It works great for us. It will be our 5th time back this year using our membership, and we're happy with the added bonuses we get with it, not to mention the discounts. Our biggest complaint is around communications and updates from Original - they are not very good about telling you about changes and updates, although every single contract is different. If you do decide to negotiate a contract, don't settle until 100% happy - they make many adjustments to the standard offerings to make sure you get what you want.
Before everyone starts bashing what I am about to say note that if you chose to be a member it's fine. BUT you paid an up front fee possibly with high interest rate for a membership that is for 30 years at the most. Then you have to pay the all inclusive fee per person each time you visit and that will go up over the years due to inflation. So they got you to come to to resort as often as possible for the number of weeks you purchased. If you don't want to go one year for any reason then you have to try and refer others to use your time or to get more time that you may use another visit. Of course air fare is always going up no matter what. So you have to travel when you get the best air fare. Now another travelers who is not a member goes to book a trip pays the air, room and of course it's all inclusive automatically. They pay an amount without any interest, don't have to worry about any annual fees of any kind and they have the same good time as the members do. And they get to either come back the same way or go elsewhere on another vacation. Does this make any sense to you since you have absolutely no equity in your week that you prepaid through a high pressure sales pitch which probably ruined almost one day of your stay? And at the end of the number of weeks you purchased you have to start from scratch?
From what I have read, I believe you can get the 180 night package for roughly $6k. Thats $33/night... Then I believe If you have to pay $100/day for AI (Which if I recall its not that much), you are at 133/night... Still not bad at all...
Many people are very happy with their memberships - we have plenty of friends who are. There are so many variables - where you live...how many trips per year you can take and what benefits actually are important to you will all help determine what makes the most sense. For us...the perks don't mean much to us...we're not foodies looking for a lobster dinner...we spend little time in the room, aren't interested in premium booze, and would rather hang with our friends in the pool than the member deck area. Our May trip, we booked with Orbitz...12 days for $1200 each, including airfare out of Minneapolis. Plenty of friends of ours have weighed the benefits and the dollars and decided the membership was their best option...so it just depends on how the variables work for you.
Nope, you have however many nights purchased and can use them whenever you want for the 25 or 30 year period. You could take 5 years off of going and loose nothing at all. There are no annual fees either. Also you can trade a week and use it elsewhere which can mean considerable savings if it's not AI...you could have a whole week for the 100 or 200 trade fees or whatever in a city where hotels might be 300+ night. We did our deal and were out at the pool within an hour or so also, definitely not a whole day wasted.
We are going on a referral in Sept and for the first time in years we are going to listen to the sales pitch. I'm telling them up front they have one hour to sell me then I am getting up and leaving. I'm starting to hear about some deals that others have made recently and it has piqued my interest - at least enough to listen for once. I'm not gonna be an easy sell but I will have an idea of what I need and if they can do it - I just may buy in. Firm
Gabesz you make the assumption that everyone finances the membership. (We paid ours in full) Not bashing your post because everything you mention IS a factor.
Dikfore Thats about right for what we got. We also recieved a two for one flight deal and few other misc perks. The thing is you gotta ask! Dont sign anything until you have what you want out of the deal. We kept asking until they said no and then asked somemore lol
Really flight deals how do they do that? We didn't even think of asking about flights just assumed we were on our own for those. Here is what we looked like going back and forth. :aktion051:
