Niles: Cheap passes won’t buy a fix for Six Flags

If there is one word that describes Six Flags’ management strategy, that has to be “persistent.”

Years of underselling its parks with cheap annual passes have failed to deliver positive financial results for the company. So what is Six Flags going to do in 2026? It is going to keep selling cheap annual passes, but this time the company is going to make them even cheaper.

That’ll work, right?

Six Flags has announced that it will allow Gold-level passholders and members admission to all parks in one of four home regions in North America, as well as to their home park. The company also is running a sale on low-level Silver passes at designated parks, upgrading them to the Gold level for no extra charge.

That means that you can now buy a Gold Pass from Six Flags Magic Mountain for just $90. That pass also will get you into Knott’s Berry Farm and Six Flags’ two parks in the Bay Area for free, all year long. The only catch is the pass does not include $35 daily parking at Knott’s, but it does provide free parking at the other parks.

At Knott’s, you can buy a Gold Pass for $140 that gets you into Magic Mountain and the Bay Area parks, but again does not get you free Knott’s parking. For that, you have to buy a $300 Prestige pass, which includes access to all Six Flags parks in North America, plus other benefits, including one single-use Fast Lane per visit. Or you can buy a $90 all-season parking pass, but with the Prestige pass selling for just an extra $70 bucks, I suspect that most fans would opt for that.

Six Flags also is changing its Perks & Play program this year to extend those benefits to all passholders and members. No more unlocking benefits after a designated number of visits, although Six Flags said that surprise “bonus” perks might be offered to passholders based on their visitation. Perks still can be redeemed only at your home park.

It’s all a great deal for fans — expect for that bit about Knott’s Berry Farm not including free parking. I hate when theme parks such as Disneyland and Knott’s do not include parking with annual passes. Making guests pay every time they use their pass hides the true cost of those passes.

But the bigger hidden cost of Six Flags’ pass deal is the risk to the company’s future. With Disney, Universal and even Herschend investing big money in new attractions, Six Flags needs to raise money not just to pay off its massive debts but also to build world-class new attractions to compete with its rivals. Otherwise, fans won’t visit, no matter the price.

Cheap passes cannot raise that type of cash, just as they have not for Six Flags in the past. At some point, it now seems inevitable that Six Flags will have to sell underperforming parks to raise that money and focus investment on its top parks. Perhaps this pass promotion is Six Flags’ way to hook fans at its doomed parks on visiting other, surviving parks in their region of the country?