Vue Cinema Gift Card - An Unusable Gift ...

I'm a cinema lover and so I was given a Vue Cinema gift card as a present. Now these gift cards can't be used booking online or over the phone - which means the only way of ensuring you get seats is to physically visit a venue in advance... not exactly convenient. But when I did visit a venue - Angel Vue Cinema, their systems wouldn't permit use of gift cards. At this point I gave up. But two weeks later I went in again - and still the systems were down and no booking was possible. This time however I called customer services only to be told that my gift card had now expired (between my last visit and today's!) Apparently your credit is completely wiped after 12 months. So that's forty quid of wasted gift card. And a lot of faff for what should have been a nice present!