Suggestions

If one has a gold membership why on earth do I have to pay for additional features to look up ships manifests

Susanne :-0

This is not really the place to raise this. The Suggestions Board is intended for Members to add their ideas for future software enhancements to the site.

As your question is more of an operational / management issue, it might be more appropriate to email your question direct to GR

[email protected]

I'm always bring told off for one reason or another - I asked the question because others might need an answer. There seems to be no message board to ask such questions publically

If you want a specific answer from GR it is best to email them directly as there is no guarantee they will reply if you post on the boards.

I guess the answer is that the records you want are not provided in the Gold Membership, which is incidentally being phased out and no longer available to new subscribers, but in the Premium package which costs a bit more, perhaps?

The same applies to Platinum Membership which I believe is the highest grade of membership - your reply made me look at mine & I'd forgottten I upgraded last time I renewed. I will contact them but I was hoping for some peoples coments before I do.
Would have been better to have an all in price - as it is it is an increase via the back door

This subject was brought up on Facebook.

The answer was even if you have a Platinum membership you are unable to access the new records free because of the cost to GR of providing these records.

Hi Susanne

You are right to query why you might have to pay for these records, so if you haven't had a full answer yet, let me explain.

There is a cost involved in providing records to members, and while many genealogy sites just charge a flat fee for you to access all the latest and greatest, we decided to cut the existing membership prices (which give access to BMD and Census records and a few others).

For Standard, (old) Gold, and Free, you have the option to buy credits to view the new data.

For Platinum, we give members the choice of new record sets to look up. This means that if you're not interested in say "passenger lists" you're not having to pay for it. You can of course do the searches for free, and these can be helpful in deciding whether or not to buy the additional feature. At the moment, the first Additional Feature is Travel. Over the next few months we will be adding new datasets which again you will be able to choose to buy or not. And when renewal time comes you can opt to drop the additional features and stick with the core option.

Also, if we get new data that we feel should be part of "Travel", then those with that option would get it automatically included at no cost. [As I understand it]

The intention is to give you the choice, and not charge you for something you won't use or need.

I hope this helps to explain
Phil