To think Cinemas are trying to get rid of Staff?

[girlfriend44]

It's cheaper to book online than in person, at the Odeon.
Your charged alot more if you just turn up?
How is this fair to people who can't book.online or who don't want too?

Are they moving away from having staff? You'll.just turn up, scan your ticket and Walk in?

Nothing particularly new there. When I took the kids to see Pirates of the Caribbean, the film broke down and it took a good 20 minutes to find anyone to tell. They couldn’t have been less interested.

If you want personal service then expect to pay more. Sounds reasonable to me.

I think so - our local Vue is dirt cheap and there is hardly any staff there, other than serving food. There's supposed to be someone checking your tickets but I'd swear we've walked in without there being anyone at the screen checking a few times, so I'm sure there must be people who have noticed this and are trying their luck.

Is that true, about booking on line being cheaper?? We went to the Odeon last month and paid at the counter. It was shockingly expensive. Around £13 each from what I can remember.

“How is this fair to people who can't book.online or who don't want too?”

Define “fair”. They are a business offering a fairly luxury product, not an essential public service like a GP. There’s no rule says they have to provide an in person ticket buying service just because that’s what you want. So long as they provide reasonable adjustments for those with disabilities I think it’s entirely reasonable for them to reduce the staffing costs as far as safely possible. Offering a discount for using a method of booking that saves them money seems like an entirely fair idea to me.

"Can't" is different to "don't want to". I don't want to do lots of things, still do 'em.

I know it's horrible for people who lose their jobs, but from a business perspective, the more automated things can be, the better. Fewer people are going to the cinema and savings have to be made somewhere. It's a vicious cycle but is happening in a lot of businesses at the moment. As a nation we need to adapt and find ways to earn money that might be different to traditional ways of earning.

Discrimination against people who can't book online surely?

Should be the same price for all.

We now rarely go to cinema but if do go we go to the Everyman cinema - they bring food & drink to your seats. Clean, comfy small theatres. Staff lovely.

Discrimination has to be against a protected class to mean anything.

Cinemas barely make any money now beyond the food and drink. Most of the ticket goes to the movie studios and distributors. Lots goes on business rates and rent because their premises are so big. It’s a rubbish business to be in now

Discrimination? LMAO

Last time I went to an Odeon there was a problem with booking tickets online. Dd1 is disabled, and has a CEA card, meaning she is entitled to take a carer with her for free. The card wasn’t working online (a know issue with Odeon, at the time), and so we had to book in person at the cinema. Initially, they tried to say they couldn’t process a CEA ticket in person, and then, when they worked out how to do that, we were charged the in-person fee, rather than the online fee, even though it wasn’t our fault we couldn’t book online. Not great customer service.

We stayed at a Premier Inn a couple of years ago and had the same thing. It was a last minute booking, so I checked prices and availability online but didn't book, we just walked in. The receptionist said it was 55 for the room, and I said I'd seen it online for 50. She said, yes, it's 50 if you book it online. So we sat across from her in the reception area and booked it ourselves while she did something else.

It’s nothing to do with being “fair”. It’s a private business. Like the people who were complaining that not being able to take water into Disney on Ice saying it’s a human right… It’s not a human right to go to Disney on Ice though, it’s a private company with their own rules and if you want to partake in their wares, you have to abide by their rules. Similarly Odeon is a company, they make their rules, if you don’t want to abide by those rules then… you don’t have to. You can either go to a different cinema, can book online or can simply not go to the cinema.

Lots of things are cheaper if you book online. I like it, it's a nice wee bonus if you're a planner like me!

At my nearest Vue you can buy tickets online or at ticket machines on the ground floor. You then take an escalator upstairs and show your tickets to the security guard who's waiting at the top of the escalator. Directly at the top. Causing massive massive congestion and danger as the people behind you pile into your back while your tickets are checked. It's crazy. However their tickets are £5.99 and not £18 like the Everyman near me. The Everyman has plenty of staff and excellent service.

Their business, their rules.

But it seems very short sighted. Their main competition is with streaming. One of the big ways they could differentiate themselves is through better/more personal service.

I have some sympathy with them...right up to the point I have to download another bloody app to my (non existent) smartphone.

Stick to the independents if you can.

LYAOF then.
Definitely wrong to charge people more who can't get online.

Yes, it's true. I went to an Odeon multiplex last year. Was shocked. I could've just walked in without a ticket anyway. No staff except at the food and drink kiosk, and no one checking tickets. Whole place was dead. No idea how it makes any money.

I am sure they are, and many have significantly reduced the number of staff through ticket scanning gates, food and drink ordering via kiosk only and no usher while people are seating themselves.

Much the same as everywhere else. Humans cost more money and are unreliable.

Depends on the cinema. At our local one, there's staff on the door to greet and sell or check tickets; staff behind the bar serving drinks and taking food orders; more staff to show you to your seat and bring you the food you ordered...it's an all-round lovely experience.

It is a shame that there are less jobs in retail/cinemas etc when I was a teenager it was pretty easy to get a weekend job in a clothes shop / supermarket, our local Matalan would have had 20 tills staff, plus changing room staff and shop floor staff - now it seems they might only have one person covering the entire shop floor and checkouts - what do teenagers do for part-time jobs now?

It’s not cheaper to book Online at our Vue as there’s a 90p per person booking fee! No idea what for as I’m doing all the work. For that reason alone, I buy the tickets in the cinema as I’m not doing their jobs for them 😆 and the tickets themselves are the same price.

They don't in the main, unless they can get shop work or flip burgers. The high level of the minimum wage has seen to that. Hospitality, restaurant work, cinema jobs etc are all being decimated as companies can't afford to pay staff the min wage.