When federal movie marshals and tens of dollar upgrades affect your “Flight” plan

When federal movie marshals and tens of dollar upgrades affect your “Flight” plan

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The movie “Flight” is in theaters today, starring Denzel Washington. Here’s a preview, for those of you that haven’t heard of the movie:

Yes, that’s an MD-80 with winglets, which is as mythical a creature as the three legged purple unicorn.

Before I moved to Bellevue the last time I went to a movie theater was when the first Shrek came out. I watch most of my movies on planes, but in Redmond there’s the coolest movie theater ever, called iPic. They basically have recliner seats with blankets and you can order food and drinks during the movie. It’s kind of like being on an airplane with a really big IFE screen and without the constant vacuum noise. While it’s a bit more expensive than a regular movie I think it’s totally worth it.

So tonight I went to their website to try and reserve seats, and was offered a tens of dollar upgrade to their Premier Plus Seating. Fortunately there were no iPic Gold Class Members on the waitlist. 😉

I then went to the seatmap to try and select my preferred seats, and found several good ones still available (especially seats five and six).

I wasn’t quite ready to commit yet, though an hour later returned to the website to make my booking, only to find this:

As you can see, there are only window seats left! What happened?! Did the federal movie marshals steal some of the premium seats last minute? Did the ushers intentionally delay one of the previous screenings, causing several guests to be rebooked for the later showing with operational upgrades to accommodate them? Should I book this in hopes that they’re oversold and bump me to tomorrow’s showing with generous denied screening credit?

Color me confused! Should’ve probably gone with the ghost tour. Doubt they have issues with things disappearing so quickly… oh wait!

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  1. Vincent Guest

    God, that's cheaper than the regular cinemas here in Australia and you get all that extra stuff! Crazy

  2. u600213 Member

    http://m.flickr.com/#/photos/61572751@N00/4304351857/

    AA MD80 with winglets

  3. BR Guest

    I hope there's going to be a trip report!

  4. peachfront Guest

    It's in New Orleans too -- press a button and get the frosty glass of adult beverage and foo-foo chef-prepared snacks brought to your movie seat, at room service prices and 18% service charge included though. However, the seat picker itself is broken. The seats we chose had already been sold...fortunately the movie was not a popular one so we had no problem sitting in other good seats.

  5. Carl Guest

    Lucky, you may as well go see it in a theater as that film won't be making it onto any IFE systems.

    Denzel Washington has a great voice, but I have the feeling I'll be cringing throughout the movie at the lapses from reality.

    If there's an aairplane ready to faall apaart, it's the MD-80. Who haas the biggest remaaining fleet?

  6. Rasputin Guest

    @Stephanie,
    So the trick is to buy multiple $100 iPic cards during the right Chase Freedom quarter to get 15% back. Throw in Ink plus or bold + Vanilla rellad, that is 20% back in points, which is roughly 40% cashback (at 2 cents a point)

  7. oleg Guest

    You should sign up online though for that member (just requires an email) if you make a habit of going there frequently. While there are other perks, it's primary a trade of your email address for a few dollars off on tickets.

  8. oleg Guest

    It's a nice theatre - price is fairly in-line with regular theatres when you account for a free drink and popcorn. For non-locals, ipic or other similar theatres are pretty much all over the country, be it in Austin or Omaha. With that said, that's just the usual price and not a tens of dollar upgrade.

  9. Stephanie Guest

    Lucky, if you purchase a $100 giftcard on iPic's website, they give you a $10 one for free. 10% back! :)

  10. Tom Guest

    They have had this in Australia for years!
    http://www.eventcinemas.com.au/What-Is-GoldClass
    http://www.eventcinemas.com.au/What-Is-Vmax

  11. Peter Guest

    $18 is expensive for a movie? That's the standard in Australia! :/

  12. Andrew Guest

    Sadly "Flight" won't be released here in Japan until March 2013!

  13. Simon Guest

    That's awesome, Lucky! I'll have to check it out the next time I'm in Redmond area. Thanks for sharing! :)

  14. Scottrick Guest

    I'll have to go check that out. But I live so close to a decent movie theater already with $7.50 tickets. I'm not sure I can convince Megan to spend upwards of $25 plus drive an hour.

  15. Blaine Guest

    Were you booking through the US site? Could be more *A blocking!

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The comments on this page have not been provided, reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any advertiser, and it is not an advertiser's responsibility to ensure posts and/or questions are answered.

Vincent Guest

God, that's cheaper than the regular cinemas here in Australia and you get all that extra stuff! Crazy

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u600213 Member

http://m.flickr.com/#/photos/61572751@N00/4304351857/ AA MD80 with winglets

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BR Guest

I hope there's going to be a trip report!

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