Club Carlson has a 10% to 25% points bonus offer on points purchases made by March 15, 2016 when you buy 3,000 to 40,000 points at the rate of $7.00 per 1,000 points.
- Buy 3,000 – 10,000 points and receive 10% more
- Buy 11,000 – 30,000 points and receive 15% more
- Buy 31,000 – 40,000 points and receive 25% more
40,000 point is the maximum number of point a member can buy in a calendar year. This offer increases that amount to 50,000 points.
At these three price points:
- Buy 3,000 to 10,000 points (+10%) = $6.37 per 1,000 points.
- Buy 11,000 to 30,000 points (+15%)= $6.09 per 1,000 points.
- Buy 31,000 to 40,000 points (+25%) = $5.60 per 1,000 points.
Basically, you can buy 50,000 points for $280 to max out this offer. Offer terms state this bonus does not apply for gifted points.
Terms and Conditions
This offer applies to Gold Points purchased between February 15, 2016 and March 15, 2016 only. Club Carlson members will receive a point bonus up to 25% for purchases of 3,000 to 40,000 points. Bonus points will not be applied to the yearly 40,000 point purchase maximum. Bonus points expire in accordance with Club Carlson Terms and Conditions. Bonus points and purchased points will be posted to the member’s Club Carlson account as one transaction within 2-5 days of purchase. This offer does not apply to points purchased as a gift. In addition, the purchase and use of Gold Points are subject to the Points Purchase Terms and Conditions and theClub Carlson Terms and Conditions.
Is this a good value?
Like all hotel points purchases, the value is relevant to the hotel stays you have planned. At the high end, Club Carlson properties are in the 70,000 points per night range. Since you can only buy 50,000 points, this offer will not get you sufficient points for one top tier hotel reward night.
A couple can purchase 100,000 points and combine accounts to pull together 70,000 points, however, that is nearly $400 in points and there are not many hotels in the Club Carlson chain outside of London with rates over $400 per night.
At the mid-level range of 28,000 and 38,000 points reward nights, you are unlikely to find many hotels where room rates are $250 to $300 per night.
Purchased points are probably best value for some category 1 and 2 hotels at 9,000 and 15,000 points per reward night. Still, you won’t find many category 2 hotels at 15,000 points where the published room rate is over $100 per night.
Radisson Baton Rouge is $117.52 after tax per night or 15,000 Club Carlson points. Two night stay = $235.04. The price to buy 30,000 points (when buying enough points for 25% bonus) is $168.00. Points save $almost $50 and drop the room rate by more than 20%.
In all honesty, I checked several other category 2 hotels where nightly rates average about $75 and buying points offers little or no savings.
Points Cost for Club Carlson Reward Nights at $5.60 per 1,000 points.
- Category 1 = 9,000 points = $50.40
- Category 2 = 15,000 points = $84.00
- Category 3 = 28,000 points = $156.80
- Category 4 = 38,000 points = $212.80
- Category 5 = 44,000 points = $246.40
- Category 6 = 50,000 points = $280.00
- Category 7 = 70,000 points = $392.00
Unless you know a hotel where the you can redeem points for free nights at a higher redemption value than in the table above, I’d pass on this offer. Even buying Club Carlson points with 25% bonus points, you might have a hard time finding hotels where you will get redemption values much higher than the cost to buy points.
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