Promotion Extended: 10,000 Club Carlson Points/Night At Radisson – But It’s Not A Great Deal For Everyone

October 14, 2015

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Club Carlson has extended its Mega Points promotion – where members can earn 10,000 Gold Points per night at participating Radisson and Radisson Blu properties across the Americas – until the end of the year.

The offer says:

Enjoy Mega Points at some of your favorite Radisson Blu® and Radisson® hotels all year. Earn 10,000 bonus Gold Points® per night when you book the Mega Points rate. Just use the promotion code MEGAPTS when booking a stay at one of these participating hotels.

The promotion is now valid on all stays at participating hotels up until 31 December 2015.

The full list of participating hotels is HERE.

No registration is necessary…you just have to make sure you use the promotion code when booking.

Is the Promotion Any Good?

Well, it depends on what type of rate you normally book?

There are those that will argue that to work out the cost of the promotion you should compare similar rates – by that I mean that, because the Mega Points rate is refundable, some say it should be compared with the lowest refundable rate.

I disagree.

I believe that the true cost of the promotion is the difference between the Mega Points rate and the rate you would have booked had there not been a promotion at all.

I, for example, almost never book refundable rates. I make bookings when I’m pretty sure of my plans so I don’t see the point in paying a premium for a refundable rate. I consider the “refundable” part of a rate as an amenity offered by the hotel that I’m not going to use….so I’m not about to pay for it if I don’t have to.

With that in mind, I picked out a Radisson Blu hotel that I like (Radisson Blu Aqua Chicago) and I compared the rates for a random night in November:

For someone like me (who usually books pre-paid rates) the cost of the 10,000 Gold Points in this particular example would be the difference between the Mega Points Rate and the Advance Purchase rate and that’s $43.20 or 0.43 cents/point.

As I value Gold Points at around 0.5 cents/point this promotion doesn’t exactly wow me. Yes, I could earn some gold points at a marginally better rate than what I value them at, but it’s not really enough to make me change any existing stays or to book a stay I wouldn’t have otherwise done.

Radisson Blu Aqua Hotel, Chicago – Image courtesy of Radisson Blu

If you regularly book refundable rates then the math works out differently for you.

The difference between the lowest refundable rate and the Mega Points rate, in this example, is just $20 meaning you’re effectively buying Gold Points at 0.2 cents/point….and that’s a very good deal.

Seven nights at a participating Radisson, at a marginal cost of $140 (7 x $20), would get you a night at any Club Carlson property in the world and you can get some great value out of that.

As an example, the May Fair in London is regularly over $450/night (£300/€400) and even on good days it’s still usually over $380/night (£250/€335) so you’d be purchasing the room at a 63% discount!

It’s worth noting that the $20/night difference between the Mega Points rate and the lowest refundable rate is not universal (although it seems to be true of most US Radisson properties) so be sure to check your other options before booking the promotion rate.