2012 Olympic Athletics Days - which one?

HuntingDrog · 23-03-2011 4:25pm #1

http://www.tickets.london2012.com/browse/sport/8194?form=search&tab=oly&sport=8194&event=&venue=6&fromDate=&toDate=&morning=1&afternoon=1&evening=1

Am trying to decide which SINGLE day I want tickets for (or at least apply for) but it seems pretty hard to isolate which one....so many choices. Would also like to maximise it and do the 2 sessions in the day...

Was thinking about the 1500 mens final which is why i'm swaying towards Tue 7th Aug.

Any one else decided which day they are going and why?

(Apologies if this has been discussed before but my search didn't show it..)

Patrick_K · 23-03-2011 4:33pm

HuntingDrog, I was in Athens for the Olympics and I'd be slow to recommend going to the morning athletics sessions. The stadium was half empty, atmosphere was non-existent and events weren't great to be honest - obviously all heats, field qualifiers etc - it might be different in London crowd wise ....

On the evening schedule it couldn't be more different. We were there for 3 evenings and the atmosphere was incredible, so much going on, medals being decided etc. Finals are split over lots of evenings so they're almost all going to be good.

Enjoy
PK

robinph · 23-03-2011 4:47pm

I'm waiting on confirmation on what various events I'll be applying for from the brother, but I think the plan is to try for a couple of different days, and going for both the day and evening sessions. If we get them all then great, although selling off the day time ones may not be possible. But at least we'll have more chance of getting at least some tickets.

Things are a bit more complicated in trying to arrange between three different families, two continents, and some pre-teen girls who are more likely to be interested in the likes of synchro swimming, gymnastics and horse type things. So have to include some of those events as well to appease them. At least their tickets will be cheaper for everything except the evening final events.

My credit card is not looking forward to May though.

TheRoadRunner · 23-03-2011 5:05pm

I found it tough to select days myself. Got peed off in the end so my selection was a bit random. Also applied for tickets for boxing and beach volleyball (womens obviously

)

HuntingDrog · 24-03-2011 1:04am

Ya. It's a bit of a minefield alright. I know what u are saying PK about the morning sessions but we will prob only be over there for a night or two so we kind of want to cram it in with 2 sessions at the stadium.
However now that I'm thinking, maybe I should try and see what other events are on in the morning elsewhere and then go to the evening stadium session.
Ok that's something to check out. Tks folks

Oldlegs · 24-03-2011 10:41am

Just a word of warning re. booking tickets (as reported in UK newspapers earlier this week).

You are not "booking" the tickets, rather you are "applying" for tickets. You may not get the tickets you have requested and if you "apply" for overlapping sessions in order to make sure you get to see some event, you could end up getting both sets of tickets for the same time.

ALSO, you have to make sure that your credit card can pay for ALL of the tickets you applied for, even if you did not get them allocated. Something wierd about having to pay, in advance, for tickets even if you don't get them.

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-12825876
"Warning urged
Speaking earlier on BBC Radio 4's Moneybox programme, Martyn Saville from consumer rights group Which? said the booking system was "crazy".

He said it was wrong that those who had put in a bid for tickets, and were successful, would have the money taken from their accounts as early as 10 May but without warning. It could then be as late as 24 June before they were told which tickets they had been awarded, he said."

robinph · 24-03-2011 1:18pm

You won't have to pay for tickets that you don't get, but you won't know what tickets you have got until after they have taken the money from your card. So you need to have the money on your card to cover the chance that you do get all that you apply for.

There will be a method of selling the tickets back at the beginning of 2012, but I expect it will be a systems where you only get your money back if someone else actually applies for that same ticket that you have. There will not be any way of just saying "I don't want this ticket, give me my money back". It will be entirely dependent on someone else wanting that ticket first.

G-Money · 24-03-2011 6:29pm

Personally I think the application system is good so far in that it's not first come, first served and you have several weeks to make a decision as to what tickets you want to apply for, so it's good that there's no rush.

The bad thing is that assuming you are successful in getting tickets, you are charged for them in May, but that you don't know until June what tickets you've actually got. So in theory you could apply and rack up £1000 of tickets with the assumption that you probably won't get them all, but then you could end up getting them all and be stuck with extra tickets.

It's hard to know what to do. Do you apply for a final ticket and a semi-final ticket in the hope you get to at least one of them, and if so, do you spend a bit more to try and increase your chances of getting tickets?

Personally I think the 6 week application window is good. But ideally they should then start allocating the tickets at some point after the application window has closed and let people know what they've got and give them the option of either accepting them or declining them, before they get charged.

It leaves a few tricky decisions anyway. Do you fork out extra for the 100 metres final and possibly go for the semi-final as a backup? The questions are endless

robinph · 24-03-2011 6:35pm

I think it is a good system to try and ensure that as many seats are filled as possible. If your happy to pay for semi tickets and not use them then there may be some empty seats, bit they are counting on everyone turning up and they then wont need to bus in loads of Chinese people to fill up the stadiums in the early rounds.

*may not be Chinese and would probably just be local school kids if London needs to do such a thing

smmoore79 · 24-03-2011 10:15pm

Tried to apply for the tickets but they only accept visa, not mastercard! So thats me sort of screwed..

DULLAHAN2 · 25-03-2011 9:24am

smmoore79 wrote: »

Tried to apply for the tickets but they only accept visa, not mastercard! So thats me sort of screwed..

I got a visa debit card from tsb during the week to replace my atm card and you can use that to apply for tickets to the olympics. If you are with TSB you should be getting one soon

smmoore79 · 25-03-2011 11:43am

DULLAHAN2 wrote: »

I got a visa debit card from tsb during the week to replace my atm card and you can use that to apply for tickets to the olympics. If you are with TSB you should be getting one soon

Unfortunately Im BOI and not TSB. So I applied for a Ryanair visa card yesterday. Not sure how long that process will take.. Hoping they'll get in contact with me soon!!

G-Money · 11-04-2011 4:32pm

I can't work out what to try and get tickets for. I know what I want tickets for, but the price went up to about £650 sterling. I also noticed the events were quite spread out, with the marathon for example not happening until a week after the 100m final.

Can't really decide what to get tickets for.

robinph · 11-04-2011 5:13pm

Just been given the listing of what tickets my US based brother wants me to bid for on his behalf, he is also getting another friend of his to bid as well so that the full set of us can get to as many events as possible. Works out at about £3000 worth of tickets we'l be bidding for altogether by the looks of it. :eek:

Will be worth it if we get them though. I just need to pick something I want to go to on the days the rest of them are going to the gymnastics or eventing.

RedB · 12-04-2011 10:32am

robinph wrote: »

I just need to pick something I want to go to on the days the rest of them are going to the gymnastics or eventing.

Beach Vollyball

. Went to this in Athens and was one of the highlights of my life! Sun, beer, DJ, Olympic Cheerleaders :cool:. Awesome afternoon of entertainment sport

Brianderunner · 12-04-2011 10:56am

RedB wrote: »

Beach Vollyball . Went to this in Athens and was one of the highlights of my life! Sun, beer, DJ, Olympic Cheerleaders :cool:. Awesome afternoon of entertainment sport

In Athens maybe. Whitehall on a rainy afternoon doesn't sound quite as appealing!

finbarrk · 12-04-2011 11:08am

I'm applying for the Tue 7th Aug evening session. Mens 1,500 and womens 100 hurdles finals. As other posters have said , it's impossible to know how many events to apply for as you mightn't be successfull in half of them.
I have applied for Basketball, Swimming, Tennis, Eventing, Showjumping and Boxing also. One event each day.

MisterDrak · 14-04-2011 11:18am

General question here on Olympics Tickets but do you only get 1 chance to apply for Tickets???

I applied this yesterday morning for Athletics on 5th Aug, CC details, Confirmation email received, all good. Then wanted to also get some for 10th Aug, but wont let me Add tickets additional on my account ???

Message below from the London 2012 site, (my account) ???

"Your application has already been submitted"
Your application history - Submitted on 13 April 2011

Do I now need to cancel the application and re-apply ?

Anyway else go through this ?

Bella mamma · 23-04-2011 7:54pm

In Athens, I thought the highlight was the men's 5000 metres final. Class.

Enjoyed the high jump too and...........and............and..........was very lucky with the men's 100 metres final, directly facing the athlethes down the track. Funny thing was, it seemed like slow motion in real life!

All evening athlethics events, would not do anything else, fabulous athmosphere. Got all nights applied for except the Men's 200m Final. Anyone remember Kostas Kenteris??!!

The last night is a good choice.

- Swimming was brilliant
- Couldn't follow the velodrome cycling cos they kept changing the race type as soon as I managed to work out the rules :rolleyes:
- Table tennis and diving was a pain in the neck
- Triathlon beyond brilliant
- Soccer ok

Haven't decided either way yet. Not impressed with the ticket prices. Even with the reduced travel costs, these prices are very high :mad:

G-Money · 23-04-2011 9:34pm

It's a bit of a nightmare trying to select what to apply for and not really having any idea what, if any, tickets you will end up getting. Also a lot of the events I was thinking about are quite spread out. For example the first few days of the athletics there is stuff on I want to see, then a gap of about 4 or 5 days where I haven't selected anything, which means extra accommodation costs.

Bella mamma · 23-04-2011 10:28pm

G-Money wrote: »

It's a bit of a nightmare trying to select what to apply for and not really having any idea what, if any, tickets you will end up getting. Also a lot of the events I was thinking about are quite spread out. For example the first few days of the athletics there is stuff on I want to see, then a gap of about 4 or 5 days where I haven't selected anything, which means extra accommodation costs.

+1.

We (myself and my dad) went to Athens for 10 days/8 days of competition.

We had no problem then and it was very simple. No gaps except that one evening as mentioned and used to potter to stuff in the am/noon, really laid back holiday. Very well organised. Train from city center to stadium. 10/10 enjoyment.

Not feeling the buzz here. Thinking if we apply for the last 5 days of athlethics and only get one, it'll be a disaster. Think the cycling track will be massively over-subscribed, and my dad really wants to go to that again.

Does anyone recall if this was the system in Athens? i.e. if you put in an option to buy, you HAD TO buy???

I do Wimbleton every year and that's a lottery with an option to buy - works well. Yes, I understand it's on a small scale!

robinph · 23-04-2011 10:36pm

Luckily I've free accommodation in London if I happen to get tickets for stuff on consecutive days, there are also a few days with free stuff on as well which I'll be going to. Otherwise I guess I'll have to occasionally make an appearance in work some days during it and catch up with the rest of what is going on on the telly box. Hopefully not too many days though.

G-Money · 24-04-2011 1:19pm

What has the ticket process been like for previous Olympics? I've never tried to go to an Olympics before so I've no idea.

Just went through the site again picking more tickets to add to my application, currently the potential bill is about £905 sterling :eek:

W.B. Yeats · 25-04-2011 10:42pm

Trying to finalise selections here
Trying to match the events that me and the missus want to go to as well as seeing what's likely to work with somebody minding the little ones at home or having to take someone with us to mind them
It also looks like its going to cost a fortune for the two of us:
Hoping to get to see athletics, boxing and basketball at the moment

In the Woods · 26-04-2011 4:41pm

Think this will be the selection for me. Just waiting to hear back from mate and brother cos I'll probably apply for the 3 of us.

4th Aug / Swimming / 19:30 – 21:00 / Includes; 4x100m men medley / £50

4th Aug / Athletics / 10:00 – 13:45 / Includes; 100m men’s heats / £20

5th Aug / Tennis / 12:00 – 20:30 / Singles Men Final + Doubles Women’s final / £65

5th Aug / Athletics / 18:50 – 21:55 / 1oom men’s final / £50

7th Aug / Athletics / 10:00 – 12:35 / 200m men round 1 / £20

7th Aug / Soccer / 17:00 – 19:00 / Semi (x1) / £30

8th Aug / Basketball / 14:00 – 18:00 / Quarter Finals, men, (x2) / £35

8th Aug / Basketball / 20:00 – 00:00 / Quarter Finals, men, (x2) / £35

9th Aug / Boxing / 16:30 – 18:00 / Women’s Finals (All 3) / £50

9th Aug (?) / Athletics / 18:30 – 22:10 / 200m men final + 800m men final / £50

11th Aug / Soccer / 15:00 – 17:30 / Final / £40

11th Aug (?) / Athletics / 18:45 – 21:30 / 4x100m men + 5000 men / £40

12th Aug / Closing ceremony / 19:30 – 22:30 / £20.12

robinph · 26-04-2011 5:35pm

I put in for both ceremony's at the £20.12 price purely because it would be wrong not to try. You never know...It could be you.

runjb · 26-04-2011 7:47pm

Sent my application there...prioritised the athletics events

Aug 5th (evening)

Aug 6th (morning and evening)

Aug 7th (evening)

Aug 9th (evening)

Aug 11th (evening)

A lot of action in those days, lets hope I get the tickets now, can't wait!:D

W.B. Yeats · 26-04-2011 8:31pm

Sent in my application....
Now you never know what our luck will be

misty floyd · 26-04-2011 9:46pm

Does anyone know when the Marathon is on? I know you don't need tickets for that :rolleyes: just wondering. EDIT: found it, August 5th, starts at 11am.

EDIT EDIT: I found this link to check for events dates. It gives the marathon at two dates, 5th Aug for women and 12th Aug for Men. Is that usually what happens?

robinph · 26-04-2011 9:59pm

Yep, it's normal for the two marathons to be a week apart.

gerard65 · 26-04-2011 10:23pm

robinph wrote: »

I put in for both ceremony's at the £20.12 price purely because it would be wrong not to try. You never know...It could be you.

You'll be very very lucky. Just watching the BBC news and there are huge numbers in for the main events.
It was also discussed on the radio this morning. Even if you don't get a ticket and you are really into it, you could go to London anyway as the there'll be a massive buzz around the city and big screens put up.

G-Money · 26-04-2011 10:55pm

I submitted my application yesterday after having initially filled it out a few days after the window opened. Initially there were four events I wanted to see 100m, 200m, 5000m and 10,000m. However when I checked out the dates they were on, I think two of them were the first weekend of the athletics and then there was a gap of about 4 or 5 days before the next two events that I wanted to see.

So I ended up applying for evening sessions for athletics for about a week solid. The choices were either only try for those four sessions and either fly over and back twice, only go for 2 of the sessions, or just stay over for the week and try to get tickets for whatever I wanted to see.

I chose more expensive tickets for the 4 main events I wanted to see and the cheapest tickets for the others. Not sure how lucky I will be, but we'll just have to wait and see. I'd say the morning sessions would be easy to get tickets for however most of the time there was max 2 events on during a morning session that I would be interested in so I skipped those.

At least we shouldn't have to wait too long to get a rough idea. I think they start charging people's cards from the 10th of May or so onwards so if you see a charge, you might be able to get a rough idea of what you've got possibly.

In the Woods · 27-04-2011 12:13am

Got in by the skin of my teeth. May not get any of my choices but u gotta b in it to win it. Marathons are a loop n d stadium is general admission for the finish so I'll prob go over for that anyway.

Bella mamma · 27-04-2011 12:16am

gerard65 wrote: »

You'll be very very lucky. Just watching the BBC news and there are huge numbers in for the main events.
It was also discussed on the radio this morning. Even if you don't get a ticket and you are really into it, you could go to London anyway as the there'll be a massive buzz around the city and big screens put up.

I read your post and made a snap decision to cut my losses as couldn't be stuck a week in London with my poor dad so applied for
- Thurs 9th Aug Boxing (Katie Taylor hopefully) and Athlethics evening
- Fri 10th Aug Athlethics evening
- Sat 11th Aug Soccer final and Athlethics evening BUT..................when my application came thru the athlethics on this date was missing!! When I scroll back on the computer it is there but not in my e-mailed confirmation and price list. Minor disaster. :mad:

Bella mamma · 27-04-2011 12:43am

The deadline has been extended but I cannot add on the extra evening's event. Keeps telling me I have no application (but I have a confirmation e-mail) and won't let me set up a new application.

Anyone selling tickets?? :cool:

robinph · 27-04-2011 9:43am

They were saying on the beeb news this morning that they had just extended the deadline by an hour after the systems started to fail last night.

Bambaata · 27-04-2011 9:48am

Went for the following:

Sport: Triathlon
Date/time: 04 August 2012 09:00-11:40
Price Category: A

Sport: Boxing
Date/time: 05 August 2012 13:30-16:30
Price Category: E

Sport: Athletics
Date/time: 05 August 2012 18:50-21:55
Price Category: D

Sport: Boxing
Date/time: 06 August 2012 13:30-16:30
Price Category: E

Sport: Triathlon
Date/time: 07 August 2012 11:30-14:00
Price Category: A

Sport: Boxing
Date/time: 08 August 2012 13:30-15:00
Price Category: E

Sport: Boxing
Date/time: 09 August 2012 16:30-18:00
Price Category: E

Really hoping to get the triathlon and at least some of the boxing. The athletics would be a bonus.

Bella mamma · 27-04-2011 9:52am

robinph wrote: »

They were saying on the beeb news this morning that they had just extended the deadline by an hour after the systems started to fail last night.

Yeah, I spent that entire extra hour (and more) trying to work out how to add my evaporating Aug 11th Athlethics to no avail. As mentioned in my 1st post on this thread - that Men's 5k was my Athen's highlight. Might see you at the boxing!

G-Money · 27-04-2011 5:10pm

Strong enough demand it seems...

http://news.bbc.co.uk/sport2/hi/olympics/london_2012/13209306.stm

DaveR1 · 28-04-2011 9:20am

Bambaata wrote: »

Went for the following:

Sport: Triathlon
Date/time: 04 August 2012 09:00-11:40
Price Category: A
Really hoping to get the triathlon and at least some of the boxing. The athletics would be a bonus.

What do you need tickets for the triathlon for? Surely like the marathon you can stand on the street same as other triathlon events?

Bambaata · 28-04-2011 9:39am

DaveR1 wrote: »

What do you need tickets for the triathlon for? Surely like the marathon you can stand on the street same as other triathlon events?

I want to be at the finish line stand. If i dont get those tickets i'll still roll down and catch it for free on the course but im not sure i'd then get a TV etc to see the action elsewhere on the course.

Bella mamma · 28-04-2011 11:32am

DaveR1 wrote: »

What do you need tickets for the triathlon for? Surely like the marathon you can stand on the street same as other triathlon events?

Tickets were needed in Athens too. A fair proportion was sectioned off.

Bambaata · 05-05-2011 10:03am

Has anyone used the 3vvirtual.com card to go about paying for the tickets? I cant add the account to my BOI 365 banking!!! It keeps coming up with

"This beneficiary cannot be added at this time."

07-05-2011 11:57am

I'm having problems with it too! I went down to BOI yesterday and they said that Visa hasn't given me enough information to transfer money in. I've emailed Visa asking them, but I got an email back saying they'll reply in the next working day which is Monday, but the money has to be transfered by the 10th which is Tuesday!

Bambaata did you have any luck doing it online? Anyone else have this problem?

Bambaata · 07-05-2011 5:03pm

No luck yet, been onto BOI and 3v. They say i have it registered now but have to get the activation in the ppost, i told them this wasnt good enoiugh (all week trying to add it) so they said they'll look into it. I tried adding using the card number and both the IBAN and UK domestic number and the BOI people couldn't understand why it wouldn't add, they said to go to branch and transfer but that isnt good enough as 3v need to be able to transfer back any balance and they cant by cash! Pain in the nads!! Going to threaten leaving BOI on Monday if they dont get it sorted. Been with them 12 years but this is taking the biscuit. Nobody has been able to give a straight answer and ive been going around in circles for days!!

G-Money · 07-05-2011 5:39pm

That adding a beneficiary thing has always been a pain with BOI online. It annoys me that I can't just add the details myself and be done with it. I lived in Australia for a year back between 2002 and 2003 and the bank I used over there (Westpac) would allow you to set-up accounts to transfer money to easily, no hassle at all. You didn't have to sit and wait for the bank to post you out some PIN so you can finish setting up a beneficiary, it was done and dusted straight away online.

A friend of mine is with AIB and from what I can remember, they just issue you with some sort of card at the start and you use that to set-up beneficiaries straight away.

Anyway, hope you's get it sorted in time. It's from Tuesday that they start taking money and that period will last a few weeks so there's no guarantee that they will try to take the money on Tuesday even if you are successful with tickets.

I was watching a thing on the BBC News Channel today and they said that the organisers will try to take money from people's accounts and if they can't, they will phone you to give you a chance to sort it out. But after that, you lose the tickets. Don't know how accurate that is but if it's true, it's better than nothing.

Pisco Sour · 08-05-2011 1:20am

G-Money wrote: »

That adding a beneficiary thing has always been a pain with BOI online. It annoys me that I can't just add the details myself and be done with it. I lived in Australia for a year back between 2002 and 2003 and the bank I used over there (Westpac) would allow you to set-up accounts to transfer money to easily, no hassle at all. You didn't have to sit and wait for the bank to post you out some PIN so you can finish setting up a beneficiary, it was done and dusted straight away online.

In Melbourne at the moment and am with Westpac. Its soooo easy to transfer money. Its great.

In the defence of the Irish banks, at least they dont charge you $2 for every transaction from an ATM owned by other banks. Every time I use an ATM that is not Westpac $2 is taken straight from my account. Absolute thieves. Twice I have gone to a Westpac ATM only to find it is out of order and so I have to go to a different bank and get charged $2.

And they charge $5 from your account each month if you dont have 2k coming into your account each month. Basically charging the poor for being poor.

And credit cards are a full rip off here and should be avoided like the plague.

This really has nothing to do with the Olympics. Sorry

Your comment just triggered off a little rant.

Bambaata · 09-05-2011 12:21pm

The IBAN number issue is now sorted! Hopefully not too late transferring today!

09-05-2011 12:58pm

Literallly transfered the money there too online! And got the IBAN to work. Fingers crossed it will go in on time now!

robinph · 09-05-2011 1:35pm

If over grand disappears from my Visa card tomorrow then I'll be very happy.

Anything else and I'll be hoping that I've actually got something that I wanted to see and not just the rubbish events.

robinph · 09-05-2011 6:01pm

Looks like you have an extra weeks to sort out the funds on your cards:

http://www.bbc.co.uk/news/uk-13338579

2012 Olympic Athletics Days - which one?

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