New Incentive: 20 Free Points per 100 Purchased

[OttawaWendy]

Originally Posted by tammymacb

Brilliant. Disney is allowing members to use points they can't sell and giving away the MFs as well. If the points came without MFs then it would be a good deal.

If it came without MFs it would be the best deal ever and would probably exceed the value of resale points. Don't forget that MFs will be probably 80% of the total cost of your contract over the life of the contract.

Originally Posted by eileenkeeney

Makes me wonder why, if they can really get $130 per point, they would not raise the price right now instead of offering the extra 20 points a year.

...

Effectively the offer lowers the price to $100 per point.
If it were VGF or VGC I might consider it.

At the $125 per point cost, 120 points can be purchased for $12,500, which is $104 and change.

At the $130 per point cost, 120 points can be purchased for $13,000, which is $108 and change.

Originally Posted by Goofygrl

It may be one of the better incentives seen in several months but that still doesn't make it a good buy.

The way I read it you'll be getting approx 11-16% off of the retail. Again, not terrible for a 120 pt. add on but you could get closer to 50% off going resale. One time sale!! Never been done!!! Limited time only!!! Gotta love marketing.

Yes, and I think this bolded part is the critical bit, and what makes this a brilliant marketing ploy. If you buy 120 points for the cost of 100, or 240 points for the cost of 200, you get the maximum discount of 16.67% (which works out a discount of close to $21 per point at the $125 base price, or close to $22 per point at the $130 base price).

But, if you buy a number of points that isn't a multiple of 120 (because you get 20 extra points for each 100 you buy), the discount decreases.

Originally Posted by PecosBill

They are not giving you 20 free points. They are simply giving you a $20 per point incentive to purchase. And you are stuck paying the dues on the "extra" 20 points for the life of the contract.

Well, that's not really reasonable. People are presumably going to pay for 20 or 40 fewer points, rather than paying for the same number and taking home extra.

Originally Posted by SEDCrockett

And in this case, you have to pay the full retail price per point ($125) on the 100 points in order to get the 120 point contract. So instead of them marketing it as a discounted price per point as the incentive, they've swapped that language for some crafty talk about getting additional points free.

As others have noted, it's really them saying they'll give you $16 off the per point price of $125, if you buy 120 points.

But unlike previous incentives where the discount applied equally over a range of points - like $10 off per point if you buy 100-199 points, and $12 off if you buy 200-269 - in this case you only get an additional 20 points for each lump sum of 100 points. Therefore, if you buy more than 100 but less than 200, your effective discount is smaller with the more points you buy.

I agree with the thrust of your post, but your $16 number is wrong. It is 16.67% (actually 16 and 2/3), which is more than $16. But the sliding scale of the discount is what makes this different.