Over the past few years Club Carlson has been one of the most generous hotel rewards program.
For those of us with the Club Carlson credit card, booking award nights can bring us double the value. When booking a stay of two or more nights, the second night is free although that’s about to change in just a few days.
The stay two, get one free benefit is one of the most awesome hotel program benefits but it will be going away at the end of this month. The last day for Club Carlson credit card holders to book stays with this benefit is May 31, 2015. I called to confirm this although I’ve read that some think the benefit ends on May 28…
So with such an awesome benefit going away, what’s was I to do????
Book as many award nights as I felt were manageable!
I needed to make use of the benefit as best possible for future trips. The problem was that I currently only have two trips/ flights scheduled and one of the destinations has no Club Carlson properties!
Luckily the destination for our other, longer trip has lots of Club Carlson properties to choose from!
During our trip to Abu Dhabi in August we’ll be visiting a bunch of places around the Gulf. We booked most of our hotel nights at Club Carlson properties. I also needed to use the $500 Expedia voucher that I won in a Twitter chat. (More on that in the future.)
We booked 4 two-night stays for our Gulf Trip which came to 166,000 Gold Points.
This didn’t put a big dent in our Club Carlson account balances so we needed to book some potential future stays at properties not too far from home. We booked three such stays and will hopefully book a few more if we get around to it. Hopefully something doesn’t come up which forces us to cancel any of these bookings….
We booked 3 two-night stays close to home which came to 138,000 Gold Points.
We booked a random weekend stay at the Radisson Blu Warwick in Philadelphia for October 2015. I’ve been wanting to check out this property for a couple of years now and might even book another stay for an even later, future date.
Points spent: 50,000
While we rarely ever stay in Manhattan it can be fun to play a tourist close to home on occasion. We booked two nights at the Radisson Martinique on Broadway in April 2016.
Points spent: 50,000
Kim and I were hoping to book a stay in Lancaster, Pennsylvania for a specific event but the dates weren’t available. Instead we chose a random date in May 2016 to spend two nights at the Country Inn & Suites Lancanster, PA (Amish Country).
Since Lucas had such a great time at Diggerland, we figured a visit to Dutch Wonderland would be a lot of fun for him. I think he’ll also love seeing the horse & buggies along the roads as well as all of the farmland…
Points spend: 38,000
Overall, we’ve spent 304,000 Club Carlson Gold Points so far.
This still leaves Kim and I with a lot of Gold Points. I’m debating whether or not I should try to book a few more random stays. The problem is where, when and why! Oh right, it’s a great deal that’s why! (And the best part is that the rooms can be cancelled if one of the random dates doesn’t fit our schedule when it comes up.)
Are you trying to spend a lot of your Club Carlson Gold Points before the second night free benefit ends? If so, let us know how many points you’ve redeemed so far.
heavenlyjane- Nice suggestions! I was hoping to visit Iceland at some point & stay at the Radisson Blu but it’s way too hard to book in advance for something like that. As for Edinburgh, great city- loved Scotland but don’t see going back there in the near future.
If you haven’t yet been to Reykjavik, Iceland, this might be your last chance for super affordable lodging.
Club Carlson allows for booking way into the future. How about Iceland in Summer 2016? Summer 2017?
Another idea is the Radisson Blu Edinburgh, which is in the shadow of Edinburgh Castle. We are staying there for 4 nights next summer.
Tom- I had read that too but when I called I was told before June 1.
DJ- They are offering 30K for card holders due to the stay 2 benefit going away. I’ve read on View From the Wing that even a room charge on an award stay will trigger the 30K bonus.
As for appeasing us, that’s a great question. The 30K is a nice bonus but does not make up for benefits being lost at all. I also called to voice my displeasure with the changes and was given 7,500 points on each of my cards as a token…. Club Carlson still does have value its just going to be a lot pricier to stay at their properties.
You should book stays at some Club Carlson properties before the stay 2 benefit goes away. If you can’t make it, just cancel within the time allowed.
Jennifer- Awesome- Sounds like you’ve been enjoying Club Carlson properties! We’ve also done many stays with Club Carlson. I only listed the bookings I’ve made over the past few days. It will be sad to see the benefit go away. I also have lots of more points to use but don’t think I’ll be booking more than 1-2 more in the next few days. Wish I had more trips planned to book rooms for!
Have used CC points for a total of 33 free nights and one C&P night, including 3 nights in Copenhagen before we were cardholders, so that was a lot of points redeemed all at once. 15 of the free (and one C&P) nights have already been consumed. We have bookings now for 18 more nights (+400,000 points). Hope we’ll be able to use them all. Have a few more points to use…hmmmm….
Hi with the change, i remembered CC is giving 30k pts to a single stay? am I right? can you shed some info on their trying to appease the card holders? its a great program, i just 2 nights stayed at Radisson SF Fishermen Wharf, top floor facing the water, brand new remolded, tons of power outlets, free iHome etc for 75k pts. Would like to book again if I can manage it before it ends.
BOGO bookings do end on May 28, right?