[KCON18LA] Buying Tickets for KCON LA 2018

I haven't gotten over the best weekend of my life that was KCON New York 2018 back on June 23 and 24, and here I am planning for KCON LA! KCON had been announcing LA's lineup for weeks, but it wasn't until July 5th that they announced Golden Child along with 3 other artists, for a total of 15 artists plus more to come. The moment the trophy hint came out earlier that day, I had a feeling that I'd be going to KCON again quite soon. When Golden Child was officially announced, my heart sank in nervousness and anticipation and fear that KCON caused while I was planning for NY, yet I knew I still had to go see Golden Child again and began planning. All images from this post are from KCON's social media.

On July 9th KCON announced the final 4 artists, 2 being Jun (who is always a pre-show special guest at KCON) and Mia (a singer-songwriter). The lineup is already so long, but to add on artists who should be pre-show guests (no offense) is a bit upsetting. With such a huge lineup and a set concert length, each artist will already have much less stage time than in KCON NY. Following this announcement, KCON revealed the daily lineup which had 13 featured artists and 5 special guests. Only featured artists will have an artist engagement, however on August 3rd KCON revealed the schedule which only had 11 artist engagements. Note that KCON Global tends to post notices like this earlier than KCON USA, so I suggest following both accounts on Twitter for the most updated info.

I elaborated on KCON's convention and concert ticketing processes while preparing for KCON NY here. In this post I'll discuss any differences and my experience ticketing for LA.

Ticketing System

KCON is split into the convention portion and the concert portion, and for the most part you have to buy your tickets to each portion separately. However KCON does offer Diamond and Platinum packages that include both convention and concert tickets with special benefits only for these tiers. Diamond and Platinum tickets can be purchased on AXS like the regular concert tickets.

Concert Tickets

Above the concert tickets are broken into tiers and by number of nights. The prices are a bit higher than NY, but be aware that these prices are before the ticketing fees are added.

This is the original seating chart. I have mixed feelings about this - first off, I am glad that KCON revealed all available seats for the LA concerts, as opposed to NY where KCON changed the seating chart twice after ticket sales began. On the flip side, this is a 360° stage where you don't know which side the artists will face. This is especially nerve-wracking because I am only going to see Golden Child, and because their set will surely be quite short, I don't want to just see their backs the entire time.

I met 2 Goldenness in NY and the 3 of us decided to go to LA together and get pit so that we could be together. By getting general admission, I didn't have to worry about getting a "bad" seat or about trying to somehow upgrade my seat (which AXS doesn't allow). The risky part is that based on the seating chart, P1 GA Floor is split into 2 sections, so I'll have to choose wisely which side to enter at the concert in hopes that Golden Child will face that side.

Concert ticket sales began on Wednesday July 11th at 10AM PDT on AXS. There is a separate page for each concert day, and within each page is the option for VIP (most likely for Diamond and Platinum) or 2-Day Combo.

I only planned to buy GA for August 11th. At 9:30AM I was able to enter a waiting room for single tickets for August 11th. Note that there was no waiting room for VIP. I entered the waiting room on several tabs throughout the 30 minutes, because the waiting room doesn't necessarily let you enter the ticketing page in order. At 10AM I entered the ticketing page (I think it was from a tab that had entered the waiting room after 9:50AM). There's a dropdown to select GA, P1 seated, P2, or P3. The site only shows you the "best" available seat rather than all available sections and seats. Because I chose GA, I didn't have to waste time waiting for the perfect seat. After choosing GA, it took me to a parking page where I could add on one of Staple Center's parking passes or skip it. On the next page I added my payment and shipping info and there was the option of adding on insurance in case I needed to return my ticket. For the delivery options, there was a mobile flashseats option for free, or either by mail or will call for $25. I chose mobile flashseats. My total was $231.49. I completed my purchase at 10:03AM - it was definitely a lot less stressful this time around!

Soon I received a confirmation email of the delivery of my GA ticket to my account. There are instructions to access and use your ticket either via the AXS app or flashseats app. Many people had their tickets sent to flashseats, however mine was sent to AXS. It turns out that AXS is currently transitioning their ticketing system, hence the chaos with flashseats at the moment.

KCON also revealed 4 hours after ticket sales began that the Sunday GA tickets had glitched. AXS refunded tickets for those who bought seated Sunday tickets.

Convention Tickets 

On July 10th, KCON posted the convention ticket prices along with their premium programs on their website. On the following day, KCON announced that the artist engagement packs are only for featured artists, not special artists. Klub KCON is now $60 with a convention ticket or $80 without a convention ticket; with such an increase in price, I wonder if they'll add more artists...? LA also offers the flower boy cafe, where you can purchase a maximum of 2 sessions for $15 each.

On Friday July 13th at 10AM PDT the convention tickets and add-ons were released on KCON's website, the same process as with NY. I opened the webpage on several tabs on Edge, IE, and Chrome, refreshed the page 10 seconds before 10AM, and the link to purchase was already live. My Edge tabs, IE tabs, and 1 of my Chrome tabs had a "service unavailable" error, but I was able to get into the waiting room, make my selection, and complete my purchase by 10:09AM. I had selected the convention ticket ($30), A1 artist engagement pack ($155), and Klub KCON ($60), adding up to $245.99 after the $0.99 service fee.

My email confirmation took 30 minutes to come through after my purchase, however in my account I was also able to manually send myself the confirmation email.

Announcements 

The 3 weeks leading up to KCON LA, KCON released a lot of announcements. On July 23rd, KCON announced a special event for Wanna One and Twice on Saturday, and Seventeen on Sunday. On July 26th, KCON announced Star Live Talks for only Momoland and Twice on Saturday, and Chungha and Roy Kim on Sunday, along with additional concert and VIP tickets on sale the following day at 3PM PDT. On July 27th, KCON announced a free pre-event on August 8th with Ailee and Roy Kim, and another free pre-event on August 9th with a screening of "The Fortress" and a Q&A with the director. On August 4th, KCON announced a Super Rookie Showcase with IN2IT on Friday, Imfact on Saturday, and Fromis_9 on Sunday. 

And on August 7th, KCON dropped the Artist Engagement schedule. I was surprised they released it even before the early check-in on Thursday. As I previously stated, only 11 artist engagements are on the schedule, and here we see that the featured artists not doing an artist engagement are IN2IT and Imfact. On August 8th, KCON also announced that the Beauty Station will have 2 members of Momoland on the 10th and all of Dreamcatcher on the 12th.

And now Klub KCON, the announcement I had been waiting for. On July 23rd, KCON announced the first wave of artists, Dynamic Duo and Crush. On July 26th, KCON added Golden Child (!!!) and Momoland, plus more artists to come. On July 30th, KCON finished the lineup with IN2IT, despite them saying more artists to come. Regardless, I'm just happy to see Golden Child on the list!

KCON also released the concert queuing times and map on August 7th, indicating that they won't be handing out wristbands like they had for NY.

I'll continue my KCON18LA series for D-0 (Thursday check-in), D-1 (Convention + Klub), D-2 (Convention + Concert), and D-3 (Convention).