Friends of Duxford. The end is nigh.

Many “older” people have more money to spend than the younger generation. That’s not my view, but an economic fact.
Mortgages paid off, no kids to support, reaping the rewards of private pensions, and inheriting money from parents.
Of course this doesn’t apply to all over 60’s, but it does to quite a lot.

Not all seniors are flatulent — sorry i meant affluent 🙂

Alan, if many older people have ‘disposable’ incomes, then why does the ‘concession’ even exist in ALL entrance payments, including Duxford’s on the day ticket ? So Duxford recognises a senior person if he comes for a day, but does not recognise him if he wants to visit more frequently ?

On my previous post, I meant the concessions will still be available for normal “on the day” entrance tickets.
We will no doubt have to wait until the end of November, before we see if this will apply to the new IWM
season tickets.
I somehow doubt it, as I would guess a high proportion of visitors would qualify (school holiday time aside). I have no particualr
problem with this, as I expect “many” retired people have a large disposable income.

Cyflyer thanks and no, the (non-premium) membership will remain year on year (as will the premium membership) so that will be your price each year, bar usual caveats, and one can remain with that for as long as you wish, or indeed upgrade if that was a choice at some point.

They will still do concessions in 2018.
We don’t go to airshows, or use the cafes.
Last year we paid £22 each for a yearly pass which expire at the end of May, so this represents a £26 increase.
Not a lot in the scale of things, and we would probably make a point of visiting the Belfast next year.

So paying £70 this year would perhaps make sense, against £83 for three visits.

AgentK, thanks for answering Alan’s question as it was the same question I was asking. So as I understand it, annual pass gone, replaced by the £35 job, ok I can live with the extra £12, but that will get me in to Belast and Churchill War Rooms when and if I want to go. I can live with that. But , did I read somewhere that this is only for the first year before becoming ‘premium’ rate , or not ? Its all becoming clearer now. Another thing, why no ‘conscetion/over 60’s’ price. EVERYWHERE has over 60’s price, even Duxford and the other IWM sites have it, so why not for this ? I am over 60, and I pay an old foggies price at Duxford if I go to pay at the entrance normally, so why has that now been conviniently not mentioned ?

Alan, the membership is banded and the standard level that gives you access but not the additional airshow ticket reductions and on site reductions will replace the annual pass. It will be £35 I believe.

My wife an I also have the annual pass, as we only visit prior to airshows.
On our last visit in September I asked if it was to continue, and was told it was.
I no longer see it listed though ?…… I have asked for clarification.

There is one thing that annoys me. In the IWM blurb, it says if you purchase the new season ticket,
you get free entrance to various IWM sites. Really ? How can it be free if you’ve paid for it.
Unless you live in London, how many times are you going to go on the Belfast ?

Duxford/FoD has done very nicely out of me over the years. I’ve rarely visited often enough to recoup the membership fee, sometimes only once for Flying Legends and we haven’t even been to that since they introduced advance tickets only.
The 20% discount in the cafes/restaurants brings the price down to merely outrageous but I still only use them for the odd cup of tea or coffee having deliberately fed my face on the way.
I worked on the basis it was for a good cause, and to be fair the FoD enclosure at airshows was a huge benefit.

The special discounted offer for existing members is 30% dearer than when I renewed earlier this year. There’s an outside chance I might renew this year, although probably not, and next year no chance at all.

Thank you Brian. That makes more sense as far as the membership schemes are concerned.

IWM Membership

Free fast-track access to Churchill War Rooms, HMS Belfast and IWM Duxford.
Member’s e-news.
Membership offers

IWM Premium Membership

All the benefits of IWM Membership plus:

Free access to paid exhibitions at IWM London and IWM North
15% discount in IWM Shops and cafes at our branches
Exclusive discounts and priority access to selected IWM events (including 20% discount on air show tickets and access to the air show members’ enclosure)
Premium Membership offers

Brian

I have never been a ‘member’ or ‘friend’, but simply had the annual pass, at £23, for Duxford because thats the only place I want to regularly visit. The Duxford annual pass served its purpose perfectly. With all this talk going on about new membership schemes etc, I am in confusion as to the status of the pass, is the annual pass being discontinued and incorporated into this new scheme or not ? I wanted to pop in to Duxford, to renew it, as it has recently expired, and I don’t know what to expect. Also, that letter printed above in #41, ‘IWM membership’ and IWM premium membership’ , whats the difference apart from the price ? The benefits shown are for the ‘premium’ membership or what ?, doesn’t make any sense.

I must be missing something here. Daily entry price £18 (with donation) IWM Membership Single Adult, unlimited for a year £35, three visits and it has paid for itself!

Think yourself very lucky you can visit so often as it’s an eight hour drive from here and I only visit every other Ice Age.

Cannot remember it being gift aided. I’m not advocating trading standards. Just interesting.

52Rocketeer
It’s interesting. I wonder what trading standards would think? If you buy a years membership and they then change the benefits detrimentally…you have not got what you paid for.

Just curious, but are you invited to Gift Aid your subscription? If so, then I doubt that it is a Trading Standards matter as you have made a donation, not a purchase.

Exmpa

I see no mention anywhere of the standard ‘annual’ pass just for Duxford. Mine has just expired and I was planning to pop into Duxford to renew it, and cannot see any mention in the ‘ticket’ listing. Please tell me they haven’t done something really stupid with that.

I think its a sign of the times, many, many places now seem to tolerate the customer for the sake of the money. If they could have the money without the inconvenience of the customer that would be fine…

When you are a friend you expect your friend to reciprocate. As a regular visitor to DX since the mid 70’s I became a FOD member in its early days. In the 80’s and 90’s my visits were several times monthly but in the 00’s that increased to almost weekly. My boys would frequently tag along too.
In recent years the friends benefits have significantly reduced. Since my boys could not enjoy access on my membership they have only been a couple of times in the past three years.
If IWM want young people to take an interest they need to make their sites financially accessible to them. After all it is the boys that encourage me to buy in the shops and on site eateries.
I stopped my membership at the start of last year and have been to DX just 5 times since.

I’m going away for a few days so I’ll yelp at them when I get back but, like Moggy, I don’t hold out a lot of hope.

Like a lot of other organisations, whatever the users, members, whatever think – the response is it’s better because we say so.

They’re invariably wrong…