GMovies App: Convenience at Your Fingertips

I had the GMovies app for several months now.  But I only use it to view movie schedules on various cinemas.  It was just yesterday when I fully utilize its feature, that is buying movie tickets using my mobile phone, a real convenience at your fingertips.

GMovies is powered by Globe.  Even if it is under Ayala Group of companies, you will see movie schedules on various cinemas around the metro and even key cities around the Philippines like Cebu, Davao, Cagayan de Oro, Pampanga and many others.  But unfortunately, at this time, you can only buy tickets on cinemas managed by the Ayala Malls Group.  But I don't think one has to worry about it since Ayala Malls has been continually expanding all over the Philippines.  They have Marquee Mall in Pampanga, Harbour Point in Subic, Ayala Center in Cebu, Abreeza Mall in Davao and Centrio Mall in Cagayan de Oro.

The GMovies app enables user to browse movie schedules currently on showing with a brief synopsis and even movie rating from rotten tomatoes.  Users can also view nearest cinema on their current location.

Yesterday, we decided to watch Girl, Boy, Bakla, Tomboy.  Knowing its Metro Manila Film Festival season (meaning long queues in buying tickets and possibility of seats to be sold out fast), we decided to purchase tickets online.  Our choice of cinema was Glorietta as it is the nearest to my place.  I used to have a Sure Seats account, where you can reserve tickets and just pay upon arrival on the cinema (managed by Ayala malls) but I already forgot my credentials there so I tried buying tickets using GMovies app.  Here's what I did.

1. Select the movie of your choice. Click the Showtimes button. The list of nearby cinemas will be shown.

2. Select your preferred cinema.  I picked Glorietta 4.  Various schedules will be shown with corresponding price.  In case of our preferred movie, it is available in Cinema 3 and 4 in Glorietta.

3. Select your prefered schedule.  The available seats will be shown on your chosen schedule.  Select your preferred seat/s then click Buy button.

4.  Once you click Buy, you will proceed with the payment options.  Currently, there are 3 options available as shown below.  I read that Gcash payment will be available soon.  You may double check your prefered schedule and seat as indicated in the upper right portion of your app. 

5.  In our case, we chose the credit card payment option.  For credit card purchases, you will be charged an additional 20 pesos per ticket.  This is the same amount charged by sure seats for reservation.  Input your email address on the pop up screen then you will be directed to Peso Pay payment facility.

6.  At the Peso Pay payment facility, you will be asked to choose between Visa or Master Card payment.  Once you have chosen any of these, you will then input your credit card details.

7.   You are done!  A payment confirmation will be shown on your screen once done.  Since this is my first transaction using this app, I just screen grabbed the payment confirmation.  I checked my email and there was no email yet, but a got it on a later time.

When I received the email, there were some instructions there on how to claim the tickets.    Specifically for credit card transactions, one must print the email confirmation and bring the card card used for the payment.  But since I don't have printer at home, I'm hopeful that presenting the email from my mobile will suffice.

Upon arriving at Glorietta, since I am familiar with Sure Seats transaction, we fall in line at the Sure Seats counter.  The lady asked me to log in my credentials at Sure Seats website but I told her I made transactions using GMovies so she told me to just go directly in the cinema to get our tickets.  Wow, what a convenience, I thought.

At the cinema, the lady at the entrance was asking for the print out but I told her I don't have it and asked where can I print it.  She told me I can have the email confirmation printed at the Sure Seats counter, I told her that it was them who told me to just go directly at the cinema.  I also said if she can just copy the barcode details instead.  She asked her colleague and she said to her to just copy the barcode while telling me to have it printed next time.  Well, that was not quite a convenience at that time.

It was just now that I learned through the GMovies app via My Tickets tab that indeed I no longer need the printed email.  

The lady at the Sure Seats counter was correct but unfortunately, the lady at the cinema entrance may not be familiar with it or maybe because I didn't tell her that I purchased tickets through GMovies.

This is really very convenient, a true convenience at your fingertips.  You can purchase your tickets anytime, anywhere.  I hope payment through ATM via online banking will be available soon.  Besides, BPI, another Ayala Group, have an online banking facility.  I prefer debiting my cash rather than paying through credit card.