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?

Isn't Row A always the front?

I've never been to a cinema where the rows aren't labelled, that doesn't sound very likely? The letters were probably on the steps.

Odeons also have illuminated maps by the door.

We've done that exact thing once- booked what we thought were back seats and then found they were front row. I think the plan is deceptive.

OP, is this thread just a massive stealth boast because you want to show off you can afford to buy 4 drinks and 4 tubs of popcorn at the cinema?

A council-owned cinema? I'm intrigued. Where is this?

Thank you so much for your reply! I’m definitely one of those people then.

It was a genuine mistake and easily resolved. There was no need for her to be so aggressive or make your child upset.

I don’t really understand… some asked why I couldn’t move. Why is having a drink and popcorn unusual?

Because 4 drinks and 4 tubs of popcorn at the cinema is $$$$ 😂

I didn’t I’d just pay for better seats. I can’t understand why people think this.

I’m notoriously bad at scanning images properly with my brain. I jump to the wrong conclusion because I’m in a hurry to get the thing done and don’t look for visual clues. So I completely understand how you could miss that the ‘Odeon’ logo was the screen etc. You thought you had booked back seats and that’s where you headed. I believe it’s likely that there are letters at each end of the row. Maybe they aren’t clear enough but they must be there, otherwise everyone would be working through the alphabet to find their row. The other woman was unnecessarily rude, but I suppose she was panicking that she wasn’t going to be able to sit in her booked seats, thought you might be chancing your arm and was braced for a tussle over it. It was all a bit unfortunate but you should try to put it out of your head. I bet it won’t happen again!

She's told us that all the seats were the same!

Honestly, why are you and others so insistent that the OP couldn't have made a mistake? Have you never made a mistake!

Because you booked the cheap seats and then sat in the expensive ones?

I didn't say she couldn’t make a mistake, she obviously made mistakes here. It would have been obvious she’d made a mistake before her husband kept the woman waiting longer by going to speak to staff though though

I feel for you OP because it's the kind of error that I make. No doubt it seems obvious now that you were booking the front row but it wasn't at the time. The other family could have been more patient.

She sounds absolutely bonkers, there's no reason why she couldn't have resolved it calmly and politely. I'm increasingly amazed at how incredibly rude so many people are these days.

Ah, that makes sense. That’s why the other poster must have assumed I could have easily moved.

Not sure if this is usual but when we walked in, we walked in at the back, which I thought was strange. Years ago when we went you would walk in at the front and go upstairs to the back but there was no stairs. It was a slight slope down to the bottom. The chairs were all leather recliners too. Which I thought was very nice. None of these flip up when you stand up. Although this might have been easier as at least they had numbers on 😂

Like I say I haven’t been for years.

It honestly was a genuine mistake.

In my local cinema the disabled seating is at the back all the tickets cost the same and their are no real seating numbers because most of the seats are cannibalised and repaired from other cinemas there was also a hole in the roof for several months bit draughty in the winter they replaced it with air conditioning for the summer which was great this year although it did whistle a bit

I found booking at odean a bit of a trial tbh I was used to just grabbing any seat and taking my own food none of this you MUST BUY OURS BS although they (odean) did let me bring in my own clearly marked allergy free popcorn because I asked if they could guarantee no cross contamination and they couldn't the teenager in charge weighed up minimum wage with cleaning duties and thought...fuck it not worth it 😂

Anyway people regularly get seating wrong even on trains I would have automatically consulted staff because thats my train procedure its quite normal if your not used to cinema booking systems (im not) to mess up

Your seats are fairly obviously (to me) the front row seats and the corresponding back row seats have disabled signs on, which are the ones the other family had presumably booked, so I can see why she was a bit cross. However, it sounds like she was extremely rude so I can also see why you were upset. It was a genuine misunderstanding so I wouldn’t give it another thought.

@LetsGoOutside they may have looked the same to you, but the back row of the seating (Rows F and E, marked in purple on the screenshot) are labelled luxury recliners and are in the most popular section. So the screenshot shows that the cinema charges £2 more per seat for those compared to the green seats in row A that you booked.

depends if you believe OP didn't realise it was a screen until people told her on this thread...which doesn't really explain why she cropped it out in her first photo.

But why would I come on MN and lie? That’s bonkers!

Don't overthink it OP, you made a mistake. DH checked quickly and as soon as it was confirmed you moved, so not a big deal. As for the woman, in her defence I would say that you don't know what she was dealing with. Maybe one of her children also has additional needs and was likely to crash out or meltdown because you were in their seat. I don't know, I'm just surmising, but either way you dealt with it appropriately.

I get it was a mistake so you apologised and moved ao what on earth os the issue then? Why do you assume you shouldn't have had to move because you have children?