While I enjoy the idea of this "perk", I don't think it's very well thought out overall. What's worse is that it's another mid-sales year (starting/ending in August) benefits switcheroo with presumably bad end results. I think it would've been better to give free BAF tickets to those "upgrade-ees" as compensation, but instead we'll now have more people packing into the Preferred Parking Lot and the VIP Lounge(s). This doesn't affect me since we bought my Gold Pass during the MVP Sale (cue the Willy Wonka "You get nothing!" line), but I'm upset for the Prestige buyers whose passes are now devalued anyways. I'm thinking the company is still not seeing pass sales like they wanted and needed to find a new way to get folks buying.
I think the structure should be:
Prestige — All of the current perks, except at a $300 or $400 price point
Gold — All of the current perks, limited to one region (All-Parks Passport eligible), and at a $150 price point
Silver — All season access with blackout dates (no more ending access at Labor Day), only access to the home park complex (Regional Park Passport and All Park Passport eligible), and at a $99 price point
This structure could help with all of the folks who complain about paying for a perk (go off I guess) that they'll never use while taking the bulk of the pass base back down toward the Silver Pass. You also wouldn't have as massive of a group going for the Gold Pass just for access to Haunt and Winterfest, a reason I believe is why the Silver Pass didn't stick around at Kings Island.
I saw a couple of people in the Facebook groups talking about how they're planning to call corporate as well. Do you have any ideas as to what they could give you to make up for it that isn't a partial refund/cost adjustment? Anything I can think of right now is not enough.