According to Garmin tech support, Garmin changed their aviation database subscription model about a month ago.
Previously, under the cycle based approach, if I had an active subscription and bought another year of nav data, the newly purchased data cycles would be appended to the active subscription. So if I had 3 months left to go on the active subscription on the date of purchase, I’d have 15 months of data after the purchase.
Under Garmin’s new model, a subscription purchased today ends 12 months from today. If I have an active subscription with three months left to go (for example), that doesn’t matter. My purchased subscription will still expire a year from today. Also, Garmin turns on annual “autorenew” by default when one makes a database purchase.
In my experience, it is easy to overlook the impact of this change. I noticed it only by using the Garmin Aviation Database manager in Calendar mode, where I noticed that my subscription was ending sooner than expected.
After over an hour on hold, I was able to sort this out with Garmin tech support.
Previously, under the cycle based approach, if I had an active subscription and bought another year of nav data, the newly purchased data cycles would be appended to the active subscription. So if I had 3 months left to go on the active subscription on the date of purchase, I’d have 15 months of data after the purchase.
Under Garmin’s new model, a subscription purchased today ends 12 months from today. If I have an active subscription with three months left to go (for example), that doesn’t matter. My purchased subscription will still expire a year from today. Also, Garmin turns on annual “autorenew” by default when one makes a database purchase.
In my experience, it is easy to overlook the impact of this change. I noticed it only by using the Garmin Aviation Database manager in Calendar mode, where I noticed that my subscription was ending sooner than expected.
After over an hour on hold, I was able to sort this out with Garmin tech support.