SPOT pricing going up again...

The Cumulus Soaring charts omit the plans that charge for every tracking point, but for those who fly less often, these are the least expensive plans, and can be less than $250 per year.

I use the InReach plan with the lowest monthly fee. With taxes added in, it is $12.20 each month plus $0.10 per tracking point.

5 hours of tracking costs $3, if the tracking interval is 10 minutes. If I could fly 30 weeks a year and had tracking turned on 5 hours each week, the total bill would be $237. That is slightly less than any of the plans with free tracking.

With this plan, the monthly fees can't be turned off, but even if you could, it would only save $6 per month. My actual charges for the last 12 months were $215, which includes some non-soaring tracking fees (winter hiking). The high month was July (R1 contest) at $27.

...david 8D

On Tuesday, April 4, 2017 at 1:52:27 PM UTC-4, Renny wrote:
On Tuesday, April 4, 2017 at 11:18:49 AM UTC-6, Renny wrote:
On Tuesday, April 4, 2017 at 10:09:05 AM UTC-6, wrote:
I have the recreation plan and that costs me $24.95/mo. That provides unlimited tracking and 40 texts a month.

Last year I upgraded to the SE from the older unit, so I also have the safety plan ($11.95/mo) on the older unit for my wife to use on retrieves.. That allows 10 texts a month and will be invaluable if we're both in the boonies trying to get connected.

Renny, you might want to update your plan because that extra $14/mo might not be getting you anything. :-)

-Tom

On Tuesday, April 4, 2017 at 6:32:25 AM UTC-7, Renny wrote:
Delorme Plan 3 (unlimited tracking every 10 minutes) the cost including taxes and fees = $38.72/month

Tom,
I will definitely take a good look!
Thanks for the heads-up!
Renny

OK..As we continue to beat this wonderful subject to death, let me recommend this URL from Cumulus Soaring whichcontains a lot of plan info...

http://www.cumulus-soaring.com/garmin.htm

Here is another URL from Paul Rende with contract info...

http://www.cumulus-soaring.com/delor...tractPlans.pdf

Now, one clarification regarding the plan I have been using...I do not actually have unlimited tracking with the Delorme 3 "Plan," but based on 10 minute tracking I would have to fly more than 102.6 hours in one month before I would go over my 8,000 bytes/mo that I am allowed (before having to pay extra), so at least for me, it is essentially unlimited. For those who fly more hours each month, or want a more frequent tracking interval, a different plan might be more appropriate.

Again, Paul's excellent charts at Cumulus Soaring have all of the details..
Thx - Renny

Spot's business practices do leave a little to be desired! My service renewed 4/27, I still haven't been billed, there is absolutely no indication anywhere I can find on my Spot Account page that tells me what the bill will be for 2017.

So I called the customer support number and this is what they told me: Gen 2 Spot users can expect 12 month renewal with tracking to be $164.98, a $5 increase over 2016 prices. Gen 3 users get socked with a much larger increase discussed at the beginning of the thread.

Grudgingly, I will allow the renewal to proceed, but I think this is my last season on Spot. The *only* things I like about it is that the Gen 2 unit fits perfectly on a parachute cross strap (my rigger approves) and it works where cell service doesn't (and that's quite a lot of my XC flying).

Evan Ludeman / T8

Does SPOT provide duplex text messaging with preset or newly composed messages?
Does the latest SPOT device provide altitude information?
Does SPOT offer Adverse Condition Alerting Service? (for a current flight plan)
Does SPOT offer Flight Aware flight tracking? (with or without a flight plan)
Will SPOT report on the operational status of their system? For example:
https://status.inreach.garmin.com/
Time to shop?
Jim

On Monday, May 1, 2017 at 12:36:37 PM UTC-4, JS wrote:
Does SPOT provide duplex text messaging with preset or newly composed messages?
Does the latest SPOT device provide altitude information?
Does SPOT offer Adverse Condition Alerting Service? (for a current flight plan)
Does SPOT offer Flight Aware flight tracking? (with or without a flight plan)
Will SPOT report on the operational status of their system? For example:
https://status.inreach.garmin.com/
Time to shop?
Jim
Half an hour on hold trying to cancel the upcoming renewal. What a terrible service. Still waiting.

Remove your credit card from your online account. Then the renewal will
fail and you can ignore their new-found customer service.

On 5/2/2017 4:22 PM, Andrzej Kobus wrote:
On Monday, May 1, 2017 at 12:36:37 PM UTC-4, JS wrote:
Does SPOT provide duplex text messaging with preset or newly composed messages?
Does the latest SPOT device provide altitude information?
Does SPOT offer Adverse Condition Alerting Service? (for a current flight plan)
Does SPOT offer Flight Aware flight tracking? (with or without a flight plan)
Will SPOT report on the operational status of their system? For example:
https://status.inreach.garmin.com/
Time to shop?
Jim
Half an hour on hold trying to cancel the upcoming renewal. What a terrible service. Still waiting.

--
Dan, 5J