Sweaty NYC Gym Rats Are Mad About ClassPass Price Hikes

Those primordial screams you hear? That’s Jessie Spano and the sound of thousands of scorned ClassPass members upset about a 25 percent bump in their monthly subscription.

The company—which gives users fairly unlimited access to fitness studios at a flat rate—announced on Tuesday that it’s raising its membership fee in New York City from $99 to $125, which is a big leap.

An email went out to ClassPass members this afternoon (self included) who then all simultaneously gasped aloud, texted this emoticon (;/) to someone, and shed at least three salty, middle-class tears:

Despite its popularity, there’ve been reports of studios taking a financial hit because of the ClassPass effect. That may be a reason for this.

But why not just offer a tiered subscription?

Business Insider reports:

Price hikes can be a good way to weed out stingy users who are often more trouble complaint-wise than they’re worth. Extremely loyal users often don’t mind paying more for a service they love…

…If ClassPass wants to generate more revenue, it could have made a tiered subscription product, offering a more expensive monthly fee to users who want premium services and studios and kept the price point lower for moderate users. But that’s not what ClassPass has chosen to do, and it’s already causing a Twitter backlash.