Review: Fandango iPhone/iPod Touch App

The Fandango app (warning: opens iTunes) is a nifty free application built by Fandango, aka that site you use to check movie times and possibly buy tickets from. I have often used the site to check for movie times, but never for tickets (until last Friday when I used it to get tickets for Star Trek).

As I have found the site (and going to movies) interesting, I downloaded the free app. It is a very simplistic and easy to use application. It has 3 tabs: Movies, Theaters, and My Account.

Movies shows list of popular movies playing in your area (including those starting that week); it also has the option to show you those features coming soon.
Theaters provides a list of theaters near you, and shows you your favorite features, the latter being more useful to me, as there are a couple theaters that are equidistant from me, but in opposing directions to one another.
Lastly, My Account allows you to edit your Saved ZIP/Postal Code (something you can do just about everywhere in the app) either manually or by using your current location. Additionally, it allows you to store your Credit Card Info, so you can make purchases. Additionally, once you have made purchases, you can review them in the Purchases subtab.

Here’s a quick rundown of some of the Pros and Cons of the app:
Pro –

1. Favorite Theaters
2. Easy to check what’s playing at favorite theater
3. Easy to check what time a movie is playing at all nearby theaters

Con –

1. Stores a Credit Card, NOT an account
2. Doesn’t allow you to password protect your CC, so if/when you lose your device or it gets stolen… guess who gets movie tickets on you?
3. No way to print – Have to use screen capture (which I _had_ to use last Friday as the theater was unable to scan the credit card I used to buy the tickets, instead I had to enter the confirmation number, which I could NOT have gotten without access to the internet
4. Doesn’t save state on exit – so if you are on a Touch and you hit menu instead of power when you leave your friendly wifi, you won’t be able to access the movie times any more

Con #2 and #3 bother me the most. Specifically, because I lostmisplaced the device once before. Once I realized that it had become misplaced, I changed the passwords on all the accounts I accessed through this device. That way, if someone else (with less scruples) found it, I wouldn’t have to worry about strange purchases.
I don’t understand why the Fandango app doesn’t allow/force you to create an account, rather than storing your Credit Card. To me that is just beyond stupidity.

As I mentioned in Con #3, I highly recommend you take a screen cap of your confirmation number, just in case it can’t read your credit card (as was the case for me), and most especially if you are using a Touch, and thus dependent on friendly wireless signals for internet access.

In the end, I will still use and recommend the application, though I doubt I will use it to purchase tickets again.