How to Get Paul McCartney Concert Tickets Without Getting Ripped Off

How McCartney Ticket Sales Have Worked

For the Got Back 2025 North American tour, which ran from Acrisure Arena in Palm Desert, California on 29 September to two nights at Chicago's United Center on 24 and 25 November, fans registered for presale access at the official tour site, PaulMcCartneyGotBack.com. The presale for the original dates opened on 15 July 2025 at 10am local time and the general sale followed on 18 July. When a San Antonio Alamodome show was added for 25 October, it got its own cycle: presale on 29 July and general sale on 1 August. Many shows sold out fast, and resale listings well above face value appeared soon after.

That pattern has been typical of recent McCartney tours: an announcement, a short window to register for a presale, a presale a few days later, then the general sale, all through the venue's primary ticket seller (Ticketmaster in the US and many other markets). Some tours have also had card-member or venue presales in certain countries. The exact route changes by tour and by country, so read the official announcement carefully each time.

The two Fonda Theatre shows in Los Angeles on 27 and 28 March 2026 worked differently, and they are a useful model for small-venue dates. Registration ran through AXS from 17 March at 9am PT to 18 March at 10pm PT, with a limit of two tickets per customer. Selected registrants received a private, one-time purchase link tied to their AXS account on 24 or 25 March, and registering did not guarantee a chance to buy. The tickets were non-transferable, and the shows were phone-free, with phones locked in Yondr pouches.

As of 19 September 2026, no new McCartney tour dates are listed on his official live page. Our McCartney tour tracker separates confirmed dates from reports and rumours, and it is the page we update first when anything is announced.

Step 1: Prepare Before Dates Are Announced

Sign up for the official mailing list at paulmccartney.com. Tour news and presale registration links are sent there, and the official site and social accounts are the only places to trust for dates. Follow the venues in cities you would travel to, because venues announce their own presales and on-sale times.

Create or update your account with the primary ticket seller in advance. Check that your email, phone number and payment card are current, and that you can log in without trouble. On the morning of a sale, a forgotten password costs you a place in the queue.

Agree a plan with the people you are going with. Set the maximum price per ticket you will pay, decide in advance if seats are acceptable when standing sells out, and agree now if you will travel to another city should your home show sell out. Decisions made in advance are better than decisions made in a queue with a countdown timer.

Register separately for every presale you are eligible for. On past tours, artist presale codes, venue presales and card-member presales in some countries have run in parallel, and each has its own list. Registering once through the official site does not put you on the venue's list, and for lottery-style sales like the Fonda shows, each registration is a separate chance.

Step 2: On Sale Day

Join the queue a few minutes before the sale starts, using one device per person and one browser tab per device. Many sellers treat multiple tabs from the same account as suspicious, and refreshing a queue page can send you to the back. Be logged in before you join.

Know which ticket types you are looking at. Ticketmaster in the US uses dynamic pricing on some tickets, marked as Official Platinum, where prices move with demand. These are sold by the primary seller but can cost far more than standard tickets. If price matters, look for the standard tickets first, even if they are further back.

If the show sells out in the presale, do not panic-buy on a resale site straight away. Extra dates have been added on past tours when demand was high, and production holds are sometimes released closer to the show. Check the official site and the venue over the following days.

Step 3: Using Resale Safely

If you miss out, use the official resale route where one exists. In the US, the primary seller's own fan-to-fan resale transfers the ticket to your account directly, which removes the risk of a fake. In the UK, face-value resale platforms such as Twickets are popular with fans. Their protection is only as good as their rules, so read how the ticket will be delivered before you pay.

The law around resale is changing in the UK. The King's Speech on 13 May 2026 confirmed a draft Ticket Tout Ban Bill that would make it unlawful to resell a ticket for more than its original price, cap resale platform fees, stop sellers listing more tickets than they were entitled to buy, and let the Competition and Markets Authority fine platforms up to 10 per cent of global turnover. It was published as a draft for scrutiny and consultation, and no date for it becoming law had been set as of September 2026. Until then, resale above face value on secondary sites remains legal in the UK within existing consumer rules.

Avoid buying from strangers on social media, including in fan groups. A scam that turns up in fan groups again and again is a sympathetic post from someone who "can't go anymore" and wants payment by bank transfer or a friends-and-family payment. Once you send money that way, you usually cannot get it back. Use platforms with buyer protection and ticket transfer built in.

Red Flags That Mean Walk Away

Tickets for sale before the official on-sale date are a warning sign. Some resellers list speculative tickets they do not yet own, hoping to buy them later. If they fail, you get a refund at best and nothing at worst.

Watch for sites whose names and logos imitate official pages, prices that are far below market for a sold-out show, requests to pay outside a platform, sellers who send a screenshot of a ticket instead of a proper transfer, and pressure to decide in minutes. Mobile tickets with rotating barcodes cannot be screenshotted and resold; a screenshot of one is useless at the door.

Also check the name and transfer rules for the show. Some venues and tours require ID that matches the name on the ticket, and some tickets cannot be transferred at all: the Fonda Theatre tickets in March 2026 were non-transferable and tied to the buyer's AXS account. If a ticket cannot legally be transferred to you, it does not matter how genuine it is.

If you are ever unsure, go back to the official announcement on paulmccartney.com and follow its links. Legitimate sales always trace back to that page or to the venue's own site. Anything that cannot be traced there deserves a second look before you pay.

Travelling for a Show

McCartney tours rarely cover every region, so many fans travel. The 2025 North American leg played 20 shows in 17 cities between Palm Desert and Chicago in under two months, with doubles in Atlanta, Montreal and Chicago, and many fans in cities without a date flew in. If you are travelling, buy the concert ticket first and book refundable accommodation straight after, since hotel prices near arenas rise the moment a date is announced.

Check the venue's rules on bags, cameras and entry times before you travel. Arena and stadium shows often have strict bag policies, and a long queue at security can mean missing the opening songs. Leave time for merchandise too, since tour shirts and programmes for McCartney shows often sell out in popular sizes early in the evening.

Finally, have a backup plan for cancellations. Keep every confirmation email, know the refund policy of the platform you bought from, and consider travel insurance that covers event cancellation if you are spending a lot on flights and hotels.

VIP Packages and What They Include

Recent McCartney tours have offered official VIP packages, sold through the official channels at the same time as regular tickets. Packages have typically bundled premium seats with extras such as exclusive merchandise, and some have included access to the soundcheck, which fans value because Paul often plays songs there that are not in the main set. Contents and prices vary by tour and venue, so read each package description carefully.

Buy VIP only from the official source named in the tour announcement. Third-party "VIP experiences" sold by travel sites or resellers are not the same thing, and some are nothing more than a regular ticket and a hotel room at a high markup.

Finally, plan for the show itself. Recent McCartney concerts have run well over two and a half hours with a setlist of more than 30 songs, so eat beforehand and plan your transport home. For a sense of what you will hear, our McCartney live setlist guide tracks the songs he has been playing, and our guide to the best McCartney live albums covers the records that best capture his recent shows.