How to get hold of London Olympics resale tickets
With the London Olympics rapidly approaching, we take a look at how you can still get your hands on a ticket in the big resale...
Just over six months, around 28.5 weeks or under 200 days: whichever way you phrase it, the London Olympics are closing in. And if you’re still after tickets – or indeed have tickets you need to shift - now’s the time to do it.
False start
The process got off to something of a false start on Friday after resale tickets that had already been sold remained on the website. As a result Locog suspended the site in order to ‘refresh and update’. At the time of writing the ticketing portal remains closed. The London 2012 press office has said that they are waiting for Ticketmaster (the ticket site provider) to come back to them.
Keep an eye on the London2012 Twitter feed and the lovemoney.com Twitter feed for updates on the resale throughout the week.
Locog will be keen to avoid another ticketing disaster after it emerged last week that as many as 10,000 non-existent tickets for synchronised swimming were mistakenly sold last June. Nobody who was mis-sold these tickets will be made to give them up. Instead, Locog are upgrading thousands of people to tickets for bigger events.
So how exactly can you buy or indeed sell Olympic tickets in this resale period?
The process
You are able to submit tickets for resale through the London2012.com site until 6pm on 3 February 2012. These tickets will then be resold through the London2012.com site on a first come, first served basis.
Any re-advertised tickets that are not resold by 6pm on 3 February will be returned to the original buyer’s account. Olympic football and Paralympic tickets will also be available.
You can post tickets for resale by signing in through London2012.com and reviewing your confirmed tickets. From here, you will be able to select some or all of your tickets for resale. Different sessions and price categories within sessions will be listed separately on the resale page.
Before confirming the resale, a review of the amount you will be refunded if all of your tickets sell will be displayed to you. If you submit all of your tickets for resale, and they all sell, you will be refunded your delivery charges. Any tickets remaining in your account will be delivered in the summer and the delivery charge will remain.
Resale rules
Locog has set out a few rules for the resale:
- Only tickets bought before 6 January 2012 can be resold. A resale for tickets bought after 6 January 2012 will go live in April.
- If you bought your tickets through an official overseas avenue, you should contact that retailer to discuss making a resale.
- A young person’s ticket must be accompanied by a full price, senior or wheelchair space ticket.
- A wheelchair companion ticket is only valid with an accompanying wheelchair ticket.
- A Ticketcare ticket is only valid with a full price, senior or young person’s ticket.
- Ticketcare, wheelchair space companion and group organiser tickets have no monetary value if resold.
- Group organiser tickets are only valid with a minimum of 20 Paralympic Games tickets per session. If you are left with fewer than the minimum number after submitting tickets you will no longer be eligible for a group organiser ticket.
And these aren’t the only dos and don’ts for those trying to get hold of Olympics tickets...
What not to do
The official London2012.com ticket resale is the only official avenue through which Olympic tickets can be resold. In fact, it is a criminal offence to sell tickets on the open market without the permission of Locog.
So be on the lookout for fraudulent ticket sites attempting to shift fake tickets. In the run up to the official ticket sale police made 32 arrests in connection with fake Olympics tickets. And as the games close in and the scramble for tickets heats up, it’s likely that Olympic scammers will get back to work.
Theoretically, there are still a handful of Locog-authorised ticket retailers (you can find a list of these on the London2012 site). However most, if not all, will have already sold out. This means that the only way you’ll realistically be able to get hold of tickets is by using the official resale. So if you do come across websites offering tickets, it’s almost certainly a scam.
Have a read of The scam that could ruin the Olympic Games for some tips on spotting fraudulent ticketing sites.
Your take
Have you bought or sold tickets using this resale portal? What are your experiences?
Let us know using the comment box below.
More: Celebrate the Olympics on the cheap | Five unusual reasons to watch the Rugby World Cup
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Comments
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If public transports going to be free on the days of events I would love to see the faces of commuters who have paid a fortune for season tickets when they can't get on a train or bus to work when it's packed with happy smiling Olympic goers. Could be the start of more London riots. With regards to a once in a lifetime event. I am old enough to remember the 1948 Olympics & I still can't be bothered with this over hyped event. The money could have been used to build something useful like a couple of hospitals which would have lasted far longer than a couple of weeks.
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There are plenty of 'once in a lifetime' opportunities which haven't cost this country billions, but if we are only to judge this over-hyped farce, which is of minimal interest to the vast majority of the population purely on the basis of 'We paid for it, we may as well be involved', then we should all be holidaying in the Falklands, Iraq and Afghanistan. If the government really cared about the image of the UK and promoting the virtue of our nation in a meaningful way rather than as a sporting theme park, then a few millions spent on keeping Concorde flying and the Royal Yacht Britannia sailing the world would have been far better value. Those of us (the majority) who have no regard for the Olympics have every right to detest the hype and the attempts at brainwashing and to laugh at the spineless journalists who continue to talk up this nonsense. Every thread I have seen on the subject seems to have a ratio of ten to one of 'apathy' vs. enthusiasm, so I will certainly be happy to tell my grandchildren that I had better things to do with my time.
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You can only expect negativity from people who either haven't got tickets or don't want them. I was lucky enough to get some in the first round at a low price (I'll be sixty by the time the games start so was eligible for discounted tickets), so haven't spent a fortune - less than £100. In addition public transport in London is free on the day of the event. Whatever your outlook this is a once in a lifetime opportunity. I wasn't born in 1948 and will certainly be dead by the time they come again, if ever. Can you imagine in (?) 20 years time - "did you go to the Olympics in 2012 grandad - what was it like?" "No I couldn't be arsed." Stop moaning and let the rest of us enjoy it. We are still having to pay for it so make the most of it. We just need to win lots of gold medals, fuel prices to fall and Cameron to resign and we'll all have had a perfect year!!
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12 January 2012