Booking Event Cinema Tickets Online a Bargain in The Long Run

hymio on 16/03/2016 - 01:33

I visit the cinema fairly often and I usually go to the box office to buy my tickets to avoid Event's $1.20 booking fee. However it recently occurred to me that I might actually be losing out by doing that.

Standard ticket = earn 100 Cinebuzz points

Booking online = earn 25 Cinebuzz points

The cost of a standard ticket ranges from $10 to $20 so at minimum you're paying $2.50 for 25 Cinebuzz points. Booking a ticket online costs $1.20 but you receive an extra 25 Cinebuzz points.

When you reach 600 points, you get to watch a standard movie for free.

600 points รท 125 points = 4.8 times you need to watch a standard movie+booking fee to get a free movie (let's round up to 5).

6 standard movies @ $13 each = $78

5 standard movies @ $13+$1.20 booking fee each = $71

Things change when using sceensavers, watching/redeeming other sessions, etc. but if you are just watching standard movies and are a Cinebuzz member I think you might be better off booking online in the end. Plus you get to choose your seats and avoid the queue and it minimises interaction if you're into that.

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Comments

  • indium on 16/03/2016 - 08:49

    I don't use this cinebuzz stuff, just use the racv $10 tickets so don't really know how it works.

    But if 600 points earns you 1 free movie which you have valued at $13 then:

    Box office: $13 ticket - (100/600)*$13 = $10.83

    Online: $13 ticket + $1.20 booking fee - (125/600)*$13 = $11.49

    • inherentchoice on 16/03/2016 - 10:44
      +1

      Your equations are correct but they are merely subtracting the value of the points without taking into account that one in every 4.8 or 6 tickets is free. In other words, your equations are only counting the cost of every paid ticket without factoring in that you actually get about 25% more free tickets with booking online.

      For example, you could buy 1000 paid tickets for either:

      • $13000 at the box office and you would get 166.7 free movies = 1166.7 movies for $11.14 each
      • $14200 online and you would get 208.3 free movies = 1208.3 movies for $11.75 each

      And we can do the same thing with 6 movies:

      • $13 x 6 at the box office and you would get 1 free movie = 7 movies for $11.14 each
      • $14.20 x 6 online and you would get 1.25 free movies = 7.25 movies for $11.75 each

      So OP said that "6 standard movies @ $13 each = $78" but it's actually that 7 standard movies = $78.

      Anyways, I'm happy to be corrected if my sums are wrong.

      • hymio on 16/03/2016 - 15:32

        Oh man that makes so much sense. I should've put a disclaimer that maths is not my strong suit especially at 1am…

        • inherentchoice on 16/03/2016 - 15:52

          It's still interesting to know that there's an extra 25 points for booking online.

          Actually, when you think about it you're still partly right. Because if the standard price is $40 then it works out to $34.29 from the box office or $34.09 online.

          So, if any maths gurus want to show their skills, what is the theoretical standard ticket price where the average price after free movies is the same online or at the box office?

  • nubzy on 16/03/2016 - 10:26

    Not saving any money if you are paying full price for the ticket. Booking fees are a joke too, have to pay an extra $1.20 on my ING vouchers which really should be free.

  • Thefreshprince on 16/03/2016 - 13:07

    I didn't enter this forum to read endless maths equations I just wanted to know why it's cheaper, lmao

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