Preferred seats in the RAH

[bluestateprommer]

Some years back, Michael Berkeley addressed the question of where to sit in the RAH:

http://www.guardian.co.uk/music/2004...era.proms20042

".....let me offer some advice as to how best to hear music in the Albert Hall. Under no circumstances should you sit directly opposite the stage (at 12 o'clock if the stage is at six) unless sheltering from Mahler or Bruckner at their most bombastic. This, believe it or not, is where the BBC has most of its hospitality boxes and the music comes at you as though through a telescope held the wrong way round. It is simply too far away.

You need to be quite near the stage, at, say, four or eight o'clock. I would recommend a stalls seat on the aisle of block H1 (my favourites are H8 27 or 28) or its counterpart on the other side of the hall, M1. This is where you will find most of the critics, as well as composers when their work is being premiered."

[Flay]

Anyone had any luck? I was 2495 in the queue, then something went wrong, now I am 4986

[Flay]

The waiting room requires a continuous connection between your computer and our website to maintain your place in the queue. We therefore suggest that you use a desktop computer rather than a mobile device to queue in the waiting room.

Not always possible...

[gurnemanz]

Anyone had any luck? I was 2495 in the queue, then something went wrong, now I am 4986

I can't even get in the queue.

[Flay]

I can't even get in the queue.

Ha ha I'm 4417

[Flay]

Now I'm 4985. This is impossible!

[gurnemanz]

Yes. I am jealous of you. It states: "We recommend you visit us again in a short while". Not that helpful. Does that mean 5 minutes or 3 days?

[Flay]

Yes. I am jealous of you. It states: "We recommend you visit us again in a short while". Not that helpful. Does that mean 5 minutes or 3 days?

Just keep on hitting the "my account" tag. I am currently sat in reception of a small hotel on the isle of Barra, as near as possible to their modem. They think I am slightly bonkers....

[Simon B]

Ha ha I'm 4417

For the 2nd time in 3 years that ******* ******* of a booking system (I'd be banned if I even started to express my true feelings towards this foetid posterior of a system) has completely done me over.

Got in at about position 1000 in the queue... Wait 40 minutes... Get in, submit Proms plan...Allocated all the concerts I requested (incl 2x VPO/Haitink, 1xBPO/Rattle and others which will doubtless sell out immediately)... Told I have 30 minutes to check out... Spend a few minutes (5 max) working out which tickets to delete as they've been allocated in areas for which I'm not prepared to pay good money as the acoustics are diabolical... At a random moment, fully 10 minutes into my 30, I go to delete a particular concert (seat literally right next to the stage) - booted back to the page that says I can't even go in the waiting room as it's full.

What a crock of infuriating excrement. As a tecchie, this tells me that this system is either a) not implemented properly or b) contains unadvertised "features" that boot people out of the system in a way which is not consistent with either the advertised functionality (i.e. the instructions from the BBC/RAH on how to use it) or what it's telling you as it goes along.

Now at something like 5000 in the queue to try again, several hours worth by my reckoning. An exact repeat of 2010 (in which I ended up with no tickets to most of the concerts which had been allocated to me prior to the system arbitrarily throwing me out) seems likely. Furious. Again.

[teamsaint]

How on earth did we manage before the internet?
same number of tickets, same number of concerts....same number of people. (all roughly of course).

Luckily for me I am happy Promming, but people trying to buy specific tickets must be very irritable, and have my sympathy.
(but if anybody has spare seats for the VW 3 sympphonies, fell free to PM me !!)
good luck all .