Six Flags Season Pass or Membership: Which is a better deal?

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Six Flags Season Pass or Membership: Which is a better deal?

For the 2021 year, Six Flags offers two season passes and 4 membership options, in additions to daily tickets. Which is the best value?

Six Flags makes it very, very difficult to know!  Every September they have a sale on the passes and memberships which makes it even more confusing. Well, I did the math and put it all into a spreadsheet. This calculator will allow you to enter the number of people in your group and find out what the total costs are for each option. And that includes options for unlimited drink cups, park and meal plans!

All we need to know is how many passes, tickets or memberships do you need, and whether you want the dining pass.

Below you can click on the cost comparison for passes/memberships with a premium dining pass, a basic dining pass or no dining pass.

Cost comparisons buying during the Six Flags Fall 2020 Sale in September and October 2020

These calculations assume you want the Premium dining pass (lunch, dinner, snack and unlimited free drinks), which pays for itself in 3 or 4 visits, see the Dining pass page: Even if you do not want the dining pass, the calculator pages below will still show you the costs for passes vs. memberships separately.

 

Six Flags Discovery Kingdom (California):California is more expensive!

While California tends to be much more expensive than the rest of the U.S., we're pretty sure the $999.99 annual pass price shown on their website on September 18, 2020 (shown at right) was a typo! Still, it's both ironic, and funny! 

  1. 1 pass or membership
  2. 2 passes or memberships
  3. 3 passes or memberships
  4. 4 passes or memberships
  5. 5 passes or memberships
  6. 6 passes or memberships
  7. 7 passes or memberships
  8. You get the point... if you have more than 7 in your group, take a look at the 7 passes option, the conclusion will hold for larger groups.

Six Flags Magic Mountain (California):

  1. 1 pass or membership
  2. 2 passes or memberships
  3. 3 passes or memberships
  4. 4 passes or memberships
  5. 5 passes or memberships
  6. 6 passes or memberships
  7. 7 passes or memberships
  8. You get the point... if you have more than 7 in your group, take a look at the 7 passes option, the conclusion will hold for larger groups.

Six Flags Over Georgia:

  1. 1 pass or membership
  2. 2 passes or memberships
  3. 3 passes or memberships
  4. 4 passes or memberships
  5. 5 passes or memberships
  6. 6 passes or memberships
  7. 7 passes or memberships
  8. You get the point... if you have more than 7 in your group, take a look at the 7 passes option, the conclusion will hold for larger groups.

Six Flags America (Maryland - Baltimore / D.C.):

  1. 1 pass or membership
  2. 2 passes or memberships
  3. 3 passes or memberships
  4. 4 passes or memberships
  5. 5 passes or memberships
  6. 6 passes or memberships
  7. 7 passes or memberships
  8. You get the point... if you have more than 7 in your group, take a look at the 7 passes option, the conclusion will hold for larger groups.

Six Flags America (St. Louis, Missouri):

  1. 1 pass or membership
  2. 2 passes or memberships
  3. 3 passes or memberships
  4. 4 passes or memberships
  5. 5 passes or memberships
  6. 6 passes or memberships
  7. 7 passes or memberships
  8. You get the point... if you have more than 7 in your group, take a look at the 7 passes option, the conclusion will hold for larger groups.

Six Flags Great Adventure (New Jersey):

  1. 1 pass or membership
  2. 2 passes or memberships
  3. 3 passes or memberships
  4. 4 passes or memberships
  5. 5 passes or memberships
  6. 6 passes or memberships
  7. 7 passes or memberships
  8. You get the point... if you have more than 7 in your group, take a look at the 7 passes option, the conclusion will hold for larger groups.

Six Flags Over Frontier City (Oklahoma):

  1. 1 pass or membership
  2. 2 passes or memberships
  3. 3 passes or memberships
  4. 4 passes or memberships
  5. 5 passes or memberships
  6. 6 passes or memberships
  7. 7 passes or memberships
  8. You get the point... if you have more than 7 in your group, take a look at the 7 passes option, the conclusion will hold for larger groups.

Six Flags Over Texas:

  1. 1 pass or membership
  2. 2 passes or memberships
  3. 3 passes or memberships
  4. 4 passes or memberships
  5. 5 passes or memberships
  6. 6 passes or memberships
  7. 7 passes or memberships
  8. You get the point... if you have more than 7 in your group, take a look at the 7 passes option, the conclusion will hold for larger groups.

Six Flags Fiesta, Texas:

  1. 1 pass or membership
  2. 2 passes or memberships
  3. 3 passes or memberships
  4. 4 passes or memberships
  5. 5 passes or memberships
  6. 6 passes or memberships
  7. 7 passes or memberships
  8. You get the point... if you have more than 7 in your group, take a look at the 7 passes option, the conclusion will hold for larger groups.

Other Parks (AZ, IL, MA, NY, Montreal, Canada, Mexico City)

The Six Flags parks in Arizona, Illinois, Massachusetts and New York are still closed and likely will not re-open until the 2021 season.  However, if they offer passes or memberships on sale, I will add them here, too!

The numbers are likely to be very similar at other Six Flags U.S. parks, but not absolutely identical.  Most of the Season Passes at other parks, like NJ (Great Adventure), Illinois, California, etc. are $10 higher ($59.99 per pass for 2 or more. ) than southern parks.

If there is interest, I'll publish the spreadsheets for any park or scenario, just write me!.

 

The Bottom Line

Basically the memberships are an installment plan for people who cannot afford to pay the entire annual amount at once. The benefits between the season pass (with the premium dining pass) are trivially better, until you reach the Diamond levels. At the Diamond and Diamond Elite levels, you get closer parking and the ability to skip one (or two for Elite) lines per visit.

Is that worth the extra $200+ each year for those benefits?  Well, that's up to you to decide.

 

Notes about the Fall / Halloween Sale

Important: Only Season Pass Holders and Members may buy Season Dining Passes.

If you buy your a Deluxe Dining Pass during the Halloween sale, you get a free upgrade to Premium dining pass, which:

  • Provides lunch, dinner and a snack each visit (the basic dining pass is lunch and snack only)
  • You can eat at every Six Flags theme park and
  • It includes free all-year free  Drink Bottle (the basic dining pass does not include the cup) Since the cups cost about $20 each, this is a big deal.

 

Also, when you buy the 2021 passes, they are valid IMMEDIATELY.  In other words, you can starting using the passes, including the dining passes and unlimited drink bottles immediately (in 2020) and they are still valid until December 31, 2021. Effectively, you get 15 months to use them.

 

Cost comparisons for other times of the year.

Whenever Six Flags has a sale, and during non-sale periods, I will create a cost comparison for those times, as well.  Stop back then!

 

Perks, Subtle Differences and Flash pass and Parking Add-ons

If a Flash Pass or close to the gate preferred parking are important to you, these upgrades are built into the Diamond and Diamond Elite memberships but they are not exactly the same as the stand-alone Flash Pass. Diamond allows you to Flash ONE ride per visit, Diamond Elite gives you 2 passes per visit. In other words, if skipping EVERY line on every ride is important to you, you just have to bite the bullet and buy the Flash Pass separately anyway.  That pretty much only makes sense if you are only going once per season.. or you have more money that Warren Buffet.

The other perks that come with the memberships are pretty worthless, in my opinion. You can see the full list here.

Cost to add Flash Passes:

Flash Pass are absurdly expensive. 

So, how much do they cost?  Ah, they won't tell you. The price will only be shown to you when you go to check out when buying your passes or memberships.

That tells me two thinks:

  1. The want to make it an impulse sale, and probably a high-pressure sale with a "get this price ONLY if you buy it right now... and
  2. it's not competitive, you might be offered a higher price than others.  Why else is the price not published?

You can accomplish the same thing as a Flash Pass by simply going during less popular hours and days.

What does Six Flags say about why they think you should buy a membership?

On their website, Six Flags says:

Become a Member if you want admission and parking at every Six Flags and Hurricane Harbor, discounts EVERY time you visit, free upgrades, priority entry, and incredible unique experiences, bonuses and surprises. And special treatment. Plus you get a shiny card that looks WAY prettier than the regular Season Pass card -- the Diamond card even has a hologram!

Ooh, a shiny card with a hologram!  Can you tell they think we are idiots?

 

What's my analysis?

Seriously... sounds like a lot of empty fluff.  What matters is:

  • total cost
  • meals included
  • Unlimited drinks included
  • parking included
  • Being able to go to all of your local Six Flags operations (eg, the amusement park and the water park)
  • And if you travel, being able to go in and park at any of the Six Flags amusement parks.

The Gold Season Pass, bought on this sale, gives you all of that.  The added perks are just stuff you will rarely use. I will grant you, if you are disabled or have other health issues, the priority parking which is the parking closest to the gate, could be worth it. That is included in the Diamond and Diamond Elite memberships.