---
title: "Season seats"
description: "Set every season seat aside on every date before sales open, keep sections for single tickets, and release unsold seats to single sale now or at a set time."
---

> Documentation Index
> Fetch the complete documentation index at: https://docs.seatlayer.io/llms.txt
> Use this file to discover all available pages before exploring further.

# Season seats

With season seats, every seat your package prices is taken out of each date
ahead of time and kept for the season. Single-ticket buyers see those seats as
Unavailable. When the season window ends, you release the seats nobody bought
to single sale, on every date or on some.

Season seats are switched on for one season at a time, before its sales open
(see [Switch them on](#switch-them-on)). A season without them sells as before:
a buyer's seat is held on every date at the moment they pick it.

## Do you need season seats?

Most seasons don't. Without them, a seat nobody has bought for the season yet
can still sell as a single ticket on one date, if the season sells single
tickets. Whoever picks it first gets it. Use season seats when every season seat
must stay off single sale until your season window ends, and then go on single
sale in one release.

## Switch them on

- **With no developer:** email [hello@seatlayer.io](mailto:hello@seatlayer.io)
  with the season's name and ask us to switch season seats on, before you
  publish the season. There is no switch for it in the dashboard.
- **With a developer:** your developer can switch them on with the Seasons API,
  with `inventoryMode: "block"`, while the season has one package and its sales
  are closed. See [Season seats in the API](/server-api/seasons/#season-seats).

Once they are on, the season's **Overview** shows the **Season seats** step.

## Set the seats aside

1. **Open the Season seats step**

   Once season seats are on, the season's **Overview** shows a **Season
   seats** step after **Checkout and prices**. Choose **Choose season seats**.
2. **Check what goes in**

   The table lists each section your package prices, with its category, its
   seats and how many will be set aside. Every seat your package prices is a
   season seat.
3. **Keep sections for single tickets**

   To sell a section game by game instead, choose **Keep for single tickets**
   on its row. **Put back in the season** undoes it.
4. **Set them aside**

   Choose **Set seats aside**. Every date takes its seats in the background.
   You can leave the page; the step shows Done when every date has its seats.
   Then publish the season and open sales.

Season sales can open only once every date has its seats.

### Seats that aren't free on every date

A seat becomes a season seat only if it is free on every date. The others stay
with single tickets, so no season buyer gets a seat that is taken on one of
their dates. Each one has a reason:

- Sold as a single ticket
- Blocked by staff
- A partner's seat, with the partner's name
- In a cart on that date
- Not for sale on that date
- Not on that date's plan

Partner seats and seats you closed are left out this way. Before you set the
seats aside, the sheet lists them by date, seat and reason, and **Download
all** saves them as a CSV. Afterwards the **Not free on every date** card on
the **Seats** tab has the full list: **See the list ›**, then **Download all**
for a CSV with the columns Date, Starts, Seat, Why and Reason code.

## Before you publish

From the moment the seats are set aside until you publish:

- **Date and package changes are refused.** Adding or removing a date, adding
  another package, or pricing other categories would make the set-aside
  wrong, so the season refuses it and changes nothing.
- **Prices still change.** A new price for the same categories reaches every
  date. It doesn't change which seats are in.
- **Changing dates or packages anyway.** Ask us to give the seats back. Make
  the change, then set the seats aside again.

Publishing checks that every date has its seats, then turns season seats on.

## Watch the seats

The **Seats** tab shows season seats above the season seat map. Its figures
refresh every 30 seconds while the tab is open.

- **Five counts:** Set aside, Held, Sold, Free on the season page, and
  Released.
- **Every date** gets every season change in the background, in about a
  second. Each date reads **Up to date**, **Catching up** or **Retrying**.
  **Needs a look** lists the dates that are not up to date. A date that is
  retrying keeps the seats waiting on it off single sale until it catches up,
  so none is sold twice.
- **Dates that have left.** A date you cancel, or one marked as past, leaves
  the season seats. Its row reads Cancelled or Past with its date and time,
  greyed, with no count. The counts then say "on the dates still to come", and
  a release leaves those dates out.
- **Release to single sale**, with any release you have set.
- **Not free on every date**, as above.

### The seats CSV

**Download the list** on the **Seats** tab gives one line per season seat, with
the columns Seat, Section, Category, Status, Booking ref and Holder ref. Status
is Free, Held, Sold, Released to single sale, Single tickets (not free on every
date) or Setting aside. Admins and designers can download it.

## Release unsold seats to single sale

Choose **Release to single sale…** on the **Seats** tab, then pick three things.

| Choice | Options |
|---|---|
| What to release | **All unsold seats**, **Sections** (one or more, like Main E), or **Seats** (type them, like Main C, row A, seats 1–6) |
| Which dates | **All dates**, leaving out dates already played, or **Pick dates**: one date or a few |
| When | **Now**, and the seats go on single sale in a few seconds, or **At a set time**, for example when your season window ends |

The dialog counts the seats first. Free seats go on single sale. Held seats go
when their hold ends unsold. Sold seats stay with their holders. A season buyer
can't pick a seat that is on single sale for one of their dates.

A release at a set time shows on the release card until then. **Change** opens
it again; **Cancel** cancels it, and the unsold seats stay in the season. With
nothing set, unsold seats stay in the season until you release them. Setting a
new time, or releasing every unsold seat now, replaces a release you had set.

Releasing every unsold seat on every date still to come ends the season window.

Only admins and designers can release seats.

## When a seat comes back

While season sales are open, a refunded seat or a lapsed renewal goes back into
the season, so another season buyer can have it. After the season window ends,
it goes to single sale with the other unsold seats.

## What season seats don't do yet

A season with season seats on refuses these changes, and nothing is changed:

- adding or removing a date;
- postponing a date, or replacing it with another;
- cancelling a season booking made through your own checkout;
- taking back one date of an order (**Cancel one date…**);
- a holder giving one date back, or taking it back;
- recovering a booking.

These still work: moving a date to a new time, cancelling a date, marking a
date as played, refunding a whole order, and renewals. See
[Season date changes](/sell/season-date-changes/).

## One package

A season with season seats sells one package. Set the seats aside while the
season has one package; once they are set aside, another package is refused.

## Related pages

- [Seasons](/sell/seasons/)
- [Season date changes](/sell/season-date-changes/)
- [Box office](/sell/box-office/#season-tickets)

Source: https://docs.seatlayer.io/sell/season-seats/index.mdx