When the Club Carlson second night free benefit for credit card holders went away, many of us complained and received a Club Carlson Free Night e-Certificate.

I received two free nights- one for each of my Club Carlson credit cards and Kim got one.

I used one free night during my trip to Poland and the other during a trip to Indianapolis over the summer.

We were left with Kim’s free night which had a late December 2016 expiration date.

Since the Michael W Travels family only has one trip left before the expiration date, I looked to see if it was worth using then. Given that the certificate could be used at some pricey properties, I couldn’t see redeeming it for a hotel which goes for around $90 or 28,000 points.

This past April, Kim, Lucas and I spent a couple of nights at a hotel in New York City. I had booked the stay in May 2015, before the second night free benefit went away. We really enjoyed our stay and figured we might stay there again in the future…

Considering we live in Brooklyn, staying in Manhattan isn’t really a necessity but it is fun once in a while.

We decided to use Kim’s Club Carlson free night for a one- night stay at the Radisson Martinique on Broadway!

Using the free night met two criteria which I set for this last e-certificate:

• Stay in a really nice Club Carlson property
• Get a good value out of the booking (Yes, I know that I wrote how not always getting max value from a free night isn’t always a bad thing.)

Our booking is for an upcoming weekend on a Saturday night. If we were to pay for the stay, the price would be a ridiculous $285 for the night!  Our cost was the e-certificate + $3.50 for tax. (I found this a bit odd since I don’t recall paying tax on award bookings in the past.)

I feel good with this booking and we’re sure to have fun wandering around the city, not having to head home at night!

Did you earn any Club Carlson Free Night e-certificates? My guess is that many of you have. Where did you book your free stays at?