PepperedShepherd said: "AmEx pre-sale this morning. What a joke!
The "Select Your Seat" map feature was disabled so you had to trust Ticketmaster to come up with "Best Available".
I searched for multiple dates from the end of October thru mid-November. The best seats I was offered were in Row Q (!) for $650. Excluding the $650 price range, the best I could do was Row NN for $195. 200 bucks to sit 25 rows away in the barn that is the Pantages? Yeah, I don't think so.
Although I would like to see the touring company, right now I'm happy with my $189 2nd row Mezz seat at the Richard Rodgers in September."
I had the same experience with AMEX presale. I already have tickets for Orange County next May, but wanted to see if I could get something reasonable for LA. Ha - was that misguided! Started looking for tickets right at 10 on two different computers and then my mobile. The "best available" search is the worst. In my haste, I didn't realize I needed to deselect the $650 level tickets, so after waiting in the queue for 20 minutes, Row H came up at $650 a piece. I saw the OBC last May at the Rodgers in the $470 premium seats so $650 for the tour seemed excessive. And my husband would surely think I've lost my mind since I've already seen it and we have the OC tickets.
So I gave up those seats, assuming incorrectly that the $195 seats would be in a decent location. Wrong again! After another long wait, row RR came up at $195. I won't pay that much to sit that far back in that huge theater. Once the map finally was activated a few hours after the sale began, I looked at various dates and found those $650 seats back in Row S, center and then around Thanksgiving/ Christmas week/New Year's they go up to $750 for the same far back seats. Which is right when I regretted giving up the $650 Row H seats. But I've come to my senses and will just have to wait for my $175 front Orchestra season tickets at Segerstrom in Costa Mesa. Which seem like a total bargain now.
Curious to see if any extreme side seats become available during the general sale on April 30...let the LA insanity begin!