I took my parents out to see Public Enemies tonight (capsule review: avoid at all costs; a dreadful, unfocused movie the only redeeming feature of which is the typeface used for the credits). Because it was opening night I thought buying tickets online in advance would be a good idea, and as we were going to the SilverCity in Burlington, this led me to the Cineplex website for ordering.
Other than being forced to become a “member” of Cineplex in order just to buy tickets, the purchase process went smoothly. The confirmation screen contained this strong directive:
You might think, from this message, what with all its MUST emphasis, that I needed to print the form out and enter my “booking number” to be able to pick up my tickets. Lacking a printer with which to do this, I ended up creating a PDF of the confirmation, transferring it to my mobile phone, and then ensuring that my mobile phone had enough juice to stay alive until we got to the theater.
When we arrived at the theater I went straight to the ticket pick-up machine, clicked on the “Pick Up Tickets” option, and was presented with the option of simply swiping my credit card to pick up the tickets. I did this, the tickets spit out, and I was on my way in about 8 seconds.
I wish they would align the instructions on their ticket-buying website with the reality of their ticket picking-up system: it would save a lot of needless confirmation form printing and hassle.
Comments
Before I went for a test the other day a nurse told me to abstain from eating or drinking anything for at least 12 hours, but it turned out she was confusing the test with a more common one and this one had no such requirement. I had biked several miles to get there and I was parched. The doctor told me a few hours later that actually I could have eaten breakfast and probably should have, since the test would take awhile.
Printing confirmation numbers for supposed paperless tickets is ridiculous and a great pet peeve of mine.
I had a binder full of paper confirmation pages when my girlfriend and I booked our travel and accommodation tickets for our trip through France and Italy. It got really annoying, especially when you show up and all they want is either your reference number or sometimes even just your name.
I guess they advise people to print the whole page for those dummies out there who thinks the world is waiting for only them.
Andrew generally I’ve had the same experiences traveling but have bumped into a few places (airlines, hotels, etc) that insisted on the full copy. In some cases that required us to find an Internet cafe and print it out.