Bottom line: I’ve got tickets to go see TVXQ in Seoul next month. It’s going to be amazing.
But getting those tickets was absolutely crazy.
Ticketing for the official fan club was a few days ago, which means all the really good seats were snatched up by devoted super fans. Bu there were still plenty left in the farther sections, which is where we set our sights.
To ensure we could get tickets, we had four people ticketing. Four people, trying to get three seats. And we were still incredibly nervous that we would come out empty handed - that’s how quickly these things sell out.
Now, the first step to ticketing is to station yourself at a PC방 (literally PC Room, which is like an internet cafe where you pay by the hour to use their computers). With the popularity of online gaming, PC방 have the fastest internet in Korea, which is saying something since most internet in Korea is pretty speedy.
My friends, who have done this before, trained me on how to quickly press the enter key with your left hand the second ticketing opens and use your right hand to snap up seats on the pop-up seating chart that will open. We even did a few practice rounds with musicals that were already on sale.
Then, at exactly 8 p.m., the frenzy began. I actually got super lucky, snatching up three seats next to each other right away! I was amazed, I had done the impossible!
Then, I misread the Korean at the bottom and clicked on the cancel button instead of the accept button. And just like that, my perfect tickets were gone.
I tried to snatch up replacements, but I could only get one. So I reserved my one ticket and regrouped with the others in our chat to see how the others had fared.
Out of the four of us, I managed to lose my tickets and reserve only one. Two of my friends had gotten three tickets each but didn’t click a final confirm button after processing their payment so their tickets were gone.
Only one of our friends, the only one who was helping us out without actually planning to go to the concert, was able to grab and actually fully reserve three tickets.
At first I thought it was a bit overkill to have so many people trying so hard to get only three tickets, but it turned out to be absolutely necessary.
So my first experience ticketing in Korea turned out to be a success (not thanks to me though haha). At least now I’ll have a better idea of what to expect next time. And I’m going to see TVXQ!
