Are Empire State Building V-Day Anniversary Passes Forever?

Forever? Forever ever? Forever ever?

For the past 17 years, a handful of lucky couples get married atop the Empire State Building on Valentine's Day—and those couples all get lifetime anniversary passes to the building. But you better put the "lifetime" in quotation marks, as one couple discovered on Monday.

William and Elena Kaplan were married on the ESB in 2005, after winning an essay contest. The couple, who have two young daughters and now live in New Rochelle, said they had no problems celebrating their anniversary at ESB last year; but this year, guards told them that their special once-a-year free pass was no longer good. "One of the guys looked at it and said, ‘I don’t know what this is. He talked to another guy, and they came back and said there was nothing they could do, that there was ‘new management,’" said William Kaplan. Later, a female staffer gave them free tickets, but told them they don't honor these passes anymore: "I asked how we should handle the anniversary visit in the future. She said, ‘There is no future, sir,’" said Kaplan.

ESB spokeswoman Melanie Maasch tried to clear up the confusion: she said there is "no new management policy," the Kaplans may have spoken to a "new" cashier who didn’t know about the passes, and that ESB prefers that couples call in advance. But this was a sobering Valentine's Day for William Kaplan: "I was stunned — it was just so disheartening. Here you have this place that’s so special and sentimental, where only a few people a year are allowed to get married, and that’s their attitude - ‘nothing lasts forever."’ As Outkast once poignantly wondered, will it be like this forever, forever ever, forever ever?

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By Ben Yakas in News on February 16, 2011 6:56 PM

Comments [rss]

patsw

The "new management" excuse don't hold water. Like any other obligation or contract from the prior management, they should honor it.

Like the TSA, this is another case of a low-paid employee who is facing the public in a service job, and takes out their dissatisfaction with life on everyone by spreading their misery around.

The takeaway is: Avoid the Empire State Building, they hire the kind of people who are looking to spoil your special day in New York City.

jaycjay

"The "new management" excuse don't hold water. Like any other obligation or contract from the prior management, they should honor it."

As they said. Did you stop reading after the second paragraph?

patsw

The fact that ESB's Director of Brand Development and Public Relations shows up in paragraph three to attempt to clean the mess up, doesn't mask that there had already been an epic fail here in customer service and the public image of ESB in paragraphs one and two.

jules5000

getting married on the Empire State Building, or getting proposed to there is so tacky!!

HymietownHero

I do all my propositioning under bridges and in alleyways.

colonelcasey

I like how the WTC is still there in the background

WetButt

These poor people this is an outrage we should have a city council hearing the shame of it oh I can barely contain my passive aggressive agitation OH!

jules5000

Ha! I feel the same way. Such a terrible injustice!

Mr Mel

"ESB spokeswoman Melanie Maasch tried to clear up the confusion: she said there is "no new management policy," the Kaplans may have spoken to a "new" cashier who didn’t know about the passes"

Maybe Ms Maasch is new as well, in a situation like this, that was the worst possible answer. Admit the mistake, offer them an unlimited lifetime, anytime pass for two and get it over with. The rooftop on Valentines day is a potential Goldmine but ESB Management and their not well trained staff doesn't know how to handle it.

jaycjay

"The rooftop on Valentines day is a potential Goldmine but ESB Management and their not well trained staff doesn't know how to handle it."

Come on, that's ridiculous. Fourteen couples got married there this Valentines Day. That is, every available slot was taken. It's been that way for years. They come from all over the country and even overseas, and have to win a drawing in order to get one of the 30-minute time slots. They'd be doing that even if there was no offer of free visits on future anniversaries; that's certainly not what's motivating these couples to wed at the ESB. This mix-up isn't going to convince anyone not to do it next year, and even if it does a dozen other couples will be waiting to replace each one who makes that decision.

The Empire State Building management, of course, are running one of the world's most popular tourists attractions.

But you, know doubt, have some great insight, and could teach these poor rubes about how they're letting a "potential Goldmine" slip through their fingers.

Mr Mel

"But you, know doubt, have some great insight, and could teach these poor rubes
about how they're letting a "potential Goldmine" slip through their fingers."

I think you meant "no doubt". In any case to answer your statement about my insight, you can bet I do.

JenEsss

First mistake: not calling ahead. Second: assuming the cashier and guards care about you.

unretrofiedforu

O they're from New Rochelle, cut them some slack. :D

jaycjay

From the Post article:

"never went to the cashier’s booth."

Well, that was pretty dumb. OK, maybe they didn't have to do that in the past, but once the guards didn't recognize the pass it'd seem the logical next step instead of arguing for 30 minutes.

My theory: They just wanted their anniversary announced in the newspaper.

Second theory: All a setup so that they can now sue for $10 million.