SCORE 85,000 POINTS (9 FREE NIGHTS) WITH CLUB CARLSON REWARDS VISA
My new favorite hotel brand credit card is my by far the Club Carlson Rewards Visa. US Bank introduced the Club Carlson Rewards Visa in late 2012 with a huge 85,000 point sign up bonus. I quickly grab a personal and business version for a quick 170,000 points. Okay, so that’s a good amount of points, right? Well, the key is in the redemption. During my recent trip to the United Kingdom and specifically Ireland I used all Club Carlson points for my week stay. I stayed at Radisson Blu St. Helena’s Hotel Dublin, Radisson Blu Galway, and Radisson Blu Cork. I also stayed for a week in the Park Inn, Prague last August and it was just perfect for me and my mother-in-law. You can check our my trip reports starting here.
I can now personally speak to the great value of the Club Carlson Rewards Visa and the awesome benefits. Club Carlson points can really be stretched quite farther as a Club Carlson Rewards Visa cardholder. I certainly maximized mine. Not to mention you get to enjoy easy upgrades with the Gold status cardmembers receive. With hotel brands constantly devaluing their points, it’s crucial to have maximize redemption of points and also find a way to easily earn them. Brands will always move properties up and and down on their category charts and make to their charts. The only thing you can do as a collector is to find the easiest way to earn their points and lots of them. The Club Carlson Rewards Visa gives you the ability to earn 5x points per dollar EVERYWHERE! This is huge!
So if you are looking for hotel points with great value, then the Club Carlson brand is for you. I’ve really falling in love with this brand and especially the Radisson Blu’s. They are really a step up from our Radisson’s here in the United States. Don’t get me wrong, I love luxurious Starwood properties but I’m much more of a practical gal who just loves to go and stay for free. Club Carlson does have some luxury properties too but I choose to earn Club Carlson points for easy free stays at middle range hotels.
I would highly recommending earning Club Carlson points for international travel as they have a presence wide spread throughout the world. You can stay in some hot destinations like San Jose, Costa Rica, Cancun, Mexico, Budapest, Hungary and Cardiff, Wales just to name a few for only 9,000 points per night. Check out Category 1 properties here. Or vacation in Orlando, Florida, Berlin, Germany, Limerick, Ireland, Krakow, Poland, St. Petersburg, Russia, Cape Town, South Africa, or New Delhi, India for only 15,000 points per night. Check out Category 2 properties here. View all Club Carlson categories and properties here.
KEY CARDHOLDER BENEFITS:
- 85,000 Bonus Points – after meeting $2,500 min. spend
- Bonus Award Night: With every two (2) nights you book with points you get the 3rd night free. No other loyalty brand offers this benefit to their cardholders. This is one of the reason I love this card.
- 40,000 bonus points given annually. This is really nice because it offsets the annual fee of $75. 40,000 points if they were redeem for a category 1 hotel for 9,000 points per night would be 4 nights. Or two (2) nights at a category 1 for 15,000 points per night. Pretty generous!
- 5 points per dollar EVERYWHERE! This is so sweet because you can rack up Club Carlson points like no body’s business! It’s like free nights galore! Gotta love this benefit! Of course you earn 10 points while staying at the Club Carlson properties which is great too!
- Gold Status: The best part of this benefit is the free room upgrades. This is benefit enabled our family to stay a little more comfortable than we normally would have. Upgrades to family rooms (two adjoining rooms), and suites for standard point redemptions. It was very nice!
So this is why I say the Club Carlson Rewards Visa is my favorite hotel loyalty card. I wrote about this card when it first came out and now almost a year later I’ve really experienced the benefits and they are wonderful. So I can highly recommend it to you. They’ve got me hooked.
I’m not the only one. I just receive this note today from a long time reader whom I recommend the card to recently.
“I’m a convert…. At the Radisson Dublin I asked for an upgrade, and we were put in Business Class. It was perfect as we were running out of energy…. Came back from two days in Galway, Conamara and surrounding areas. I used points to book Radisson for the night we came back, so I could leave our baggage there while we were out and about. Wrote them a nice note telling them I was Gold Elite, needed a late check in and late check out. Came in last night at 10 pm, bushed. They checked us in and put us in a suite on the top floor, with patio and sweeping views of the city on both sides. They decided to “double” upgrade me. Combine it with complimentary fruit, drinks and breakfast buffet to die for at a Comfort Inn price and I am a believer… Thank you!” Pam
If you read other bloggers you’ll probably begin to see more write ups on this card and the Club Carlson brand in the future because it has just come into the affiliate network and is available for websites to promote. The Club Carlson brand is really working to make it’s brand more of a top known brand like Hilton, Hyatt or Marriott. The last couple years they have been doing great stay promotions and then they launched their first loyalty brand credit card at the end of last year. I believe this credit card really has put them onto the map now and is getting the attention of the mile and point world.
Anyway, I want you to know about the Club Carlson brand because if you are looking for free hotel nights these are some of the easiest points to earn with their credit card, not to mention the huge sign up bonus of 85,000 points
|
EARNING BREAKDOWN |
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|
FAMILY MEMBER |
CARD APPROVALS |
POINTS PER CARD |
TOTAL POINT EARNINGS |
MINIMUM SPEND REQ. |
TOTAL MIN. SPEND REQ. |
ANNUAL FEE |
TOTAL ANNUAL FEES |
|
Husband |
Personal & Business card |
85,000 points |
170,000 points |
$2,500 |
$5,000 total min. spend |
$75 per card |
$150 |
|
Wife/Partner |
Personal & Business card |
85,000 points |
170,000 points |
$2,500 |
$5,000 total min. spend |
$75 per card |
$150 |
|
TOTAL FAMILY EARNINGS |
4 cards |
340,000 points |
$10,000 total min. spend |
$300 |
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Wow! 340,000 Club Carlson points! Yep! So what can you do with 340,000 Club Carlson points. Check out the charts below.
| CLUB CARLSON CATEGORIES | |
| Points needed for an Award Night (Standard Room) |
|
| Category 1 | 9,000 |
| Category 2 | 15,000 |
| Category 3 | 28,000 |
| Category 4 | 38,000 |
| Category 5 | 44,000 |
| Category 6 | 50,000 |
| CLUB CARLSON FREE NIGHTS (Based upon 340,000 points earned |
|
| Category 1 | 37 free nights |
| Category 2 | 22 free nights |
| Category 3 | 12 free nights |
| Category 4 | 8 free nights |
| Category 5 | 7 free nights |
| Category 6 | 6 free nights |
CARD DETAILS:
Club Carlson Premier Rewards Visa Signature® Card
- Earn up to 9 Free Award Nights1 with 50,000 Gold Points after your first purchase, plus 35,000 points once you spend $2,500 on your card within the first 90 days
- 10 points per $1 spent in eligible net purchases2 at participating Carlson Rezidor hotels worldwide
- 5 points per $1 spent in eligible net purchases everywhere else
- Bonus Award Night – When you redeem Gold Points for 2 or more consecutive Award Nights, your last night is free. Exclusively for cardmembers!
- Club Carlson Gold Status is yours after you activate and use your card
- 1Category 1 hotels
- 2 Net purchases are purchases minus credits and returns
I’ve read on other blogs that the bonus award nights actually apply to the second night when you book a two night stay which is even better than a 3rd night free (50% savings rather than 33%). Note the conditions say when you redeem points for 2 or more consecutive award nights the last night is free. That is the second night for a 2 night stay.
@Nelson – From my booking personal experience, you must “redeem points” for 2 nights to receive a 3rd free night. So whoever is blogging about this must not have actually used the program. You must use your points for 2 award nights consecutively before you can get a free night. So a 2 night stay would cost you the normal points required, otherwise you would be only redeeming points for 1 night. Make sense. I would call Club Carlson to verify so you feel more comfortable with these terms and conditions. I do know this from experience though. I booked 3 nights at each location I mentioned in Ireland and payed for only 2 nights. Can you copy the article who is posting this theory. I’d be interested in reading their article and if they have first had booking experience. If this were true I’d love to know how it’s done. Thanks for your input!
Miles Momma,
The text below is from extrapackofpeanuts.com. Not sure if Travis has actual booking experience.
Nelson
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Free Award Nights
Club Carlson Free Award Nights
You receive 1 free award night when you redeem points for 2 or more consecutive award nights at the same hotel.
The wording is a little weird, and so originally, I took this to mean that if I booked 2 nights, I’d receive a 3rd night free.
But I was wrong…
Turns out, it’s even better!
If you book 2 nights at the same hotel, you will actually get the 2nd night free! Basically, this is a buy one get one free offer.
This makes the 85k MUCH MORE valuable.
Since you earn 5x per $1 spent, you’d also earn an additional 12.5k extra points for making the minimum spend. This would give you a total of 97,500 points.
With those points, you could actually do the following:
•Stay 20 nights at a Category 1 (10 paid with points, 10 free)
•Stay 12 nights at a Category 2 (6 paid, 6 free)
•Stay 6 nights at a Category 3 (3 paid, 3 free)
•Stay 4 nights at a Category 4 (2 paid, 2 free)
•Stay 4 nights at a Category 5 (2 paid, 2 free)
•Stay 2 nights at a Category 6 (1 paid, 1 free) and only be 2,500 short of staying 4 nights
This is some amazing value!
And not only that, but it offers amazing flexibility. Whether you prefer more nights at cheaper accommodations or less nights at ritzier places, you can find some real gems.
For example:
The Park Inn Budapest is a Category 1 and costs $90 a night. 20 free nights there is equal to $1,800!
The Radisson Blu Resort in Dubrovnik, Croatia is a category 5 hotel. The standard room rate is $263. 4 free nights at Dubrovnik Radisson Blu is worth over $1,000!
So no matter what category you want to stay at, this card is great.
You can check all the hotels and categories they fall in here.
How to Maximize The Free Award Nights Offer
To fully take advantage of this offer, you’d only ever want to book 2 night stays, which would mean you’d pay for 1 night and get the 2nd free.
Unfortunately, the terms and conditions state that “only one Bonus Award Night will be available for a stay of two or more consecutive nights at the same hotel, regardless of the total length of stay, the total number of reservations or the number of check-in/check-outs.”
What this means is that you can’t book a 2 night stay at the a hotel for Wednesday and Thursday, get Thursday free, and then book a separate stay at the same hotel Friday and Saturday and get Saturday free.
So while this is still an amazing offer, especially people who like to jump around from place to place every few days or so, it does have it’s limitations.
@Nelson – Thanks a million for posting this and making me looking into this option further. YOU ARE 100% CORRECT! I called Club Carlson myself and discussed this with them. They confirmed that you can book two nights and pay for 1 with points and the other is free! WOW! This is so awesome! Thanks so much for making me look into this further. I was told the opposite from a Club Carlson rep awhile back and now I know they were wrong and can say I was misinformed too. I’m so thankful to you for making me dig further to find out the right information so I can pass it along to all my readers. I love this community and I love when people help each other in a kind way find the answers so we can all enjoy the benefits. I will now be using this feature when booking stays for sure. I must stay though that Club Carlson’s information is a little confusing when it states “You receive 1 free award night when you redeem points for 2 or more consecutive award nights at the same hotel”. This is easily taken to mean you must book and pay points for 2 nights before you get a free nights WHICH IS NOT THE CASE! You must pay points for only 1 night before a bonus night is allowed. Thanks again Nelson!!!
You are welcome. Glad you were able to confirm what I had hoped was the answer. Two for one is a great deal!
I am applying for a card today.
@Nelson. Enjoy your points and have a fun adventure with them.
Just a few caveats; when they run your credit report, it’s a “hard credit pull,” very hard to get approved for the personal card no matter what your credit score is; my credit score is very good; apply for the business card first and once accepted, then apply for the personal card an if rejected call the reconsideration line and tell then they used the same ss number and you have a good credit score and politely asked to be approved like I was; also you have to be a Gold member to transfer your points to another account but you will be a Gold member once you get the 50K bonus from the card; secondly, they just devalued the transfer rate to airlines WITHOUT NOTICE from 50,000 points to 8,000 miles, now to 5,000 miles; otherwise the program is very good
Hey Mama, I get how exciting these huge signup bonuses can be, but IMHO there is no denying that SPG and Hyatt are still the best hotel rewards programs, Club Carlson hotels are not the most exciting and never to great here in the states… Somewhat better in Europe, so for now ill be sticking to SPG and Hyatt
@Joel – I agree SPG is the bomb but sometimes my family just needs a nice clean crash pad because we are never at the hotel….out exploring from sun up to sun down. I agree and I believe I did mention that I would focus your earning Club Carlson points to use in Europe and not necessarily the US. What kind of points you want is really very subjective depending upon your goal. If you want luxury, yes, totally SPG & Hyatt. But when Club Carlson is giving away points so cheap, you must just grab them. You never know when they could be valuable to you. I’m all about diversification personally and less about loyalty to any brand. They changes their programs and rules so often. It doesn’t benefit you the member enough to be loyal usually. But everyone has their travel objectives and you need to earn the points that will take you where you want to go in the comfort you would like.
Do you have a separate CLub Carlson account for you and your spouse and then complete transfer to pool points OR are you simply using them separately? Wasn’t sure how they allowed this to work.
Thanks! JC
@JC – Yes, I transfer the points to one main account and book nights from that account. With the credit card you have Gold status and are allowed to transfer between accounts. They use to allow anyone but now it requires status