Good morning everyone, welcome to part 2 of my Goldstar series.  If you haven’t already, please read Goldstar Part 1: Introduction to Searching & Buying Discounted Event Tickets and sign up for your free Goldstar account.  In this post, I will explain how Goldstar’s Red Velvet membership works, the costs and the benefits of the service.  Before you become a Goldstar Red Velvet member, you need to sign up for a free Goldstar account.  I became a Goldstar Red Velvet member on April 3, 2016, and at the time, I could not find much information available about the service, both through Google searches and on Goldstar’s own website.  My goal for this post is to show you exactly how Goldstar’s Red Velvet membership works.

There are currently 4 main components to the Red Velvet membership:

• Unlimited Comps – get 4 free tickets to select Goldstar events every week
• 4-Hour Hold – place event tickets on hold for 4 hours to finalize your plans
• First Look – be the first to know about new events and special Goldstar offers
• Easy Cancel – free and easy ticket cancellation; use Goldstar “Same-As-Cash” Credit for future events

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Goldstar Red Velvet Membership Plans

There are currently 2 Goldstar Red Velvet membership plans available.  You can pay $64.95 for a 12 month membership ($5.41 per month) or you can pay $24.95 for a 3 month membership ($8.32 per month).  If you cancel your membership before the end of the membership term, you will not get a prorated refund, instead, your membership is good through the end of the term and your membership will not automatically renew.  With that said, I don’t mind paying a little more per month for the flexibility of cancelling a long term plan.  Plus, I get way more value out of my Goldstar Red Velvet membership every month than the $8.32 monthly cost.

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Perk 1: Unlimited Comps

Unlimited Comps are amazing.  If this was the only benefit of the Goldstar Red Velvet membership, it would still be a great deal.  Like I mentioned in Part 1, unlimited comps are free tickets to select events, but there might be a small service fee required (of $2-$8 per ticket).  You can redeem up to 2 comp tickets per event, so I could go to 2 events and get 2 comp tickets for each event, or I could get 1 comp ticket to 4 different events.  In San Francisco, there are several comp tickets to comedy events, usually for shows during the week or late at night on the weekends.

Every week, I get the following email telling me that my new unlimited comps have been loaded to my Goldstar account.

Let me show you how to redeem your comp tickets for Cobb’s Comedy Showcase: Top Bay Area Comics Perform.  As of today, there are 2 events available with comp availability.  By the way, most comp events have a limited number of comp tickets available, so you should try to redeem your comp tickets as soon as possible.  Plus, since you are a Goldstar Red Velvet member, you can easily cancel the tickets later on (cancellation instructions will be shown below).

After selecting a date/time from above, I am brought to the checkout page.  Make sure you select Complimentary General Admission, not the first General Admission.  In most cases, the tickets are exactly the same, but the price is much different.  As you can see, the service fees and agency fees are both waived with this unlimited comp redemption.  Unfortunately, that won’t always be the case.  As a requirement of most comedy shows, a 2 drink minimum is required per person.  The drinks range from $5-$10 on average and I tend to spend $15-$16 per person with tip.

On the next page, please review the date, time and total cost of the event.  If everything looks good, click the Buy Now button to complete your order.

Congratulations, you now have confirmed Goldstar event tickets.  If you have an iPhone or Android, you can download the Goldstar app, log in, and view your tickets in the app.  You will also get 2 emails from Goldstar: ticket confirmation and payment confirmation.  When you go to pick up your Goldstar event tickets, you can either show your driver’s license or the Goldstar confirmation (print out or via the Goldstar app).

In my Goldstar account, this is what my Unlimited Comps looked like before I redeemed them…

…and this is what it looks like after I redeemed my Unlimited Comps.

As you can see, all 4 of my Unlimited Comp slots are now full, so I cannot redeem any more Unlimited Comps until the following week when they are replenished in my Goldstar account.

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Perk 2: 4-Hour Hold

Another perk of being a Goldstar Red Velvet member is the ability to hold event tickets for up to 4 hours.  This works out well when you are checking your schedule, confirming with friends, or deciding between 2 events on the same day.  All you have to do is click the 4-Hour Hold button during the checkout process to initiate the 4-hour hold.

The next page will show the countdown timer and it will give you the ability to cancel the 4-hour hold or purchase the Goldstar event tickets.

You will also receive an email regarding your 4-hour hold and the deadline to book before the 4-hour hold expires.

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Perk 3: First Look Email

Once or twice a month, Goldstar will send out an email that shows all the latest events in your city.  This email is not super useful since you can always search Goldstar for recently added events.

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Perk 4: Easy Cancel

Easy Cancel is my second favorite perk of being a Goldstar Red Velvet member.  Stuff happens and plans change, so having the flexibility to cancel tickets comes in very handy.  If you cancel 1-2 event tickets per month, your savings with Easy Cancel will offset the monthly fee you paid.  You do not get the refund put back onto your original form of payment, but the credit sits in your Goldstar account for future use.  Let’s just say that I bought a ticket to my favorite show (Too Much Light Makes the Baby Go Blind) but it turns out that one of my friends is having a birthday party that same night.  No problem, just go to the Goldstar event ticket and scroll down.  Click the Customer Service tab and then click the Red Velvet Easy Cancel link.  Most Goldstar events allow Easy Cancel, but not all, so always double check the cancellation policy before purchasing a ticket.  In some cases, you might be better off with a 4-hour hold to firm up your plans.  Anyway, back to the Easy Cancel option.  It says that I have until 5pm PT to cancel, which is 4 hours before the show was scheduled to start.

If you bought multiple tickets to the same event, you can select the number of tickets you want to cancel.  You will get back the full event ticket cost plus the service fee as a Goldstar “Same-As-Cash” Credit.  Click the Confirm Cancellation button to cancel your Goldstar event ticket.

Congratulations, you just canceled a Goldstar event ticket and received a Goldstar “Same-As-Cash” Credit in your account.

In my Goldstar account, this is what my Available Credit balance looked like before cancelling…

…and this is what it looks like after I canceled my Goldstar event ticket.  I now have a $9 Goldstar credit that will automatically be applied to my next Goldstar event ticket order.

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Bonus Perk 5: Karma Codes

This perk is not mentioned anywhere, but you may receive an email with 3 free Karma Codes.  Basically, you get 3 $10 Goldstar egift card codes that can be used for any Goldstar event.  Each code is unique, you can only send them to others, and you cannot use them yourself.  When the recipient receives the Karma Code, they sign into their Goldstar account and apply the Karma Code to their Goldstar event ticket.  The Karma Code will take off $10 from the total price of the event ticket.  Once you send out a Karma Code, you cannot send that same code out to anyone else, so make sure your friend is committed to booking the Goldstar event ticket so you do not waste your Karma Codes.

If you have any questions about how the Goldstar Red Velvet membership works, please leave a comment below.  Have a great Friday and happy Memorial Day Weekend everyone!