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Booking event tickets in vienna

I’m trying to book tickets for a “tribute to Vienna” Evening performance at the Spanish riding school. I’m finding two different websites: Viennaconcerts.com and Vienna–concerts.com. The offerings and policies differ. Is there a red flag here? Anyone have with experience on either?

Posted by
16027 posts

Why not book directly on the Spanish Riding School website? Www.srs.at

There is a link to the ticket purchase site on this page:

http://www.srs.at/en_US/vorfuehrungen-en/

Looks like they only do three performances with the philharmonic, in June, October, and December.

Posted by
1875 posts

Whenever you want to book tickets for a cultural event, always use the website of the respective venue. Booking through an independent ticket office, i.e. a reseller or broker, will always be more expensive because of a surcharge of 25% or more.

Posted by
3 posts

Thank you for the feedback. My target performance was May 25 1900 hrs for the Lipizzaner/Vienna Boys Choir. That doesn’t come up on the Spanish Riding School site so I’m guessing it’s either sold out or only bookable thru a reseller. And yes they do add fees!!

Posted by
3809 posts

Spanish Riding School English Site: http://www.srs.at/en_US/
Click on Veranstaltungsuche & Buchung in the red box to the right
Check the "A Tribute to Vienna with the Vienna Boys Choir"
Click "Search"
I see the May 25 date with tickets for 25 to 135 euro. It looks like standing room tickets are 25 euro.
Click on "Booking" -- get redirected to Oeticket website (think Austrian version of Live Nation or Ticketmaster)
Click on the May 25 date -- tickets listed are 33/42 euro (cheapie kid/adult seat) to 135 euro (expensive adult seat). Both of those price points are sold out but others are available.

So... it looks like an outside promoter is selling the tickets to this. It's not clear how to get the standing room only tickets.

As an aside, I've used Oeticket multiple times and generally use the "Print at Home" function. In my experience, it's a highly-reliable website and appears to be your most direct way to buy tickets.

Good luck!

Posted by
3809 posts

I played with the Spanish Riding School search/booking tool a little more. It's pretty quirky. Sometimes it randomly decides to show you whatever it wants to show you (for example, the Feb schedule when searching for the Tribute to Vienna show). If you search by date, though, the show you are looking for consistently pops up.

Posted by
1875 posts

There are two different "Tribute to Vienna" performances, marked P and S in the schedule:
http://www.srs.at/wp-content/uploads/2018/01/Web-Kalender_EN_2018-01.pdf
P ... Music by members of the Vienna Philharmonic Orchestra (3 times in 2018)
S ... Vienna Boys Choir (5 times in 2018)

Booking for P:
http://www.srs.at/en_US/searchresults/?action=search_events&scope%5B0%5D=&scope%5B1%5D=&category=111&categoryBox=111&country=0

Booking for S:
http://www.srs.at/en_US/searchresults/?action=search_events&scope%5B0%5D=&scope%5B1%5D=&category=57&categoryBox=57&country=0

Posted by
509 posts

SRS: If you book on-line, I expect -- like us -- you'll receive a voucher that you must exchange for tickets at the SRS. The ticket office is not the SRS entrance; it's around a few corners, still in the Hofburg. Try to do this well before your show, or at least arrive 30+ minutes in advance. We failed to do that. The line at the ticket office was long. Made the show but just barely.

Posted by
3 posts

To the community: what a kind and helpful bunch you are! With helpful hints from several of you, I found the target performance and oeticket vendor. BUT: wound up contacting the Spanish Riding School office because the ticket purchase transaction kept failing. A very helpful customer service manager advises that often happens with their 3D secure systems, but will hold tickets for me as an alternative. I pass this along for others who may land in a similar pickle!! It never hurts to ask🤗

Posted by
1875 posts

... purchase transaction kept failing. A very helpful customer service manager advises that often happens with their 3D secure systems ...

It cannot be emphasized enough that the security standards for online credit card transactions are way higher in Europe than in US.

As all credit card companies support these standards for European cardholders it is just an administrative matter to activate this for credit cards issued in the US. The main problem is that hotline support personnel have not been trained on this issue. (As only 3% of Americans travel to Europe every year the credit card companies seem to think it is not worth the effort.)

Posted by
16027 posts

My AmEx card works for those 3D secure transactions. I have used it successfully for purchases from the Spanish Riding School ticket office, OeBB, Deutsche Bahn, and others. No "activation" was necessary, but the first time I purchased on bahn.de I got a call from AmEx asking me to confirm that it was a legitimate charge by me.

Posted by
3809 posts

Lola--

I was wondering about that because I recently bought tickets on the Oeticket website without any difficulty, but I used AmEx, too.

Posted by
3 posts

I had problems with the Spanish Riding School website repeatedly not accepting my credit card, but a couple of email exchanges with them cleared it up. (Wasn't using my Amex - guess I should have!)

Posted by
1875 posts

As far as I know, Mastercard and Visa have implemented European security measures for online payments most stringently, so using Diners or AmEx may be a way around it, at least until they will follow suit.