Fans have concluded that a trip and a concert are a better use of their money due to the rising cost of tickets at some North American tour locations.
Due to the high cost of Beyoncé concert tickets in the United States, some American admirers are traveling to Europe.
Before the pandemic, American concertgoers were gradually increasing their overseas attendance, but Ticketmaster's recent controversies have brought attention to the challenges of domestic ticketing. Seeing Beyoncé in Europe may offer some fans a better value given that dynamic pricing has driven up the price of performance tickets in the United States and that young people are spending more money on experiences.
TikTok users have been demystifying the process of purchasing international tickets and increasing customer awareness of the potential savings over the past month.
The approach is nothing new to content creator Mercedes Arielle. She bought floor seats for $92 each in 2018 to see Beyoncé and Jay-Z at the "On the Run II Tour" in Paris. The going cost for the same tickets in Dallas, where she is from, was $900 more.
After seeing the disastrous Taylor Swift "Eras Tour" launch this year, Arielle declared she had no desire to depend on Ticketmaster or the American system.
It cost Arielle less to travel internationally, stay in a hotel, and see Beyoncé in Stockholm than it did for her companions to attend the same performance in Dallas. Her $366 VIP seats to the Stockholm performance. Because of points and miles, even her lodging is "basically free".
She said, "Beyoncé is going to sweat on me." "I'm that close," I said.
Since her most recent trip, which she took to see Beyoncé in Europe, Arielle has been sharing strategies for cheap luxury travel, such as using points to book flights.
“It’s really important to me to make people aware that living within your means does not mean that your lifestyle cannot be fabulous or that it can’t have these glowing moments that will be forever memories,” she said. “To me, the savings are priceless.”
Others online agreed it can be more economical to splurge on a concert and a vacation than to pay a similar amount to watch the show in their hometowns.
When Kylyn Schnelle, 28, looked at floor tickets for Beyoncé’s “Renaissance World Tour” stop in Louisville, Kentucky, where she lives, she found some seats that were being resold for over $800. Given the steep price tag, she decided to take a look at floor tickets in London to see whether she could find a better deal.
“When I looked in London, it was 167 pounds [about $200], and the flight was, like, $660,” she said. “I was like this is genuinely the same cost.”
Schnelle’s best friend lives in London, so, she said, it took “very little to convince” her to go.
“If you’re going to spend $800, why would you not milk it as much as possible?” she said, adding that she has the privilege to travel abroad for concerts because she is young and single and has a job that gives her paid time off.
The use of dynamic pricing by Ticketmaster, which modifies rates in response to demand, has generated a lot of controversy among concertgoers in the United States. Although it is more prevalent in the U.K. and some other European nations, it is still less widespread in the United States, making the tickets seem more fair to American customers.
In a TikTok video, Schnelle shared her experience purchasing tickets in Europe and commended the U.K. and European consumer protection regulations. Similar experiences were shared in the comments by some viewers, while curiosity in concert choices in Europe was expressed by others.
As a result of upsetting many people, Schnelle said, "I don't think what Ticketmaster has done in the United States post-pandemic is sustainable for their business."
Additionally, even though ticket scalping is still a significant issue in Europe, the U.K. and some other European nations have restrictions on transfer prices, which lowers market prices. Since Eventim and Dice are two of the region's most well-known main ticket sellers, Ticketmaster also has to contend with increased competition overseas.
The executive director of the Face-value European Alliance for Ticketing, Sam Shemtob, said that while ticketing platforms are able to enact caps in their resale policies, the figures differ across Europe. According to him, resale tickets on the European ticket marketplace Eventim are limited to face value plus booking costs in the United Kingdom and a 20% markup from face value in nations like the Netherlands. On the other hand, he claimed that Germany has no restrictions on price rises for resale on Eventim.
In that they are becoming more uniform and equal, regulations are improving throughout Europe, according to Shemtob. However, various member states currently have a number of distinct laws.
The Digital Services Act, which includes ticket regulations and goes into force on January 1st, was approved by the European Parliament last year. "A more level playing field in terms of both regulation and enforcement," Shemtob thinks it will bring about.
The DSA will mandate the disclosure of third-party sellers on resale sites, require resellers to provide evidence of identity and contact information, and forbid "panic-buying" strategies like the use of timers.
According to Shemtob, regulatory enforcement is still an issue in European nations. "We are exploring and trying to get a better understanding of how it will be enforced, because without enforcement, legislation is meaningless or almost meaningless," he said.
While the U.K. and the European Union are taking steps to address ticketing issues, based on the nation, fans may still have to deal with exorbitant prices and perplexing resale markups similar to those in the U.S. Consumer education, according to Shemtob, is crucial when it comes to purchasing tickets, and campaigns like "Make Tickets Fair!" offer information on local resale regulations.
Some admirers continue to spend lavishly despite exorbitant costs.
Two main behavioral factors, according to Jadrian Wooten, an assistant professor of economics at Virginia Tech, cause people to spend hundreds of dollars on concert tickets even when it is not in their best financial interest.
First, there is what is known as "present bias," which is the notion that we "heavily discount the future and prioritize things we're doing today."
Fans "go to great lengths to do that today," according to Wooten, because we know as consumers and as people who have lived through a pandemic that chances for particular experiences may not occur again.
The second element, referred to as a "anchoring bias," is that consumers base the worth or cost of a product on experience. Fans of Beyoncé who purchased concert tickets through Ticketmaster noticed specific costs for Taylor Swift's "Eras Tour" and adjusted their expectations and spending plans appropriately.
Wooten thought it was a "really creative way" to get two things for the price of one when he first heard that American fans were choosing to travel to foreign events for the same or less expensive tickets.
You are combining two events into one, he observed. "You're getting a trip that you might have wanted to take anyway and a concert experience at the same time."
However, not all admirers choose to travel abroad.
Some supporters claimed that their attempt to purchase tickets in Europe failed.
Before researching flight costs, 26-year-old Jamaya Powell purchased pricey Beyoncé tickets in Germany. She later discovered she could not afford them. Powell's desperate attempt to sell the two German passes caused her to go viral on TikTok.
Powell, who resides in Atlanta, said, "Online, I really couldn't get a gauge of how much the seats would be in the U.S. "I just thought they would be really costly because of everything that's been going on. As a result, I made an impulse purchase in Germany.
Powell paid 409 euros for each of the dynamically priced seats from Ticketmaster. In the same area, a friend from Austria paid less for tickets that were purchased at face value.
Powell claims that she felt "scammed by Ticketmaster" because she was unaware of changing pricing at the time. Because she paid more than market value for her tickets, she had trouble reselling them.
Powell ultimately lost money when he sold the seats for 240 euros each. Additionally, she was able to purchase two seats in Atlanta, where she is from, for $741.60.
"It's hard to not be impulsive when, you know, you want to go to a concert that is very highly anticipated and that people are really interested in going to," Powell said. Simply put, "Make wiser choices than I did." iB
