How to get discount ski lift tickets to Vail Ski Resort

There's free skiing and snowboarding at Vail Resorts for 5th & 6th Graders! The free School of Shred Pass is valid for 4 free days of skiing or snowboarding at Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Keystone and Arapahoe Basin for all 5th and 6th grade students.

Simply bring a current report card to a Vail Resorts Front Range pass sales location or a special pass sale event to get this free pass. Students need to register for the School of Shred pass by November 6th, 2011.  New for the 2011-12 ski season - a free first-time lesson that includes equipment rental.  For more information, visit the School of Shred webpage.

Buy an Epic Pass online and ski unlimited days at Vail, Breckenridge, Beaver Creek, Keystone, Arapahoe Basin, Heavenly, Northstar-at-Tahoe, and Sierra-at-Tahoe without any blackout dates.  Purchase the pass pre-ski season and its only $619 for the 2011-12 ski season. New passes can be purchased online.

The Epic Pass comes pre-loaded with 6 discounted Ski-With-A-Friend lift tickets.  Help your family and friends enjoy discounted skiing or snowboarding when you present your pass at the lift ticket window.

Several of Vail Resorts other ski season passes come with 6 Ski-With-A-Friend discounted ski lift tickets pre-loaded onto them.  These passes do have blackout days for Vail and Beaver Creek and new passes can be purchased online. Check out the details for the Epic Local's Pass (formerly the Colorado Pass) and the Summit Pass at Snow.com.

While King Soopers, City Market, and Safeway do not sell single day lift tickets for Vail, they do sell multi-day lift tickets to Keystone and Breckenridge.  With the purchase of a 3-day lift ticket, one day can be used at either Vail or Beaver Creek. Lift tickets can be purchased at the City Market (Kroger) in Dillon, Colorado on an 'as available' basis. Call the store for availability and customer service counter hours.

If you forgot to buy a Vail Resorts season pass, there is another option. Find an accomodating season pass holder at the base area who will help you to purchase discounted ski lift tickets. They present their pass at the lift ticket window and you hand over your credit card for payment.

Redeem your American Express Membership Rewards Points and get single or multi-day tickets, lessons, rentals, or lodging at Vail, Beaver Creek, Keystone, Breckenridge, or Heavenly. A child daily lift ticket is 4,000 points, an Adult daily lift ticket is 8,000 points, and an Adult 5 day lift ticket is 35,000 points.

Go to www.membershiprewards.com/ski to order the voucher.  Blackout days do apply to the vouchers.  Check for more information at http://www.snow.com/info/amex.aspx  Order several weeks in advance.

There are a number of online resellers of Vail lift tickets. The lift tickets they sell must typically be ordered at least three days in advance in order to receive the discount. These outlets do not provide any more of a discount than if they are purchased in advance on the Vail Resorts website at snow.com.

Professionals in other industries can get discounts on daily lift tickets at Vail.  Vail offers  discounts for Military, Ski Patrollers, Ski Instructors, and Travel Agents.  Members of the military can get the discounted Liberty Pass for unlimited days at Keystone and Arapahoe Basin. More information.

Unfortunately, Vail no longer offers discount coupons in the Entertainment Book, Gold C Book, or E Book.  Discounted ski lift tickets and lessons can be found for Arapahoe Basin Ski Area, Loveland Ski Area, Eldora Mountain Resort, SolVista Basin, Sunlight Mountain Resort, Copper Mountain Resort, and Winter Park Resort.

The new Entertainment Coupon Savings book can be purchased starting in the fall at Denver Area - Barnes & Noble, Walgreens, Borders, Rite-Aid, and Waldenbooks. The new E Book can be purchased starting in the fall at Denver Area King Soopers or online at www.eduproject.com. The Entertainment Book can be purchased online. The new Gold C Book can be purchased through Front Range schools in the fall.

One can sometimes find the extremely rare stray discount lift tickets. A vacation group will buy too many group tickets, ski vacationers who left early due to an emergency, or industry insider connections. Internet searches can sometimes uncover them.

Epic Pass

The Epic Pass provides unlimited skiing and snowboarding at Vail, Beaver Creek, Breckenridge, Keystone, A-Basin, Heavenly, Northstar-at-Tahoe, and Sierra-at-Tahoe. The Epic Pass is available for purchase online or at select pass events by out-of-state skiers and snowboarders. Purchase between April and August for the best discount price.

Protect your RFID chip embedded ski pass

Vail Resorts ski passes are now embedded with an UHF RFID chip. The chip transmits the pass data to handheld and overhead sensors at the lift to provide tracking data and lift access. The pass can be protected from unauthorized scanning with a protective SkiPassDefender.

Ski With A Friend lift ticket rates

The purchase price for the Ski With a Friend lift tickets depends upon the ski resort and the time of the ski season.  During the ski season, check for the pricing at http://www.snow.com/info/swaf.aspx

2010-11 season Adult SWAF lift ticket rates from Snow.com:

Vail & Beaver Creek

• 11/19/10 - 11/23/10 - $60
• 11/24/10 - 12/2/10 - $64
• 12/3/10 - 12/9/10 - $76
• 12/10/10 - 12/16/10 - $82
• 12/17/10 - 12/25/10 - $82
• 12/26/10 - 12/31/10 - $87
• 1/1/11 - 1/13/11 - $82
• 1/14/11 - 1/17/11 - $82
• 1/18/11 - 2/17/11 - $82

Keystone & Breckenridge

• 11/19/10 - 11/23/10 - $56
• 11/24/10 - 12/3/10 - $64
• 12/4/10 - 12/10/10 - $73
• 12/11/10 - 12/19/10 - $73
• 12/20/10 - 12/25/10 - $80
• 12/26/10 - 1/1/11 - $84
• 1/2/11 - 1/13/11 - $80
• 1/14/11 - 1/17/11 - $84
• 1/18/11 - 2/17/11 - $80

Keystone

• 11/19/10 - 11/23/10 - $54
• 11/24/10 - 12/210 - $62
• 12/4/10 - 12/10/10 - $70
• 12/11/10 - 12/19/10 - $70
• 12/20/10 - 12/25/10 - $76
• 12/26/10 - 1/1/11 - $80
• 1/2/11 - 1/13/11 - $76
• 1/14/11 - 1/17/11 - $76
• 1/18/11 - 2/17/11- $76