Tag Archives:Club Carlson
Well, it has been just over a week, my list of posts to include is now long enough, and I have some time to write. I guess that means it’s time for another installment of Updates From the World of Miles and Points.
For those that are new to the blog, I am trying to do one of these posts once every week to week and a half to help catch you up with what is going on in the world of miles and points. There are often items that come up throughout the week that I donbt really think I should devote an entire post to, but still think you might want to know about. This is where I link to some of the other blogs that I read and respect so that you can get the whole story.
Of course, if something is time sensitive or huge news, you will see me do a specific post about it. In addition, I often tweet or update Facebook with new information far before it makes it to an Updates post. If you want to get all of the information as soon as it’s available, make sure that you subscribe via email or RSS and follow me on Facebook and Twitter. Then you will always be the first to know when I have something new to share.
For now, let’s get started with some Updates From the World of Miles and Points. This week didn’t disappoint with exciting news and solid advice, so take a few minutes to read these suggestions and see if something catches your interest.
Hotels seem like a good place to start this week, and when I think of hotels, my first thought goes to Loyalty Traveler. Ric has a new list out that compiles and details all of the current hotel promotions for all of the major hotel chains worldwide. What I like about these posts are that he doesn’t just stop with the 4 or 5 biggest players in the hotel market, but he also discusses promotions at lots of the smaller chains as well. Details HERE.
Ric also does a very detailed analysis of the Priority Club Points & Cash Award cost increase. Without any warning, the cash portion for these awards has gone from $60 to $70 a night and Ric tells us what that means to the loyalty program member. It really is much more detailed than I would ever get with an analysis of this type and quite an interesting read. Details HERE.
It was announced this week that Club Carlson would be making some changes to their hotel category assignments. I have to admit that when I first read this headline, I was a mix of scared, sad, and angry. Like many of you, I am in the midst of earning a huge amount of Club Carlson points with their current promotions, and I didn’t want to see those points hugely devalued. Luckily, when you really look at the category reassignments, it doesn’t look to bad. In many cases, the new hotel categories are actually better. Details HERE.
Almost everyone can agree that churning credit cards for their large sign-up bonuses is one of the quickest ways to build up your loyalty account balances. Unfortunately, some of the offers available have rather large minimum required spends and not all of us have unlimited abilities to run up the charges on our credit cards. For those on a modest budget, Hack My Trip has some tips and tricks that will help you to get into the credit card game without taking on more than you can handle. Details HERE.
Frequent Miler is well known for being the master of maximizing the potential benefits of gift cards and online shopping portals. He is constantly conducting experiments and trials to find the most lucrative and easiest ways to earn miles and points, and he compiles all of his experiments in the Frequent Miler Laboratory. This week, the Lab got an update that makes it easier to use and much more simple to find the information you are looking for. If you are thinking of buying a gift card to get points, you should probably stop by here first to see if there is a way for you to earn even more. Details HERE.
Also this week, Frequent Miler shows us how we can get an IHG stay for only a few dollars, if not free altogether. The details of his example might be pretty difficult to replicate, but if you use the techniques he outlines, you will certainly be able to save some money on upcoming IHG hotel stays, even if they aren’t quite free. Details HERE.
In just 9 days, the opportunity to transfer American Express Membership Rewards to British Airways Avios and get a 50% bonus comes to an end. If you are like me and still trying to decide how many, if any, MR points you want to transfer, Extra Pack of Peanuts does a good job of explaining why you would or wouldn’t want to take advantage of this transfer bonus. I am pretty sure that I am going to transfer some MR points, but I just can’t decide how many. Details HERE.
View From the Wing tells us about Delta overcharging Skymiles members on revenue tickets purchased on their website for the past few months. Whether you bought a ticket or not, this is quite upsetting. Most people would assume that being a loyalty program member would get you a better deal, if anything, but you certainly shouldn’t have to pay more than non-members. Delta claims it was a mistake, but with today’s legal climate, I would expect to see them have to explain that in the courts before long. Details HERE.
Gary also gives us a few tips on how to save on your rental cars when on a trip. He uses a New York Times article as a base, but comments and expands on most of the points. If you need to rent for an upcoming trip, check out this post to make sure you get the best deal. Details HERE.
Mommy Points gives us another reminder about Grand Slam prep for this year. We still don’t know for sure that the US Airways Grand Slam promotion will return again, but they have done it the past few years, and everyone is hoping for the best. Details HERE.
Many people have recently applied for the Chase Ink Bold Business Card. It is one of the coveted Ultimate Rewards cards whose points can be transferred to a variety of airline and other partners. With the category bonuses and online shopping portal available with this card, you can really earn a lot of points, and Mommy Points gives us an overview of how her earnings went during her first month with the card. Details HERE.
Scott Mayerowitz wrote a story for the Associated Press about the difficulties that families will have finding seats together when traveling by air this summer. This popular piece made its way to several newspaper front pages, and Mommy Points takes a moment to comment on the article. In addition, she gives her advice regarding what you should do if your family wants to sit together when you fly. Details HERE.
Million Mile Secrets outlines a way that you might be able to get the first year fee waived on the new United Club Credit Card from Chase. This would be a great card to have, even if just for the United Club access that comes with it, but the $395 annual fee is more than most people want to pay. If this technique works for you, you can have your lounge access for free for the first year. Be careful though, you might just find yourself addicted after a few visits to the lounge, and as far as I know, there isn’t a way to have the second year fee waived. Details HERE.
An article in the Wall Street Journal earlier this week, and the study that it was based on, created quite a buzz in the frequent flyer community. Overall, most people think that the conclusions drawn from the study are about as useful as the study itself, not very useful at all. The Points Guy goes over the findings, explains a few of the holes in the study, and tells us why the conclusions are far from an accurate picture of the current state of airline loyalty programs. Details HERE.
The Points Guy also gives us his Top 10 Mistakes People Make With Their Airline Miles. If you are new to earning and redeeming, this points out a few things that are really good to know. If you have been doing this for a while, there are also a few reminders for tricks you may have forgotten. Details HERE.
Citi announced some new benefits for their CitiBusiness AAdvantage World Mastercard this week and One Mile at a Time gave us all the details. The benefits seem to be similar to what they added on to the personal AAdvantage cards earlier this year, but not quite as good in some cases. I am sad to see that the benefits won’t be extended to current CitiBusiness AAdvantage Visa cardholders as I was hoping would be the case. It has been reported that you can call Citi to have these benefits added to your current card, but if you do that, they will just switch you over to a new Mastercard. Details HERE.
One Mile at a Time has also done a great job this week of outlining the different programs that can add a few additional benefits on to your hotel stays. He started out with Virtuoso and American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts, then continued with the Visa Signature Luxury Hotel Collection, and finally added the newly announced American Express Gold Hotel Collection. If not the same, rates through these programs are usually pretty close to what you can get directly through the hotels, and the added benefits can be quite nice. Details HERE, HERE, and HERE.
Finally, for our amusing story of the week, read about what Lucky experienced on a recent B flight he took in coach. The post is super short, but almost guaranteed to make you chuckle. Is this the new best way to get an aisle seat on a flight? Details HERE.
Well, that just about does it for this week’s Updates From the World of Miles and Points.B Hopefully you learned something new, were reminded of something old, or at least got a few good laughs. Until next time, Happy Travels to all of you.
Thanks to a heads up from Mommy Points, I have become aware that the Park Inn “One Plus One” promo registration is going live in just a few minutes. This promo is similar to the Radisson “Big Night Giveaway” and the Country Inn & Suites “Stay One, Get One” promos that went live last week.
Like Mommy Points, and I think pretty much everyone else, I didn’t pay that much attention to the time zone for the Park Inn registration. I just assumed it was the same as the other two promos and I would have to stay up until 1 am EST if I wanted to register when it opened. Well, we were all wrong. Instead, this promo goes live at 12:01 am CET, which is in less than 5 minutes.
I would not be too worried about registering right away, since the other two promos are still open to new registrations almost a week later, but you might as well get it done if you have the time. I know that leisurely registering this evening is sure a lot nicer than staying up until the middle of the night like some of us crazies did last week.
That’s it for now. I want to get this published so that you can all know that registration is open. If you don’t know what this promo is, go register now and you can read the details later. Remember, always register for promos even if you aren’t sure you can take advantage of them. It never hurts to be registered, but it might hurt to miss out because you aren’t.
Off to register myself and my wife now. Happy Hotel Hopping to all of you!
If you have been following the terms and conditions of the Radisson Big Night Giveaway, you know that there has been some confusion and a resulting controversy about whether reservations made prior to registering will count for the promotion. Before the official terms were announced, a Radisson representative commented on their Facebook page and said that existing reservations would in fact count for the promotion. Before the promotion went live, however, Radisson deleted that comment from Facebook. Luckily, over on The Hustle Blog, Mike posted a screen shot that he took when the comment was still there.
The original Facebook post, thanks to The Hustle Blog
After news went out that existing reservations would count, many people took advantage of a sale that Club Carlson was having and booked stays during the promotion period. It is important to note that the terms of this sale meant that these rooms were not refundable. When the Big Night Giveaway went live, the terms and conditions specifically excluded existing reservations, and a lot of people where rightfully upset.
Since the promotion went live earlier this week, several people have been waging a battle with Club Carlson, trying to get them to allow existing reservations since that is what their Facebook representative had told the public. @radisson on twitter had remained very quiet for the past several days, only stating that existing stays would not count and pointing people to the terms and conditions of the Big Night Giveaway. They ignored repeated requests for clarification and resolution from several members, and their poor handling of the situation led to several posts by bloggers expressing their disappointment.
You can read what others had to say about the issue over at Mommy Points, Deals We Like, The Hustle Blog, and Loyalty Traveler. Overall, many members have been disappointed by the way that Radisson and Club Carlson were ignoring the situation and basically telling people that even though they said something on social media, they were not going to honor what they said. To me, it seemed like a very poor move for a loyalty program to alienate so many of its members.
Of course, I was still going to participate in the promotion. No matter what kind of bad PR moves a company makes, it is hard for me to give up 50,000 easily earned points. I did, however, feel extremely badly for those people who had booked non-refundable nights thinking they would count for the promotion and were going to end up losing hundreds of dollars if they had to re-book. It was because of these people that we were all trying to get Radisson to change their minds.
Well, just a few minutes ago, I logged in to my Facebook account and saw the following post from Radisson. Needless to say, I was quite excited.
Today’s Facebook post with Radisson’s reversal of terms.
Unfortunately, there is still a small part of me that is skeptical. I guess when you learn that official company representatives may not be able to be trusted, you tend to think twice when you see something posted on Facebook. When I follow the link that they have listed, it takes me to the Big Night Giveaway page and that is still showing Terms and Conditions that say “Promotion is not valid on existing reservations”. I have to assume that they just haven’t changed that yet and it will be done in the next few days. I can’t imagine that Radisson would really try to retract something like this again. That having been said though, I would really feel more comfortable if I saw this posted by Radisson somewhere other than on Facebook. You can see in my screenshot above that I have already pointed this out to Radisson and hope to see an answer from them soon.
If it turns out that this post is in fact true, that is great news for many Club Carlson members who made reservations in the days leading up to this promotion. I am happy to see that by expressing our dissatisfaction through a variety of social media channels, we were able to show Club Carlson and Radisson just how much they were hurting their members. This issue may not have affected all of us, but if we stand together, we are certainly difficult to ignore. Great job to all of you who spoke up and made Radisson stand by what they said.
UPDATE: Loyalty Traveler received a phone call from a VP at Carlson Rezidor to let him know of the change. (he has a little more pull in the hotel industry than I do) Looks like existing reservations really will count!
Tonight is finally the night. I have written about it several times. Others have written about it even more than me. People have speculated about what the terms and conditions will be. We have had a few terms confirmed, but at this point there still several points that are unclear. Well tonight at 12:01 AM (CENTRAL TIME), all of our questions will be answered. At least most of them will be. I’m sure there will still be some further clarification that happens over the next few days.
I am not going to give you all the details and rumored terms and conditions at this point, because I would honestly be surprised if any of you haven’t read them already. If by some chance you you have missed it up until this point, you can read what I had to say about the promotion the other day HERE and HERE. If you still want more information, head over to The Frequent Miler, Mommy Points, Million Mile Secrets, The Points Guy, or View From the Wing to get each of their takes on the subject. If that is still not enough for you, I’m sure a quick Google search will turn up many other blogs with similar information.
Instead, I will simply give you the links for the three registration pages. If you really think about it, the terms of the offers aren’t really that important in deciding whether you want to register or not anyway. Like with most promotions, it is best to register even if you are not sure if you are going to take advantage of the offer. I would hate to have any of you end up booking an unexpected Radisson stay after deciding not to register.
radissonbignightgiveaway.com – 50k points, limited to 100k registrations, live tonight
sogocountry.com – 44k points, limited to 35k registrations, live tonight
parkinnoneplusone.com – 44k points, limited to 20k registrations, live at 12:01 am on 5/22 (This page isn’t even live yet, unlike the others which have countdown timers.)
When Radisson ran this promotion last winter, registration lasted for days. I am not sure that they ever reached the 50,000 available registrations. It is very possible that the same thing will happen with the promotion this time and you will have no problem registering tomorrow morning or even after that. On the other hand, the promotions have received far more publicity this time around and are also open to international members, so it is also possible that all of the registrations will be full quickly. This could be even more likely for the Country Inn & Suites and Park Inn promotions, which have lower limits on registrations.
So if you definitely want to get in on the points bonanza and you are a little worried that you will wake up in the morning and find yourself left out, you are in luck. You are welcome to stay up tonight with @Mommy_Points, @THEinfamousdx, @katruns26point2, and me (@JeffTheWanderer) as we tweet the night away until registration time. Rumor has it that Mommy Points will even be giving out some American Airlines 1000 mile certificates throughout the night. If you do stay up and are on Twitter, make sure to say hi to the rest of us crazies as we prepare to earn lots and lots of Club Carlson points.
It’s time once again for an Updates From the World of Miles and Points post. I realize that I have been seriously slacking in regards to these posts. In fact, since I announced that I would no longer be doing one every Sunday, it has been almost three weeks without any Updates. This is not acceptable for something that is designed to keep all of you up to date with the current happenings in the world of miles and points. Ironically, now that I am finally starting to write up another Updates post, I find myself doing it on a Sunday night. (In case you couldn’t figure it out, I started this post last night but didnbt end up finishing until this morning.)
In addition to slacking on my Updates posts, there has also been an overall lack of any type of posting here on the blog over the past few days. I know that I have picked up several new readers and all of you are looking for useful and interesting content. I have failed to deliver this week and if this continues, you are all welcome to start calling me Jeff the Slacker instead of Jeff the Wanderer. Hopefully it will not come to that, but if and when I start seeing comments directed to Jeff the Slacker, it will help me to remember that you are all here for the content and it is up to me to deliver.
For those that are new to the blog, I am trying to do one of these posts once every week to week and a half to help catch you up with what is going on in the world of miles and points. There are often items that come up throughout the week that I donbt really think I should devote an entire post to, but still think you might want to know about. This is where I link to some of the other blogs that I read and respect so that you can get the whole story.
Of course, if something is time sensitive or huge news, you will see me do a specific post about it. In addition, I often tweet or update Facebook with new information far before it makes it to an Updates post. If you want to get all of the information as soon as it’s available, make sure that you subscribe via email or RSS and follow me on Facebook and Twitter. Then you will always be the first to know when I have something new to share.
For now, let’s get started with some Updates From the World of Miles and Points. There is a ton of new information from the past three weeks and we have a lot to cover.
Perhaps the most exciting news of the past few weeks was the announcement by Frequent Miler that he had found an almost perfect perpetual points machine. This technique can earn you 5x Ultimate Rewards points on pretty much all of your purchases. Head over to read all about it and then read the updates post from a week later. Details HERE and HERE.
The Frequent Miler also did some additional legwork on the Club Carlson promos that are starting this week. I did a couple of posts about them HERE and HERE, but he took it a few steps farther and tells us how to earn even more points by taking a couple of additional steps before participating. Details HERE.
In yet another update by The Frequent Miler, we are told that TopCashBack is doubling the amount of cash back they give for Radisson bookings sometime after midnight tonight. Responding to a request from The Frequent Miler (he must really have some pull), they are increasing the amount in the hopes of gaining new users during the Radisson promos that also start tonight. Details HERE.
Loyalty Traveler also did a couple of posts about the Club Carlson promos, but I think this one does the best job of summing up the details for each of the three offers. Details HERE.
There were lots and lots of posts about the new Starwood Preferred Guest summer promo, Nice Choice. The general opinion seems to be that the promo is far more complicated than it needs to be, but as with most things hotel related, Loyalty Traveler does a good job of breaking it down. There are two separate posts detailing the different bonus choices. Details HERE and HERE.
Hack My Trip shows us some pictures and video from a 727 crash, but don’t worry too much. The plane was crashed on purpose as part of a Discovery Channel documentary and there was no one on board. Even the pilot had bailed out. Details HERE.
Recently, myself and many other bloggers have been heavily promoting the many ways you can earn Chase Ultimate Rewards points. Earning the points is great, but a big balance of points isn’t going to do you much good unless you know how to use them. Online Travel Review has given us a handy chart that includes not only the current UR airline transfer options, but also the partner airlines that those miles can be used on. Using miles on partner airlines is one of the best ways to find availability for those exotic trips you have in mind, and this chart can help you see what is available to you. Details HERE.
Over at Frugal Travel Guy, Howie takes a moment to remind us how important networking is, not only in business, but in the miles and points world as well. Many of the best deals happen so quickly or are so limited and secretive that you will miss out on them unless someone contacts you to let you know. This past week when the Launch Party for SMD4 thread went live is a great example of when this is true. I personally know a couple of people that would not have RSVP’d in time if I hadn’t sent them a direct tweet to let them know it was happening. The more people you know, the better your chances are of getting in on the best deals and experiences. Details HERE.
Frugal Travel Guy also continued his Faces of FlyerTalk series this week with an interview with HansGolden. Rick has been doing these interviews for a few weeks and it is a great way to learn a little more about some of the people you see commenting all the time on FlyerTalk. I am mentioning this interview specifically because I know that HansGolden is a reader and occasional commenter here at Indulge the Wanderlust and I was quite interested to learn more about his background. Details HERE.
Last week MilePoint hosted a live chat with Kip Hawley, the former head of the TSA. There were several questions from participants in the chat , including Mommy Points. She asked about what you are allowed to bring through security for your small children. Although the answer Kip gave sounded great, it isn’t exactly what Mommy Points has found to be true in her own experiences. Details HERE.
Mommy Points also reminds us this week about a couple of great things you should know about when booking United award flights. If you have the ability to plan ahead, you can pretty much get the first half of your second vacation flights for free when booking your first vacation flights. Definitely something to learn about and remember. Details HERE.
One Mile at a Time shares with us a couple of annoying rules that American has regarding booking of award tickets. These might not be obvious to everyone and could be the reason that you find yourself banging your head against a wall when trying to book awards using AA miles. They don’t apply in all cases, but when they do, you want to be aware of it so you can plan accordingly. Details HERE.
Lucky also gives us his take on mobile boarding passes, based on his experience trying to use them recently. Like him, I think that mobile boarding passes would be great if people knew how to deal with them, but at this point it seems like they just make things harder. Isn’t that the exact opposite of what the goal is? Details HERE.
There was an article in the LA Times last week about American Airlines revoking the travel privileges of some of its AAirpass holders. You can visit One Mile at a Time to see his view of the situation and then head over to The Points Guy to see and interview he did with MSNBC about the topic. One Mile at a Time details HERE. The Points Guy interview HERE.
Brian also lets us know that the new Flying Blue promo awards for May/June have been announced and there may be some good deals to be had. Flying Blue is a transfer partner of American Express Membership Rewards and even though they charge large fuel surcharges on award tickets, you can get a great value when using these promo deals on certain business class tickets. Details HERE.
If you are having a hard time keeping track of all the summer hotel program promos, The Points Guy does a nice job of summarizing the details of each. You still might need an advanced degree to make sense of the SPG Nice Choice promo, but at least you will know what all your options are. Details HERE.
Deals We Like gives us her take on a new social media promotion involving Cathay Pacific and Klout. I signed up for Klout quite some time ago and never did anything with it. Oddly, the day after reading this post, I got an email from Klout telling me my score and reminding me to visit the site. If I were a little more paranoid, I might think I was being stalked. The good news is, my score is high enough to get me into the SFO Cathay Pacific Lounge. Now all I need to do is get myself to SFO. Details HERE.
David Code did a piece for Huffington Post this week called How Your Family Can Fly Around the World For (Almost) Free. For it, he interviewed many of my blogging favorites, mostly at the FTU that I attended a few weeks ago. Million Mile Secrets was one of interviews and he provides us with a good summary of the piece, as well as a link for those who want to read the whole thing. Details HERE.
Million Miles Secrets also continues with his weekly interview series, speaking with Travis from Extra Pack of Peanuts. Many of you may be reading this post today because you found my blog when Daraius interviewed me a few months ago. With this interview series, Daraius exposes readers to lots of other bloggers who might be of interest to them. I know I have picked up a few daily reads from the Million Mile Secrets interview posts, and Travis is a good one for you to check out. Details HERE.
Speaking of Extra Pack of Peanuts, Travis gives us some great tips on what you should and shouldn’t do when calling credit card reconsideration lines. He tells you how to prepare, what to say on the call, and even provides the numbers you need to call. The reconsideration call can make the difference in whether you get that 100k bonus or not, so it’s in your best interest to be as prepared as possible. Details HERE.
In past Updates posts, I have mentioned the topic of fuel surcharges on flights originating in Brazil. It was reported that Brazilian law forbids the addition of fuel surcharges and that this was a great way to avoid these charges on British Airways awards specifically. (If you can take a quick visit to Brazil before the rest of your trip) Shortly after this was reported, British Airways started adding fuel surcharges on these awards and many of us were a bit confused. Well, I am happy to say that View From the Wing is now reporting that British Airways has once again removed fuel surcharges from awards originating in Brazil. You may now start planning your next vacation fuel surcharge fee free. Details HERE.
As I wrote about HERE and HERE, Gary posted this week announcing the Launch Party for the Star MegaDO 4. The RSVP list for the party filled up in about 40 minutes and there are lots of people on the waiting list, but I am happy to say that I will be attending the party on June 2nd in DC. I can’t wait to see what this event is all about. Details HERE.
Finally, we can’t have an Updates From the World of Miles and Points post without a wacky story at the end. Just Another Points Traveler provides our amusement this week with this post about a Fourth Wife Flies Free sale. Unfortunately for all of you looking to take advantage of this deal, the offer has already expired, but it is still worth a read just for the laugh you will get. Details HERE.
Well, that finally does it for this three week long version of Updates From the World of Miles and Points. Having this much to type up is yet another reason for me to actually do this once a week instead of putting it off. Hopefully you learned something new, were reminded of something old, or at least got a few good laughs. Until next time, Happy Travels to all of you.
Earlier today, I wrote a post about the return of the Radisson Big Night Giveaway. I also mentioned that there were some suspected Terms and Conditions posted over at FlyerTalk. A bit later in the day, Mommy Points posted the exciting news that this promotion B was happening at other Carlson brands as well, specifically the Country Inn & Suites and the Park Inn by Radisson. For more details, head over and read the post by Mommy Points. This was quite exciting for all of us miles and points addicts, but there was a worry that you would only be able to register for one of these offers. We would have to wait and see what the Terms and Conditions said when they were released.
Well, I am not one who can patiently wait around and see, so when I saw Radisson post something about the Big Night Giveaway on Facebook, I thought I would take a chance and ask for some clarification. Within a few hours, Dana from Radisson responded with answers for me and a couple of other people who posted.
Not only did she confirm that I would have to register separately with each brand, but she also added “Great way to earn even more points!” It’s almost like they are encouraging us to take advantage of all the offers. That would mean staying 1 night at each of three brands and coming away with 138,000 Club Carlson points. (only 44k points for each of the other two brands). That’s a pretty good haul for something that can be accomplished without a tremendous amount of effort or expense. Since the promotion is running through the summer, many of you might even be able to work the required stays into your normal travel plans. I am hoping that Chrissy and I can find a night or two we actually need somewhere during the promotion period, but if not, we may just have to plan a couple of weekend getaways without the kids.
The more I learn about this promo, the more excited I am getting. Now if US Airways would just announce that they are doing a Grand Slam promo again this year, this could be the best miles and points week I’ve had in a while.
If you are like me, you love earning miles and points. The more you can earn and the easier and less expensive it is, the better. Well, one of the easiest earning promotions last year was the Radisson Big Night Giveaway. The promotion required that you be one of the first 50,000 people to register and then all you had to do was stay one night at a Radisson property within a specified time frame. Once your stay was completed, you would be awarded 50,000 Club Carlson points, enough for one night at one of their top tier properties.
Of course, miles and points collectors of all ages jumped at the chance to earn so many points for just a single night stay. I have spoken with people who were able to reserve rooms for as little as $67 at a Radisson near them. Unfortunately, the only Radisson property near me is about a half hour drive from my house and the rates were not that low. I ended up paying $100.65 for a night at a hotel I didn’t even stay in. Actually, we paid twice that because my wife got a room too. We checked in, confirmed that check out would happen automatically, and drove back home. You can read the story of our adventure as I posted it back in January if you want all the details, but to sum it up, we are now 100,000 Club Carlson points richer.
Fast forward a few months and you may remember from my report on the Travel Executive Summit, that the topic of the Big Night Giveaway came up in the afternoon panel discussion. The representative from Carlson had told us that running that promotion was no different than any other promotion and it really wasn’t that hard to get approved. When asked when they were going to do it again, she just smiled coyly and said that none of the other executives were sharing the details of their upcoming promotions, so she wasn’t going to either. Little did we know how many details she could have shared.
Just over a week after the Travel Executive Summit, rumors started to fly about the promotion possibly returning later this month. If you follow me on twitter @JeffTheWanderer, you probably saw the retweets that I sent from @Radisson when they started to hint that the rumors might be true.
As promised, they officially announced today that the Big Night Giveaway was returning. The promotion website went live, complete with a countdown clock ticking away the seconds until registration begins. There is very little detailed information on the Big Night Giveaway page, other than it saying in a couple of places that Terms and Conditions apply. Unfortunately, they do not give us a link to what those terms and conditions may be.
Mommy Points reports that the thread on FlyerTalk that originally broke the rumored return of the promotion has the predicted terms and conditions listed, but we won’t know for sure that they are correct until it is announced officially. The big thing that stands out for me is that you have to be present at both check-in and check-out. They must have realized that like my wife and I, many people just checked in to a local hotel and then went home. I guess that this time we might just have to drive up to Scranton two days in a row.
Whatever the terms are, you can bet that I will be on the computer waiting to register at 12:01 AM CDT on May 15th, and I suggest that you be there too. This is a great promotion with huge earning potential and very little required work. As I mentioned before, you can use your 50,000 free points for a single night stay at one of their top tier properties, but you can also use them for multiple nights at some of their lower tier properties. Once we complete the required stay for this promotion, we will have 200,000 total Club Carlson points, assuming the predicted terms and conditions are correct. I’m not sure about you, but for me, that sounds a lot like several nights of free lodging on a few trips yet to be planned.
To receive the latest information, they suggest that you follow Radisson on twitter and “like” them on Facebook. You can get the links for both of those on the official Big Night Giveaway webpage. Myself and pretty much all of the other travel, miles, and points bloggers will be keeping you updated as well. I am super excited that they have decided to bring this promotion back, even if it ends up having more restrictive terms and conditions this time around. It is a great way to build up your hotel points so that you can experience more, spend less, and travel the world. So 7 days and 14 hours from now, I hope you will join me in taking the next step towards Indulging the Wanderlust in you.
It’s that time of the week again and although I haven’t done too many posts of my own in the past few days, there are plenty of items to go over in this week’s Updates From the World of Miles and Points. For those that are new to the blog, I am trying to do these updates every Sunday to help catch you up with what is going on. There are often items that come up throughout the week that I donbt really think I should devote an entire post to, but still think you might want to know about. This is where I link to some of the other blogs that I read and respect so that you can get the whole story. In addition, this week I am going to start out with a couple of updates of my own before getting into information from others.
Subscribers of Southwest’s Click and Save emails got an offer yesterday for 25% off of roundtrip Wanna Get Away fares. There are some blackout dates and limits on booking dates, but this could be a great deal if you were planning a flight on Southwest between 4/10 and 5/16. There is a specific one time use code that was sent out with each of the emails so if you normally get these emails, check your trash or junk mail to get your code. Tickets must be booked by today, 3/18, and I am not going to be able to use my code. I am not confident that the code is transferrable, but if you can use it and want to give it a try, send me an email or leave a comment and I will get my code to the first person who requests it.
The weekly Priority Club One Day Sale, which I first wrote about HERE, seems to have died. The sale, which featured heavily discounted award redemptions for 12 properties each week, ran for 24 hours on Thursdays for three weeks in a row. Now there is a message on the sale page saying that the sale was a test and they may have similar promotions in the future. See the sad news HERE.
Earlier this week, I wrote about the Credit Card March Madness Tournament happening now over at Extra Pack of Peanuts. The first matchup is already over, but you have until the end of today to go vote for either the Chase Southwest of Chase Priority Club card in the second matchup. The tournament will continue with a new matchup every two days so go over and voice your opinion to help determine a winner. Details HERE.
There were a few good hotel items coming from Loyalty Traveler this week. Club Carlson is offering 9000 points for 3-day car rentals from Budget or Avis. This is an especially good deal because it only costs 9000 points per night for a Category 1 Club Carlson redemption. Basically, that means you can earn a free hotel night for every 3-day car rental. There is also a 5500 point bonus for 2-day rentals with Budget. Details HERE.
Ric also told us about a super good deal for the Sheraton Lisboa in Lisbon, Portugal. They are offering a limited number of rooms for 40 Euros per night, each night for the rest of the year. This is a significant discount off of their normal rates and when I looked this morning, there was still a lot of availability, especially in July and August. This rate is prepaid and nonrefundable so make sure you are definitely able to go before booking. Details HERE.
Finally from Loyalty Traveler, we have a list of Priority Club Q-2 bonuses for multiple nights stayed during the quarter. You can only register with the code for one level of the bonus, so try to have an idea of how many nights you will stay before registering. This is an easy way to get a few thousand extra points if you have some IHG hotel nights coming up. Details HERE.
From now through May 31st, you can get a 50% bonus when transferring from American Express Membership Rewards to British Airways Avios. Many people think that the British Airways program lost a lot of value when they switched over to Avios and changed their award charts, but there are still some great deals to be had for short haul flights using Avios. This is especially true when flying domestically in the USA on American Airlines. Details HERE.
Brian also gave us the details for the current US Airways offer which will allow you to buy up to 50,000 miles and get a total of 100% bonus. This is a split bonus, with 50% coming instantly from US Airways and 50% posting in June after registering your Dividend Miles account with Points.com. As usual, this can be a pretty good deal if you have a specific redemption in mind, but still might not be the best for buying speculatively as offers like these are becoming pretty regular from US Airways. You also have to wonder with all the bonus miles they are giving out if we can expect a devaluation of their award charts soon. Hopefully not. Details HERE.
Back in December, I wrote about a way to potentially get free OneWorld Ruby Elite Status by signing up for free Silver King Club Status with Kingfisher Airlines. At that time, it looked like Kingfisher might be joining the OneWorld Alliance, but since then, things have taken a turn for the worse. Online Travel Review reported this week that Kingfisher Airlines has cancelled all of their international flights. This appears to be one of many steps on the way to the airline shutting down altogether. Sad for those of us who were hoping for free elite status, but these things happen. Details HERE.
One Mile at a Time has compiled some information on which credit cards are still currently churnable. I have recent experience with getting the bonus with my second Barclays US Airways World Mastercard and look forward to trying out a few of the others on this list. Let me know your experience if any of these churns have worked for you. Details HERE.
Freecreditscore.com is offering 3000 bonus Southwest Rapid Rewards points after you have two paid months of their service. The cost works out to $29.90 and with the bonus, can be a good option if you need a way to access your credit score for a couple of months. I currently get free credit reports through my bank, so I won’t be taking advantage. If I did, I would still probably cancel after the two months, once I had my bonus miles. Details from Mommy Points HERE.
Million Mile Secrets is looking for some help choosing a new logo for the blog. There are several choices and you can rate each one individually. To me, the choices look like the first round of designs from an outsourced graphic designer, so I would guess there will be some more tweaking before the winning logo is finalized. Head over and let Daraius know what you think of the current choices. Detail HERE.
For the final amusing story this week, I couldn’t pick just one, so you get a couple. First, head over to View From the Wing to see how Gary got a little bit too much information from his readers after a recent post. Details HERE. Then go over and read about The Frequent Miler’s quest to purchase Pie and earn 3.14 points per dollar earlier this week on Pi Day. Details HERE.
Until next week, keep earning and churning, and maybe I’ll see you out there exploring the world. Paris is my next big stop April 4-10, so let me know if any of you will be there and want to get together for a chat.