BOOKING FAQ

This page describes the booking process for making bookings via the Galway Tri website in Member Zone.

Making Bookings

ticketsOnline bookings are all made by clicking on the “Buy Tickets” image in the Member Zone. This will then take you to the Booking Portal where all currently offered tickets will be displayed.

To make a booking, simply click on the ticket you wish to purchase and you will be directed to a detail page showing the details of the event you have selected.

Details include the date and time of the event and the number of open spaces still remaining. The name of the event is the link that will take you to the page to purchase this event.

 

To place your order for the event, just click on the link (name of the event) and you will be presented with a booking page where you can enter your name, phone number and coupon code (if applicable). Coupons will be explained in more detail below.

To complete your order, click on the “SUBMIT YOUR BOOKING” button, which will take you to PayPal to finalise payment. Once complete, you will be redirected back to this website where you should receive confirmation of your successful booking.

Note that some events have been configured to defer payment (e.g. PAYG Swim Sessions, which are paid on the day at the pool). The booking process for these events is exactly the same, except the final step of paying via PayPal will be skipped.

Can I make bookings for someone else?

No. Unless explicitly authorized, each member must make bookings for themselves. Otherwise, coaches and organizers will have no reference list of who is actually attending an event. It would also cause significant confusion in terms of tracking coupon usage (i.e. who actually cancelled and who is entitled to use a coupon), etc.

If you are unable to make a booking yourself due to travel or other circumstances, please contact the Media Officer who can make the booking on your behalf.

Checking Booking Status

list_ticketsTo check the status of all bookings that you have made, click on the “CHECK MY CURRENT BOOKINGS” image in Member Zone. You will be presented with a table of events that you have made, including any that are pending (i.e. waiting for payment) and events that you may have cancelled.

In the vast majority of cases, the booking status for your events will be “Approved“. In rare cases the website administrator may be required to reject certain bookings, but you will be directly notified of this prior to any events changing status.

How do I cancel a booking?

To cancel a booking, click on the “CHECK MY CURRENT BOOKINGS” image in Member Zone just as you did to check your bookings as described above. As the page title indicates (“MANAGE MY BOOKINGS”) this is where you can cancel your bookings as well as just checking the status.

A list of all of your current bookings will be displayed. To cancel one, click on the “Cancel” link at the right of each event.

IMPORTANT: Members should all ensure they cancel any event they cannot attend. The reasons for this are:

  • to help your club members. You are reserving a space that could be booked by another club member, but they cannot book the event unless you cancel it to free the space up. Please be considerate and give your teammates equal opportunities to train.
  • to qualify for a refund. If you book an event and simply don’t show up, then you will forfeit any credit that you may otherwise be due. For example, if you miss a swim session and do not cancel, then you will not be entitled to attend a subsequent swim session in lieu without paying.

Cancellations must be made by 9:00pm at the latest on the night prior to the event.  Cancel events as early as possible to give others a chance to be aware of the cancellation and to potentially book it themselves.

Using Coupons

Coupons are a generic mechanism to provide discounts to members when appropriate. Examples of this are credit for cancelled events and booking refunds when rebooking an event. Booking refunds may be applied, for example, when you booked and paid for an event on day X, and then realised you meant to book day Y. Instead of requiring you to pay again and then get a subsequent refund paid back to you as a separate transaction, it is simply easier to give you a coupon for the full amount of the event to use in the rebooking. In this way, your initial payment is still valid and is effectively transferred to the new booking.

If you qualify for a coupon, then you will receive this either from the website administrator or from the Galway Treasurer. To use this coupon, just enter it into the “Coupon Code” field shown in the booking page and the discount associated with that code will be applied to the booking.

Coupons can be either a fixed amount (e.g. €50 off) or a percentage of the booking price (60% off).

IMPORTANT POLICY RULES:

  • Coupons received as the result of a cancelled swim session can only be redeemed in the same block period.
  • Swim coupons are not transferable to subsequent blocks if they are not used. These unused coupons simply expire and are no longer valid for use.
  • Swim coupons can also only be used to redeem a single swim. They cannot be used as a generic discount on a swim block booking or any other type of purchase (e.g. Pilates, etc.).
  • In general, coupons received for cancellation in one type of event cannot be used in another type of event. They are not transferable.

EXCEPTIONS TO CURRENT POLICY:

There are always extenuating circumstances due to injury, etc, and these will be considered on a case-by-case basis by the Executive Committee.
Exceptions to policy based on the failure to read the FAQs and policy documents (i.e. I didn’t know) will not be considered.

In the specific case where someone books 3 or more swim blocks simultaneously and are therefore unable to redeem coupons for cancelled swims,  exceptions will not be made to allow coupon credit to be carried over to subsequent blocks. Doing so would not be feasible and would be in contradiction with the rules stated above. However, other forms of compensation (e.g. reduced price on next block purchase, etc.) may be considered if an exception is requested before cancellations are made.

Refunds

Refunds are generally only intended for cases where a Club member has been injured and cannot attend the event he/she has booked. There may also be extenuating circumstances such as a bereavement or work-related commitments that prevent a member from attending an event.

Cases involving both injury and extenuating circumstances are subject to the discretion of the Committee and must be reviewed and approved by them in order to qualify for a refund.

Once a refund has been deemed appropriate, a refund (partial or full) will be issued by the Treasurer in accordance with Galway Tri Financial Policy.

In the specific case of block bookings where payment spans multiple events (e.g. swim block, turbo blocks, etc.), then refunds will be given based on the portion of the block already used.
Specifically, refunds for block events will be as follows:

  • if cancelling in the first half of a block the Club will refund 50% of the total fee
  • if cancelling in the second half of a block the Club refund 25% of the total fee

Incomplete Bookings

In normal cases when you make a booking you are directed to PayPal to complete payment. If for some reason payment cannot be completed, then this pending payment is recorded in the booking system and a space in the event is reserved. However, this means that nobody else can book that space as long as payment is still pending.

In order to give all members equal opportunity to make bookings, you will only be given a 15 minute grace period to complete payment. You can do this by clicking on the “CHECK MY CURRENT BOOKINGS” link in the Member Zone. You will see two options as shown below: one to Cancel the booking if you don’t want to complete payment or an option to Resume Payment, which takes you back to PayPal to complete payment.

If neither option is chosen after 15 minutes, then the pending event will be deleted. In this case, you will need to rebook the event if you still want to attend it.

TI and Galway Tri Membership

Active TI and Galway Membership is required for all bookings. Members who have not paid their membership fees for the current calendar year are not covered by insurance, and can therefore not be permitted to train with the club.