Hoyts - Using the "Free" Membership Tickets

When you sign up to Hoyts Rewards you get a "free" ticket which actually isn't free because you have to pay for membership. Current members would be aware that there was a price hike in the yearly membership. It used to be $10 a year and this worked, because it was the same price as the cheapest adult voucher that people can easily get (i.e. through Optus). But now it's $12 a year and so $2 more expensive than an adult voucher, which just doesn't seem worth it. So you can watch a single movie for cheaper if you don't join, but if you do join you rack up the points for movie you watch using that card. So should you join or not? A dilemma, right?

I went to buy a couple of tickets at Hoyts for the film Parasyte Part 1. It's a special event, so I couldn't use the Hoyts cinevouchers mentioned in the previous post to buy the tickets. I had a Hoyts gift card worth $50 that my brother had won in a competition so I thought I'd just get the tickets at full price. I asked for one adult and one student ticket, and handed the girl at the counter my membership card so I could get the rewards points. Turned out I had a "free" ticket on the card and that I could use it for this movie, even though it's a special event. So that's what I did.

The "free" ticket is valid for six months after signing up or renewing, so it would be wise to save the ticket for a special event. Full price adult tickets are $20 (student/concession is $17) and you can't use the vouchers for special events. So if you save your "free" ticket for a special event, that is a saving of $8 for adults, $5 for students. Using the "free" tickets for special events is the only scenario of using those tickets where you're actually "saving" money (the irony on the "saving" since it's money that's already been spent and if you don't use the "free" ticket at all then that's even worse).

After buying the tickets I walked away thinking I had saved money. Then realised later that I the ticket I bought using the gift card was the adult ticket. If I'd bought the student ticket using the gift card (since the "free" ticket is an adult ticket anyway) I'd have saved another $3!