To want to pay the full ticket price?

[CharlotteBog]

Relative has booked tickets for the cinema. She's over 60 and has membership for the cinema (so additional discount). It therefore made sense for her to book and me to reimburse her.

She has booked me as a student, telling me that I can tell them I am in the last year of my PhD.
I don't want to do this.

She is a complicated woman - very low self esteem and I know her response will be something like "oh stupid me, fucked up again, I can't get anything right". For this reason, I often drop issues that I might want to talk about, or hold back in giving my POV. I can't drop this one though; I mean it's me that's going to get chucked out or humiliated - and quite rightly too.

They don’t ask and they don’t check.
what are you worried about? It’s the cinema not a hanging.

Can you ring/email/message the cinema saying wrong ticket has been prebooked. Can I pay cost difference to a normal ticket on the day?

I presume you aren't a student and therefore won't have student ID if requested.

So don't drop it. Say that you expect they will ask for ID and you don't have any so you won't get I and she will have wasted her money by trying to be cheap.

If they ask just say you forgot your student ID and offer to pay for a full ticket. It's no big deal.

Well, understandable that she thinks of you as a student.
You won’t get checked out
If you do look surprised and blame her confusion
She took responsibility for booking the tickets, if you don’t like it, book your own.

If it is Picturehouse once you book in the app you can choose to invite a friend, who then books their own ticket at their own rate and the invite tells them which seat had been booked.

Do that in future and you can book what you like,

But don’t make a fuss this time .

And you won’t get ‘chucked out and humiliated’.

You are bring as ‘complicated’ as her.

Well, understandable that she thinks of you as a student.

I'm 53.

Interesting POV.
I guess I am on high alert for 'now what?' as so many interactions are difficult.

It just doesn't sit right with me that she's so pleased to have got me a cheaper ticket, like she's cheated the system. It's not something I do.

I'm sure they'd be thinking 'nice one lady - thought you'd try and get away with it?'.

Maybe not. I'm too honest for my own good maybe.

You know when you go to the cinema and they charge you £7 for a box of about 100 corn kernels...do you think they are worrying that they're getting away with charging you that much?

You sound really nice but definitely misplaced guilt if you feel bad about cheating the cinema out of £3...they do it all day everyday to customers!

I wouldn’t like this either, for the sake of a couple of quid saved it’s not worth making a twat of yourself - so I would be annoyed too. Can you just buy a normal ticket yourself and use that and tell her you didn’t want to use the student one?

If they ask for a student ID it could be embarrassing, but you could just say, oh I forgot it I'll pay full price. They probably won't check.
I don't see why she thinks saying your doing a PhD makes you more student-like. They either check student ID or don't. They couldn't give a stuff what level of student. You could be in FE college doing ESOL 1.
I get she's a bit challenging. Is it a financial issue as well, that maybe she's embarrassed to mention?

Why is it understandable that she thinks of OP as a student?

Yeah, I wouldn’t be keen on the social awkwardness of this either. It’s just shit that you’re the one who has to deal with feeling a bit anxious about being questioned.

I’d go fully with the intention of any query being like ‘oh no, Sandra you must have pressed the wrong button! My student days are long behind me, can I pay the difference now?’

her response will be something like "oh stupid me, fucked up again, I can't get anything right". For this reason, I often drop issues that I might want to talk about, or hold back in giving my POV.
She doesn’t sound like very pleasant company. And she’s a cheapskate, trying to get a discount she’s not entitled to when she’s already getting discounted prices. I’d rather buy my own ticket than let someone pretend I was a student to save a couple of quid. I can see I’m in the minority on this.

My local cinema went through a phase of asking my kids for their student ID every time, I don’t know if they still do.

This.

”Oh Sandra, did you get me a student ticket by mistake? Never mind, I’ll pay the difference now “

No, it is not a financial issue. They are comfortable. I am paying for my ticket, she just did the booking.

Thanks for the responses. I have contacted the ticket buyer and will see what she says. I wish I'd held back though as it would have been easy enough for me to turn up on the day and say they was a mistake and that I'd like to pay the extra. They'd prob wave me through.

I don't know what cinema chain obviously (and could vary cinema to cinema anyway) but I have a Cineworld unlimited card and I honestly can't remember the last time they asked to see my card. If she's aware they never ask to see hers, she may assume the same is true of student ID cards.

That all said, I wouldn't have tried to cheat, like I wouldn't let a friend use my membership card, or use anyone else's myself, so I'd also feel uncomfortable about it.

Her reply is in - I'm not going to put it here just in case, but it is as predicted and then goes on to justify it and make me look like a fuss pot.

It's OK - it's just not the easiest of relationships...but she's family and it's give and take, isn't it.

It will be fine. I am student and often book student price cinema tickets. I've never been asked for proof of this even though i am 61 and don't really fit the student profile.

What a load of drama over a cinema visit. I wouldn't be going to the cinema with anyone I didn't want to, relative or not.

I belong to Curzon - they rarely even look at the ticket - make it clear you'd prefer to pay full price if you go again with her, but let it go.

Well, that's you and doesn't really address the question I asked.

Yanbu but don't make a big deal of it. Make sure you have the difference between student and standard price available in cash. If it becomes an issue you just pay the difference and brush it off saying "oh no auntie dot forgot I'm not a student any more. Sorry about that". They won't chuck you out.