Why Schools Prefer Scanning Tickets vs. Self-Redeeming Tickets

In the world of event management, ticketing is a critical part of the entry process, ensuring that only legitimate attendees gain access to the event. When it comes to high school sports, concerts, or fundraisers, having a smooth ticketing experience is essential for both guests and gate attendants. Two common methods of processing digital tickets are scanning QR codes, and self-redeeming tickets. While both methods allow attendees to pre-purchase tickets, scanning QR codes has emerged as the preferred method by schools, offering a seamless, efficient, and secure way to manage ticket entry.

Here’s why scanning tickets at the gate outperforms the self-redeeming method:

1. Gate Attendants Prefer Scanning Tickets

Gate attendants play a crucial role in ensuring a smooth entry process, and scanning tickets makes their job much easier compared to self-redeeming methods. With scanning, attendants can quickly and efficiently process guests by simply scanning a QR code, minimizing the need to physically handle the attendee's phone. This reduces the number of questions from guests, eliminates the need to guide them through manual redemption steps, and keeps the line moving swiftly. 

2. Minimizes Fraud and Misuse

With scanning, guests are provided with a unique QR code upon purchasing their tickets, which is validated at the gate. This helps schools prevent ticket fraud, such as duplicate entries or false claims. In contrast, self-redeeming tickets rely on attendees manually selecting and redeeming their tickets via a webpage. If a guest redeems their ticket too early or falsely claims to have done so before arrival, the gate attendants are left with limited options to verify the legitimacy of the ticket. Scanning ensures that each QR code is valid and only redeemable once.

3. Simplifies the Entry Process - QR Codes are Globally Accepted by the Public

One of the main pain points of self-redeeming tickets is the added complexity for guests. They must navigate a webpage or app, select their tickets, and manually redeem them by clicking through several steps. This process can confuse less tech-savvy attendees, often leading them to hand their phone to the gate attendant for assistance. This not only slows down the process but also adds frustration to the experience. Scanning QR codes, on the other hand, is straightforward: the guest presents their code, the attendant scans it, and entry is granted. It’s quick, familiar, and much easier to execute. Every college and professional stadium uses scanning, why not your school?

4. Prevents Duplicate Tickets

Are your fans sneaking by? Self-redeeming methods open the door for accidental ticket duplication. Guests may inadvertently redeem tickets for other members of their group or claim screenshots of tickets are new tickets. This creates confusion at the gate and can result in long delays while sorting through the problem. QR scanning automatically validates each ticket redemption, eliminating the possibility of duplicate tickets or user error.

5. Streamlined Order Lookup and Manual Check-In

Even if a guest misplaces their QR code or encounters an issue, scanning systems allow gate attendants to quickly perform an order lookup directly within the app. This enables manual check-ins without disrupting the flow of other attendees. By contrast, self-redeeming methods don’t have the same integration for seamless order lookup, leaving event staff scrambling to resolve issues manually. Justagame's scanning app offers a backup plan that is fast, reliable, and helps keep the lines moving.

6. Easy Ticket Sharing

For families or groups attending together, sharing tickets can be cumbersome with self-redeeming methods. One person may accidentally redeem all the tickets, causing confusion for everyone in the group. With QR code scanning, tickets can be easily shared among members of the group without the risk of early redemption or technical mistakes. Each member can enter separately, presenting their unique QR code for a quick scan.

The Bottom Line

Schools, like other event organizers, need reliable, efficient, and foolproof methods for managing ticketing. Scanning QR codes has proven to be the most effective way to streamline the entry process, ensuring security, simplicity, and flexibility. Self-redeeming, while an interesting concept, introduces unnecessary complications that can frustrate guests and slow down gate operations. By adopting QR scanning systems, schools provide a better experience for everyone—guests, gate attendants, and organizers alike.