Vue Cinemas - why bother allocating seating?

aliasojo

I have no idea when they started doing this. The last time OH and I went to the cinema we just got tickets and sat anywhere but this time the till screen was turned towards us and we had to pick seats.

Problem was, someone was in our seats when we went to sit down. The film was starting and we didn't want to disturb those around by asking the people to move or going to query the situation with staff outside in the foyer so we sat in 2 other empty seats, and then spent the next 20 minutes worried that we were sitting in someone else's seat.

Clearly not the end of the world or a life changing situation in any way but why bother going down the route of selling allocated seating when they have no process in place to ensure the correct seats are taken? It seem counter productive to me. Bring back the days of the usher. The best of it is, there were staff members just milling around so it seems reasonable to think one of them could have acted as an usher. I asked round a few friends and it seems this happens a lot. My son and his girlfriend had the same situation the week before.

I emailed the branch of Vue in question to query this and I asked for a response, but they've not replied so customer concern obviously isn't too much of an issue for them.

Do all cinemas work this way now? Do they have people who ensure the correct seats are taken or is it just a free for all? If that's the case, what's the point? All you need is one set of seats to be wrongly taken and you have a knock on effect for everyone else if the film is popular and the place is packed.

gemstars

I think most cinemas do this if they expect the film to be busy and use unallocated seating for showings they think will be fine.

I don't like allocated seating and it does put me off going to the cinema but personally I would have been stubborn and asked the people to move - they really irritate me!!!!

JustWonderful

The Cineworld I use most weeks doesnt allocate seating, which I am very pleased about on the whole.

I went to an Odeon when visiting relatives in Scotland though, and they allocated seating, but they didnt turn the screen to you; so they put me and my 60 year old, disabled, gran right near the top!?

Needless to say we didnt take those seats..

rl290

For busy screenings this is a good idea: those who prebook tickets (especially people who live far away and book online) can ensure they get good seats if they plan ahead. For less busy screenings, it is mostly irrelevant.

Whenever booking seats, I have always found the process to be quite useful. If someone is sitting in our seats (and it's busy) I've never had a problem asking people (politely) to move, and would ask staff to get involved if people refused.

R

not_tonight_josephine_2

rl290 wrote: »

For busy screenings this is a good idea: those who prebook tickets (especially people who live far away and book online) can ensure they get good seats if they plan ahead. For less busy screenings, it is mostly irrelevant.

Whenever booking seats, I have always found the process to be quite useful. If someone is sitting in our seats (and it's busy) I've never had a problem asking people (politely) to move, and would ask staff to get involved if people refused.

R

Ditto. I prefer being able to choose my seat at home before I go out rather than having to get there an hour before the film starts and queue up to be sure of getting a good view (and no guarantee there will actually be any tickets left by the time I get to the front if it's a popular show). With the booking system you only have to turn up 5 minutes before showtime.

I've found people sitting in my allocated seat before and just politely asked them to move as rl290 suggests. One time someone refused and I asked the staff to intervene - turns out they did have those seats booked but on a different day, doh!

ellay864

Our local Reel cinema online booking system lets you choose seats and I will quite happily ask people to move who've taken my seats. But what's crazy is that there's no indicators of the rows - there were stickers but in the dark you couldn't see them and then they peeled off so people wandered round guessing which row they were on. Last time I went there was a sort of usher...it was very disinterested looking girl who stood at the bottom of the steps and pointed people to where they should go. That ould have been fine until just as the film was about to start she realised she'd got it wrong. She then dragged herself up the steps to a row and promptly ordered 5 people to move, expecting them to jump up immediately when they were by that point well into their popcorn and drinks. They got themselves sorted, had to clamber over a row of legs to get out, over another row of legs to get to their correct seats, and the latecomers had to climb over legs to get in their seats. I was so glad we were sat in the row in front of all this so I didn't miss the first bit of film (though I did get a slight popcorn shower lol)

PinkLipgloss

I sometimes go to the Vue in Stirling and have encountered exactly the same problem.

It's annoying as I have to arrive early in order to ensure that I can sit next to my husband/friends. I therefore have to endure approximately 30 minutes of adverts before the film starts.

I know its not exactly a major dilemma (I've not lost any sleep over it) but its annoying none the less!

z1985m

It seems that when you pay via the in-side computers you have to pick seats. but if you pay at the counter you're not allocated seats.

So it's not the fault of the people who are sitting in your seat because if they paid at the counter they can sit wherever they like! they don't know what seats are allocated. it's really stupid, i just pay at the counter because i like to look around the cinema and try to avoid sitting near other people!

aliasojo

z1985m wrote: »

It seems that when you pay via the in-side computers you have to pick seats. but if you pay at the counter you're not allocated seats.

So it's not the fault of the people who are sitting in your seat because if they paid at the counter they can sit wherever they like! they don't know what seats are allocated. it's really stupid, i just pay at the counter because i like to look around the cinema and try to avoid sitting near other people!

No, that's not the case. We paid at the counter, the girl showed us her screen and told us to pic seats. I've never used a machine or computer to get a ticket before.

heretolearn_2

I like allocated seating. Much better than wandering around trying to find where to sit.

Our local cinema gets extremely busy and most evening/weekend shows are pretty near full. I book nearly all our tickets on-line and it's nice to be able to turn up a couple of minutes before the film starts and still have a good seat. Even if we go to the box office to get tickets, it's nice to think about where is the best place to sit out here in the light, than blunder about in the dark trying to make our minds up.

I've only once found people in our seats and just asked them nicely to move to their own. No problem.

aliasojo

Well I've just had an email as a reply to my complaint. It basically says 'tough'. Staff have other duties to attend to so can't perform usher duties as well and if we had a problem we should have got a manager there and then. (Which of course would have gone down really well with all the other poor peeps nearby who'd paid good money to watch a film in peace. )

Ah well, no freebie tickets for me then. :rotfl:

That was a joke before you all jump on me.