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Club Carlson has launched its promotion for the summer and it’s offering guests the opportunity to earn certificates for free Friday night stays or 10,000 points depending on their preference. Having seen the rules of the promotion I’m not entirely sure why the vast majority of participants wouldn’t take the free night certificates but, no doubt, the points will work better for some.
The Promotion – Stay Twice, Get A Free Friday or 10,000 Bonus Points
- Register and stay between July 1, 2017 and September 30, 2017.
- For every two stays completed Club Carlson members will earn a reward:
- up to three free Friday nights or
- up to 30,000 Bonus Gold Points
- The free Friday night confirmation will be delivered in the form of an e-certificate
- Friday E-Certs are valid for reservations on a single Friday night at any Quorvus Collection, Radisson Blu®, Radisson RED, Radisson®, Park Plaza®, Park Inn®by Radisson and Country Inns & Suites By Carlson hotels worldwide
- Friday night E-Certs must be used for stays between October 6, 2017 and January 26, 2018
- Club Carlson members much choose which of the two rewards they want when registering for the promotion.
That last rule is an important one and the T&Cs go on to say:
By participating in the “Stay 2, Earn a Free Friday Night or 10K Points” offer, you may only select one of the following offers (either the “Free Friday Night” promotion or the “10K Points” promotion) during the Promotion Period in accordance with these terms and conditions.
So members will have to decide in advance what reward the want all the way through the promotion period – you can’t change your mind half way though.
Thoughts
While the E-Certs are more restrictive than I’d like to see them be (they can only be used on Fridays and stays must be taken by 26 January 2018) they still seem like a much, much better option than the 10,000 bonus points.
The Club Carlson award chart looks like this:
So even if you maximised the points earnings this promotion is offering, 30,000, you wouldn’t earn enough points for more than a Category 3 stay.
Radisson Hotel Fresno Conference Center – Club Carlson Category 3
It may be just me but somehow, as fine an establishment as I’m sure it is, a free night at the Radisson Hotel Fresno Conference Center doesn’t strike me as being much of a bonus!
The E-certs may restrict a guest to a free Friday night stay….but the stay can be at any Club Carlson property in the world.
There’s the excellent Radisson Blu Aqua hotel in Chicago….
….or the May Fair in London (reviewed here)…..
…or even the Radisson Blu in Cape Town:
Sure, you can only book 1 free night per week but, if you’re going to a city for a long weekend that E-Cert could save you a lot of money and you could stay at a pretty decent property (if you choose wisely).
Each Friday night stay could easily be worth in excess of $250 (and that’s being conservative) so the total potential earnings from this promotion (if you choose the Friday night E-certs) is in excess of $750.
30,000 points, on the other hand, isn’t worth more than around $120 based on a reasonably accepted valuation of 0.4 cents/point.
Bottom Line
For the vast majority of readers the Friday night E-cert is the way to go here as it’s easily the more valuable of the two options. The only issue that may possibly arise (but I don’t expect it to) is that Club Carlson suddenly becomes extra mean with award availability or that the E-certs are subject to a different kind of availability than regular award nights.
Based on my expectations that neither of these things are all that likely I’ll be opting for the free Friday night stays.
