Cancellation Tickets (Hamilton and other shows) Question

[ShoesForRent]

Posted: 7/11/16 at 4:30am

This maybe a really silly one- but where do the cancellation tickets come from?

From a quick search- the Richard Rodgers theatre website states that " The Richard Rodgers Theatre does not provide ticket refunds or exchanges. "

 

So do people cancel tickets for no refunds? Are they only house seats that go "ungiven"?

This goes for other shows too- but Hamilton got me thinking, as more than several people get their tickets that way...

Updated On: 7/11/16 at 04:30 AM

[ShoesForRent]

Posted: 7/11/16 at 4:45am

What why??

[ShoesForRent]

Posted: 7/11/16 at 4:54am

 I now see Ticketmaster has a ticket insurance option... I imagine this is how they end up in the cancellation line

 

I still don't see what was so grotesquely wrong with my question that you felt the need to be such an ass...

Updated On: 7/11/16 at 04:54 AM

[gypsy101]

Posted: 7/11/16 at 5:50am

who the heck are you replying to lol

[ShoesForRent]

Posted: 7/11/16 at 5:53am

The message was deleted... went along the lines of "this ridiculous question doesn't deserve a response from anyone"

[Wick3]

Posted: 7/11/16 at 9:52am

I've done cancellation line for Lion King, Book of Mormon, Hedwig, and Hamilton ---- and to this day it's still a mystery to me. One thing I do know is the seats tend to be really good seats in orchestra or center mezz. 

I personally think it's a misnomer. They're not 'cancelled' tickets by the average joe since, as you stated, there are no refunds/exchanges. However, I think they are unclaimed house seats that are released a few minutes before the start of the performance. I don't think we'll ever get the *real* answer from anyone.

[Taryn]

Posted: 7/11/16 at 10:39am

They are indeed unclaimed house seats.

[Anakela]

Posted: 7/11/16 at 10:56am

Wick3 said: "I personally think it's a misnomer. They're not 'cancelled' tickets by the average joe since, as you stated, there are no refunds/exchanges. "

That depends on the show. I tell this story here all the time, but on one of my NY visits years ago I had tickets to Wicked, my +1 was sick, my tix were just regular tickets at will call, and the guy in the box office gave me cash for my second ticket, and sold it to the cancellation line. Which I know because I struck up a conversation with the girl in that seat during intermission, and learned about how she got in. I'm sure it helped that there was already a cancellation line formed, and that mine was a center orch ticket, but that was my first experience with oh, no refunds/no exchanges doesn't actually mean no refunds/no exchanges all of the time.

[indytallguy]

Posted: 7/11/16 at 10:58am

I know I've turned back a member ticket the day of a performance that then went to the cancellation line.

[DottieD'Luscia]

Posted: 7/11/16 at 11:02am

The only cancellation line I have ever stood on was for The Lion King a few years ago when a friend of mine was going on as Simba.  I certainly didn't get a house seat.  My seatwas upstairs in close to the last row of the mezzanine.  I didn't get the ticket until close to show time, as the lights went down about a minute after I took my seat.

[mailhandler777]

Posted: 7/11/16 at 1:26pm

I've sold back tickets to Wicked before. They went to the cancellation line. I bought cancellation tickets(no waiting in line) in another city because the people that originally tried to buy them had their credit card declined.