New SAFE/NAFI Foreflight discount policy

[Rick Junkin]

Here's the answer to what's happening with the NAFI/SAFE Foreflight discounts. I cut and pasted from the email I just received this morning.

TLDR: Basic discount is reduced from 33% to 15%. If you want to market Foreflight to your students you can increase your CFI discount all the way up to 100% if you refer enough students; 20% for the first "eligible" referral and 5% for each additional referral (that's 4 referrals to get about the equivalent discount to the current 33%, 17 referrals to get to 100%). But you can't add the referral discount on top of the basic discount, they are mutually exclusive. The only "eligible" referrals are for people who have never had a paid subscription to Foreflight. Details below.

From the email:

Greetings Pilot,

We wanted to let you know about some changes to the ForeFlight subscription discounts offered to members of the Society of Aviation and Flight Educators (SAFE) and National Association of Flight Instructors (NAFI).

What’s changing?

As of today, the SAFE/NAFI discounts now provide 15% off the price of your ForeFlight subscription plan (excluding any add-on products or regions). Additionally, these discounts may no longer be applied to purchases of the Starter subscription plan and can only be used with the Essential or Premium plans for first-time purchases, upgrades, and renewals.

How can I increase my discount?

Our recently-announced ForeFlight CFI Referral Program allows you to earn up to 100% off the price of your subscription plan simply by introducing eligible* students to ForeFlight, with 20% off for just the first referral and an additional 5% off for each subsequent one.

Note that discounts earned through the CFI Referral Program are mutually exclusive with your SAFE/NAFI discount, so both cannot be applied to the same purchase.

What do I need to do?

No immediate action is required. Your ForeFlight account will continue to be eligible for the SAFE/NAFI discount (15% off) as long as you remain a member of either organization. 

You can also refer eligible* students to ForeFlight to build your discount as part of the CFI Referral Program, then follow the in-app instructions to apply these discounts to a purchase in lieu of your SAFE/NAFI discount.

Visit foreflight.com/cfi-referral to learn how to get started with the ForeFlight CFI Referral Program. 

Blue skies,
Team ForeFlight

*Only students who have never had a paid ForeFlight subscription before are eligible for the CFI Referral Program.

[donkaye, MCFI]

I appreciated the 33% discount for FF and bought it even though I didn't use it much.  At 15% not so much.  I'll probably terminate my subscription at the next renewal.  We'll see.

[midlifeflyer]

Many are not going to be happy, but the reality is that the discount was probably always ultimately about CFI referrals. Now it's just a not to the group but a potential benefit to those who are training primary students. Still only potential since I'm sure many learn about FF even before they start lessons.

[Paul Thomas]

People were buying NAFI subscription to get the FF discount; it was too good to continue on.

[76Srat]

Sort of related:  My Premium FF plan auto-renews on Nov 24th every year.  On that very same morning, I got an email from them (see below) for a 20% "Black Friday" deal.  The difference in that discount isn't buying momma any new shoes or anything like that, but it does piss me off that merely 4 hours after my auto-renewal hits that I could have paid them 20% less by not auto-renewing and simply buying a "new plan".

Save 20% when you buy an Essential or Premium subscription plan.*

This offer heads back to the hangar on December 1st so don't wait! Use code BF25THANKS at foreflight.com/buy to get 20% off your purchase.

---

ForeFlight’s Essential plan features safety-enhancing hazard and situational awareness features for VFR and IFR pilots:

• Visualize and steer clear of hazards with Hazard Advisor, Profile View, and Synthetic Vision.
• Plan safer and more comfortable flights with multi-altitude icing, turbulence, and cloud coverage forecast layers.
• Overlay plates and taxi diagrams directly on the map to maintain focus during critical flight phases and on the ground.
• Experience the future of instrument procedure guidance with Dynamic Procedures.
• And more!

BUY ESSENTIAL

Pushing for full power?

You can take ForeFlight to the max by upgrading to a Premium plan, featuring 3D route and runway previews, forecast weather in Profile View, and much more.

Not sure which plan is right for you? Take our short quiz to find out.

*Not eligible for renewals of the same plan. Discount applies only to base plan prices. Discount and subscription credit may only be applied when you purchase via ForeFlight's website, not within the ForeFlight Mobile app. 

 

[toto]

1 hour ago, midlifeflyer said:

Many are not going to be happy, but the reality is that the discount was probably always ultimately about CFI referrals. Now it's just a not to the group but a potential benefit to those who are training primary students. Still only potential since I'm sure many learn about FF even before they start lessons.

It would be interesting to know ballpark numbers on the referrals. WingX has a free-for-CFIs policy, and it absolutely builds goodwill. I never could get my head around the WingX interface, but I’d be telling everyone about it if I used it. On the other hand, a 15% discount for FF with a complicated referral structure doesn’t do a thing for me. 

[hammdo]

Of course they did this ‘new policy’. Not surprising…

now wait for the January price increase…

-Don

[Rick Junkin]

1 hour ago, midlifeflyer said:

Many are not going to be happy, but the reality is that the discount was probably always ultimately about CFI referrals. Now it's just a not to the group but a potential benefit to those who are training primary students. Still only potential since I'm sure many learn about FF even before they start lessons.

This is my viewpoint as well, after thinking pragmatically about the business case. Increased sales and upgraded subscriptions are the drivers for a business like this to offer discounts. There are a lot of folks, like me, who have been getting the NAFI/SAFE discount for years with very few opportunities for eligible referrals. We can still get the same discount, but the company now requires the referrals rather than hoping they will happen. I can’t argue with the discount plan, it’s a solid business case. Unfortunately they will lose subscribers because from the customer perspective ForeFlight is taking 18% away from the 33% discount. The business case no doubt forecasts new subscriptions will exceed dropped subscriptions. NAFI/SAFE members can still get a 15% discount, but if we want more than that we have to work for it as a marketing rep for ForeFlight. We’ll see how it goes.

[midlifeflyer]

1 hour ago, toto said:

WingX has a free-for-CFIs policy

That went away the Summer of 2024. 

[midlifeflyer]

38 minutes ago, Rick Junkin said:

This is my viewpoint as well, after thinking pragmatically about the business case. Increased sales and upgraded subscriptions are the drivers for a business like this to offer discounts. There are a lot of folks, like me, who have been getting the NAFI/SAFE discount for years with very few opportunities for eligible referrals. We can still get the same discount, but the company now requires the referrals rather than hoping they will happen. I can’t argue with the discount plan, it’s a solid business case. Unfortunately they will lose subscribers because from the customer perspective ForeFlight is taking 18% away from the 33% discount. The business case no doubt forecasts new subscriptions will exceed dropped subscriptions. NAFI/SAFE members can still get a 15% discount, but if we want more than that we have to work for it as a marketing rep for ForeFlight. We’ll see how it goes.

One of the things I'll be curious to see if there is real movement from FF to Garmin Pilot. No predictions.  Pilot made a big splash with the SmartCharts (for good reason) and people were already talking about moving for that. Now CFIs, particularly those who are not in a position to make referrals, are going to complain about the loss. On the flip side, FF's market penetration is so deep and there is also going to be inertia about remaining with the familiar. 

[Rick Junkin]

8 minutes ago, midlifeflyer said:

One of the things I'll be curious to see if there is real movement from FF to Garmin Pilot. No predictions.  Pilot made a big splash with the SmartCharts (for good reason) and people were already talking about moving for that.

Yup, that’s the boat I’m in. I’ve used ForeFlight pretty much from Day 1 when it was released. Over the years I’ve invested a lot of time developing performance profiles, checklists, etc that you had to do manually before the Gucci profiles became available at the higher subscription levels. There are things ForeFlight does really well that Garmin Pilot does adequately, or not at all, and I’ve reached the point of asking myself if I really need those things. I imported my FF logbook into GP and worked up the basic performance profiles for my Bravo. I’ve been using both for about 6 months but found myself falling back on ForeFlight when I really needed something. Time to quit FF cold turkey and rely solely on GP so I force myself to really learn it. I have until July to make a final decision. 

[toto]

1 hour ago, midlifeflyer said:

That went away the Summer of 2024. 

D’oh! Shows how much I use WingX ..