Six Flags Season Pass or Membership: Which is a better deal?

Six Flags annual passes used to be a great deal: if you went 5 or more times in a year, you'd come ahead. And all that walking was excellent exercise, the family spent time together, the kids were off the electronics. But since COVID, Six Flag's prices have skyrocketed (Bidenomics?). The best deals are on Black Friday for Gold Passes which are ONLY good for the parks in your own state. SO, if you want to visit parks outside your state, no deal.

Understand that Six Flags is NOT like Disney parks, although, to be fair, Disneyland and DisneyWorld have really declined in the past few years. So many groups fighting, the politics, the expensive... but even so, the Disney experience beats SIx Flags by a mile.

Six Flags is constantly messing with their pricing schemes, and it really seems like they are intentionally attempting to make it difficult for the consumer to understand what the total prices or how to get the best value. If they decrease the price of 1 item, I guarantee you, they have raised the price of something else by a larger margin. You must always add up all of the prices and fees, and read the details of what is included and what is not.

What do you need?

There are some basics:

Season pass
Parking pass (typically included with the season pass)
Drinks cup (unless you will bring your own empty water bottle and plan on refilling it at the water fountains outside the bathrooms. Drinks cups are horrifically expensive usually around $25 - $32 EACH fro the season-long unlimited refills. They are usually include with either a meal [plan or an upper level season pass. That alone can make those worthwhile.
Meal plan. Look, if your going to be there more than 2 or 3 hours, you're going to want to eat something. Since you cannot bring food into the park, and it's a mile long hike in the hot sun to your car and back... face it, you';ll be buying some food in the park. The meal plan can actually be a good value. Even at the 2024 full price for 2 meals each visit ($119 in Georgia), the meals are big enough that 2 people can share one plan. Buying food without a meal plan in a SIx Flags park is the most expensive crap food you have ever purchased. Their prices make Airport food look like a great deal in comparison.

For the 2024 year:

For Black Friday, they had a deal for $69 Parks pass; but ONLY the parks in your state (eg, Six Flags over Georgia and Six Flags Whitewater Georgia).

They offered the Diamond pass for $20 off, for $120 instead of $140. That pass gave access to all parks nationwide and came with the unlimited drinks cup.

The 2 meal dining pass was $109. And a $20 express parking pass was offered.

So, for 2 people, all parks, and ONE 2-meal dining pass that would be $120 + $120 + $109 = $350 plus tax

Then AFTER Black Friday, the pricing changed to the following. Notice that the Diamond pass went up from $140 (minus $20 off) to $175,

Will they have another sale at New Year's. Unknown as yet. So far, the best deal was Black Friday.

Total cost 2 passes and 1 meal plan with 2 meals (separated by 3 hours) = $175 + $175 + $119 = $469... plus tax

Six Fkags 2023-12-08

Christmas or New Year's Sales?

Once in a while they offer some Christmas holiday sales. But, post-COVID, it has become rare. I'll add it here, if they do!

Season passes

Six flags changes their pricing model and packages and policies every single year. they. are constantly shift them and changing them. It is almost as if they don't want their consumers to be able to figure out which is the best value. And clearly they are looking for ways to drive you to the higher costs and higher profit margins. There's nothing wrong with a business doing that except that they are really sneaky about it and bury and hide the key. limiting factors in the details.

This year (Autumn 2023 for the 2024 calendar year) they offered a discount for a season pass in August and September for the Georgia location. It was only $55.. But the new restriction was you could only use it in Georgia. Typically they offer a Black Friday discount in November And the past they sell at that time usually includes access to all parks nationwide. So while the $55 pass may seem appealing, that's only a good deal if you don't plan to travel and use the other parts.

I'll post again in November as soon as it's clear whether they will offer the Black Friday discount again.

Meal plans

the same thing is true of dining plans. . They constantly change the packages. And while the cost of the endless drink cups has gone up astronomically, it. can be a good idea to buy a plan just to get the free drinks. Since one drink Cup can cost you around $30.. Typically the meal plan goes for around $110 for the year for one person for. one meal and a snack.

Past years

The comprehensive analysis below, while nowOutdated with regard to the actual numbers, is going to hold true in terms of comparisons between plans. all the plans will rise by about the same percentage. So you should be able to just take a look at this and then compare it to this year's numbers and figure. out and figure out which one is best for you.

2021

For the 2021 year, Six Flags offered two season passes and 4 membership options, in additions to daily tickets. Which is the best value?

Six Flags makes it very, very difficult to know! Every September they have a sale on the passes and memberships which makes it even more confusing. Well, I did the math and put it all into a spreadsheet. This calculator will allow you to enter the number of people in your group and find out what the total costs are for each option. And that includes options for unlimited drink cups, park and meal plans!

All we need to know is how many passes, tickets or memberships do you need, and whether you want the dining pass.

Below you can click on the cost comparison for passes/memberships with a premium dining pass, a basic dining pass or no dining pass.

Cost comparisons buying during the Six Flags Fall 2020 Sale in September and October 2020

These calculations assume you want the Premium dining pass (lunch, dinner, snack and unlimited free drinks), which pays for itself in 3 or 4 visits, see the Dining pass page: Even if you do not want the dining pass, the calculator pages below will still show you the costs for passes vs. memberships separately.

Six Flags Discovery Kingdom (California):

While California tends to be much more expensive than the rest of the U.S., we're pretty sure the $999.99 annual pass price shown on their website on September 18, 2020 (shown at right) was a typo! Still, it's both ironic, and funny!

1 pass or membership
2 passes or memberships
3 passes or memberships
4 passes or memberships
5 passes or memberships
6 passes or memberships
7 passes or memberships
You get the point... if you have more than 7 in your group, take a look at the 7 passes option, the conclusion will hold for larger groups.

Other Parks (AZ, IL, MA, NY, Montreal, Canada, Mexico City)

The Six Flags parks in Arizona, Illinois, Massachusetts and New York are still closed and likely will not re-open until the 2021 season. However, if they offer passes or memberships on sale, I will add them here, too!

The numbers are likely to be very similar at other Six Flags U.S. parks, but not absolutely identical. Most of the Season Passes at other parks, like NJ (Great Adventure), Illinois, California, etc. are $10 higher ($59.99 per pass for 2 or more. ) than southern parks.

If there is interest, I'll publish the spreadsheets for any park or scenario, just write me!.

The Bottom Line

Basically the memberships are an installment plan for people who cannot afford to pay the entire annual amount at once. The benefits between the season pass (with the premium dining pass) are trivially better, until you reach the Diamond levels. At the Diamond and Diamond Elite levels, you get closer parking and the ability to skip one (or two for Elite) lines per visit.

Is that worth the extra $200+ each year for those benefits? Well, that's up to you to decide.

Notes about the Fall / Halloween Sale

Important: Only Season Pass Holders and Members may buy Season Dining Passes.

If you buy your a Deluxe Dining Pass during the Halloween sale, you get a free upgrade to Premium dining pass, which:

Provides lunch, dinner and a snack each visit (the basic dining pass is lunch and snack only)
You can eat at every Six Flags theme park and
It includes free all-year free Drink Bottle (the basic dining pass does not include the cup) Since the cups cost about $20 each, this is a big deal.

Also, when you buy the 2021 passes, they are valid IMMEDIATELY. In other words, you can starting using the passes, including the dining passes and unlimited drink bottles immediately (in 2020) and they are still valid until December 31, 2021. Effectively, you get 15 months to use them.

Cost comparisons for other times of the year.

Whenever Six Flags has a sale, and during non-sale periods, I will create a cost comparison for those times, as well. Stop back then!

Perks, Subtle Differences and Flash pass and Parking Add-ons

If a Flash Pass or close to the gate preferred parking are important to you, these upgrades are built into the Diamond and Diamond Elite memberships but they are not exactly the same as the stand-alone Flash Pass. Diamond allows you to Flash ONE ride per visit, Diamond Elite gives you 2 passes per visit. In other words, if skipping EVERY line on every ride is important to you, you just have to bite the bullet and buy the Flash Pass separately anyway. That pretty much only makes sense if you are only going once per season.. or you have more money that Warren Buffet.

The other perks that come with the memberships are pretty worthless, in my opinion. You can see the full list here.

Cost to add Flash Passes:

Flash Pass are absurdly expensive.

So, how much do they cost? Ah, they won't tell you. The price will only be shown to you when you go to check out when buying your passes or memberships.

That tells me two thinks:

The want to make it an impulse sale, and probably a high-pressure sale with a "get this price ONLY if you buy it right now... and
it's not competitive, you might be offered a higher price than others. Why else is the price not published?

You can accomplish the same thing as a Flash Pass by simply going during less popular hours and days.

What does Six Flags say about why they think you should buy a membership?

On their website, Six Flags says:

Become a Member if you want admission and parking at every Six Flags and Hurricane Harbor, discounts EVERY time you visit, free upgrades, priority entry, and incredible unique experiences, bonuses and surprises. And special treatment. Plus you get a shiny card that looks WAY prettier than the regular Season Pass card -- the Diamond card even has a hologram!

Ooh, a shiny card with a hologram! Can you tell they think we are idiots?

What's my analysis?

Seriously... sounds like a lot of empty fluff. What matters is:

total cost
meals included
Unlimited drinks included
parking included
Being able to go to all of your local Six Flags operations (eg, the amusement park and the water park)
And if you travel, being able to go in and park at any of the Six Flags amusement parks.

The Gold Season Pass, bought on this sale, gives you all of that. The added perks are just stuff you will rarely use. I will grant you, if you are disabled or have other health issues, the priority parking which is the parking closest to the gate, could be worth it. That is included in the Diamond and Diamond Elite memberships.

Six Flags Season Pass or Membership: Which is a better deal?

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