AIBU… Genuine mistake

[LetsGoOutside]

What is the done thing when this situation happens? it was a genuine mistake. Picture of seats attached so you can see our thinking.

We have not been the pictures in over 5 years. Took the kids yesterday. Booked what we thought were back seats, they look like back seats on the pictures.

Film starts. Lady, Man and their child approach us. She says “You’re sat in our seats move.” My husband said “I don’t think we are, opens his phone to find the tickets.” I said what’s the seat number, I check both ends of the isle and they only say numbers not letters. So I came back and said I don’t know what to do. My husband said I’ll go and ask one second. The woman is getting more annoyed by this point. I said he’ll only be a minute. She said you need to move now, I said I can’t move both kids, all our food on my own it’ll only take a minute we genuinely think these are our seats. She starts pointing in my child’s face, whose three, saying move him, he’s in my son’s seat and he’s autistic. It’s my child’s first time at the pictures, it’s dark and there is a strange woman pointing at him telling him to move. He gets upset. Not that this is relevant but I felt like saying so, son is autistic too! Anyway husband returns and says yes we are in the wrong seats. We both apologised while moving the kids and our things.

I understand I was wrong, it was a genuine mistake though, look at the picture would you think these are back seats? Or if you go the pictures a lot is it obvious and we’ve just been really silly. 😂 I genuinely thought we were in the right seats and did everything we could to resolve it quickly.

AIBU would you have moved two young children under 4 if you thought you were right?

So if true, no wonder the other woman was aggressive. Because she knew you were lying.

I think you honestly just need to put it behind you and not give it another thought.

You made a mistake and had a slightly awkward embarrassing encounter. You were in the wrong but you didn’t do it deliberately.

Even if you did, it’s hardly crime of the century so just don’t worry about it now.

It does read as a bit unbelievable because your seat numbers would have been wheelchair spaces in the back row.

It seems as though you got there, realised that you’d booked the front instead of the back. Realised they no one was sitting at the back so you thought you’d chance your luck.

The seat numbers couldn’t have matched because of the wheelchair spaces.

“You’re sat in our seats move.”

If this is verbatim, it was rude. "Hello, I think you're sitting in our seats - we've booked E7 - E10 - please could you check your tickets?" would have been a polite way to go about it. At that point the woman didn't know whether it was OP's error or the cinema's error, but even if she was certain, there's no need to be rude and abrupt. Politeness costs nothing.

Really? You were at the back and he would have to have walked down to find someone, not always easy depending on number of screens.

You have said yourself you haven't been in years so I don't know why you didn't think you were in the wrong considering this. It sounds like you were being awkward which got their backs up. I wouldn't go in to a film late and ask someone to move unless I was sure I was in the right, therefore I can see why they were annoyed at your faffing around.

I did this with a theatre booking once - I effectively read the seating plan upside down. DS was in the show and I’d asked him which side of the theatre we should sit to see him the most. I ended up booking the complete opposite. I did realise though when we went in and saw the row and seat numbers.

I once had a man on a flight insisting quite rudely that I was in his seat. I wasn’t. It was a 737 with the seat formation ABC <aisle> DEF. I had seat F, which was the window seat. He insisted angrily that the seat formation was ABC FED and that the window seat was therefore seat D (which he has a ticket for). I really don’t know how he could believe what he was saying.

Plus, apparently, the OP getting up and checking both sides of the aisle to see if the row number was there.

My son reminded me yesterday of him going to the cinema alone with a school friend when they were in year 8. They'd gone to a Vue early in the day and paid for the VIP seats. The cinema was more or less empty as it was midweek and a lady (sounded like she might have been in her 50s at the most) come and sat with a child in the VIP row.

Nearly right away, a staff member came in and said she hasn't bought VIP tickets and asked her to move. She kicked up a stink because the cinema was empty.

There are screenings usually midweek, where Vue do any seat for £4.99, so there's no need to falsely occupy a VIP seat to enjoy the experience if you can't afford it. Switching seats is not fair on honest folk like your DS and his pal who have paid full price.

DH and I don't go that often so we usually treat ourselves to the VIP seats even if they are at the premium price. We walk there and eat/drink before we go to avoid their expensive junk food, so it's still a pretty cheap night at £20 -ish for 2 VIP seats.

You know you can bring your own refreshments (just usually not hot food) into the cinema. You don't need to smuggle it in

For years I thought you had to smuggle it in - before realising that you don’t have to smuggle anything. You can openly walk in with whatever you like.

I think it's mildly amusing to the staff to watch.

So OP sat in the wrong row claiming it was a mistake but then she also sat in the wrong seat numbers. Again claiming it was a mistake. Then she said the husband took less than two mins to confirm while she refused to move. How hard was it for you to check that you were in fact in the wrong seat numbers too? And all this while the movie was going. You are playing fast and loose with the truth here, OP. And why come and post about it here? You were clearly in the wrong on many levels. You want us to tell you the other woman was rude? No wonder she was rude!

I’m not sure how true that is, at my local theatre row A is second to the back and there are some extra seats behind those that are row AA. Going by that one could assume row A is the back at the cinema too.

Life was easier when you didn’t book seats and just sat wherever. And cheaper because they couldn’t upcharge for various rows.

Rows AA, BB, CC etc start after the last letter used, which will be Z. Miraculous that some of you have encountered theatres which abandon the standard seating plan used by theatres.

It’s not miraculous 😂
Unusual granted, but some places do things a bit differently you know.
Here’s the seating plan for a theatre I know (Ireland):

Why would you use the theatre seating plan and assume the cinema is the same? They just aren’t the same business. Makes more sense to pay attention to the cinema seating plan and follow that

I think pp was just correcting the mistaken assumption by several posters that row A is invariably at the front (as was I).
Obviously you should check a particular venue’s seating plan when booking.

What's the point, though, in doing that when you can easily have something proper to eat before you go in?

Snacking while watching a movie is just a perfectly normal thing to do

Which is how you end up surrounded by people rustling and crunching food, and then needing to get up twice during the film to go to the toilet because they've been drinking giant cups of Coke.

Snacking while watching a movie might be normal but that doesn't make it a great idea. Either people are eating unhealthy snack food instead of a proper meal, or they're eating it as well as a meal, neither of which is going to do them very much good.

Maybe the cinema just isn’t for you. There’s nothing wrong with using the cinema as intended, and the food and drink is a big part of that business. The problem here isn’t anyone else

There are politer ways the disgruntled lady could have asked you to move.

"Maybe the cinema just isn’t for you."

😂

Because I don't want to stuff my face with sugared popcorn, burgers and chips?

Never heard anything so daft! You go to the cinema to see a film.

No wonder the UK has an obesity crisis if people can't separate an activity like watching a film from the desire to eat overpriced UPF garbage.