Oasis fans say they endured a ‘frustrating nightmare’ trying to buy tickets as surge pricing and online scalpers wreaked havoc

Some celebrated securing the much-coveted tickets to the two brothers’ gigs after being broken up for 15 years, while others, disheartened by the demand ticket sites faced, resorted to giving up after long queues or couldn’t justify paying hundreds for a single ticket.

‘Dynamic pricing’

A major problem for fans was the “dynamic pricing” used by Ticketmaster during the sale.

More commonly known as surge pricing, the practice has been used by firms like Uber for many years.

With Uber, rides increase in cost based on user demand, incentivizing drivers to work in areas with lots of potential passengers.

However, it is relatively new in the world of concert tickets, introduced by Ticketmaster in 2022. It has come under fire in the UK since the Oasis ticket release, with the UK government saying it will look into dynamic pricing as part of a wider review of ticketing practices for major events, including the huge secondary market.

Fans left annoyed by changing prices

While thousands of fans took to social media to voice their anger, Business Insider spoke to three Oasis fans who struggled to get tickets for the upcoming tour about their experiences.

One fan BI spoke to was able to get tickets, but only after their price rose via dynamic pricing.

Con Harrison, who lives in London, said he was on the Ticketmaster site from 7 a.m. and almost got standing tickets at 9 a.m.

“When I got through, it [Ticketmaster] wouldn’t allow me to add tickets and kept spinning and saying confirming availability,” he said.

The standing option then disappeared, and a new option appeared, called ‘in demand standing,’ Harrison said.

Ticketmaster’s page for Oasis tickets described an “in demand standing ticket” as those priced “according to their market value.”

Harrison said a standing ticket then rose in price to £358.10 ($470.72) each, which he was able to purchase two of at around 1 p.m. after being on the website for over six hours.

Molly O’Connor, who lives in Dublin, was another left frustrated by the ticketing process. After waiting hours in an online queue, she was faced with the prospect of spending over $500 per ticket.

O’Connor told BI she logged on early on Saturday to try and get tickets.

“Little did I know that I would spend the next five hours waiting,” she said.

She explained that over 300,000 people were ahead of her in the queue, but as the hours slipped by, more and more dropped off.

O’Connor said: “There was a sense of ‘well, I’ve waited this long, I might as well stick it out.'”

By 12:30 p.m., she said she was presented with tickets for general standing admission costing €490 ($542.35) each, plus a booking fee.

“I was dumbfounded,” O’Connor said.

“The thought of spending almost a grand on two multi-millionaires who will likely fall out before the encore, I could not justify it.”

‘A frustrating nightmare’

In addition to high prices for tickets bought through official channels, Oasis fans have also been left frustrated by the speed with which tickets have been listed on the secondary market for vastly inflated prices.

London-based Jordan Graham missed out on tickets through Ticketmaster, and saw tickets listed for as much as £6,347 ($8,345.04) on a secondary ticketing site.

Tickets were originally advertised by promoters as being priced from €86.50 ($95.74) (subject to service charge) for the Dublin gigs and from about £150 ($197.13) for the UK concerts.

“I was over the moon that Oasis had reunited,” Graham told Business Insider.

“But missing out on the ballot, Ticketmaster chaos, and resellers selling at extortionate prices have made getting tickets a frustrating nightmare,” he added.

Ticketmaster did not immediately respond to a request for comment from Business Insider.

Its website explains that Ticketmaster does not set ticket prices. Artists can decide whether to use dynamic pricing for ticket sales.