FREE Cinema Tickets Discussion Thread

AngelUndercover

Tetsuko wrote:

Yep that makes me a quite angry in a way. Thinking that people who might not need tickets or not care whether they go or not, who might even just book them on a whim, grab the tickets while other people who really appreciate being given the opportunity to have a night/morning out for a change are left dissapointed because they can not go.

Afterall it only takes a short email to the ticket provider to let them know they can not attend.

I think its much nicer to offer the tickets to someone else on MSE who really, really wants to see the film.

Regarding A NIGHT AT THE MUSEUM, there were so many (with/without little uns) who wanted to see the film and it would have been truly wonderful to have been able to give those tickets away (that later went to waste) in the spirit of MSE and CHRISTMAS. It is quite disappointing to find that what we all expected to be a jam-packed screening was quite the opposite.

It only takes a few minutes to write a post offering your tickets on here/the other relevant thread and someone/other is bound to snap them up - both parties feel great! I'm gonna take the lovely example of Spikey and Bootman that you can see in the previous posts. Many thanks Bootman for being so generous. I'd also like to thank tintoys and sfancy for their generosity.

Now...just as a reminder, those of you who already know that you will be unable to make it for the upcoming screening of NOTES OF A SCANDAL (check your filofaxes/diaries/thingiemajigs ) please do try and email the seefilmfirst people to let them know or better yet post an offer of tickets on this thread. Cheers.

Merry Christmas & A Happy New Year 2007!!

flufff

stoke was half empty

Tetsuko

AngelUndercover wrote:

"I think its much nicer to offer the tickets to someone else on MSE who really, really wants to see the film"

It might seem nicer but it's not always practically the case. For example people might travel up to 20 miles to go to their local cinema. If they recklessly book tickets they can not use and then offer them on here, contrary to popular misconception, not everyone owns a car, how would a person in this situation pick up the tickets if both parties live some distance from each other? Especially difficult at short notice.

It might take only a few minutes to write a post reoffering the tickets on here but rather than just being able to conveniently print them out, the person has to organise getting the tickets, which in some cases might mean more expense and travel than the tickets would have been worth at face value in the first place. Expense that they can not afford. So the people most adversely affected would be those who were least likely to be able to afford to go to the cinema in the first place.

It's a pity that it's not practicable to check who it is that wastes these tickets so that they might be restricted from prebooking them in the future.

AngelUndercover

I was actually referring to email-type tickets (including seefilmfirst tickets where you can just email the link to the other person and they can print it out for themselves).

In the case of proper, non-email/non-link tickets it is obviously a different story and is dependant on many factors.

And yes, time constraints do restrict the offering of tickets but, emailing seefilmfirst to tell them you wont be able to make the screening doesnt necessarily mean that they will have the time to sort out other people to take your place, I'm sure we already realize that. However, if you just get online and offer them here, even if it is for a screening on the same day someone is sure to grab them (and you can just send them the link/code for the sms ticket). Isn't that preferable to wasting the tickets? I think so.

I was also referring to genuine cases where people cannot go at the last minute for various reasons. I have to admit I did not take into account that people unnecessarily/recklessly get tickets to places that are so completely out of the way (whether they own a car/not and whatever their means of transport) - I guess I assumed that nobody would do something like that. I am also going to assume that if someone is going to end up spending way more than they can afford or had initially anticipated they would have the common sense not to bother at all. Then again, common sense is not very common.

I do however agree with you that it would be useful for the free ticket system to be able to check who actually attends the screening after securing tickets and those who don't and thus permit/disallow them to score tickets for further screenings. But as you say, it certainly isn't practical.

Ty for the feedback

Aquatic_2

It might also be that only a certain number of tickets are issued for each cinema. The screen at Southampton that seems to be the usual for previews is smaller than the one at Basingstoke and the one at Bournemouth smaller still - so it could be that 50 people fill one and make another look empty. either way the tickets are all allocated.
BTW the bouncer on the door at Basingstoke yesterday was only putting mobiles in what appeared to be pick and mix bags and did not seem to be giving receipts and therefore was having fairly heated discussions with several people. His reponse was that they could always go and put them in the car. My advise - put the phone where he isnt allowed to check and deny having one!

christopher_h

I suspect that some people applied for tickets BUT on sunday morning realised it was a tad early to get into town to watch a movie - hence my earlier posting about not liking these sunday morning screenings - please let's have the adult movie screenings at an adult time - ie: 6.30pm

davodedthomas

christopher_h, that is more than likely the reason, because I had one screening that I didn't get into town in time for because it was too early for my normal getting up time. This would probably suit those that are usually up early, but not for me, 6.30pm screenings for sure! I don't even bother applying for 10.30 Sunday screenings anymore.

lisyloo

I was also referring to genuine cases where people cannot go at the last minute for various reasons.

There are all sorts of reasons that people can't go last minute.
Business reasons, illness etc.

I have had a couple of occassions where I couldn't go myself.

I agree that we should make them available to others, but let's not go burning everyone at the stake just because they had an unanticipated problem :-))

AngelUndercover

lisyloo wrote:

I agree that we should make them available to others, but let's not go burning everyone at the stake just because they had an unanticipated problem :-))

Absolutely!

Snow_Angel

Hi - I went to see Flags of our fathers at the cinema yesterday. I thought it was a great film, although I expected nothing less of Clint Eastwood! However, is it just me or is violence in films becoming more acceptable these days? I am positive that just a few years ago that film would definitely have been an 18 certificate. In parts it was so gruesome I couldn't watch......and I work in operating theatres!!!

Thanks to everyone who continues to post these. I can never really afford to go to the cinema as I'm a student so I really appreciate the free tickets.

:snow_grin