hans

When my family and I are in NYC for a few days around July 4 we want to see Phantom of the Opera. Front orchestra/mezz seats are $90 apiece! Poking around on the ticketmaster website, I see there are plenty of good seats available now. I called the NYC & Company Visitor Information Center and asked the operator about discounts. She said they always have discounts for Phantom but it is still too early for early July; call back mid-June to see if any are available for early July.

Should I buy full price tickets now and get great seats or should I wait to get discount tickets and risk getting not so great seats?

Thanks,
Hans

Frank

Hans: Only you can determine how important "great seats" are. To some people any seats are fine at a discount, while others will pay ticket brokers a premium for the best located seats.

It's similar to priceline, some will take any availabe hotel, within a given category, for the right price. While others need to know exactly where they are staying and will not give up control of that for any price. It's your call.

xxx

Phantom of the Opera is such an old play and not one of the hot new "must sees", you shouldn't have any problem getting good seats if you wait.

nyc

agreed. getting decent tickets at a discount shouldn't be a problem, unless you really want "good" seats. maybe ten years ago it would've been different.

x

Another option is to wait until you get to NY and get half price tickets at the TKTS booth in Times Square. You won't get the best seats, but you can't beat the price.

Owen O'Neill

Nice thing about TKTS is that you definitely won't get the "cheap seats" that are at the top of the balcony. Typically, TKTS seats are either lower loge or in the orchestra. I've used them many times and my seats have almost alwats been orchestra about 7-12 rows from the front and fairly far over to the left or right. It has never been an obscured view and although it's pricey compared to the "cheap seats" (typically $45-52 with TKTS service charge added in), thesea are far better seats then the $25 or $35 seats you could advance reserve in the upper balcony. I lack the patience to stand in line at TKTS for 45 minutes so I take my chances and show up there at 6:30 or 7PM and have still had good success (but some shows may be sold out that late in the day). Please note that on Fri and Sat the lines may still be long that late in the day but once you get past 7 PM they are almost always short and there arer nearly always tix left for a variety of shows.