I bought our Opening Day Tickets over the weekend using the Friar Wire promo code Padres2011. Sign up for the Friar Wire if you haven't already. They will occasionally give you promo codes and allow you to buy tickets before the rest of the general public. Don't worry they don't bombard you with too many emails.
We bought 3 upper reserved tickets over the first base line. Maybe I just don't know how to properly use Padres.com, but it bugs me that I don't have any control over where I sit.
For instance, you choose a section and it's sold out so they put the next "best available" seats in your cart. So then if you don't want those particular seats, you have to remove them from your shopping cart and start over from the beginning. If you have a promo code, you have to re-enter your URL, because the site will dump you back at the schedule page. It's a whole process that sucks after you repeat it a few times, especially if you can never read the Captcha code like me.
Originally we intended to buy 4 tickets and we were directed to Upper Reserved seats along the third base line. When we switched to 3 tickets, we were placed along the first base line. Jon wanted to be on the third baseline so we wouldn't be sitting in the sun, but there was no way for me to choose which side of the ballpark to sit on, even though we knew tickets were available. After about a half hour, I ended up just buying the sites recommended seats due to frustration.
It's a shame that you can't request specific seats or at very least a specific section of the ballpark when buying on-line. The only way I've been able to choose in the past is by buying from the ticket office by phone or in person.
I may be wrong but I think MLB controls all the teams ticketing sites, so I don't think this is necessarily a problem that only Padres fans face. It just seems like the whole online purchasing process could be streamlined and offer the customer more choices.
On a side note, is it weird that they will mail you your tickets for free, but they charge you $2 to email you the tickets in a PDF? There is probably some technical infrastructure that the may require the surcharge, but it seems like it would be much cheaper than having an employee mail your tickets and pay the postage.
The PDF is my delivery method of choice, because I can just forward the file to Dex and Jon and we don't have to meet up before the game. That's really convenient when one of person is early, the other on-time and one late.
Speaking of tickets, you can experience this delightful process yourself by buying some discounted tickets for the Padres/Phillies game on 4/22. The Padres set aside 100 seats for us and I think at the moment, Dex and I will be sitting in section 122 with 98 empty seats around us.