Vue Cinemas - why bother allocating seating?

Lokolo

Neither of my local cinemas use allocated seating. I just go before hand, get some snacks from Tesco, go in a little early to make sure we get the best seats in the house.

shellsuit

We booked online to watch a film at the Odeon a few months ago.

The only seats avilable which were showing online were the premier/larger seats near the back, which are more expensive than the other seats.

So I thought it would be packed and booked 3 seats, one for me, OH and my daughter.

We got to the cinema, picked up our tickets, walked into the room and there WAS ONLY US IN IT!!

Onnly 2 more people came, so 5 of us watched the film lol!

When we got home, I fired an email off, to say how annoyed I was, that there were only 5 people in the room, yet when we booked, it showed only the most expensive seats, which we had to pay for.

Got a reply back apologising and asking for my address, and we got 3 free tickets sent through the post, which have until the end of the year to use.

Cheek of them though, I'd never book online again!

faded_flowers

It seems to be the norm at our Odeon for busy times. The only time I've had to choose though, we went in - and about 2 people had already arrived and were, of course, in our seats But they did have an usher very much in charge and making sure everyone went to the right place (he arrived just after us.)

ellay864

Lokolo wrote: »

Neither of my local cinemas use allocated seating. I just go before hand, get some snacks from Tesco, go in a little early to make sure we get the best seats in the house.

At one of our nearby cinemas unless it's really busy they seem to have snack gestapo monitoring cinema goers for illicit food i.e. anything not purchased at extortionate price from them. When my kids were smaller they actually thought going to any cinema involved the regular game of hiding 'our stash' to avoid detection :rotfl:

viktory

Lokolo wrote: »

Neither of my local cinemas use allocated seating. I just go before hand, get some snacks from Tesco, go in a little early to make sure we get the best seats in the house.

My local cinema, Cineworld, ask to search your bags before letting you in the cinema. They confiscate snacks that have not been bought on site at vastly inflated cost. Thankfully, I can manage 2 hours without food or drink.

valos_mummy

I prefer allocated seating tbh because you don't have to queue up for ages in order to get good seats. They had this in the Basingstoke Vue, but then I relocated and my local cinema doesn't have it. So for films I want to get a good seat for I have to queue early which is a pain in the bum.

They seriously pack them in at my local; the front seats are so near to the screen it can't be good for your eyes. OH and I had an orange 241 once, and because the restaurant took an eternity, we raced to the cinema with 5 mins to go and the only seats left were those ones. So we spoke to the manager (we were nice about it though) and he gave us 2 vouchers instead which we could use for anything on any day. So about a week later, we went to see Avatar in 3D!!

We figured they don't do allocated seating in our Vue because if they did, they'd never sell those carppy seats and make a loss.

Oh, and on a unrelated, but film post I went to see Kick-!!! last night and it was awesome!!!

fluffnutter

I'm really confused about this... I go to Vue all the time. The tickets used to be about seven quid something. When I went recently I used the booking machine like I usually do and was presented with two ticket prices - the usual seven something and the VIP seat for nine quid something.

I chose my usual cheaper price and it then asked me to select a seat. I couldn't select one in the back half unless I paid for a VIP ticket.

So essentially, to now sit where I like to sit I have to pay £1.50 more?! Is that right? I didn't actually buy tickets because I was a bit cross. I tend to always go when it's very quiet (early showings) and the films I watch only ever have about two people in the theatre.

Can I pay the cheaper price and sit where I like? (Provided it's not booked by someone else of course). *confused*

aliasojo

The VIP seats are bigger and better, lol. They are made of leather (ette probably ) and have 4 to a row instead of the usual 6 for example. They also have huge spaces to put your extra large bucket of popcorn.

As fopr the getting an allocated seat and sitting where you like........I'll just complain about you. :rotfl:

Seriously though, I can't see anyone bothering if the cinema is half empty.

fluffnutter

But the seats are no different at my vue... honestly I'm genuinely confused. And I wouldn't sit in someone else's seat. I'm just trying to understand whether the rows I usually sit in are now £1.50 more than they were two weeks ago.

aliasojo

Maybe they've had new seating put in since the last time you were there? They'd have a cheek if it really is still the same seating.