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ACL airport box office: “Best idea ever”
The 8th annual Austin City Limits Music Festival got off on the right foot for hundreds of Austin Bergstrom International Airport travelers who were able to exchange their tickets for three-day wristbands Thursday at a makeshift Frontgate Tickets box office next to baggage claim.
“This is the best idea ever,” said Jose Cruz of Orlando, Fla. an ACL first-timer who stood in a short line with his friends Eamon Waters and Linda Agosto. “This is one less thing we have to worry about,” said Waters, who was impressed with the live music he heard after deplaning. “We can just enjoy Austin today and stroll right in (to ACL) tomorrow.”
The convenience went a long way with Seattle’s Mike Butler and Laura Noble. “We had to wait for our bags anyway, so we didn’t lose any time,” said Noble, who kept an eye on the baggage claim carousel fifteen feet away.
Brittani Graswich of Dallas picked up four wristbands for her and her friends who were flying in from Seattle on a later flight. She was the ninth person in line, but with each transaction lasting less than a minute, as the two agents scanned the bar codes on hard tickets or computer printouts, she had her wristbands in just over three minutes of waiting. “My friends are supposed to land any minute now,” she said, as she went off to look for them, holding the wristband stems like they were a welcome boquet.
A pair of women tried to buy wristbands at the airport, but were told they were for exchange only. ACL Fest has been sold out for six weeks.
ACL Fest started the airport box office as an innovative customer service touch last year. Jack McCarty of Frontgate said the line had been steady since noon. The longest waits in the late afternoon were about 10 minutes. The ABIA box office will be open from 10 a.m. - 4 p.m. Friday.
Barry Hatfield of New York isn’t attending ACL Fest this year, but turned in a computer printout of a ticket for a wristband for his cousin, who was picking him up at the airport. “This is so easy, I wonder if some people who live in Austin would just come out to the airport to get their wristbands if they knew about it.”
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Permalink | Comments (1) | Categories: ACL Festival 2009
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By Kris
October 1, 2009 8:10 PM | Link to this
We live in East Austin and went to the airport to pick up our wristbands. Quick and easy!