How a freed place moves. A place frees up when someone hands a ticket back, a checkout runs out, or you add places. It is held for Maya Okafor, first on the waitlist, until Thursday 18:30, while Leo Grant, Ana Costa and Ben Hughes wait behind her. If she buys it in time, the ticket is bought. If she passes or time runs out, the place moves to the next person, with a fresh deadline. When nobody is left waiting, it goes back on general sale.

What frees up a place on a sold-out event?

Each of these puts a place back for the people waiting. You do not have to do anything.

Someone hands back a free ticket: Offered straight away.
Someone returns a paid ticket: Offered once your own unsold tickets of that type are gone.
You refund or cancel a ticket: Offered straight away.
A checkout is left unfinished: Offered when its hold runs out, within 35 minutes.
You raise the event's capacity or a ticket's limit: Offered as soon as you save.
A new sales phase opens: Offered at once to people who joined before it opened. Any extra tickets go on general sale.

Who is offered the place first?

The person who has waited longest for that ticket: first come, first served. Each ticket someone asks for is its own request, with its own place in the queue.

Waitlist and returns shows the queue as it stands:

Held for the next person: The first people waiting are offered the next place. Nobody picks who.
Oldest first: Requests stay in the order people joined.
Hold expires: Each held place has its own deadline.

Where bookable times share one waitlist, each person holds one offer at a time. A second free time goes to the next person in the queue.

Waitlist and returns for Portrait Photography Class. Leo Grant is first with Tom Ellis's returned ticket held until Friday 23 October at 14:42, with just under 24 hours left to buy. Ana Costa, Ben Hughes and Chloe Park wait behind him. Tom's £45 return is at the Waitlist step, held for Leo, and shows a £42.54 refund when it sells, with General sale and Bought still ahead.

How long does the next person have to buy?

The closer the event, the less time they have.

Bar chart of the usual time to buy a held ticket, by how soon the event starts: 48 hours at 30 days or more, 24 hours at 7 to 30 days, 12 hours at 3 to 7 days, 3 hours at 1 to 3 days, and 30 minutes when it is under a day away. A note says that under 12 hours, a deadline that would fall between 10pm and 9am UK time moves to 10am.

How many people are waiting changes it too:

Event starts in	Usual time to buy	3 or fewer waiting	20 or more waiting
30 days or more	48 hours	48 hours	24 hours
7 to 30 days	24 hours	36 hours	12 hours
3 to 7 days	12 hours	18 hours	6 hours
1 to 3 days	3 hours	4 hours 30 minutes	1 hour 30 minutes
Under a day	30 minutes	45 minutes	30 minutes

Under 12 hours, a deadline that would fall between 10pm and 9am UK time moves to 10am. No deadline runs past the end of ticket sales.

What does the person offered a place see?

An alert in Hubbaly and an email, each with an exact Purchase by time. On their waitlist page the request reads Ready to buy.

The price is the one on sale when the offer is made, fixed until the deadline. Nobody else can buy the place while it is held.

A phone showing Your waitlist requests for Portrait Photography Class, with Ready to buy, Purchase by 23 Oct 2026, 22:24, and the buttons Buy held ticket and Pass to next person. Over it, the alert: "A ticket is being held for you. You're next in line for Portrait Photography Class. Purchase by Fri 23 Oct, 22:24 BST or the ticket will be offered to the next person in line."

What happens if they pass or miss the deadline?

Their request ends and the place goes to the next person, with a fresh deadline. With nobody waiting, it goes back on general sale.

A missed deadline also sends an email with a link to rejoin. Rejoining starts at the back of the queue.

A phone asking "Pass this ticket on? You'll give up the ticket being held for you and it moves to the next person in line. You can rejoin the waitlist, but you'll start at the back of the queue." with Cancel and Pass ticket on. Over it, the alert: "Your ticket hold ended. Your ticket hold for Portrait Photography Class ended before checkout completed, so the ticket moved to the next person in line. Rejoin the waitlist if you still want one."

Do returned tickets take sales from your own unsold tickets?

No. A returned ticket waits until your own unsold tickets of that type are gone.

Three steps for a returned paid ticket. One: your unsold tickets go first, and tickets on offer, in a checkout or kept for a later sales phase count as yours. Two: then the returned ticket goes to the waitlist and is held for the next person, like any freed place. Three: then general sale, if nobody is waiting for it. Below: the refund is sent when someone buys it, the price paid less the Hubbaly fee and Stripe processing.

If nobody buys it before ticket sales close, the person keeps their ticket and gets no refund.

What it cannot do

You cannot choose who gets a place. Offers follow the order people joined.
Offers go out only while the event is published, its waitlist is on and ticket sales are open.
A paid ticket waiting to be returned cannot be checked in or transferred.
Waitlists and returns are not available on private, invite-only events.

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