This Will NOT End Well...

[lordlundar]

Okay, the misinformation has hit critical mass people. Time to clarify a few points:

- It's not a new system, it's been in place before and is being expanded.
- People who paid priority seating are seated first so the issue most of you keep harping about happens extremely rarely.
- Customers are told at the time of ticket purchase that if they opt not to get the priority seating they are not guaranteed where they sit. They are also told this when they turn over their ticket stub. They are also shown a chart of seats that have been reserved and that if they are found in the seat they will be asked to move.
-At a predetermined time before the movie starts the preferred seating sales are cut off and only regular seat sales are done. This is to prevent the situation most of you are talking about.

To put it simply, the situation that most, if not all of you are talking about requires that a person paid for priority seats well in advance (central seats are often booked days ahead), was late to the theater, and some asshole knew he was in a seat he wasn't supposed to be in and is being an asshole just to keep his seat in which he can be thrown out for causing a disturbance.

[NecessaryCatharsis]

To put it simply, the situation that most, if not all of you are talking about requires that a person paid for priority seats well in advance (central seats are often booked days ahead), was late to the theater, and some asshole knew he was in a seat he wasn't supposed to be in and is being an asshole just to keep his seat in which he can be thrown out for causing a disturbance.

The situation you are referencing is called reserve seating, and has been around for a long time, and seems to work reasonably well. This is a pilot project for something called 'surcharge' seating, where a person can pay more to get to pick a seat, even though someone who hasn't paid the surcharge is allowed to sit there anyways. To quote the article:

The company rep only makes things worse by admitting that these seats won’t be reserved in the traditional sense, saying that a ticket-holder who didn’t pay the surcharge could sit in one of those seats, but she’d have to move if someone who did pay the surcharge shows up “later on during the presentation.”


The article does state that they wouldn't be seating surcharge seats 'late', so as long as no one claims your seat by the time the movie (or possibly the previews-it isn't real clear) start, you would be good. Otherwise it's pay more or take your chances.

[sms001]

Okay, the misinformation has hit critical mass people.... What's worse is most of you are saying "go be an SC"....

I think NC has addressed the misinformation issue succinctly; most of us were probably going from the Consumerist (and Toronto Star link) article.

As for the us being SCs; I believe the 'yuck up the seats' business was tongue-in-cheek (I know mine was) but I will stand by my statements to ask for a refund if: A.) The reseating is disruptive to the feature, or B.) Reseating results in me sitting separately from my companion(s). Those are deal breakers in a long standing social contract between theaters and movie goers.

ETA: Also, would you mind giving out the source to the four points we may be in error about? I have quite a few friends that are fellow movie buffs and we chit-chat about the changing roles of cinemas pretty often.

[lordlundar]

ETA: Also, would you mind giving out the source to the four points we may be in error about? I have quite a few friends that are fellow movie buffs and we chit-chat about the changing roles of cinemas pretty often.

As I said with the first point (and it was the only point the article accurately posted), it's an expansion of the UltraAVX system which I have personally used when I watched The Avengers.

The company rep only makes things worse by admitting that these seats won’t be reserved in the traditional sense, saying that a ticket-holder who didn’t pay the surcharge could sit in one of those seats, but she’d have to move if someone who did pay the surcharge shows up “later on during the presentation.”

Here's the quote, in context, from the Star:

And just like on a plane when the door slams shut, imagine the seat dance that will occur if the premium seats are empty when the film begins.

“Guests could certainly occupy those seats, but if at some point later on during the presentation the guests who have those reserved seats arrive they will be asked to move,” said Marshall. “We wouldn’t encourage that because it’s not only disruptive to them in the audience, but it’s also disruptive to all those folks around them.”

What the Consumerist is inaccurately reporting is when a reserved seat is empty at the movie start due to a late arrival and some jerk decides to go sit in it, NOT someone reserving a seat after the movie is starting. At no point in the original article is such a thing that the Consumerist wrote even mentioned.

It's a piss poor article filled with a lot of misinformation simply to rile people up against "the ebil company."

[Dave1982]

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