A significant number of Arsenal season ticket holders are yet to download their updated digital passes ahead of the opening game of the season against Nottingham Forest.
The news comes from Darren Epstein, the elected Gold Member Group representative on the Fans’ Forum and has been backed up by The Arsenal Supporters’ Trust who have said there are “a few thousand still to go”.
The concern is that people arriving at Emirates Stadium on Saturday without the correct ticket displaying on their smart phone, will not be able to gain entry and could cause big queues that lead to people missing the start of the game.
Arsenal have emailed season ticket holders to remind them about the need to download / update to new digital passes on a couple of occasions in the last few weeks. However, we’re not sure they’ve underlined just how urgent it is that people check.
Speaking from personal experience, my parents told me their Forest ticket was showing on their phone…and it was, but incorrectly.
They were seeing the ticket on the left. The darker red ticket on the right is the correct version (for iOS). Design varies slightly for Android.
In a video for season ticket holders, the club explains the ticket update process as follows:
“If you haven’t already, just download it from the latest version of the Arsenal Official App. Add your pass directly to your phone’s wallet BEFORE you come to the stadium. Then open your digital pass in your wallet just before you get to the turnstile and hold the back of your phone against the NFC icon at the top of the turnstile reader, wait for the turnstile to respond and you’re in.”
They also remind fans to bring photo ID, just in case your battery goes flat. Bear in mind, screenshots of tickets will no longer work.
Other things worth bearing in mind:
- If you’re bringing kids and you have their passes on your phone, scan them through the turnstile before going in yourself.
- If you’re a disabled supporter with an assistant, you’ll be able to have both tickets on the same smart phone.
Arsenal have also provided the following handy links. We suggest you give them a read in case you have any doubts about what you’re doing.
- How to download your digital pass
- Book a digital pass drop-in session being held on Thursday 10th August, 4pm-7pm
They have also shared the following additional information for season ticket holders. Again, worth a read.
- Check what games are included in your Season Ticket this season
- Read about Season Ticket Utilisation and ensure you know how to check your attendance badges and trophies
- Find out how to use Ticket Transfer to share your Season Ticket with friends & family
- Learn how Ticket Exchange works, which is now free to use for Season Ticket Holders
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Some people are bound to have questions about the above, if that is the case, we suggest you refer to these FAQs or speak to the club directly. Unfortunately, we’re not experts, so we can’t field questions!
Some people’s (updated) tickets are showing the kick-off time as 11.30. Any idea what’s going on there?
is it just a GMT/BST glitch of something like that, or are they going to need to update (again) sometime before the match?
Don’t know for sure, but I imagine it’s a glitch. Someone also mentioned their Fulham ticket is showing as 2pm vs 3pm.
How do they see that? My wallet only displays details for “Next valid game”.
I assume the Fulham game is the next for them, perhaps they put their ticket on the Exchange for Forest.
Don’t want to alarm you but I don’t think your ticket has updated to the digital pass, I had the same problem.
What makes you say that? I think mine looks fine. Won’t leave it to the last minute to get in on Saturday anyway, of course!
Because it is supposed to say the opponent, kick off, seat etc. I think anyway. Mine now does. It’s clear as mud though admittedly.
Mine has all that. I think I see the confusion. When I said it “only displays details for ‘Next valid game'” I just meant it doesn’t say anything about the Fulham game.
Great, at least there will be a couple of us in the stadium in time for kick off 😂
Methinks we’ll have to get there nice and early to be in in time for kickoff
To clarify it should have all those details in the wallet on your phones arsenal digital pass.
I’m a silver member and my ticket shows 11.30ko but as all the other details are correct am assuming it will work at the turnstiles
Also worth mentioning that apparently in the Apple Wallet you can make it update by turning auto-update off and on again (although you might then get the version showing the 11.30 kick-off time).
I’m not aware of a similar feature in google wallet, but mine seems to have updated anyway.
They’re really not very good at this, are they?
Sorry, accidentally posted early. Thing is, I just got a reminder email from the club. It says “If you haven’t already, please download your digital pass to your phone’s wallet before you come to the stadium on matchday.” What it doesn’t say is anything about needing to update it if you have already downloaded it, but it was a while ago.
This is going to be a nightmare on Saturday, took me ages to get the ticket to update to the pass on android and I don’t even know what made it eventually work, it was just saying ‘next valid game’ without a seat/row etc. I am relatively tech savvy too. It straight up doesn’t work properly.
So it looks like phones have some kind of virtual wallet and this is common knowledge?
That’s correct. Clearly some of their communication has been a bit sub-par, but Arsenal have been explaining about to get your ST onto your phone in this way for a good while. Lots of people were getting through the turnstiles using their digital wallets last season.
To get google wallet you just have to agree to sharing all sorts of personal data with the slippery sorry honest folks at google.
Then you can download the arsenal app and share it with stan
Or stop going even though you were supporting this club before any of these people had even heard of Arsenal.
So I have now purchased a new phone that supports NFC because of this, although I shouldn’t have bothered as I just got the usual email that yet again I have not been successful getting a ticket and to try again in the future…
Did you try contacting the club? I think I read in one of their communications that there would be ways for people without smartphones to get in, but that you needed to ask them about it.
To think that the ticket update issue raised in this article DID impact the start of the game today. Interesting! I hope that Gooners on here going to the game got in in time. #COYG