Club Arnage

I got a leaflet today from the ACO (I don't know if it's going outside the country as it's in French, but maybe there's an English edition?)  There have been some changes to the various levels of membership available but in particular to the top level one (which gives you the book, and souvenir box etc) which now gives priority booking for 2011 - and not before time.  Yes it's expensive but there you go.

It may be of particular interest for those with nice motors as the collector addition gives you interior protected parking during the race and the Classic.

http://www.passion-24.org/htm/passion.asp

If it's REAL priority booking, including Grandstand Tickets and Camping Passes then that's great, but as they've let us down so many times in the past, I'm tempted to think it's simply priority booking for General Admission tickets!  ::)

OK.....so I tyoed my reply and then looked at the link!!  ::)

I wonder how many Grandstand seats and Camping passes you will be allowed to order?

There seems to be priority booking for the middle tier (Passion 24 VIP) too.

The parking might be of interest, it depends on how much it is, over and above the extra €24 for "Collection", and where it is too...

VIP seems to replace the standard ACO membership.
I think that they were using priority booking for ACO members this year, we applied a week after other CAer's (who got BN) for the Classic, we got what we asked for, MB, even though others had been told it was already sold out.
The ACO moves in mysterious ways. ???

I suspect it will be limited, probably 6 max.

Which with numbered pitches, will mean everyones scattered around, and it's now a very long walk from the furtherest point of MB to the Grandstands, it's like being camped at the Porsche Curves, rather defeats the object of being on MB.

€235  :o blimey, also there now seems to be an ACO campsite?

There's always been this expensive option on ACO membership. Includes lots of goodies.
Out of my price range though, will stick to VIP

Even so €235 for a poster and a dvd is a bit ott nest pas?

Does the passion 24 membership give you access to ACO members area at the circuit?

I would say not as Passion 24 VIP states that it includes Passion 24 benfits plus others and one of the others being "FREE RESERVED ACCESS TO THE ESPACE PRIVILEGE CLUB ACO".

I think the basic Passion 24 is aimed at those people who don't actually go to the race, whereas PAssion 24 VIP is a replacement for the current membership.

But obviously I am not French so anything could be possible!

Thats how I read it.

Just had my renewal notice through, with the details in (sort of) English.

I've updated the Wiki - so look there for the details

The important change of course is 'Access to priority booking' for 2011.  But that is all it says - no details on how many tickets, how it's going to work etc

Del

I e-mailed them the other day as my membership runs out in October and I didnt' want to miss the new offer of priority booking but on the other hand am reluctant to give up four months of membership.  I got an answer back saying I was welcome to change to the new membership but no offer of a refund for the months already paid for.  I've therefore got to write back so I'll see what more I can find out about the priority bit.  I'll be p*ssed off if my old style membership doesn't carry this advantage, especially as this is my 11th year.

Depends when the priority booking starts, anybody got any info?
Luckily my membership runs out in June, so shouldn't be a problem.

Is there a consensus as to which membership gets the discounted tickets and priority booking, As our group seems to be getting bigger by the year its possibly time for me to join.

Passion 24 VIP is the cheaper option with discounted tickets and priority booking.

Check out the 'ACO Membership' chapter in the Wiki or the Guide - all is explained there

Del

Thanks after reading the wiki its all clear now.

Just a note for anyone using explorer 8 ,it doesnt work and probably wont show all the options.

According to the aco you can save up to 96 euros on 6 passes and campsite tickets so the membership could essentially only cost 2 euros with the potential advantage of priority booking!

Another nice little add-on this year was the facility to re-charge batteries in the bar in the members' grandstand.  (You'd have needed a UK/EU adaptor though.)

Didn't fancy leaving anything expensive plugged in and unattended though, anybody could pick it up.

Can the ACO membership pass be used by anyone, to get access to the members area or does it have a photo etc.

That of course presumes that you'd be happy to camp on Beausejour as they seem to be the only passes the ACO sell directly there days (unless your in the priviliged 1%) ....  :(

That assumes you charge all other members of the party pay you the full rate for the tickets, in practice what usually happens is you pay for the membership everyone gets the cheaper tickets, was a member for 2 years and decided it was costing me a fortune

No longer, all computerized now, if you hadn't received your new membership card in time, but have paid, no longer a problem, they can look up your status on the computer, when you produce last years card.

I tell the guys up front the I want to charge them the "Non-Member" price and that the I use the "Profit" to fund my membership.   This year that gave me a £6 profit on top of the Membership.  They seem happy with the arrangement  to fund my membership in return for all the faffing about I have to do to get the tickets.

same here. I calculate a fair price that everyone has to pay. And everyone is bound to pay a deposit covering the camping, and fully pay before the tickets and cars have to be paid.
that leaves me to deside if i want to have a membership or not as it only costs me 2 euro, so why not?

Thats what I was going to do , the basis being that its being done to get "priority" rather than the other benefits.

I spoke to the nice women in the booking office today about the priority stuff.  They told me that at the moment, bookings officially open on 4th October for 2011. However, they are expecting a date before that to be announced for members but at the moment there's no news as to when that will be but members should (that's should - not will be) notified.  Whether existing members count or whether it's just for those in the new schemes, nobody seems to know (for instance, my current membership expires in October so she wasn't sure if I'd be given priority booking this year or not - in spite of being loyal for the last ten years.)

The suggestion was that I should send my booking order in with my membership renewal.  We shall see.

I have booked the time off s would appreciate any assistance possible with a reserved spot on MB, okay it is not quite the BN that you all aspire to now but at  least I have managed to move from the Hell Hole of Houx Annexe, which was Gods Country for so long, deservedly.

>Martini...LB

It wouldn't surprise me at all if camping places weren't restricted in number like the ACO grandstand is (ie two per member).  If not then of course I'll happily reserve more MB places if that proves to be an option.  But I strongly suspect that it won't and as with DFH in a previous year when I submitted a booking for them with mine and I got Bleu and they got offered BSJ.  Thus it wouldn't surprise me if big numbers will just be pushed onto the less popular sites - whether there's a member on the team or not.  I put a few requests in at the same time last year and I was the only one who got on the MB reserve list and even then I didn't get a spot until a week before the race week.

But I am just speculating.  As ever, I'm happy to submit bookings in person on the opening day if I'm around to do it and help in any other way I can without jeapordising my own chances of getting on MB.  Selfish I know but even  BN is a b*gger with the chair.