Sinemia cutting physical cards meaning all members pay ~$2 extra per movie
Sinemia has decided to go “cardless” on November 1st, 2018. That means no more physical credit cards will be issued and existing members, that sounds like good news, but there’s a deceptive, troubling rationale for Sinemia in making this decision.
If you use Sinemia’s “Planning” option to get advance tickets, you’ll know the company charges an additional $1.80 per ticket in processing fees in addition to any service fee you pay to AMC, Regal, Fandango, etc.
Here’s the email that many members received (thanks to Doctor of Credit).
Dear Sinemia user, We’ve got great news to share! At Sinemia, we strive to provide the best movie-going experience possible and we always think of ways to develop what we offer. In our journey, we introduced advance ticket feature, 3D-IMAX-4DX option, flexible tiered plans, plans for couples and more to elevate your movie-going experience.
Butter us up…
In May, we introduced Sinemia Cardless which eliminated the need of a physical Sinemia card and the Cardless adoption rate of existing physical card owners exceeded our expectations. Sinemia Cardless (sic), effortless way of enjoying Sinemia, is designed to make
getting your movie tickets online simpler and maximize your movie-going experience. Now, only a small group of our members currently use physical Sinemia cards and more than 96% of our customers are already using cardless.
That’s in part, Sinemia stopped sending out physical cards a couple months ago unless users harassed you on Twitter.
This had been a great transition period and now we’re fully implementing this new feature: As of October 30th 23:59 PDT, all physical Sinemia cards will be depreciated and all members will be using thé new convenient Sinemia CardlessAs an added bonus and to make sure you are all set for Sinemia Cardless, we’ll ensure all our existing physical card users that are affected by this transition will not have to pay any convenience fees & processing fees at least for the next 90 days beginning October 30th or until the end of their current monthly annual plans.
Hit them with the actual news…
By fully integrating Sinemia Cardless into all Sinemia subscriptions we will be able to give our members the power to get their movie tickets wherever they are, whenever they want, in a more secure way- in other words, the card will be in the app, accéssible on their mobile devices Using Sinemia Cardless is almost the same as the old process, you will continue to get your tickets online under Planning tab as you have always done. The app will quíde you through the steps and onče complete, you’ll receive a one-time onlý payment information in order to make the purchase online, every time you want. That’s all now it’s the best time to enjoy more movies with Sinemia
Don’t forget to mention the $2 fee you’re getting for each as well as the money you’re saving by not producing, sending out, and replacing physical cards.
We already have our concerns with Sinemia and we’re watching them closer especially as MoviePass falters and hemorrhages users. Sinemia’s app is clunky and terrible, little to no customer service, and the inability to see how many movies remain on your plan. However, even if it’s an ordeal to get the tickets — the kicker is that if you watch movies on a regular basis, it’s still a great deal. The “cardless” announcement isn’t quite a breaking point in terms of using the service, but it does make us pay attention to the company a little more.