Discovery Health - Vitality & Team Vitality plus everything else you need to know

[Cheese]

Did my Team Vitality joining on the 4 Jan and got an email from CSA a 2 days later saying I could login and download my CSA licence

Still waiting, got a mail from CSA saying they are snowed under with all the new registrations.

[dracs]

On the Discovery Miles front - not sure I have the maths right.

 

If R15 on your Discovery card spend gets you 1 mile. And 10 miles gets you R1 spending value.

 

Does this mean that you accumulate 0.6 cents of Discovery spend value for every R1 that you spend?

 

I'd like to know how Discovery Miles stack up against the other credit card loyalty programs.

 

Yep, 0.66% or 0.66 cents earned for each rand.  At face value this doesn't compare all that well - most reward programs will give you 1% back, however they multiply this by 10 at a number of stores (eg. pick n pay, dischem, sportsmans, clicks, and now BP) - so then you are earning 6.6%.  Also, the stores that qualify (such as @home, toys r us, cape union mart etc) give you 20% cash back. 

 

What we do is use Disco cards only at retailers that provide additional rewards (miles multiplier or cash back), and use FNB at others as my ebucks earn rate starts at 2.5%, 5% for online, and up to 15% at places like checkers, fuel etc).

 

I hear many people poo-poo these rewards programs, but its not hard to make them really work for you if you just take a little time to understand them. 

Edited January 13, 2016 by dracs

[WR 1.0]

I have already entered a few races and paid. If I join now, will I still get the % back of the qualifying races?

(probably answered before....)

[Guest notmyname]

I. Sorry if this is a different question or if it's been covered before. Work has been super cray and I've not managed to get on the bike. I think I'll manage an hour tonight, one tomorrow morning and one tomorrow evening. If a two hour ride yields 3000 points, would the hour long sessions yield 1500? I also noticed that my target is only 400 this week. Is that normal for someone who is very active?

[HBO]

Yep, 0.66% or 0.66 cents earned for each rand.  At face value this doesn't compare all that well - most reward programs will give you 1% back, however they multiply this by 10 at a number of stores (eg. pick n pay, dischem, sportsmans, clicks, and now BP) - so then you are earning 6.6%.  Also, the stores that qualify (such as @home, toys r us, cape union mart etc) give you 20% cash back. 

 

What we do is use Disco cards only at retailers that provide additional rewards (miles multiplier or cash back), and use FNB at others as my ebucks earn rate starts at 2.5%, 5% for online, and up to 15% at places like checkers, fuel etc).

 

I hear many people poo-poo these rewards programs, but its not hard to make them really work for you if you just take a little time to understand them.

I'm one of those who didn't do much of an effort on all these loyalty programmes, but was quite surprised when I received some lekke cash back in my disco account for clothes I bought at Cape Union. I didn't buy there for the cash back, but more for the clothes.

 

I also booked my flight for the CTCT last week for me and my wife and after Vitality discount (Diamond status) and disco miles, we only paid R 610.00 for a return trip for 2. Not to shabby hay.

 

We will definably make the effort to understand it more to get the full value out of it.

[Captain Fastbastard Mayhem]

I. Sorry if this is a different question or if it's been covered before. Work has been super cray and I've not managed to get on the bike. I think I'll manage an hour tonight, one tomorrow morning and one tomorrow evening. If a two hour ride yields 3000 points, would the hour long sessions yield 1500? I also noticed that my target is only 400 this week. Is that normal for someone who is very active?

60-89 minute is 600 points, 90-120 minute is 1500 points.

[dracs]

I have already entered a few races and paid. If I join now, will I still get the % back of the qualifying races?

(probably answered before....)

Yes - as long as you are a member of team vitality on the day of the race.

[Guest notmyname]

60-89 minute is 600 points, 90-120 minute is 1500 points.

Cake walk(lol). Thanks Capitan, Think I'm Going to order the watch today.

Edited January 13, 2016 by Small Fry

[Dexter-morgan]

Can anybody perhaps tell me how to redeem miles to use at Pick n pay, I saw something somewhere about an APP where you can convert and pay with  voucher, the website is difficult to find the info.

[Captain Fastbastard Mayhem]

Cake walk(lol). Thanks Capital, Think I'm Going to order the watch today.

Just upped my limit to get the watch for the OH. 

[Muzee]

Any idea what methodology vitality uses for heart rate zones. The reason I ask is according to most calculators, 70% of my maximum heart rate is 128bpm. A few of my rides I have averaged under that closer to 123bpm (which should be between 60% and 70%), but I have been awarded the points at > 70% rate.

[Captain Fastbastard Mayhem]

Any idea what methodology vitality uses for heart rate zones. The reason I ask is according to most calculators, 70% of my maximum heart rate is 128bpm. A few of my rides I have averaged under that closer to 123bpm (which should be between 60% and 70%), but I have been awarded the points at > 70% rate.

 I would imagine that it's based on whatever zones you've put on your device of choice, or STRAVA zones.

 

It could also be that the reason it's given you the higher value is because you've gone over the minimum average speed threshold, or distance threshold. They allocate points according to the "higher of" principle, so you'll get the highest allocation according to either agv HR reading, distance reading or avg speed reading. 

[Muzee]

 I would imagine that it's based on whatever zones you've put on your device of choice, or STRAVA zones.

 

It could also be that the reason it's given you the higher value is because you've gone over the minimum average speed threshold, or distance threshold. They allocate points according to the "higher of" principle, so you'll get the highest allocation according to either agv HR reading, distance reading or avg speed reading. 

The training sessions are on a stationary cycle, so does not measure distance or avg speed.

 

The device goes to movescount / mapmyfitness and then on towards vitality. the heart rate zones are correct in the device.

 

For now I am not complaining. 120mins on the cycle and 3000 points.

[Captain Fastbastard Mayhem]

The training sessions are on a stationary cycle, so does not measure distance or avg speed.

 

The device goes to movescount / mapmyfitness and then on towards vitality. the heart rate zones are correct in the device.

 

For now I am not complaining. 120mins on the cycle and 3000 points.

what about the movescount / mapmyfitness zones? Could be the answer there. 

[Veebee]

So there's a problem again with Disco systems, voucher codes are not working at Kauai and has been the case since yesterday... Have 1 that expires today which means I lose out...

[Captain Fastbastard Mayhem]

Just confirmed that the additional 25% discount only applies to single gym memberships. Idiotic. Challenging that now.