Club Free Time Reviews 15

I absolutely LOVE Club Free Time! If you love theater, comedy, music, and discovering amazing shows in NYC without spending a fortune, this is one of the best memberships out there.

The annual membership cost is very nominal, and most tickets are only around $5 each—which is honestly incredible for the quality of performances they offer. I’ve seen fantastic shows I probably never would have discovered otherwise.

What really makes them stand out is their customer service. On the occasional time I’ve had to return tickets (and I’m always happy to still pay if they can remarket them to someone else), they’ve often surprised me with an unexpected refund. That kind of kindness and customer-first attitude is rare these days.

I also noticed a few negative reviews that honestly seem unfair. When I looked further, many of those same people seem to leave 1-star reviews for lots of businesses—it feels more like professional complaining than a fair reflection of the service. My personal experience has been consistently excellent.

Great shows, amazing value, and truly thoughtful service—you really can’t beat it.

5 stars all the way!

Club Free Time is absolute amazing. Since retiring about five years ago, I’ve probably gone to at least 200 events through it, everything from off Broadway and off off Broadway shows to concerts and dance. Most of these are things I never would have found on my own, and that’s really the appeal.

The value is impossible to beat. Paying about $4.95 a ticket, plus a modest annual fee, makes it easy to just go out and try things. I check the site at least once a day, especially the “new in the last 24 hours” section, because the better listings go quickly. At this point, it’s become part of my routine.

second rate providers 20 yr old software very little of value at free it's overpriced

no communication sneaky recharges

it used to have value now it is just a con

Despite being blocked by Clubfreetime with no given reason, up until early/mid August 2025 I would give them a 5 star rating.
However, I have been blocked from using their site with no given reason. I had about 2 weeks left of my annual subscription and couldn't buy tickets - they did not give me a pro-rated refund - it wouldn't have been much but they should have given me something. If you read through other reviews you will see similar stories to mine. It is difficult to understand why they don't give any explanation for blocking me and others.
Now they get 0-1 star.

I love Club Free Time so much. There is so much great stuff on there I never would have known about without this subscription. I have seen some great shows, and even better - for pennies.

I was a member since 2013. The lady who founded the business apparently retired and those who run it now are arrogant and disrespectful. In June I had several reservations when my wife became ill and I was forced to cancel one or both tickets for some shows, explaining why, not even asking for a refund of the fees. They decided to punish me and blocked my ticket ordering privileges with no warning, did not answer several email requests to learn why the block and for how long. I finally received email threatening cancelation of my membership if I kept demanding an explanation. I eventually asked them myself to cancel it. This behavior is made worse by the fact that there is no live person to talk to.

Edited 08/04/24, replying to Ms. Vaidman's effort to save face for an organization that disrespects its own members. Shame on you for trying to stay on top instead of apologizing!

Of course I used my membership. This is why I signed up. The exact text on the reservation confirmation is: "If ALL the reserved tickets are not USED and you do not give us advance notice, we will suspend your ticket ordering privileges". I can prove that I always gave advance notice when one or both of us were prevented from attending and you had no problem canceling and even later refunding the fee.
Suddenly you and your people behaved like robots with no compassion. In June you focused on the cancelations, ignoring my wife's illness that caused them. You then ignored my emails complaining about your unjust block of my privileges and then I promised to report your behavior and I kept my promise. For me, Club Free Time became an organization to stay away from.

If you join this site, you must attend ALL performances that you book even if you have to cancel days ahead of time, which they say is allowed. BEWARE. It isn't allowed. And they will stop your ability to order tickets, even though you have paid for a year's subscription ahead of time.

I have nothing but praise for Club Free Time. I was perplexed by a couple of the negative reviews that seemed more like venting. The fact is having attended dozens and dozens of Club Free Time shows at a variety of venues, I have only had positive, seamless, and absolutely wonderful experiences. Obviously, there are some shows Iiked better than others, but as far as the Club Free Time platform...it is exceptional. I always get swift responses to my emails and the ticket purchase and print process is insanely easy. So...standing ovation from this Club Free Time fan...and long may you run!! Bravo!

A friend told me about this group, which is a "papering" concept, providing basically free seats to events that are not totally booked.
I have gone to a lot of great classical concerts in the past three months at places like Merkin Hall and Weill Recital Hall at Carnegie.
I've used it less for theater, but sometimes they have interesting off Broadway plays.
The website and email system is excellent since they send you reminders of the events and updates on listings every day or so. There are also listings for free events every day. A low fee to join.

I've had great experiences with Club Free Time! It's encouraged and allowed me to see things that I would have never gone to otherwise. Getting to buy tickets for live shows for such a low price is amazing.

In addition, I appreciate all their listings for completely free activities going on in the city. So great to see it all in one place.

All my interactions with the organization when I've emailed them for whatever the reason have been only positive.

This company really makes it possible and encourages me to be more social and have some fun on a budget!

I had read some negative reviews about this site abruptly blocking people with no explanation.... Same thing happened to me two days ago...I have attempted to reach them by email but never received a response...I joined in late December 2022 ...saw several great shows...followed all their rules...nonetheless I was abruptly blocked from the site on 2/14/2023 with absolutely no explanation..

I've been able to find some last minute gems through Club Free Time.
Without this service, I would have missed out on a lot of good theater...and some bad ones, but that's not the fault of the club.

I had to pee very badly and there was a long line "12" people at the box office. I asked if I could pee first then pick up my ticket, I was told "NO" after waiting in the line to the point of almost peeing my pants, the person checking my vaccination status, checked and re checked it three times, PURPOSELY making me hold it and wait longer, It was ABUSIVE and I lost my temper, and told the woman she was doing it on purpose. She blocked me from seeing the show and I got angry and gave the woman the finger. Club Freetime blocked my membership. And the Woman who was playing God, must've had a big laugh.

I became a member of club freetime to compare to Goldstar and was sadly dissapointed.

1st issue:
After attending 3 events where the theaters ONLY asked for my last name for identification, I requested if Club Freetime could shorten my first name as an initial and keep my full last name. Their response was to disable my account just for inquiring!

I pointed out details that in their own privacy policy and practices that support the validity of my request. But even though the theaters did NOT request or need this additional information, Club free time enforces it anyway. Their privacy policy states that you have the choice to give information but they immediately disabled my account just for inquiring about limiting it!

They claimed giving my full information is for ease of entry, but if I can't get in then thats my own fault and my service fee money is still in their pocket. GOLDSTAR has the exact same events and I ALWAYS got in fine with first inital and last name.

Club freetime actually overlooks the tons of members who post reviews showing they only provided their single letter initials, and they literally tell you to gift the tickets to ANYONE if you cant attend WITHOUT changing the name. So what if they ask for ID since the concern is ease of entry? Contradictions all around.

2nd issue:
Their "comp" events are NOT FREE, they tack on more service fees on top of your membership fee on every ticket order and the real free events are easily found with a quick online search. A reference directory is what your membership fee really does for you. They do NOT mention anywhere before you signup that they charge service fees for every comp event and have a VERY limited inventory of events that are worthwhile.

Worst of all, after PAYING these sign up fees and service fees, you realize that most of the comp shows are for low budget events and comedy shows in dodgy locations and hole in the wall venues.

So don't think you will be able to grab those great opera tickets that you thought you would and those fake reviews online are promoting. The odds are against you and that's if they ever actually had stock to begin with. You are more likely to pay for an event that was already free to attend if you searched online, which is already borderline fraudulent.

For most of their events just look at their list for reference, google the event, and you can avoid paying them to google it for you!

I cant recommend mostly based on the poor customer service experience. When a company overlooks that fundamental fact that customers and referrals keep the company running its not a good sign.

In comparison, Goldstar does NOT charge you just to view their listings, gives you COMPLETE CONTROL of your information, has more and higher quality events, has amazing customer service, AND a REFUND POLICY for most service fees! Goldstar wins hands down in every aspect. But after my experience with them, honestly any other ticket company would be better.

I hope this experience helps with your decision to pay them for bad customer service and to do google searches for free events for you!
(I still wonder how they can get away with that)

Cheers :)

PS: They don't like bad reviews or complaints. If you are unsure of anything I said, just check out their reviews on other sites and see how disrespectful they are to customers in their responses to negative reviews and how fake and unrealistic the 5 star reviews are.