How to Get an Equinox Discount

This is another post in my various series on living in NYC. While much of this information is useful for getting an Equinox discount regardless of gym location. This post focuses more on the New York City Market.

Why an Equinox Membership?

Gyms are one of those things that I find very important. I tend to go to go to the gym multiple times a week, so having one that I’m satisfied with is important. I’ve gone to various different ones over the years in many different markets.

Of the ones I’ve been to, Equinox has certainly been my favorite. Particularly in an urban market where having one of those large big box gyms is just hard due to real estate concerns (or they are not any cheaper).

Equinox is certainly a premium product (with a premium price tag). With Kiehls products in the showers, high quality machines (that are repaired quickly) and top notch classes and instructors, it really is one of the best systems of gyms out there. They have the system down.

Is an Equinox membership for you?

In my area of the city, I’ve found there weren’t too many high quality gyms. Many of the gyms I checked out were either dirty or not well maintained.

Advantages of Equinox

• Great Classes
• A network of gyms across the city (and country) *requires additional cost
• Great amenities. Steam rooms, saunas, work areas, cafes, some have pools, etc.

Disadvantages of Equinox

• Price
• Not all gyms are included in the full city pass.
• If you don’t use the classes you probably over overpaying compared to other options.
• Very few guest passes

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Price certainly cannot be overlooked here. If you are not going to do classes in the gyms (if you are only doing weights or machines) you would save a lot by going to a competitor. Actually you could save significantly if you went to sister company Blink which is owned by Equinox but their low cost option. You don’t get the classes, the high quality products, and other niceties, but they are generally well run and maintained.

How much is Equinox?

The full price of Equinox is definitely not one that is easily swallowed by the average (or even above average person).

Prices for an individual gym range from $220-260, depending on which gym you use as your primary gym.

For all access you can expect to pay an additional $20 – 40 per month. And all access may not even get you into some of gyms such as the Sports Club or Printing house which have their own restrictions.

Initiation fees can run an additional $150 – $300 depending on the club, time, etc.

If you have discounts, you can certainly save a lot on the price. So lets go over various ways you may be able to save some money here.

Corporate Rates for Equinox

Corporate pricing for Equinox is probably the number one way most people save on their gym membership. Many of the firms and companies in the city have agreements with Equinox for a discount. Your discount however is very specific to the firm that you are with. I have friends that save maybe 10% and ones that save more than 50%.

Be sure to check with your employer if you have any discounts here. Also my employer had an incentive if I signed up for a gym membership. And I had an additional incentive from my health insurance for signing up for a gym membership. (Sometimes you need to prove a certain amount of attendance). So be sure to check all these areas too!

Does Equinox offer a Military Discount?

This is a question I see a lot and get a lot from folks. Sadly, no Equinox does not offer a military discount.  Hopefully they will offer one in the future, but given they haven’t yet, I wouldn’t wait on that. However, American Express Platinum offers a $300 Equinox credit and they waive their Annual Fee ($695) for active service members. The card comes with a lot of great perks so would be worth investigating for your needs.

I’ve heard success for military discounts at sister company Blink, however they are different types of products, so it all depends on what you are looking for.  

Promotional Deals

Equinox regularly has promotional deals where they might offer a discount or waived initiation fees or other such bonuses. These do change from month to month.

They also incentivize those with memberships to encourage their friends to go (with various amounts of referral bonuses based on the month). Do let them know I referred you.

Actually having my friend as a person there helped a lot with negotiating a better deal. Either waving more of the initiation fee or other such things. You could if your friend is game work out a deal with them to split some of the incentive if you join earlier than anticipated

Try Equinox before you buy

There are actually various different options here. If you are a person who is considering Equinox. You can actually get a 3 day pass to visit basically any Equinox in town. But seriously that’s not really saving you that much money.

Get a free month?

If you are negotiating. In my case with my friend already going there and she wanted me to join for her increased bonus. They have the option of giving you the first month free for you to see how much you like the gym before you buy it. So instead of the 3 days that everyone gets, it is possible to get an entire month waived. Not bad at all and definitely a significant amount of savings.

Waving the Initiation Fee at Equinox?

There are multiple ways this can be accomplished. Obviously they are going to want to get you to pay for this.

Many of the promotional discounts may include a waving of the initiation fee. This is probably the least friction way to accomplish this.

You can also argue to get this waved. It depends a lot on their needs for that month, etc. But really a lot of corporate discounts have this waived and its within the power of them to do so. Your mileage may vary here though.

If you share an address with another person who is also a member of Equinox, they will also wave the imitation fee in this case as well. As far as I know they don’t actually use that address for billing or anything, as my address in the city is not what I use in any regard for billing. They just need an address on file.

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Are you a member of Equinox? What is your experience there? Have you been able to successfully use any of the information here?

Also if you do join after reading this post, please do remember to use me as your referral!