Skip to main content
Must know
  • A declined or missing card holds the spot for 24 hours as Waitlist Payment Pending (in Full Enrollment programs). The athlete shows as Spot offered at the top of the Waitlist tab.
  • Uplifter retries the card during the window, and every retry bills the tuition quoted when the spot was offered.
  • Shortly after the window closes, the enrollment is cancelled. The next athlete is promoted only if Automatic Promotion is on.
  • The Waitlist Payment Failed and Waitlist Payment Expired emails start switched on, but your club can switch them off or reword them.
What starts it. A promoted athlete’s default card declines or is missing. The family gets the Waitlist Payment Failed email (unless your club switched it off), linking to Billing in the family portal. If the charge could not be attempted at all, no email goes out, but the spot is still held and retried. What a retry charges. The tuition quoted at promotion, so a price edit during the window changes nothing, plus the required membership, tax and fees. A membership the family paid for since the decline is not charged again. If your club charged the program fee when the family joined the waitlist, the retry charges only what is still owed. Success sends the normal Waitlist Promotion email. What the family sees. An amber banner in the family portal: “A spot opened up in [program]! Your payment failed. Add a payment method to secure your spot - you have until Oct 1 at 3:00 PM.” Only the account that owns the enrollment sees it, until the deadline (the earliest, if several).
  • Add Payment Method warns “Adding this card will immediately charge you $X for [program].” That is tuition only, so the real charge can be higher. With no tuition owed it says “Adding this card will secure your spot in [program].”
  • A failed charge shows “Payment failed, please add a new card and try again.” with Try Again.
  • Success turns it green: “Payment successful! You’re enrolled in [program].” with Refresh.
What you see. On the Waitlist tab the athlete sorts to the top with Spot offered, counted as “N offered” in the header, with only Remove available. The Athletes tab shows a red Waitlist Payment Pending badge. Your options.
  • Remove the athlete. This opens Cancel enrollment?, frees the spot, and runs automatic promotion if it is on.
  • On the athlete’s Programs tab, Set Active offers only Activate without billing. The athlete is seated, the invoice already sent stays owed, and the deadline no longer cancels the spot.
  • Promoting by hand needs Edit Athletes and works even when the program is full or Automatic Promotion is off. If the card declines (the Promote dialog warns of this), a message says “Athlete promoted, but their saved card could not be charged. They have 24 hours to resolve payment.”
Capacity. In Full Enrollment programs nobody else can take the pending spot. In Full & Drop-in programs the seats are not held, so new sign-ups and drop-ins can take them. When the window closes. The enrollment and the reserved invoice are cancelled, and only the sessions the offer reserved are released. Paid drop-ins stay. The family gets Waitlist Payment Expired and must rejoin the waitlist.
The default Waitlist Payment Expired email says the athlete “remains on the waitlist,” but the enrollment is cancelled. Reword it, or switch either email off (the family then gets none), under Settings > Communication > Notifications > System Rules.
Related: What do I do if my waitlist payment failed? · What happens when a spot opens in a full program? · How do I edit or switch off the waitlist emails? · What happens when I set a waitlisted athlete active from their profile?