I know i missed my exercise class but so what?

Absolutely and as the class is so inflexible why let them sell the place twice? I understand that if they can’t use the place, you should have to pay. But to moan that they could have filled it but you won’t get a refund, is out of order!

I'm often staggered at what people spend on shoes, bags, clothes, hair, nails, cars etc - but we all have different priorities when it comes to money, so it's pretty pointless comparing. For the op, her fitness is worth that cost.

But what “safe side”? OP wouldn’t get her money back, so it’s not cancelling to be on the safe side. Once the money is spent, there’s no point in the OP when she could very well have made the class.

If I’d paid £30 I would’ve just gone in 10 minutes late, they’re hardly going to order you to leave when you’ve paid.

Yanbu not to expect a snotty email about this. I hope you sent a similarly snotty one back.

It's not about money, it's basic good manners. It seems very expensive, is it a very small group?

But the teacher hadn't lost anything because OP already paid up front. Though not content with that it appears the teacher wanted OPs £30 plus another £30 on top by bringing in a replacement student from her waiting list, and that does seem a little exploitative of the situation especially as she wasn't out of pocket anyway.

Tbh if Ihad an appointment prior to a class I would have cancelled the class just to be on the safe side and to ensure someone else could have my place in the event of any holdups.

Staggered at how expensive that is

But the OP didn't know she was going to be late.
If she'd sent an email from the car park, would you have read it?
She still paid for the session, you haven't lost anything.

Just saying that's all... Chill..!

So you aren’t comparing like with like at all. You have said the equivalent of “mine cost £7.50” on a thread about the price of food processors when you are referring to your knife and everyone else is talking about their magimix.

I'm in Lincolnshire and the class is in our village hall (sort of sets the scene there) All mat based exercises.

I have attended Pilates classes for a while with a variety of different teachers and this class is as good as any of the others I have attended.

It would be too much aggravation for me to bother with a Pilates teacher like that. You’ve paid and you respected the rule to not barge into the session late, so that should be the end of it.

Well, I think the money-grabbing gits have a bit of a bloody cheek!

Why is it frustrating when the client has already paid for the class in advance? The teacher is not out of pocket financially.

But the equipment is heavy and can’t be moved around. So you have the same amount of space to perform your exercises whether 2 people turn up or 6 is the point.

Yes if 2 people turn up you have more of the instructors attention but when there are only half a dozen people in a class max having one less makes very little difference as a participant.

I do these classes regularly and it makes no difference to my enjoyment whether the class is full or not. It does impact me though when the session is fully booked when I want to attend and I can’t find another convenient time hence why I said in my first post if you can it is considerate to cancel rather than no show (accepting that on this particular occasion that wasn’t possible for this OP)

Not really sure what the crying hilarity face is for? Let me rephrase. Everyone has to share the space with fewer people. If a person is absent, that creates a space in the class (which the instructor wanted to fill). Everyone in the class benefits from that. The instructor has one less person to deal with. The entire AIBU is about whether the instructor is right to be miffed that they didn’t get to fill the space even though it had already been paid for.

For reformer Pilates or mat?

That would be a steal for reformer Pilates and it’s difficult to imagine the studio could cover their overheads at that price point as it would only be about £42 per hour (to cover the hourly rate of the instructor, rent of the studio, insurance, utilities, capital cost of the very expensive equipment and cleaning.

As mat Pilates has no fixed equipment and therefore the space can be used for other purposes and you could have up to 20 in a class in a large enough room, the economics would potentially work at that price point though it’s still cheaper than is available near me.

Slip in the back and what? Lie on the same reformer bed as someone else?

There are generally only 6 or 8 beds in a studio and if the class is full, latecomers will need to weave in between all of the other participants to find the one unoccupied bed, and set it up correctly for themselves. Which will be disruptive to the whole class and as others have said if she hasn’t warmed up and goes straight into intense moves she runs the risk of a nasty injury.

Why? Sometimes things happen outside of your control. A Pilates class is hardly rocket science, what’s the big deal in someone slipping in late?

And me - I pay £7.50 a session!

Some interesting comments. Where I do Pilates you can’t slip in the back if you’re late as the door is locked. There’s an exit button from the inside for people to leave but there has to be someone at the door to let you in. They don’t have a reception. The class teacher waits at the door and lets people in. Don’t think we even get 5 minutes. Meant to be there 5-10 before it starts.

As for the price. Where I go it’s a membership which gives unlimited access to as many classes as you want per month. You can pay per session but it’s £25 for a group session. Membership is around £120 a month for as many sessions as you want. Different levels of Pilates.

They still don’t like cancellations and have talked about fines for no shows. They have an online app where you book and cancel. It says how many are waiting. As soon as someone cancels the next one the list gets a notification. Good on one respect but I got a notification fairly close to class time starting saying I’d got a place but I was too far away to get there on time so had to quickly press cancel. Not good if it comes in when driving.

The snotty e-mail is probably because thoughtless people regularly do this and it can be a PITA. I remember in the past on group walks in the winter when we all meet up, it is sub-zero temperature and we are slowly getting cold waiting for some bastard that decided they found something better to do and couldn't be bothered to tell the walk leader. Of course, it doesn't take many such episodes before a "we are setting off at 10:30, if you are not there tough" stance was adopted.