By Armand Gutierrez
By now many of you have purchased next year’s season pass and hoping that next year’s ski season will be better than this year’s. Unfortunately, snowfall prediction is more of a mystery than an art and the two main season pass companies, Vail Resorts (Epic) and Alterra Mountain Company (Ikon) have already grabbed your attention (and maybe money) for purchasing next season’s pass. Given the high prices of season passes, your next thought should be on what are the refund policies in the event that you can’t get to the ski slopes.
Refund policies vary between Epic and Icon and here is a simplified guide to their season pass refunds.
Epic Passes
Pass insurance is included in every Epic Pass, but scope it limited. There are two different situations: personal events and qualifying resort closures.
- A personal event includes losing your job, a season-ending injury or illness, pregnancy, a military post change, and more.
- Resort closures include a full ski area closure, including due to a pandemic (think COVID-19), or a natural disaster (remember the big fires at Sierra-at-Tahoe?). Strikes by resort employees are not covered.
Ikon Passes
The Ikon pass implemented a new pass insurance option, but this option was not well publicized and you may not be aware of it. Refundable passes that are more expensive replaced the old deferral policy, which allowed pass holders to defer an unused pass to the following season if it hadn’t been scanned by a certain date. Keep in mind that both passes at the lower-tier price are completely nonrefundable.
The new refundable Ikon Pass is priced at $1,619, or a refundable Ikon Base Pass is priced $1,109 (early-purchase rates). If you don’t scan your refundable pass by Jan. 15, 2027, you get a full refund. User your pass once before that date and you get a 50% refund. Two or more scans and you’re out of luck. Purchasing the refundable option will set you back approximately $150-$220 (based on early-purchase rates).
