Fixed Series ticket subscriptions allow you to create bundles of tickets or season ticket passes where customers can book the same seats for a selected number of different Instances, usually at a discounted price. Fixed Series subscriptions can be renewed within a specified period and usually run yearly or seasonally.
Before you read this article, make sure you’re familiar with
If you are looking to create a new Fixed Series subscription or edit an existing one then read Setting Up a Fixed Series.
Fixed Series Subscriptions
There are two ways in which Fixed Series Subscriptions can be sold - customers can either purchase the subscription straight away, or you can hold a subscription for a customer, who can then purchase it at a later date.
By holding a subscription for a customer you are giving them the rights to their seats. The customer can then purchase those same seats or opt to select different ones within their Fixed Series.
Along with the ability to purchase the same seat across multiple Events, one of the key benefits of a Fixed Series is the ability to roll a subscription over - in other words to allow a customer to retain the same seats in the next seasons/series of Events. For more information, read our article on Rolling Over a Fixed Series.
Configuring Fixed Series for Sales users
Fixed Series Subscriptions are sold in the Sales Interface > Subscriptions > Fixed Series.
To be able to see this you’ll need:
- At least one Fixed Series Subscription to be set up and available to buy.
- The Show Fixed Series tab in the Sales Interface option is checked in the Admin Interface
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To switch on the Fixed Series tab for Sales users in the Sales Interface go to Admin > Subscriptions > Fixed Series and ensure the box marked Show Fixed Series tab in the Sales Interface is checked.
Holding a Fixed Series Subscription and buying tickets
VIDEO: Jump ahead to our Spektrix Training: On Demand video — Holding and Selling Fixed Series for a guided walkthrough of this process.
Fixed Series Subscriptions are sold in the Sales Interface > Subscriptions > Fixed Series.
In the Sales Interface you will be able to see all available Fixed Series - click the green plus button to see the Events that make up each Fixed Series.
If you have Fixed Series subscriptions set up, you should see something like this:
From here you have two options:
- Hold subscription - use this when a customer wants to hold their seats for a Fixed Series, and pay for them later. If the button is greyed out then this means that the hold timeout has passed so tickets can only be bought at this time.
- Hold subscription and buy tickets - use this when a customer wants to purchase their Fixed Series outright.
TIP: Seats included in a held Fixed Subscription appear on the seating plan in the Sales Interface in the same way that reserved seats do.
Selling a Fixed Series - Hold Subscription and buy tickets
The first thing you need to do when selling a Fixed Series is choose the Sales Channel, just as you would with any other transaction - Phone, Counter, Counter Quick or Web.
Once that’s done you need to select a customer - you can’t sell a Fixed Series without a customer.
Choose Events and Pricing
Next, choose which Events and prices you want to book.
A window will appear with all available Events, Pricing, Price Bands and Packages.
- Choose Events - the number of Events included in the subscription.
- Choose pricing - Pricing Sets are the pricing levels at which a Fixed Series can be bought. Pricing Sets can vary between Subscription Group, Events, or depending on number of Events booked
- Choose seat band - the option to choose one or multiple Price Bands.
- Enter the number of packages - the number of tickets required.
If possible, the Total cost of the Fixed Series will display at the bottom of this screen.
REMINDER: The option to choose Price Bands and Ticket Types will only display if the Fixed Series has been set up to allow this choice At Start Of Purchase.
Selecting a Subscription Group
The next screen allows you to select which Subscription Group the customer wants to choose. Subscription Groups contain the specific set of Instances that the customer is subscribing to. The Instances that make up each Subscription Group are listed underneath the group title, along with the date and time.
The Subscription Groups listed on this screen will be determined by the Pricing Set chosen on the previous screen. If there is only one Subscription Group available it will be automatically selected, if there is more than one you can click on which one the customer wants to attend.
TIP: If you have set up a Build Your Own Fixed Series subscription, then customers will be able to mix and match different Events that make up a subscription. The customer’s seats remain the same.
Choosing Seats
The next screen allows you to select the seat(s) that the customer wants.
Seats will only display as available if they are available for every Instance in the Subscription Group you have selected. If a seat is unavailable then it will appear as a grey circle with a cross through.
If the Instances use different Seating Plans, you will be shown each one in turn - the same rules regarding availability still apply.
In this example, you can see grey circles with crosses which indicate unavailable seats.
If you did not select the Price Band in Step One you can choose from any of the available seats. The Price Bands are displayed using a heat map - the most expensive seats are shown in red through to less expensive seats in green.
You will see the number of seats there are left to select at the bottom left of the Seating Plan screen.
WARNING: If the whole Seating Plan is greyed out and you can’t select a seat to purchase double check that the event is active and on sale online and in the Sales Interface, and that all of the ticket types from the Fixed Series price list are selected.
Assigning Ticket Types
On this screen you need to assign a Ticket Type to each seat.
REMINDER: It’s possible that the seats you have selected could be in two different Price Bands meaning that even tickets of the same Ticket Type will be a different price.
Each seat is listed, allowing you to select the correct Ticket Type from the drop down.
Confirming the Order
Once the tickets have been added to the basket, you can then confirm the transaction in the usual way. Fixed Series Subscriptions are outlined in blue in the basket to help them stand out from other items.
You are able to view any customer's active Fixed Series Subscriptions in their customer record.
Selling a Fixed Series - Hold tickets
Holding a Fixed Series Subscription for a customer holds the seats rather than purchasing them.
To hold a subscription:
- Select the Hold subscription option in the Sales Interface
- Follow the same steps as in Hold Subscription and buy tickets.
The customer will not have to pay for their hold, and can complete the purchase at a later date.
Held fixed series subscriptions are displayed on the Instance's seating plan as unavailable - no other customer can purchase the seat. You can view any active holds a customer might have in their customer record.
By holding a subscription for a customer you are giving them the rights to their seats. The customer can then purchase those same seats or opt to select different ones within their Fixed Series.
Buying Held Tickets
Once a customer has decided to commit to purchasing the tickets that make up a Fixed Series Subscription you can find their held subscription in their customer record under Subscriptions > Fixed Subscriptions.
From their customer record, you can add the subscription into the basket and check out.
This example shows a held Fixed Subscription attached to a customer record.
Clicking Buy tickets for subscription takes you to choose which Subscription Group to use. You can then complete up to taking payment for the tickets and confirming the order. There’s also the chance at this stage to reselect Seats if required.
On-Demand Training Video — Holding and Selling Fixed Series
In this section of our Spektrix Training: On Demand video on Fixed Series, we cover the Holding and Selling Fixed Series process.
This chapter is a guided walkthrough of:
- Holding a Fixed Series Subscription
- Holding and Selling a Fixed Series Subscription
- Purchasing Fixed Series Holds on a Customer Account
VIDEO TIP: With our Spektrix Training: On Demand videos- you can stop, restart or move to specific chapters. Click the CC option to turn on captions. Click into the Settings menu cog icon to control speed, captions and quality.
Returning Tickets and Releasing Holds
If a customer chooses not to go ahead and buy their held subscription then click Release subscription. You will be prompted to confirm that you want to do this, to do this just click Release subscription again.
If you release a Fixed Series Subscription the customer will lose the rights to their seats, and their subscription will not be rolled over. If the customer had previously purchased tickets and no longer wishes to attend you will need to return these separately.
Until you return the held subscription no other customer can purchase a Fixed Series Subscription in these seats.
VIDEO: Jump ahead to our Spektrix Training: On Demand video — Returns and Releasing Hold in Fixed Series for a guided walkthrough of this process.
Selling Fixed Series Subscriptions Online
In order to sell Fixed Series Subscriptions online, you must:
- Check the Active and On Sale checkboxes for the relevant FIxed Series Subscriptions
- Integrate the Fixed Series iframe into your website (for more information, check the Web Integrations portal)
This example shows a number of Events grouped into three Fixed Series subscriptions - this is how a Fixed Series would appear online to customers through an iframe.
The process for purchasing Fixed Series Subscriptions online is essentially the same as in the Sales Interface - customers will go through the same stages that you would do in the box office.
Fixed Series Subscriptions show up in the basket in the same way single tickets do. Each Event within the subscription is listed separately, while the overall subscription is shown at the top of the basket page.
Buying or releasing a held Fixed Series online
A Customer with a held Fixed Series Subscription can log in online at any time before the holdout time and either Cancel or Buy their Subscription.
The customer needs to log in to their account and navigate to the My Subscriptions page.
From here they can see all of the Fixed Series Subscriptions that they are currently holding, and can choose what to do with each one.
- Choosing to Buy Subscription takes the customer into the normal process of buying a Fixed Series (see the Selling a Fixed Series article).
- Choosing to Cancel Subscription gives the customer a warning to make sure they want to cancel. Clicking Keep subscription returns the customer to the standard My Subscriptions page, while clicking Cancel subscription removes that Fixed Series from the list of currently held subscriptions.
Overriding a Fixed Series
You can use the Override function to manually apply a Fixed Series Price List to tickets in a basket which otherwise wouldn’t be part of a Fixed Series.
You can do this in much the same way as overriding anything else - once you have some tickets in the basket, click on the drop-down arrow next to Reserve and choose Override from the list of options.
You will see a window with various options - tick the box next to Fixed Series to choose a Fixed Series override.
From here you can now choose which Fixed Series you want to apply, and then choose which Price List to use.
There are two drop-downs you need to select from, which by default will be filled in as [No series] and [no price list].
- [No series] - click here first, to choose the Fixed Series Subscription or Subscription Group you want to apply.
- [No price list] - click here second, to choose the Price List you want to apply. You will see all relevant Price Lists, based on which Fixed Series you chose from the first list.
TIP: You can only apply a Price List if the Ticket Type you are overriding is included in that Price List.
How do I return a Fixed Series?
Returning a Fixed Series works in much the same way as returning any other tickets, however there is an extra item that you need to remember to return as well as the tickets.
Follow these steps to return a Fixed Series subscription:
- Find and open the Order
- Select all of the tickets and choose Return from the drop-down list of options.
- Select the Fixed Series from the Other Items section and click Return.
- Both elements will now be in your basket as returns.
- You can now process the refund as you would normally.
WARNING: It’s important to make sure you add both parts of the Fixed Series into the basket if you want to completely return an Order. If you only return the tickets then the Order will still have a Fixed Series Subscription within it, and unless the customer wants to retain the right to this Seat in a future rolled over Fixed Series they probably don’t want to keep this item. If you only return the Fixed Series element then the tickets will still be in the Order, but you won’t be able to roll them over to a subsequent Fixed Series.
Exchanging a Fixed Series
If you want to either change the date of a Fixed Series Order, or change the Ticket Type of one or more tickets, you will need to remove the entire subscription from the basket and re-select the Fixed Series subscription.
On-Demand Training Video — Returns and Releasing Holds in Fixed Series
In this section of our Spektrix Training: On Demand video on Fixed Series, we cover the Returns and Releasing Holds in Fixed Series process.
This chapter is a guided walkthrough of:
- Where Holds are on Customer Accounts
- How to Release Holds on Customer Accounts or on Orders
- Releasing Holds and Releasing Subscriptions
VIDEO TIP: With our Spektrix Training: On Demand videos- you can stop, restart or move to specific chapters. Click the CC option to turn on captions. Click into the Settings menu cog icon to control speed, captions and quality.
Further reading
For more information on Fixed Series Subscriptions, have a look at our articles on Setting up a Fixed Series and Rolling Over a Fixed Series Subscription.