. I made the mistake of using a different browser tab so back in the queue. (You can’t use multiple devices or multiple tabs.) It took less time to get to the front of the queue this time and I was a able to get a ticket. A big change this year is they just tell you the row number and not the seat number. Which is annoying because I want to be within a few seats of the aisle and not some random place in the row. After I paid, I got my actual seat number which turns out to be an aisle.

I paid with my american express card and was not prompted for a one time pass code texted to my cell. (This is important; remember this)

Friday – Public sale

I know they don’t release all the tickets during the presale so I tried again. I was on the Ticketmaster site before 9am. This time, I got number 19 in queue. Awesome. There were plenty of grounds passes for the day I wanted. (And plenty of resellers charging double price.) I put three official tickets in my card for myself and my friends. Great. I didn’t get that far on Tuesday.

I then went to pay. Where I get prompted for a one time PIN that “was texted to me.” It was not. I tried clicking resend a few times. No text. Unfortunately I didn’t have another credit card with me. Then my session timed out. I tried again (at 9:15am) and all the non-resale grounds passes were gone.

The future

The US Open did release more grounds passes closer to the time last year. But you have to keep checking to see when which is annoying. Also last year, they didn’t sell grounds passes in person. You have to buy them online.

less than successfully attempting to buy us open 2024 tickets

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Every year I buy two tickets to the US Open. One evening and one day. It’s always been easy. And then there is this year. I half succeeded.

Failing at the American Express Presale

I tried after work (not at 9am) to buy my tickets during the American Express pre-sale. This is when I’ve always bought my tickets. It’s not Comic Con where I have my browser open at the exact moment. By the time i got online, there were no tickets; only “verified resale.” This article suggests had I tried in the morning, I’d have been aggravated and still possibly not have had tickets.

Attempting during regular sale

I know more tickets are released for regular sale. I tried again today after work, the first day of regular sale. I was able to buy an evening ticket for Ashe. However, all the non-resale tickets were single seats and there weren’t a lot.

I think the day tickets are sold out. I say I think because this is the process:

  1. Go to US Open individual tickets page or Ticketmaster tennis page
  2. Click “Join queue”
  3. Verify identity by entering code from text or email
  4. Accept terms of service and that using “All-In” pricing which includes all fees
  5. Observe all tickets are “Verified Resale”
  6. Want to try a different ticket type or date. Start over with step 1. That’s right. You have to authenticate for EVERY search.

I checked online and people who were online at 9am also had problems. I gave up.