Two People Assigned the Same Seat- Page 2

[lilpunkin]

Posted: 3/4/24 at 8:30am

BroadwayNYC2 said: "“ Don’t be ridiculous. If you purchase a seat for a show that entitles you to occupy the seat for the duration of the show.”

clearly it doesn’t, hence why they have a waiting list. What do you think that’s for?"

The Young Vic is the only theatre in Britain that operates a “seat filler” policy where they issue a second ticket to SOLD seats if the person happens to be late.

Every other theatre that operates a waiting list does so purely for returns. There’s a huge difference between a wait list for returns, and using seat fillers.

It is extremely standard and normal in London theatre for people to be seated during specific latecomer points, or to be asked to wait till the interval. Maybe it’s different in NY but it’s very very normal here.

 

It’s obviously problematic and stupid to issue two separate tickets to two different people for the same seat at the same production.

 

If your policy is “We operate a strict no latecomers policy, if don’t take your seat by 7.29pm your ticket will be re-sold” then that’s one thing (that obviously would need to be explicitly stated), but the whole point is the Young Vic do not have a no latecomers policy, in fact quite the opposite. That’s the whole point. They happily let latecomers in while also double-selling the same ticket, which inevitably leads to conflict mid-show between the person who bought the ticket who was brought in to the theatre by an usher at the designated latecomers spot, and the person who has been given the latecomers seat.

 

 

[smokeline2]

Posted: 3/4/24 at 11:10am

Funny, this happened to people in front of me at City Center during Parade. Except the second ticketholders didn't show up until the lights were going down, so the entire opening number was ruined by them standing in the aisle and the usher trying to see everyone's tickets and figure out what happened. The second pair ended up sitting on the stairs for the first few numbers and then were taken separately to different seats. That run was heavily sold out, so I'm not sure how they found seats for them at all.

I gathered at intermission that both sets of people had actually purchased their tickets from the box office, and the City Center system glitched and sold the same seats twice. I guess moral of the story is to show up early to City Center shows and make sure you're the first one in your seat...

[JBellan87]

Posted: 3/4/24 at 1:05pm

I'm the Assistant House Manager at one of the regional theaters in NJ and I've seen this happen before as well as dealt with it where someone comes in and finds someone else in their seat(s).  It's not a regular thing, but it does happen. The ticket takers (at my theater) are trained to stop anyone coming if when scanning the ticket if the scanner comes up with an error message (one being already scanned in) should be calling management over to address the situation. Don't know what happened on this night in question, perhaps the ticket taker when they scanned it didn't get an error message or just ignored it. The worst thing though in dealing with that issue is telling the person who bought a counterfeit ticket that they would have to purchase new ticket if they want to see the show or that they don't even have that option if it's sold out house, but we do tell them that it is best to purchase through the theater as opposed to something like StubHub to avoid any future issues.