# Attended New Travel Presentation



## deemarket (Jun 2, 2014)

Sears Vacations, since 2012, has been selling travel vacation memberships. Associate said they have already sold a million of them. I had heard of Sears Vacations but only knew that you could go to their website and purchase travel. 

I was approached at a Sears department store to obtain information about buying vacation trips through Sears at highly discounted prices. (Others there were approached at concerts or malls in my area.)  Would I give her my phone number and someone would call me.  Decided to see what they had to say so gave her the number.

Sure enough wasn't long before someone contacted me and I set up an appointment to go to a 90 min presentation for a $50 Sears gift card, $250 in restaurant gift certificates, a free vacation and $250 off my first booking. BH went along with it - nothing else going on the next day.  He did say don't drag him again though.   

It was very professional.  They walk you through their very modern location where they show you cubicles of employees who you would talk to if you needed help booking vacations.  Then they show you a large computer screen in the hallway showing what a vacation would cost through i.e. Expedia vs Sears Vacations.  Of course they showed savings of 50 - 65%.  Then they took you in to a big conference/presentation room and showed a power point slide show on their travel concept.  Went over what you would spend over 10 years for vacations and how instead of spending $45,000 you could save $30,000 by going through Sears for a measly $4999.00. - but they would throw in 4 free trips.  2 cruises and 2 resort stays.  Oh then there is a $50 yearly fee that may go up a little after the first year you have to actually pay it in the 4th year of ownership.  You can give it to someone else if you don't want it anymore. Sure and they will have to take on the yearly fee at how much then?

After that of course you were joined again with the associate that took you on the brief tour earlier to hear their spiel.  My husband asked about getting rooms while we were traveling cross country and they explained that the lower priced hotels you would save 10-20% and that the percentage went up as you stayed at say a Kempton.  INTERESTING point.

We declined - price went down to $2999 if we only took 1 free vacation.  Declined again and mentioned that we already had two timeshares.  His eyes lit up??  They have a program for that.  Send in your receipts for say a $1000 and they would give you a voucher for $1000 to redeem (showed us bright shiny brochures) for products like handbags and pots and pans?? Really?
Declined again.  Really no high pressure but associate when he gave me the free Mexico trip said you know this won't be any good not like the resorts you would get if you joined.  Didn't want Mexico anyway. 

 Also when I received the call and they offered the free trip, etc to get me to attend, they told me about the Mexico trip and I said I would rather not go to Mexico.  He said no problem we will give you one for the states.  Ya right!!  Didn't happen.  What else wouldn't happen.

Others were buying but it just didn't feel right.  How can they discount travel at 50 - 65%.

Oh we did get the $50 Sears card, (2) $100 Restaurant.com gift cards and the "Redeem your Vacation Certificate" for a 7 night Resort or HOTEL Certificate at an incredible Mexico Resort and Hotel.??

Has anyone else attended one of these Sears presentation?  Did you buy?  Do you think you would buy?


----------



## LannyPC (Jun 3, 2014)

Beach Star said:


> Do you think you would buy?



Nope.

A lot of these "free" perks are rarely, if ever "free".  For instance, a "free" cruise.  There's the somewhat mandatory gratuities for ship staff.  Then, you probably have to pay taxes and port charges.  Then there are the somewhat customary tips for baggage handlers.  On top of that, how long are these cruises they are offering?  Three days?  Five days?  Ten days?  Are they even a cruise that you want?

Oh, and these "4 free trips", what do they consist of?  Do you have to pay the mandatory taxes and fees on the flights?  If you stay at a resort, does it require a dreaded TS tour?  Do you have to pay an AI fee?

BTW, we have more handbags, pots, and pans than we know what to do with (other than maybe donate them to a second-hand store).


----------



## pacodemountainside (Jun 3, 2014)

Have attended a few of these although not a Sears, but Modus Operandi  was same. All were privately owned  and only claimed a couple hundred thousand members.

Price  fell drastically when I declined.

The pregnant question none  could answer  intelligently  was how could they get better deals than Wyndham with over 900K members, II around 2 million and RCI  around 4 million.

Why  not just use RCI  and II last minute deals? 

Where were they getting  inventory  for  say less than what Orbitz,  Travelocity,  et. al. could get for? 

How did they cut a deal with Sabre  air line booking system  for big  discounts , show me a copy.

Simple  truth is they cannot deliver and most have "F"  BBB rating.

Purchase contract simply states  they are licensed, bonded, insured, etc. Travel Agency that will  do best to get great deals.  Contact specifically states  no way are  samples  shown readily available nor guaranteed!


----------



## Kal (Jun 3, 2014)

It would be fun to play with these hucksters.  Just have them sit down in front of their machine with you next to them and obtain a reservation at the resort of YOUR CHOICE (very high-end property) and a reasonable range of high-season dates one year out.  Pick a quality resort and watch them scramble for excuses.  Most common is "we can't do that until YOU have a member ID".  NOT!  Someone in their office must have a member ID and if not, why not? 

 Also, I'll bet the contract is firm with no 3, 5 or 7 day rescission allowed.


----------



## presley (Jun 3, 2014)

Never heard of Sears doing this, but plenty of other places do.  The ones I am familiar with get unused inventory that requires all last minute planning.  If you are retired and can leave at the drop of a hat, you can get some really good deals.  If not, then you can pay a membership fee to subsidize those who can and you can have nothing.


----------



## easyrider (Jun 3, 2014)

We recently joined sears vacation through their website as part of the "shop your way" dealio. We don't pay anything for this so it is different than what you describe. We can book trips, cars, cruises, motels and about any travel item you can think of through Sears Vacations so Im not sure what the benifit of actually paying for a membership is.

The last booking I did with them is 2 nights at a Hilton Doubletree for $220. We received a code from the "shop your way" program. I just looked and I have another $125 credit in my vacation account. 

https://www.searsvacations.com

Bill


----------



## deemarket (Jun 3, 2014)

easyrider said:


> We recently joined sears vacation through their website as part of the "shop your way" dealio. We don't pay anything for this so it is different than what you describe. We can book trips, cars, cruises, motels and about any travel item you can think of through Sears Vacations so Im not sure what the benifit of actually paying for a membership is.
> 
> The last booking I did with them is 2 nights at a Hilton Doubletree for $220. We received a code from the "shop your way" program. I just looked and I have another $125 credit in my vacation account.
> 
> ...



So you just went to the website and signed up.  Do you know how much you saved on the Hilton booking vs going directly to Hilton instead.  So they give you a credit on your account for each booking you do through the site.  How is the credit calculated?
Thanks


----------



## deemarket (Jun 3, 2014)

easyrider said:


> We recently joined sears vacation through their website as part of the "shop your way" dealio. We don't pay anything for this so it is different than what you describe. We can book trips, cars, cruises, motels and about any travel item you can think of through Sears Vacations so Im not sure what the benifit of actually paying for a membership is.
> 
> The last booking I did with them is 2 nights at a Hilton Doubletree for $220. We received a code from the "shop your way" program. I just looked and I have another $125 credit in my vacation account.
> 
> ...


I signed up also and checked some rates for locations we will be visiting.  Compared the hotel site to sears vacations and sears had higher rates.  I would be careful and compare sears vacations to other sites and the hotel itself before booking with Sears.


----------



## easyrider (Jun 4, 2014)

The rate shown is reduced by the your "shop your way" points and your vacation credit. My vacation credit is showing up at about $125. On the listed hotels there are some with vacation credit usage options and in combination with your points you would receive a reduced rate. The Hilton Doubletree I reserved ended up about half off.

I really haven't looked to hard at other products but it does look like Mexico is heavily discounted along with some last minute cruises

Bill


----------

