[Stellabella1980]

So I joined the female gym just before the new year to loose the extra baby weight I have put on. All the ladies are extremely nice and it was good during the holiday period because the gym was quiet. It has a crèche that opens at 9am and most of the classes start at 915am so perfect for me. However today I arrive for my first spin (rpm) class at 845 so that I have enough time to get changed into my clothes before the class and it was already full!! There are only 15 bikes in the class so they use a ticket system where you have to have a ticket to save a bike and join the class - first in best dressed. I looked around the gym and there was only 6 ladies on the floor so I thought there must be a lot of ladies in the change room. There was a pump class which started at 8am that was going on upstairs in another level of the gym. I decided to just use the cross trainer and treadmill instead (had already out bub into the crèche) ....I watched about 20 ladies come down stairs from the class at 9am and 15 of those ladies went straight into the spin room!!! So for me to get a ticket to do the spin class I would have to go to the gym at 745am to get a ticket, go home for a bit then come back to the gym at 9am when the crèche opens! Is this completely unfair on the gyms behalf?. Other gyms I have been to only open the spin room 15minutes prior to the class time, first on a bike is in, or only release the tickets 15minutes prior to the class.....am I being over the top in my complaint...I am in half a mind to write to the manager and ask to do the system differently! Any feedback is appreciated!

[bikingbubs]

I think you are fair in being annoyed. The gym I worked at would also only let you get a pass 15 minutes before the class started. If people wanted to do a double class, they came out and got one (and likewise if they were there on the treadmill or whatever before hand, they still had to come and get one)

No one complained about the system as it was fair for all!

[mumbo]

No. Not over the top OP. That seems really unfair. Good luck with your complaint.

[~flaxen~]

Ours has you put your name down for places for the following week every Monday morning (so a wk in advance). Once they are full you can put down for a reserve and they call you if anyone gives enough notice that they can't make it.

It still fills up really quickly.

This post has been edited by ~flaxen~: 07/01/2013, 02:25 PM

[Placebo]

Yes, this can and does happen frequently. Is it fair? No.

May be a good idea to have a nice, friendly chat to your club manager about it. No recriminations, no nastiness, but also asking them to consider implementing ~flaxen~s very sensible idea

Good luck and well done on joining (and USING!!) a gym.

[snuffles]

Wow that is nuts.

My gym doesn't have any sort of ticketting system at all - we just turn up. I have NEVER seen a full spin class, there is at least one every day, there are about 40 bikes in the room and usually there are about 15 people in a class.

I have only ONCE been to a full class, that was on Christmas Eve (!!) - it was pump, the only reason it was declared 'full' is because we ran out of weights... there were probably 45 people there but no one missed out, they just improvised and shared the weights.

I would definitely be annoyed if I couldn't get to my class. If you're in the Penrith area I can recommend a good gym...

[bright*future]

The gym I went to previously did that, and moved to an online booking system which was an improvement, there were a certain amount of spots that could be booked online in advance (I would wake up in the middle of the night and book my spot, otherwise by 6.30 am they were all gone!!) and then a few spots you could still get a ticket for 30 mins prior to the class starting.

I think there could still be an improvement but the online system was better than turning up (especially with bub in tow) and potentially missing out. Good luck!

[emlis22]

This is the same at my gym (kinda). Saturdays you dont put your name down for the spin class - so you have to get there SUPER early to get a bike. Same goes for the pump class afterwards (in terms of equipment and floor space), if you come less than 15min prior you're pretty much screwed!

[jessie123]

This puts me off gyms.

[Jax12]

Wow, I would be really gutted if I'd dragged my lazy a*se out of bed and been organised enough to try and attend a class only to have all the spots taken an hour earlier! Fair enough that you are annoyed by this. I can see that the gym has a system in place and so these women aren't breaking any rules, but it is a flawed system. It might be worth writing a letter to management and rationally explaining the disadvantage of opening up the tickets so much earlier than the scheduled class. I imagine that you are not the only person this happens to!