<p>Does it make sense to get the Flex 460 plan instead of the 20 meal a week plan? If you go home a couple of non-holiday weekends, or parents visit and take you out to dinner or brunch, or you visit friends for a weekend, or go to Boston for a day, or play a sport that keeps you on the road a bit, wouldn’t the new plan make more sense?</p>
<p>Any thoughts from current students?</p>
<p>I can't possibly see using 20 meals a week, but the 14 meal and lower plans are a ripoff, so I'm going to use the new plan too.</p>
<p>whats the flex 460 plan?</p>
<p>well given that no current students have ever used the flex 460 plan, i dont know how you can get advice from us. I assume the plan is what 460 flex points for the year? I have no idea how much it costs, but it sounds to me like it's not worth it. Meals at the ratty/vdub are like $6 for bfast, $8 for lunch, and $11 for dinner i think. That's a lot of points, when you compare it to the carberry meal which is 3.95. Keep in mind that any meal credit not used during the day is turned into 4.45 untill 2am that night. (I dont know if they've changed the prices of anything, so sorry if these numbers are slightly off) If you do a sport, they give you money for every meal you miss, and they dont actually remove the credits form your card (this is golden if you only make a day trip, you get like $23 for food, and you still have all your credits when you get back) 460 points doenst sound like much, when i think about how i had the 20 meal plan, never felt like it was too much, and spent all 200 flex points.</p>
<p>The new plan is described in the new Student Billing guide. It is 230 meals per semester, 500 flex points per year, and 10 guest meals. It is the same price as the 20 meal per week plan.</p>
<p>The reason I thought current students might have an opinion is that you can use the meals any time you want apparently, so that if you miss a few days of meals, it doesn't matter, you still have the meals, and the flex points to fill in.</p>
<p>It sounds like an interesting option, especially if you are off campus much.</p>
<p>How many days are there in the semester? It's hard to assess it without doing a quick couple of calculations, price per meal, etc, but I am far too lazy to figure it out now, I'll do that when I actually get the form and when I am home in the US, not in Germany.</p>
<p>ahh ok, why would they call that the flex 460? I must say it looks like it could give 20 meals a week a run for it's money. I'm going to guess it's more expensive per meal, but that's the price you pay for flexibility.</p>
<p>did we current students ever get a chance to change to this? i don't remember seeing anything</p>
<p>It is described briefly on the Brown dining services website - I assume that you will get this information shortly.</p>
<p>the semesters are 15 weeks i believe. I'm not sure how to factor in flex points, so for starters, lets ignore them: 20 meals a week pays $5.74 a meal, and flex 230 pays $7.49. Now, i need to try and factor in the fact that flex230 gets 250% more flex points. So, starting over, say each flex point is a dollar, since the price you pay at jo's doesnt change whether you're using points or real cash. They're both $1722/semester, flex230 has $250 flex, so that gives $1472 for 230 meals, or $6.40 per meal. 20meals has $100 flex, so you get $1622 for meals, which is $5.41 per meal. It looks to me like 20meals a week is a better deal since you're unused meals become points at the end of the night.</p>
<p>Since when do unused meals become Flexpoints? If that's the case, the 20 meals per week would of course be far better than anything else, but I dont see anything mentioning that change on BUDS although not much is up there about hte plans either.</p>
<p>I think she just means that you use your unused meal credit on a certain day as $4.45 flex point type credit at night.</p>
<p>But if you don't, that meal credit is lost.</p>
<p>i'm a guy btw.</p>
<p>And yes, I am referring to how at 7:30pm, when the ratty and v-dub close, your unused meal credits become $4.45 in flex points to be used by 2am that night. If you think about it, the 230 basically converts 70 of your meals into 150 flexpoints that can be used at any time. In other words, each meal gives you $2.14 in flex, as opposed to the 20 meal plan, where you get $4.45 per meal, you just have to use it that day.</p>
<p>It seems to me that if you're at all unsure, you go with the 20 meals a week. If you know for a fact, that you will not be eating 3 meals a day, or at least using 3 credits a day, then maybe the flex230 is for you.</p>
<p>Doesn't it also mean that if you are gone for the weekend, you would lose those 5 to 6 meals under the 20 Meal Plan? And that if you know that you won't be eating all 300 meals, and you want the flexibility of having 3 meals a day some days, and two on others, and none on others, that it might be worth it? </p>
<p>(And you get 10 guest meal passes a year according to the new student billing guide, not just 4, which may or may not matter to people.)</p>
<p>Of course it means exactly that heidi, that's why it's being offered. The question is, are you leaving enough weekends that you're going ot pay 2 dollars more per meal? The flexibility thing is certainly worth thinking about,it something I havent decided on yet. I voted for a system in which unused credits shifted to points permanently as I thought that was best.</p>
<p>Remember, one actual dollar buys 1.15 flex points if you want ot load up on them on your card, which you can do.</p>
<p>modest, that's probably what most people voted for, but that would cost the university too much money. That's why they removed 70 meals from our plan, gave us about half a credit worth for each to have permanantly for the semester. and is it really 1.15flex=$1 I assumed it was 1-1 or $1=<1flex</p>
<p>Yeah, of course that's why they set it up, but yes, I just found on BUDS page something htat said you can add flexpoints with money, paying a minimum of 25 dollars and that 1 dollar purchases 1.15 flexpoints.</p>
<p>With the 14 meal plan, if you miss 4 meals during the weekend when you're away (with your team), can you use those meals on different days of the same week? And does 14 meals a weak mean 2 meals a day or however I want to disperse them?</p>
<p>i believe you get 14 meals per week, and can use up to 3 in a day. If you miss meals with your team, you get money for the meals you miss. For food, weeks start on friday morning, so if you miss 4 meals over the weekend, you would have the extra 4 untill thursday night, thus giving you two days of 3 meals a day during the week.</p>
<p>I'm a current student and from my experience, you will never go hungry with the 20 meal a week plan...ever. i daresay most people don't even go to breakfast, so then they have an extra meal credit at the end of the day to use at some of the eating clubs if they want a late night snack or something</p>