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Pricing and estimates

How Rift prices ticket types across waves, what the SDK shows the attendee at each step, and the disclaimer organizers are required to surface.

The wave-tier model​

Organizers configure events with one or more ticket types (General admission, VIP, Backstage). The same ticket type can be priced differently across waves — pricing/scheduling tiers the organizer uses to reward early commitment or to throttle demand. Typical shape:

WaveGA priceVIP priceWindow
Early bird$80$200Until 2 weeks before
Regular$100$250Until day of
At the door$120$300Day-of only

Waves overlap when the organizer wants them to (e.g. early bird remaining capacity continues to sell at $80 alongside the regular-priced wave at $100).

The attendee never picks a wave. The reservation service walks waves cheapest-first when fulfilling, so a { ticketTypeId, quantity } request gets the best available price automatically. Wave names exist server-side for the breakdown the SDK shows in the estimate; they are not a selection concept.

What the SDK shows where​

The SDK collapses waves at every UI seam so the picker stays a flat list of ticket types and the price breakdown surfaces only when it matters:

SurfaceWave concept visible?
<AvailabilityList>No. One row per ticket type. Cheapest active wave's price shown as "From $X".
<TicketRow>No. Aggregated price + stepper clamped at sum(available) and the most permissive maxPerOrder across active waves with inventory.
<EstimateBreakdown> (pre)Yes — the breakdown is the whole point. Hierarchical: ticket type → split lines per consumed wave → subtotal → grand total + disclaimer.
<ReservationSummary> (post)Yes — same shape, server-confirmed data. Wave names resolved from the cached availability tree.

The greedy-fill algorithm​

useSelectionEstimate mirrors what the reservation service does server-side. For each ticket type with quantity > 0:

  1. Order its currently-active waves by unitPrice ascending (cheapest first). useTicketTypes does this aggregation.
  2. Walk: take = min(remaining, wave.available); record a line { waveId, quantity: take, unitPrice }; subtract take from remaining.
  3. Stop when remaining hits 0 (the stepper clamping prevents exhausting waves before satisfying remaining).

The pricing nuance worth internalizing: unit price × quantity is wrong when quantity exceeds the cheapest wave's remaining.

Example: GA has 1 left at Early bird ($80), unlimited at Regular ($100). Attendee wants 2 → pays $80 + $100 = $180, not $80 × 2 = $160. The greedy fill produces the right number; the breakdown shows them where the math came from.

Active-wave filtering​

The Experiences API returns every wave on an event with its startsAt/endsAt windows, regardless of whether it's currently selling. useTicketTypes filters to active waves (startsAt <= getNow() <= endsAt) before aggregating — so expired waves' stale prices never enter the estimate and not-yet- live waves don't get sold against.

For test and Storybook scenarios, pass a frozen clock to control which waves are considered active:

<EstimateBreakdown now={() => new Date("2026-07-01T12:00:00Z")} />
<AvailabilityList now={() => new Date("2026-07-01T12:00:00Z")} />

The disclaimer​

<EstimateBreakdown> and <ReservationSummary> ship a default-visible disclaimer near the total. Two reasons:

  1. Cheapest-first tier selection. Attendees benefit from knowing the algorithm — it's why a $80 ticket can show up alongside a $100 ticket on the same line item.
  2. Modifier transparency. Server-side modifiers (platform fees, taxes, discounts) are computed in the pricing engine and only appear in the reservation/checkout response's breakdown.steps. The estimate shows line items only; the final total can differ. Pricing-transparency rules in many jurisdictions require this kind of "fees added at checkout" call-out.

Default copy (en):

"We pick the cheapest available tier first. Final price (including any fees) is confirmed when you reserve."

Override via the disclaimer prop on either component, or globally via <RiftProvider strings={{ "estimate.disclaimer": "…" }}>.

disclaimer={null} hides it entirely. Don't unless you display equivalent copy elsewhere on the page — the default is the regulatory-friendly path.

What's NOT in the estimate​

The client-side estimate covers line items: (ticketType, wave, quantity, unitPrice). It does NOT cover:

  • Platform fees (a percentage modifier the platform adds).
  • Per-order fixed fees (booking fees, processing fees).
  • Taxes (region-specific, organizer-configurable).
  • Discount codes (haven't been applied at estimate time).

Those live in the reservation response's breakdown.steps. When the server's total differs from the client's estimate, useReservation().priceChanged flips true and <PriceChangedWarning> surfaces the delta. The disclaimer prepares the attendee for that possibility before they commit.

Bypassing the components​

Direct hook access for custom UIs:

import { useSelectionEstimate, useTicketTypes } from "@feelrift/react";

function CustomCart() {
  const { data: ticketTypes } = useTicketTypes();
  const { data: estimate } = useSelectionEstimate();

  if (!estimate) return null;

  return (
    <div>
      <h2>{estimate.ticketTypes.length} ticket types selected</h2>
      <strong>{formatCurrency(estimate.subtotal)}</strong>
      {/* Render lines / disclaimer however you like */}
    </div>
  );
}

The pure functions are exported too for unit testing or non-React contexts:

  • aggregateTicketTypes(availability, now) — the wave-collapse.
  • computeEstimate(ticketTypes, selection) — the greedy-fill.

Both are deterministic, side-effect-free, and tested in isolation on every SDK release.