Vue Cinemas - why bother allocating seating?

4743hudsonj

My odeon always seem to allocate seats and always ask if you go to the manned counter rather than the machines. Its useful for larger parties or busy times but if im brutally honest, if its a non busy showing i just book standard seats near the top (to the side) and sit in the premier seat providing theres plenty of others. If somebody comes along i move somewhere else in the premiers. I think you'd have to be daft to pay for premier at off peak times.

DCFC79

JustWonderful wrote: »

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..

at odeon were you not asked where you wanted to sit

Sharon87

I worked at a Vue - we didn't have allocated seating, but we did have the VIP seats which were allocated. During the week days there were no one in there checking seats as they decide to have about 4 staff, sometimes less, on quiet week days, which is ridiculous.

I prefer the allocated seating especially for busy screens. When I was working I was the person who often checked seats and for busy, well sold out screenings we had to constantly tell people to not leave any gaps of 1. I did find it annoying at times, but I guess it would be a nightmare checking everyone's seat numbers for those kind of screenings for an entire screening. We had cinemas with 400 seats.

I was at Vue Westfield the other day - they have allocated seating, so I chose some seats, tried to find the row and it was in tiny letters! The numbers are clear, but the row wasn't. Also had to ask someone to move out the seats. I didn't blame them though, as the staff on till said to me 'I'll put you in the best seats', really quickly, I had to ask to pick my seats. If people didn't know it was allocating seating I would have just sat anywhere.

Allocated seating is good if done properly, if the till staff ask you to chose your seat all the time, there would be no problem, also ushers in the screens on Wednesday, Friday evening and all day in the weekends - and busy times of the summer holidays.

mrbrightside842

Ooh I've only just came across this! I'm glad that they've started allocating the seating. At ours, people leave odd chairs scattered about, so it's really hard to get 4 seats together. Last time that we went we ended up sat down at the front and split up because OH stopped to get some ben and jerry's and it took forever. We'd prebooked tickets, but couldn't prebook seats, which would have been a lot better!

jumpycheese1

I don't go to the cinema often, but when I do go, people always hog the end seats at each row. That really narks me off, especially when they are shorter than me.

lanavdt

I only prebook if it's a film I'm desperate to see and know it's going to be packed as I like to sit on the aisle. Aso definitely prefer my local Vue to either of the Cineworlds saw inception last night for the enormous price of £4.70 for the 2 of us. Gotta love Orange Wednesdays!

BillTrac

Our local Odeon tells you where to sit..can't be any blunter than that. I think I am old enough to decide for myself so I don't use it unless really left with no choice. Wanted to take my grandson to see Toy Story 3 (that's my excuse and I'm sticking to it..:rotfl:)

Had free child's ticket when buying adult ticket at Odeon, but they are only showing it in 3d at £9.50 for me and no free passes!!

Our local Vue doesn't tell you where to sit like you are a naughty child. Took my grandson, didn't get hassle and sat where we felt comfortable.

Vue gets my vote every time

preable

Vue where i live dont (doncaster) But they have premier seats which is 2 rows of leather seats which are allocated to people.

InaPickle

I don't think this is exclusive to Vue: I used to work at a UCI cinema, where all tickets had a seat number allocated to them. People were generally allowed to sit where they wanted and it was only really enforced at busy screenings, mainly to stop people leaving gaps and meaning that groups of people couldn't sit together. (Imagine a mum and her two children having to sit in three different places in the cinema just cos other people had arranged themselves leaving only individual seats.)

If, in normal screenings when it wasn't too busy, people wanted the seats on their tickets, we would of course have asked politely people who ought to have been sat elsewhere to move.

Lirin

My local cinema is £4.50 a film (tops), and has no allocated seating.

Though we can happily sit anywhere, I usually prefer sitting at the right side- so I don't have to compensate for my blind eye by sitting awkwardly.

Usually avoid it on a Saturday though! Monday evenings, only myself and my husband present for the entire screening- bliss!