A season pass in Apple Wallet or Google Wallet is a card the holder carries all season. It shows their name, pass type and valid dates, scans at the gate, and updates when something changes. For parks and resorts, it’s also the best renewal reminder you’ll get, because the holder sees it every time they open their wallet.
In Pushwoosh, passes share 1 guest profile with push, email and SMS, so you can run wallet passes for theme parks and ski resorts from 1 platform.
Why season passes are the business
Season passes carry resort economics. At Palisades Tahoe, 90% of revenue comes in the winter season (competitor case, OneSignal). Pass revenue can hold up even when visits fall: in fiscal 2026, Vail Resorts reported visits down 13.4% year over year, lift revenue down 3.5% and pass revenue up 3.9% (Vail Resorts 8-K, September 2026).
Renewals are where it gets hard. As of September 18, 2026, Vail’s pass sales for the coming season were down about 12% in units and about 6% in dollars (same filing). Every holder who doesn’t renew is next season’s revenue gone.
The season pass as a wallet card
| Pass | Apple type | Google type | Shows |
|---|---|---|---|
| Season pass | Generic or Event Ticket | Generic or Event ticket | Holder name, pass type, valid dates, barcode |
| Day ticket | Event Ticket | Event ticket | Date, park or resort, barcode |
| In-park offer | Coupon | Offer | Food, merch or lesson offer, expiry |
Operators already deliver passes this way. Hersheypark lets guests add tickets to Apple Wallet or Google Wallet straight from the confirmation email and is moving all season passes to digital from the 2027 season. Grouse Mountain sends its digital season pass by email link for Apple Wallet (market examples, own systems).
If you want Google’s automatic update notifications, use Event ticket rather than Generic. For a Generic pass on Google, add your own notification text to the API update.
What to update during the season
The pass can change after it’s saved. When your system updates a field through the API, the card redraws on the holder’s phone. 3 fields are worth keeping current: status (Active, Paused, Expired), valid dates for extended seasons or blackout changes, and benefits like new discounts or added resorts.
Operating news is different. Lift status, trail openings, weather and wait times change by the minute, and they belong in push. Palisades Tahoe, for example, uses push for real-time lift and trail status (competitor case, OneSignal). Keep the pass for what’s true about the holder’s own pass.
Location offers in the park
Add the gates, base lodges or main plazas as locations, up to 10 per pass, and the pass can appear on the lock screen as the holder arrives. Wallet decides when to show it.
For offers inside the park, issue a separate coupon pass with a short expiry and the right locations. A lunch offer that surfaces near the food court beats one emailed at breakfast. Announce new offers by push to app users. The coupon is what they redeem.
Renewal journeys
Renewal is a deadline problem. Epic Pass Auto-Renew, for example, sends reminders 30 to 60 days before charging a non-refundable payment of about $49 in spring (market example, Epic Pass).
Build the journey around your own renewal window:
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60 days before the window closes
Email with the renewal price and what's new.
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30 days before
Push to app users. On Apple, updating a "Renew by" field that has a change message puts the deadline on the lock screen.
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7 days before
A final email and SMS.
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Renewed
Update the valid dates on the same pass. The holder keeps 1 card.
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Not renewed
Expire the pass after the season and move the guest into a win-back flow.
Step 4 matters more than it looks. Updating the existing pass instead of issuing a new one means the holder never has to add anything again.
Pass notifications stay about the pass. “Your pass expires on %@” is fine. A merch sale isn’t. Apple and Google don’t allow anything beyond pass-related notifications.
What a standard pass doesn’t do
Some resorts use NFC passes that open lift turnstiles or park gates with a tap, and Disney’s MagicMobile pass is an NFC pass for park entry. These need NFC readers and platform partnerships. Pushwoosh issues barcode and QR passes, not NFC passes, so scanning at the gate needs a reader for the barcode format you choose.
Lift pass renewals with Pushwoosh
Pushwoosh issues native Apple and Google Wallet season passes, day tickets and in-park coupons by User ID, updates them through the API, and runs renewal journeys by push, email and SMS from the same platform.
Renewals don’t climb because the early-bird discount got bigger. They climb when the pass, and the deadline, stay in front of the holder all season.
