Varsity Trip: booking website crashes and ticket sell-outs

Organisers of the Varsity Trip are gleefully counting the cash as the annual piss-up on the slopes of the French Alps was on the brink of selling out on Friday afternoon.

The Tab can reveal that only 10 tickets of the 2,500 were still on sale as of 3pm on Friday afternoon but all those look set to go as students race to secure their place at Val Thorens.

The trip will run during the second week of December but organisers were left red-faced on Friday morning after the website’s booking form crashed within ten minutes of opening the booking window.

There snow Varsity trip for you

Tickets went on sale at 8am and Varsity Trip insiders revealed that the site was out of order by 8.10 yet the demand was such that all upgraded accommodation had already sold out by that time.

Classy Cambridge travellers pounced on the higher-bracketed prices, snapping up 40% of the rooms by 8.08 (before the crash), reserving the upgraded lodgings that are worth £29 and £59 respectively. The top bracket deluxe rooms, worth £199, were still on sale as of Friday afternoon.

After the crash, the website went to a holding page in an effort to preserve  the details of each customer. Then, at 8.51, organisers claimed that the system had been put on hold for another 30 minutes.

The details would be preserved, they said in a Facebook post. At 09.36, the website did come back online, although some students did lose their preferred accommodation choice.

The ‘holding’ page

The Varsity Trip’s press officer has told the Tab that ‘NUCO’s (our tour operator) booking form crashed at about 08:10 this morning. We had the form back up again in about half an hour – a big improvement on last year!’

Any student with an email from WorldPay, confirming their payment, will be going to Val Thorens at the end of Michaelmas.

Nothing went wrong with Tinie Tempah’s booking…

Varsity Trip are hoping to find hundreds more spaces over the weekend for sale next week. Watch this space!