JASpencer wrote:
japarker24 wrote:
I agree it is kind of steep, but sometimes you pay for convenience. For instance, I would pay the $1,000 just so that when I go to sign up for an IM brand race, I know that my membership won't expire before race day.
...still gonna need you to bring a valid USAT card on race morning, though.
edit: athlete check-in, whatever.
^^^Sort of this.
Many times I register for a race that is months away. If my current membership has not yet expired, but will expire before that race, I have to re-up my membership just to provide a valid membership number that will not have expired before that race. Today is July 2016. Membership expires December 2016. Register for a May 2017 race and the system says my membership number is not valid. I re-up to get a December 2017 card.
As a result, I have two cards with two different expirations and get duplicate mailings from USAT because I assume they have two accounts for me. Add to that my wife and daughter have memberships and we get four copies of all their mailings.
I've tried to straighten them out before but that endeavor ended with my wife's (yes, wife's) membership somehow getting cancelled. The only way they could reinstate her was to open a new membership so now she and I have different expiration dates (which sucks because we do all the same races and we have to be careful to be sure we both have a valid renewal.)
So, yeah, I'd pay $4,000 for an annual membership. At $1,000 it would be a steal.