Adding Up the Fees: Theater Ticket Prices More Than Double With Additional Charges

You think you've found a great deal to Wicked, then the next thing you know, they've added on as much as $50 in fees and suddenly, you're paying a lot more than you ever originally planned upon paying.

It's difficult to say the least, and extremely frustrating to say more.

Sometimes, these fees come out of nowhere and then you're back looking for even cheaper tickets just so you can afford to pay for all the extra fees. From Service charges to Building Facility Fees, some websites seem to look for any excuse to add on a little more to your ticket price.

So we did some research– so you don't have to– on what TopTenREVIEWS top ten online theater ticket sites charge in their fees for tickets.

The Charges

It’s a fact that almost each of these sites adds on a little bit more than what you originally thought you were going to pay. They may call them different names, but each of these charges amount to about the same thing. Plus, they all end up coming out of your wallet. And there is not a whole lot you can do to get around them.

We created the graph below to show you what kinds of charges each site has added onto the original base ticket price. At least this way, you can be informed.

The Results

Because it is so popular, we decided to check out Wicked. It's playing at the Gershwin Theater in New York on December 23rd. We went with one mid-price ticket for the same exact seat across the board, to show the average amount of fees that are tacked onto that one ticket. The fees differ with each ticket because most fees are based on a percentage of the original price of the ticket, which differs by site.

Our #1 online theater ticket site, Ticketmaster, had the fewest fees added on. Go Tickets also lives up to its slogan by not charging you any more than the price of the ticket (which, remember, usually costs more to begin with) and the shipping fees - that cut costs on our chart quite a bit. Here is what we found:

* Service fees have different names on different sites. Some sites call it Commission, Connection fees, and Convenience charges but they all mean the same thing. We've combined it all into one name for convenience.

If you want to see more ticket prices, go to TopTenREVIEWS best Online Theater Tickets sites to get the best deals to the best shows out there.