Vida Lifestyle

[Zinjanthropus]

I’m interested in what experience any of you have had with Vida Lifestyle?
I'm speaking in terms of using it as the front end for all travel needs.

For each usage fee you pay to Vidanta, you earn the equal amount (or more) in Vida Dollars. They have different portals for buying cruises, hotel stays and regular shopping items. This portion is very much like RCI travel Packages. You can earn Vida dollars for every purchase you make through their travel dept. PLUS the airplane tickets are guaranteed low price.

The pitch is that you can deposit into SFX via Vida lifestyle (VL) and also use your earned Vida dollars toward purchases.

The purchase part doesn’t really appeal to me because you can’t use the dollars one to one, but on a purchase of, say 1500 you get to use maybe 600 vida dollars. It’s not like you can use the Vida dollars for Vidanta maintenance fees, or air fare. It’s just a discount but I don’t see myself ever buying enough stuff to use most of the Vida dollars I will get. It’s like somebody giving you a hundred 30% off automobile coupons, and giving you 12 more for each car you buy. After several years you have a million bucks in coupons you will never use.


The thing that interests me is as a viable replacement for RCI and Interval International.
There are different levels and the SFX portion where you have gold, diamond and the super duper preferred version which can cost a lot. Each level yields better savings and 2X or 3X vida dollars per deposit.
The top level is a hefty price but after that you only pay a small amount, around $50 a year for life, and consists of the top levels of VL and SFX combined. This beats having to renew each year and in like, 10 years or so, the initial purchase price will have broken even.

My question; is if any of you have been using VL and how has it been for you? I’m thinking about taking advantage of the top level but I’m not sure I will be buying access to anything I won’t already have via RCI or II. As it is now, I don’t think I have to renew my Vida lifestyles membership to use my Vidanta property.

 

[Eric B]

Your understanding is pretty much correct. You do need to think of SFX and ICE, which runs Vida Lifestyle, as separate entities because they are. The version of SFX available through VL has a limited ability to make deposits; you can only deposit Vidanta weeks in the SFX Vida Preferred account the VL upgrade option gets you. As a result, it won’t work as a fabulous replacement for RCI/II, particularly if you own other resorts. You’d also be limited to the resorts available through SFX.

That being said, there are some advantages to the upgraded VL membership level, i.e., additional access to Vida & privilege weeks beyond what Vidanta typically gives. You’ll have to balance that availability against the need to pay the usage fees for a week rather than exchanging at a cost of whatever other MFs and paying a resort fee for a stay at Vidanta.

As far as the top level goes, it’s a 2-dimensional thing. The gold, platinum and chairman levels in VL are keyed to what you own at Vidanta, but there are various upgrade packages that ICE sells that are the other dimension. That’s how you get the Vida Preferred SFX account.

I plan on continuing to use RCI with the platinum upgrade for my non-Vidanta TSs because of their lower MFs and the periodic off-season GL availability, resulting in less expensive GL stays for me as well as the ability to travel elsewhere. That’s a good fit for me, of course, and it might be different for you.

 

[Zinjanthropus]

As I understand it, I can keep my VL at bottom basement level and just keep booking through Vidanta when I want to travel in Mayan world.
Other than the sales and Vida dollars, what are your favorite benefits?
I'm trying to see why I should spend the bucks if (excluding the vida $ and travel portion) I don't get anything more than what my Vidanta MF gets me, other than more of the same.
What am I missing?

 

[Eric B]

I’ve used them for shopping car rentals and hotel stays. Sometimes they come out cheaper than other travel agencies/sites. That part is the same as what you can get through RCI travel, though.

I’ve been told you can shop cruises, present them with a price you find, and have them match it plus allow you to use 30% of the price in Vida dollars. Haven’t tried it yet, though.

 

[pittle]

We were not interested in Vida Lifestyle at all and declined the offer when we upgraded to GL We do not do cruises and that was what they were pushing big time when we upgraded. We prefer to choose our own airlines and various other purchases. We find no value whatsoever in Vida Lifestyle. (A friend who has it said they would not pay another annual fee for it.)

We have kept SFX t the Diamond level because we can deposit our PBEB 1-bedroom there and exchange for a higher level Mayan World 2-bedroom property for less than our GL MF. We are staying 2 weeks in a Grand Bliss 2-bedroom for $1618 in April (including the $75/week fee) using 2 weeks of PBEB MF + SFX exchange fees. That is less than 1 week of my 2-bedroom GL MF. We could have gotten a GL, but I took the first one that came up. GL would have cost a little more for premium resort fee - but still would have gotten 2 weeks for the price of 1.

 

[Eric B]

That’s essentially my plan; it’s lots less expensive to use SFX for trips I plan well in advance. I’ve been seeing GL NV showing up in RCI Platinum as well, but typically with less time or in the off season; when it does, it’s even less expensive.

 

[Zinjanthropus]

Just got yet another call offering lifetime VL membership plus lifetime SFX Preffered... $3600.

Plus they offered a $500 cash gift and six resort/or cruise certificates which gives you travel for an exchange fee of $300.

I’m sure the certificates together are probably worth the $3600.
We probably won’t buy but it’s not that bad of a deal even considering I probably won’t ever use all of those VIDA dollars they’re offering.

 

[Eric B]

If you got the SFX Diamond level when you bought Vidanta, look at the travel store associated with that account. You may have to call and get them to activate it for you. It’s essentially the same interface as Vida Lifestyle, also run by ICE, and now includes a travel option for resort stays. Going through Vida Lifestyle, the Vidanta resorts are blocked. Going through the SFX travel store they aren’t, and are sometimes lower than a usage fee. I believe the resort fee you get charged through that is $75. It being an exchange, you can book what they have available, which seems to include some GL units, but not the higher tier ones.