The cinema is probably one of the most widely discounted activities if you know where to look. In this short guide I will show you how you can spend a little to save big on your cinema trips.

Contents

How To Get Meerkat Movies?
Where Can You Use It?
How Much Can You Save?
Use Reminders
Cineworld Plus

How To Get Meerkat Movies?

Qualifying for Meerkat Movies gives you 2 for 1 cinema tickets to use once per week (Tuesday or Wednesday) for 12 months. You qualify for meerkat movies when you purchase travel insurance using Compare The Market. And you can do this for as little as a few pounds. So here’s how to do it.

Go to Compare The Market and select 'Travel Insurance’
‘Where are you going?’ - Answer: UK
‘What type of cover?’ - Answer: Single Trip
‘When are you going?’ - Answer: Select any date (it doesn’t matter)
‘How many nights?’ - Answer: 1 (select the date one day after the date you previously entered)
‘Who do you want to insure?’ - Answer: Just Me
Enter your date of birth
Don’t add any additional cover
Keep all cover details as ‘any’
Fill in medical details section
Enter e-mail address, first name and surname
Confirm the T&Cs
Click ‘Get Quotes’
Buy the cheapest one (should only be around £1 or just over)

Once this part is complete, download the Meerkat Movies app or log in to the website to activate your membership. Your membership will last 12 months from the date of purchase. When you want to use it, the easiest way is to go on to the app, get the code and then input this in the voucher code section when you book tickets online. If you buy the tickets at the cinema just show the code to the cashier.

Where Can You Use Meerkat Movies?

The meerkat movies offer is valid at a number of local and chain cinemas, including but not limited to:

Cineworld
Empire
Odeon
Picturehouse
Vue

Alternatively, if you want to search for eligible cinemas near you, use this section of the Compare The Market website.

How Much Can You Save?

You usually only have to use it once before it pays off. The 2 for 1 only applies to the price of a standard ticket. So let’s say you book 2 premium seats at one cinema chain which costs an extra £2 per person compared to a standard ticket price of £7.

In this case you would pay £11 in total (£7 for one ticket + £4 total for premium seat surcharges) and you would have saved £7. In another example, if you only buy 2 standard tickets costing £7 each, you would pay £7 (second ticket free).

When I used this method I bought travel insurance for £1.17 (01/01/2018) and saved over £9 in my first trip to the cinema. It’s a great investment if you go to the cinema often and you can go on Tuesdays or Wednesdays.

Reminders Are Key

As a final tip, use phone/calendar reminders to your benefit. If you sign up for anything and you want to track the expiry date, let technology do the work for you.

For example, I have a reminder set up on my phone for 01/01/2019 plus 2 alerts which trigger before that date. I also use this method to remind me to cancel certain subscriptions after free trial dates end. The less you have to think about the better.

Cineworld Plus

Before you use this advice, I would first ask yourself whether you use Cineworld in general. I use this cinema chain because it’s convenient and because I think it provides a good service. Whilst Cineworld Unlimited and it’s benefits get talked about a lot, the younger sibling ‘Cineworld Plus’ rarely gets mentioned. So the big question is, what is it and how can it save you money if you don’t want to fork out £17.90/month for cineworld unlimited?

Simply put, you pay £4.95 and for 12 months you get 10% off of all tickets booked online through your ‘My Cineworld Plus account’. Currently you also get £6 worth of food/drinks vouchers which you can use on ‘2 for’ combos. It’s a small saving every time you go to the cinema (especially if you use it in conjunction with meerkat movies). But even with 2 for 1 tickets, it pays for itself after a few cinema trips.

If you liked this post, hit the like button down below. If you want to contribute to the discussion, you can do so in the comments section down below.