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AIBU?

Share your dilemmas and get honest opinions from other Mumsnetters.

To expect people to sit in the cinema tickets they booked?

162 replies

CharleyDavidson · 17/02/2016 21:45

Today, not for the first time, at the cinema I watched people having to ask others to move because there was someone sitting in the seats they'd booked. There's a clear policy at every cinema round here that the seats you sit in are chosen at booking in - either online or on the screens at the tills - and are printed on the tickets. And yet some people seem to just then sit where they like and hope no-one comes and asks them to move.

On one visit, I watched one woman have to move three separate times as she didn't fancy sitting in the seats she booked (she declared this to her children when she went into the screen, I've not just assumed this) and just chose somewhere else to sit.

At one screen it caused a big fuss because one family had decided not to make a fuss and didn't ask someone to move out of their booked seats. Until the people who had booked the seats they'd chosen instead moved up. Then there was a chain reaction of people being asked to move, then going to the seats they should have been sitting in and asking those people to move instead.

Unecessary fuss IMO. Especially when some people arrive to time it when the film starts and to miss the ads and therefore the rearranging happens when the film has already begun.

OP posts:
ijustwannadance · 17/02/2016 23:23

My favourite cinema experience was being the only person in the screening. I moved seats a few times too. Just because. The film was Step Up 2. I resisted dancing in the isles though Grin
I never go to watch new films fresh out either. Always wait a few weeks then try to go during school hours.

Spectre8 · 17/02/2016 23:26

Sometimes I wish I had the balls to go next to the annoying person and be equally annoying and start talking loudly to prove a point abut what a complete arsehole they are. Guaranteed they will suddenly be telling me to shut up. Would never do it though as it will piss off the whole cinema but in my dream.....hehe

HoneyDragon · 17/02/2016 23:27

I have to watch the bloody chipmunks film this week.

Can I Mumsnet /read my kindle if my coat is over my head?

bloodyteenagers · 17/02/2016 23:37

That is torture. Chipmunks. My 10 year old
Wants to watch it. Told him when he gets a job and able to pay them he can decide. Until then I say what he can watch at the cinema.
If you can fob them off watch goosebumps instead.

OnceMoreIntoTheBleach · 17/02/2016 23:38

I once booked tickets online for a busy school holiday film, and got there to find the cinema almost full and the only spare seats were singles. Ended up sitting on the steps with my DCs. Was not pleasant.

I did complain to the cinema that they need to allocate seating. They do now (probably lots of complaints, I'm not taking credit for it!) and it's nice to know that I can claim our seats even if someone else is trying their luck in them when we arrive!

CharleyDavidson · 17/02/2016 23:41

I recommend just grabbing a crafty sleep during that, Honeydragon. I slept away the last Chipmunks movie. I didn't intend to, it was just so dire that I failed to stay awake! (Did the same in Rio 2 too).

OP posts:
CharleyDavidson · 17/02/2016 23:43

Goosebumps much better (apart from Jack Black's acting). In this house, Chipmunks quality films wait for the junior screenings at £1.75 if at all.

OP posts:
liz70 · 17/02/2016 23:43

"I've never booked seats for a cinema"

I've only had to do it once, for our local flicks' premiere of Four Weddings.

PinnieTheWoo · 17/02/2016 23:44

Elledouble - love love love the rules. Especially the last one: thou shalt NEVER remove thy shoes in the cinema. Who the f would do this?!

JenEric · 17/02/2016 23:57

We could do it this way (minus the toilet of shame)...

http://theoatmeal.com/comics/movietheaterr_layout

Purplepixiedust · 18/02/2016 00:00

Only premier seats are allocated at our multi screen cinema and an official shows you to those and presumably gets seat nabbers to move. Tickets cost about £8 for adults in normal seats.

We saw goosebumps today which was great. Talked my 9 yo out of Alvin (phew), although I will happily watch on dvd or kids club showing. Oh and he usually takes his shoes off 😀

fatowl · 18/02/2016 00:01

One of the best things about my dc getting older is no longer having to go to the cinema unless I actually want to see it. They go with friends otherwise- I see them in and take my kindle to a naice coffee shop and meet them coming out.
They know how to behave though- years of me moaning about bad behaviour in cinemas. I had two toddlers kicking the back of my seat all the way though the first chipmunk film. It was enough to drive anyone to murder.

bloodyteenagers · 18/02/2016 00:02

It wasn't his acting as such, just more the weird voice. It sounded synthetic..

PinnieTheWoo · 18/02/2016 00:06

purplepixie - kids' feet are different to grown ups.

My mum has a lovely story of when she and my dad were at the cinema once; just before the film started a man's bare foot slid through the gap between the seats ans rested just inches from her face. Yuk yuk yuk! Stern words were had.

bloodyteenagers · 18/02/2016 00:06

And shoe removing. I have done this. Did it when I watched the hobbit ones. Epic films I have to make myself comfy.
So shoes off so at some point my feet will either be under me, to one side of my arse, or my legs crossed.

ExitPursuedByABear · 18/02/2016 00:07

Thank you all. I've had a proper laugh at this thread.

JeremyZackHunt · 18/02/2016 00:11

We found someone sitting in one of our pre booked seats. Next to a group she was with. She suggested we go and sit in some seats that were still free. At the start of the adverts.
As it was I had had to book 2 seats in one row and 1 in the row in front so AFAIK the cinema would be pretty full and both dc are young.
I would have sat on her rather than give way.

Moomintroll85 · 18/02/2016 00:13

Yanbu about people sitting in seats booked by others. But I effing hate the booking seats policy of do many cinemas and it's one of the reasons I don't really go anymore. I always end up sat next to the biggest twatbar in the place and I can't move because everyone's booked seats.

Ok have bookable VIP seats if you must but for the rest just sell the amount of tickets for the number of seats there are! I want to be able to move if I'm sat next to a git.

TheFlyingFauxPas · 18/02/2016 00:13

Not a cinema but mum and I went to a music dance type show at local leisure centre a few weeks ago. Unallocated seats lots of spares we found good ones we sat down happy then I went off to the loo before show. I always do this 😊 on returning an older gentle man had sat next to my seat and shit you not he wad taking up appropriately one third of my space too. He was all knees and elbows. Not a big man. He sat with his legs and arms extremely akimbo 😒 I stuck my arms and legs out a bit actually touching him but he did not budge! There wad no way I was going to sit next to him for the whole performance. Luckily I was able to shuffle me and my mum to the row behind. I'd have been fuming if ìd had to stay there for the whole night. Thank goodness we weren't in numbered seats!!!! I still watched him. I'm sure by the end of the night he was occupying his seat and 3/4 of mine!!! Bloody man 😆

CharleyDavidson · 18/02/2016 11:01

Oh yes, people with no sense of personal space - out!

OP posts:
scarednoob · 18/02/2016 11:08

I think being late for the film is just as annoying. I have a terribly posh friend who is somewhat intolerant of this sort of thing. We went to see "the Iron Lady" and the cinema was packed.

Just as the film started, 3 behemoths came in and started milling around noisily on the steps, booming about their seats.

Dennis Thatcher appeared on the screen. I turned to my friend and whispered, "oh it's jim broadbent."

"I wouldn't know," my friend replied loudly in her cut crystal tones, "because some lanky cunt is standing right in my way." Everyone around us cracked up, and the 3 monoliths immediately sat on the steps and didn't dare move a muscle.

Bet they didn't do it again.

IceRoadDucker · 18/02/2016 11:10

Once went to the cinema where there were three others in the room besides me and my mum. A couple came in just before the film started and sat one seat away from us?!

We moved and they gave us odd looks. Just wtf? They had popcorn as well.

It's like those people who have to park beside you in an empty car park. Must be a herding instinct.

TheJiminyConjecture · 18/02/2016 11:22

"I wouldn't know," my friend replied loudly in her cut crystal tones, "because some lanky cunt is standing right in my way."

Grin There's something so funny about swearing in a posh accent.

MrsDmitriTippensKrushnic · 18/02/2016 11:35

All our locals have booked seats now, I quite like it. I always end up with joint pain - sitting down for too long in little squished seats with long legs and hyper-mobility is not a good combination but I'm not giving up my 12ft superheroes! Booking seats means I can get my aisle seat behind the VIP seats and can stretch if need be.

I took the DSs to see Deadpool on Tuesday (slightly off topic but I was amazed at the number of blatantly under 12 15 yos there were) Gave them their tickets whilst I ran to the loo and then went in to find them being turfed out of the wrong seats they'd sat in because some other teens were in ours, wimps. Patented 'unamused parent' glare got the interlopers to shift with no problems but I then got to watch them bounce around the cinema, getting kicked out of all the seats they tried to sit in that weren't their own. Quite amusing actually, I think they must have bought tickets at the last minute as they ended up sitting apart.

TBH, I usually go midweek, on my own during school hours - there's something rather nice about being in an almost deserted cinema.

bruffin · 18/02/2016 11:36

There is a special 3d day next saturday at our local cineworld and as I was supposed to be out for the day DH decided to see The Martian and Jurrasic World (seen both but not in 3d) tickets are only £3. I then discovered i was home and want to see the Martian again, so dh went to book a seat form. The only seat left in the whole of the theatre is next to his original seat Grin
He is getting a bit of complex as nobody wanted to sit next him Grin

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