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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:
cashewnutty · 18/02/2016 18:36

I HATE going to the cinema. I have no tolerance at all for noise, smells, people moving around (any and all the reasons mentioned in this thread. I don't go anymore. I like to watch films on my own settee with my feet up and a glass of wine. I realise that i am now old and intolerant but i don't care.

Narp · 18/02/2016 18:40

0P

People who do this are fuckers. They do it on purpose. They sit somewhere they think is better (because they were too lazy to do what the rest of us do, which is book ahead and choose the seats we want) then rely on other people being too unassertive to ask them to move. No more! I always ask them to move.

It's happened to me on a plane, train and cinema.

KatsutheClockworkOctopus · 18/02/2016 18:41

My friend and I once had the cinema to ourselves. The film was Shining Through so I'm not really surprised. In fact I suspect we were the only two people who ever paid to see it ... (it was extremely bad)

Doubleuponcoffee · 18/02/2016 18:44

Actually I dont think it is clear thAt you must sit in the seats you chose at booking. I don't think people know what to do

iwuddarryl · 18/02/2016 18:44

And tall people who have the bare-faced audacity to sit in front of me.

This happens to me a LOT.

The cinema can be virtually empty, but you can guarantee when a tall person spies me they immediately think ''I will go and sit directly in front of iwuddarryl with my tall, bobbing head''
Have you noticed? They always have heads that bob around a lot keep your fecking head still

If you're tall, why can't you be considerate and slump down in your seat a bit? Hmm

Narp · 18/02/2016 18:45

Double

Eh?

PuppyMonkey · 18/02/2016 18:45

I too live in an area where there is very little seat booking shenanigans - pay for your ticket and get in there first so you get a good seat, that's how I was brought up and it never did me any harm. Grin

MiaowTheCat · 18/02/2016 18:46

This reply has been deleted

Message withdrawn at poster's request.

Doubleuponcoffee · 18/02/2016 18:56

You used to book a "seat" but have an unallocated ticket. It said U for un allocated on it. You'd just pick at old seat in the plan for booking numbers then sit where you liked. I don't think it's clear that's changed because seating, if it is to be followed as though one is at the theatre, is not enforced in any way (in any that I've been in) in the cinema, by way of signs or staff. So I'm not surprised really.

ProfGrammaticus · 18/02/2016 18:58

What? You click on "your seat" having been instructed to "choose your seat". How can anyone fail to understand that??

Doubleuponcoffee · 18/02/2016 18:58

For the reasons I mentioned above?

laylabelle · 18/02/2016 19:08

Cineworld has it on screen before ads.Not that many pay attention though.Half the time just ends up being musical chairs

Doubleuponcoffee · 18/02/2016 19:13

That's odd, mine doesn't. I was only there Friday. Hateful eight- it was pretty good

lostincumbria · 18/02/2016 19:25

The Wittertainment code of conduct should be enforced and breaches punishable by a permanent ban.

To expect people to sit in the cinema tickets they booked?
ijustwannadance · 18/02/2016 19:27

They should stagger the seats so you sit looking between the heads of the 2 people sitting in row below you rather than at the back of someone's fat head.

frikadela01 · 18/02/2016 19:48

This is why me and dp only ever go after we do morning shifts at work. It's usually pretty quiet. We also tend to book the seats on the front row of the steps bit (ie not smack bang in front of the screen but at the front of the main block of seats) doesn't seem to a popular place but it's perfect for my long legs and teeny tiny bladder.

cleaty · 18/02/2016 19:54

We go to Showcase Luxe, i won't go anywhere else. Reclining seats, lots of space and incline so it is impossible for someone's head or hat to block your view, and big comfy seats. I now go regularly to the cinema.

bimbobaggins · 18/02/2016 20:12

You should ty going to a showing about ten or eleven am on a weekday.

Absolute bliss and have quite often had the cinema to myself! Love it.

Hrafnkel · 18/02/2016 21:03

I went to the firms in Wood Green once.

When I asked the people in front of me (who had a newborn baby Roth term) to be quiet, I was threatened with a baseball bat. Shock

Hrafnkel · 18/02/2016 21:03

With them

DiscoGlitter · 18/02/2016 21:33

I've never booked seats for a cinema

Neither have I. You just sit wherever. Never a problem!

CharleyDavidson · 18/02/2016 21:34

Blimey. I've seen lots of people move when someone's politely informed them that they are in the wrong seats, and a bit of huffing and puffing about it. But no actual arguments.

It does seem to mostly happen with the children's films I've been to see. I can't recall it happening at adult films.

OP posts:
BoulevardOfBrokenSleep · 18/02/2016 21:34

Ijustwannadance "I never go to watch new films fresh out either. Always wait a few weeks then try to go during school hours"

Oh my god you're a genius! I have been grumping about not getting to watch Deadpool till it's out on DVD, and here, the cinema down the road is showing it at 10am next week when the kids are back. Like bimbobaggins says, I might even have the place to myself. Woohoo!

NeedsAsockamnesty · 18/02/2016 21:44

I go to the cinema a fair bit, sometimes I take two of my kids with me. On those occasions I can only do showings in the smaller screen and I have to buy the entire row of seats and at least 4 from the row behind.

It pisses me off greatly when people sit in them despite being told I have paid for them all and often we end up having to leave and miss the film.

LilacAndLovely · 18/02/2016 21:46

I have to buy the entire row of seats and at least 4 from the row behind

I don't understand - do you buy up seats you don't use? Why?

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