Harry Potter and the Cursed Child play, London - Friday Forty tips

For the past few weeks I've been trying my luck at the Friday Forty, hoping to get tickets for me and my son. In a short space of time, I've had some luck, but not enough... and I quickly realised that the official info given about how the Friday Forty works is rather insufficient and potentially misleading.

Tip 1 - Even if you get picked from the queue, you can't relax!

I was so relieved to have been picked from the virtual queue, and to be presented with the dates for the following week from which to select my tickets; I thought I was then guaranteed a pair of tickets. At this point I relaxed somewhat and tried to phone my partner to check which date would be best...... Big mistake! I didn't realise that at that point everyone who's been picked (approx 20 people?) are all simultaneously fighting over the 20 pairs of tickets, and that the most popular time slots will get booked first. So I now realise that as soon as you're picked to join the queue you need to book the day you want ASAP before it's snapped up, otherwise you'll be lucky to still get the dregs, i.e. the least popular tickets.

Tip 2 - Beware website 'glitches'

Last Friday the 'Book Now' button appeared at 1pm. I clicked it straight away only to be taken to a web page that said "All tickets have now been sold." I tried a few times, but the same message was displayed each time. I tried messaging HP London through Twitter and Facebook Messenger but of course got no response to give any guidance, so reluctantly had to give up and go back to work. I finally got a response from them (through Messenger) at 4.30pm saying that there had been a glitch and that tickets had gone on sale at 1.20pm, and that of course they'd all now been booked. I replied to protest that this was unfair on the people who'd been there on time and believed the message that there were no more tickets.

I hope to provide more tips as they occur to me...

SUCCESS!

So, for the second time in a couple of months i got lucky. I had three browsers open on my laptop, but both times i got lucky on my Android phone, so maybe there's truth to the rumour that it's best on mobiles.

This time i didn't hang about. I chose my preferred day without delay and then just tapped BOOK IT as quick as poss. It worked!