How To Use Sinemia: A Step-By-Step Guide
UPDATE July 30th, 2018: We’ve just added an exclusive offer from Sinemia for Butter users that gives you an extra $1 off the monthly plan price. They have also added a lower cost 2 movie-tickets-per-month plan for $5.99/month and a 1 movie per month plan for $3.99/month — these two plans don’t include premium showings, but it’s hard to beat at this price.
If you’re a movie buff but hate the outrageous prices charged by theatres, then something like MoviePass or Sinemia is truly a godsend. MoviePass isn’t available in Canada just yet, so most of us intrigued by the idea of paying a monthly subscription for heavily discounted movie tickets have been circling Sinemia like the shark from ‘Jaws’. If you want to read more, click here or here.
The biggest problem with Sinemia is just how needlessly complicated it is to actually purchase a ticket. However, there are serious savings if you can put up with the trouble, and this guide aims to make that trouble as minimal as possible.
So, without further ado, here’s the simplest guide we could put together on how to buy movie tickets off Sinemia (these instructions should work in the US too).
Step-by-Step Guide
- Sign up for Sinemia by selecting the monthly or annual package that makes most sense for you.
2. Wait a couple days until you receive your Sinemia Mastercard in the mail. Don’t worry, this isn’t an actual credit card. Think of it as one of those prepaid Visas you see at the checkout counter next to the gift cards.
3. Once you’ve downloaded the Sinemia app, click on ‘Planning’ and then ‘Advance Ticket’. Skim through the instructions and rules, then click ‘Get Advance Ticket’.
4. This is where things get a bit…different. Find the exact showtime, day, movie theatre and movie you want to see. In my case, I want to watch ‘Isle of Dogs’ on Saturday March 31st at Cineplex Cinemas Yonge-Dundas at 1:10p.m. So pick your theatre, then manually input all of the information you just gathered. Hit Confirm when you’re ready to proceed.
5. Your Sinemia Mastercard has now been activated for that specific movie and showtime. No, you have not purchased the movie tickets yet. All you’ve done so far is enable your Sinemia Mastercard to buy the tickets. I’m buying my tickets from Cineplex.com, so get to the checkout page of wherever you’re buying your tickets from (as if you were buying them like normal).
6. Enter in your Sinemia Mastercard information like you would a regular credit card, however, instead of using your own ZIP/Postal code, try 34394. Why are we entering in a postal code from Istanbul, Turkey? Who knows, but keep going you’re almost there!
7. In most cases, you’ll be prompted to verify your transaction…but the content will appear in Turkish. Why? Who knows, but ‘Iptal’ means Cancel and ‘Devam’ means Continue. Click Devam!
8. You’re almost there. At this point, you should receive a text message to the phone number you registered with, but again, in Turkish. Ignore everything, except the code after “Secure sifreniz”. In my case, that code is 351780. Enter that into the Mastercard verification page….and you’re done!
Final Thoughts
Was this unnecessarily confusing? Yes. Will they improve this process soon? Let’s hope so. What’s indisputable though is that for $20.99/mo, I’m able to watch almost $100.00 worth of movies. And I might just learn a little Turkish along the way.
Want to make Sinemia even cheaper? We just launched an exclusive offer with Sinemia! Check it out here!
