38,000 Bonus Points from Club Carlson After Just Three Hotel Nights (“Buy 3 Get 1 Free”)

by Gary Leff

Club Carlson is offering 38,000 bonus points for staying three eligible nights between January 6, 2014 and April 13, 2014. Registration is required, and you can only earn the bonus once.

38,000 points is enough for a free night at a category 1 through 4 property (out of six total reward night categories).

For three nights this is probably the most lucrative promotion in the market. Marriott has MegaBonus which offers a free night at up to a category 4 property after 2 stays (which can be 1 night stays), but those nights can’t be topped up to a higher category property the way a points promotion like this can.

I personally prefer Hyatt’s new promotion because it doesn’t limit earning to only three nights or four stays, and is more lucrative than Starwood’s offering.

But the real key to unlocking value from the Club Carlson program is the Club Carlson Premier Rewards Visa Signature card.

Up to 85,000 bonus points for signup — 50,000 after first purchase and 35,000 more after $2,500 spend within 90 days. Plus 40,000 renewal bonus points each year.

You get Gold elite status in the Club Carlson program just for having the card (benefits such as upgrades, early check-ins, and late check-outs).

And most importantly — Buy One Get One awards: A free award night with every award stay of two nights or longer. That means you only spend points for one night on a two night award stay, every time (up to 50 times per year). Effectively that can double the value of your points (including the signup bonus on the card, and this new three night stay promotion).

(Note that cards in this post offer credit to me if you’re approved using my links. The opinions, analyses, and evaluations here are mine. The content is not provided or commissioned by American Express, by Chase, by Citibank, US Bank, Bank of America, Barclays or any other company. They have not reviewed, approved or endorsed what I have to say.)

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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Comments

  2. Many people are getting category 5 Marriott Megabonus offers, which makes that promotion competitive especially if one doesn’t have a Club Carlson credit card.

  3. As lucrative as it is, I’ve been on the fence re: Club Carlson card.

    Do you have any recent or upcoming stays at one of their hotels?

  4. I’ve been very satisfied with my stays in London and New York City.

    Where can one find the list of “participating” hotels??

  5. Gary, Isn’t this the card which is affiliated with US Bank and is certain to be denied to churners?

  6. @Ram “Isn’t this the card which is affiliated with US Bank and is certain to be denied to churners?”

    I’ve been getting an average of 6 ccs every 100 days for the past couple of years, and I was instantly approved for the Carlson card. I do however have a 800+ rating, a less than 1 % utilization rate due to all of those cards, and haven’t missed a payment in years. So UMMV..

    Still, if you are doing a churn, make the Carlson card the first app you do, and wait for approval/denial before you do any other apps. And if you’ve recently done a major churn, it wouldn’t hurt to wait 100 days from that churn before applying with either USB or Barclays.

  7. Given the generous 5x points accumulation on the Club Carlson credit card, I’ve got to believe that most people would be better off spending their time and money manufacturing spending on that card than doing this hotel promo.

    Of course, if you would otherwise have reason to stay in 3 Carlson hotels in the next 3 months, it’s obviously a worthwhile promotion.

  9. @R. Hanson, Thanks for the info. I wait and take advantage of the promos, which averages to about one new CC/month, have low utilization rate as I tend to pay off as soon as the charges are posted and have never missed a payment, have a 790+ rating. So, I should be able to get approval for this card. So far I have focused just on Hilton, IHG, *wood and Marriott. This would be a valuable addition.

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