With our first home game of the season against Leicester City FC upon us, we, the long-suffering Fulham faithful, have been having an exciting few weeks (United away aside) as new faces start to don our beloved Black and White shirt.
Our new signings will undoubtedly have an easier time getting into Craven Cottage on Saturday (24th August, 15:00 BST Kick-Off) than the rest of us. The club now uses the Tickmaster-powered digital ticketing system, which has not been without issues.
Moving away from physical tickets is a set that many of us have been expecting as, on paper (sorry), it is a cost-saving measure for the club, possibly cutting down on touts and away fans in home areas and cutting down on a level of waste. We all support this; less paper getting posted around is great. But then the club sends out a big welcome pack with vouchers in it. You wonder if popping a season ticket card in the mix really is that difficult, especially as renewals use old cards.
Still, we are where we are, and as the season progresses, I’m sure we will get used to it. But we have seen the frankly chaotic scenes at Selhurst Park when they introduced digital ticketing and the delays to the Palace vs. West Ham match at the end of the 22/23 season when the system crashed and made the national news. I contacted The Price of Football co-host and notable Palace fan Kevin Hunter Day on Twitter for advice, as he has complained about digital tickets a lot. His advice was to play baffled and hope:
Should we be worried? Kind of. Given the usual chaos of Cup games at the Cottage with paper tickets, we should be prepared for some “teething” issues. But this post is not designed to scaremonger or apportion blame to the club. The move that they have made is one that regular gig-goers have become used to over the last few years. And whatever you feel about Ticketmaster, they are a major player in the space, so it is positive that we have partnered with them.
But, putting my day job hat on as a Business Analyst, I’m sorry to report that whoever designed the Fulham/Ticketmaster User Interface and customer experience journey must have been savaged to death by their guide dog shortly after submitting their design. I designed registration, ticketing and entry systems for a global exhibitions company, and the Ticketmaster flow is a case study we reviewed on how not to do it.
To their credit, the club has created several guides to help fans navigate the system, which I have linked below.
However, having just gone through the process of trying to transfer one of my season tickets to my friend, the Focus team felt that we should share the experience. It wasn’t great, but we got there in the end.
So here is the Fulham Focus Idiots Guide to FFC Digital Ticketing by our resident idiot.
NOTES:
- The application period for applying to be exempt from the Digitial Ticketing program has now passed. Please get in touch with the Ticket Office if this is an issue for you.
- You can have multiple tickets loaded on your phone. You will need to scan each person through the turnstiles. The club recommends scanning all the people with the ticket holder through first; then, the ticket holder will enter behind them.
- Based on the above, you “should” also be able to forward a ticket to one of your Friends and Family who already has a ticket. They will need to complete the Receiving a Ticket process below to add the phone they will be using.
Regardless of the below, one thing to remember for Saturday is GET TO THE COTTAGE NICE AND EARLY!
Loading Your Season Ticket On Your Phone
Here, the club guide is very good, and the process is reasonably straightforward.
- You will receive an email from the club with the subject line, “Your Digitial Season Ticket”
- In the email will be two options: one to add your Season Ticket to your Google Wallet if you have an Android phone and one to add it to your Apple Wallet if you have an iPhone
- Open the email on the mobile phone you intend to use to enter the Cottage
- Click the one that matches your phone, and the process to add your ticket will begin to add the ticket to the wallet on your phone
- Follow your phone’s instructions, and the ticket will appear as “Season Ticket” in your phone’s Digital Wallet.
Fulham FC Apple Digital Ticket Guide: https://fulhamfc.com/tickets-and-hospitality/digital-ticketing/apple-wallet-guide
Fulham FC Android Digital Ticket Guide: https://www.fulhamfc.com/tickets-and-hospitality/digital-ticketing/google-wallet-guide/
Sharing Your Tickets
So, you have your ticket loaded on your phone, but you can’t make a game, so you want to share it with a friend. Thankfully, the club has allowed us to share tickets within our registered Friends and Family network without charge, which is nice of them. So, how do you share your ticket?
- Anyone you share your ticket with will require a OneFulham account with a reference number
- Your friend will need to complete all the steps required for a OneFulham account, including their Personal Information, such as:
- Name
- Date of Birth
- Address
- Password Etc
- The link to create a new OneFulham account is: https://login.fulhamfc.com/Auth/Register
- They will then need to verify their account through the email address they registered with
- While this may not be ideal for someone only attending one match and certainly raises some data harvesting concerns, it allows the club to monitor better who is using that ticket and who is in that seat. Providing the data is accurate because there is only basic verification on the email address
- Once your friend has their OneFulham account set up, you must add them via their last name and reference number to your Friend and Family list in YOUR OneFulham ticketing account
- You can do this in the Account Management section of your Profile, which you can access through the “View Account Menu” option in your profile menu in the top right-hand corner of the e-ticketing screen and then under the Account Management drop-down menu
- The data transfer to Ticketmaster will have lost all your previous Friends and Family network, so you’ll need to build it up again
- When you add a Friend or Family member to your network, they will receive and email advising them of this. They will not have to do anything with this email
- Open your profile in the e-ticketing side of the Fulham FC website – that is the little head icon in the top right corner
- Click on the Manage Tickets option and you will see the tickets that you have and that you can manage:
- NOTE: if you have more than one ticket to your name OR the holder of another ticket in your Friends and Family network has given you permission to MANAGE their ticket, you will see all of those tickets here
- Select the ticket you want to forward and click the red “Forward to Friend” option
- You will now need to select who you want to receive the ticket from your Friends and Family network list. Select the person you want to send the ticket to and either click:
- Add to basket – if you are forwarding more than one ticket, this will then let you repeat the process
- Review Order – to send the ticket to your Friend
- Once the ticket is in your basket, you will complete the usual checkout process: tick the box to accept the Terms and Conditions and click the “Complete Purchase” button to send the ticket to your Friend.
Note: As stated above, you can hold multiple tickets for a match on the same device
Fulham FC Friends and Family Network Guide: https://www.fulhamfc.com/tickets-and-hospitality/digital-ticketing/friends-and-family-network/
Fulham FC Ticket Forwarding Guide: https://fulhamfc.com/tickets-and-hospitality/digital-ticketing/ticket-forwarding-guide
Receiving A Ticket From a Friend
On the other hand, receiving a ticket is very much like the Club Guide. But having just gone through this process, I have a few notes to add.
- Whoever you have forwarded a ticket to will get an email saying you have received a forwarded ticket OR you won’t. Be wary of this
- Just to be sure, let your Friend know you’ve forwarded the ticket to them
- Your Friend will need to log into their OneFulham account and open the eTicketing area of the Club’s site
- Under the Profile menu in the top right-hand corner, you will see an area under “Your Next Match”, which will have the option to review your forwarded tickets
- Click on the ticket you want to accept
- You will then need to Accept the ticket on the next screen
- Once you have accepted your ticket, tick the accept the T&Cs box and click the “Complete Purchase” box
- Now, nothing will happen. You will get the checkout screen that will tell you that your ticket will be delivered to the postal address you have registered in your account
- PANIC NOT!
- In a few minutes, you will receive an email confirming your purchase and allowing you to add the ticket to your phone’s wallet.
Entering the Cottage
We haven’t done this yet, but based on the Club Guide, it seems very much like using your Oyster Card or phone on public transport.
Fulham FC Scanning Your Digital Pass Guide: https://www.fulhamfc.com/tickets-and-hospitality/digital-ticketing/scanning-your-digital-pass-guide/
You can find all of the club’s Digital Ticketing Guides here: https://www.fulhamfc.com/tickets-and-hospitality/digital-ticketing/
Conclusion
All of this is a real pain. The way you are led through the flow requires some fine-tuning, especially around receiving a ticket. But it is what it is. We will get used to it. We will have to.
Please get in touch with us with your experience so far and after the Foxes match on Saturday. We will share the feedback with the Fulham Supporters Trust.
Ticketing worries aside, the Focus team is delighted to return to our Craven Cottage this Saturday, twenty years after the Back to the Cottage campaign helped Al Fayed take us home to the place where we belong.
Come On You Whites!
