Like almost all of the travel blogging community would have told you, Club Carlson’s 2012 promos were bigger and better than the 2011 promo which focussed on the Radisson properties in the USA only. I was one of them too. And they went all guns blazing to dole out points. Potentially, this summer everyone has the opportunity to register and earn up to 188,000 Club Carlson GoldPoints in their own name by participating in the promo for their four brands, and they could stay at any property around the world.
I registered my entire family for the first three promotions: Radisson, Country Inn and Park Inn. However, we were clearly not going to be staying 12 nights (4 family members x 3 one night stays each) to be taking the maximum benefit of the promotions. So, when we decided to head to Thailand for our annual family vacation, I slipped in my little agenda of scoring as many of these points as possible. We were going to be staying at Hilton properties most of the time, but it did not hurt to stay in a Radisson either for a couple of nights.
After staying in Bangkok and Pattaya, we were going to be back in Bangkok for a short while to take our flights back. I was going to only stay overnight while my parents wanted another night as well just to be a little well rested. So, it was going to be 3 room nights in Bangkok at the Radisson Suites, but all I asked of my parents was that they be ready to potentially check-out from their room of the first night and check-in into a different room just in case the Radisson pre-assigned the first one to someone else.
Anyways, after some confusion and language barriers with the Radisson staff (yes, what would life be without them), who unilaterally decided to merge the reservations of the parents to ensure their ‘comfort’, we were able to sort everything out and get 150,000 bonus Gold Points for stays we would have anyways made. I was in two minds about checking in into the other Carlson properties next door as well, but decided against it to spend time with the family.
As you can see different amounts were earned in all three cases. While I managed to sign-up my dad with the e-rewards sign up bonus (4500 GP points), it shut by the time my mom’s turn came. And I was already a member who had matched up to Gold last year itself. I decided to use some GP points for a points+cash redemption on my own room since I had the required minimum 5K points for it. Each of the rooms costed 2700 THB (90$ approx) while the cash+points costed 5K GoldPoints+1800 THB (60$ approx) inclusive of 17.7% taxes. So, not bad to receive 150K GoldPoints in bonuses after spending 240$.
So now, the current family balance is 222,034 GP points, enough for at least 4 nights reward stay, and like you know, European Radisson properties are much better than the ones in Asia or Americas. So good to stash away for there. ;
Now to think if I should participate in the current ongoing promotion or not at the Park Plaza brand…
How did you guys fare in the Carlson giveaways…
Related Posts:
- How you can benefit from the Radisson 50K promo across India?
- Radisson and Country Inn promotions are now live
- Radisson Big Night Giveaway is coming back on 15th May!
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Between Mrs BothofUs2 and myself we earned 376k points (188kx2) by juggling some stays during our family vacation in Germany. We got 2 rooms, one in her name one in mine. Some slight troubles checking out because the hotel staff always wanted to put it on one bill. We had to straighten them out at one location via phone after we left even. We stayed in Luebeck at the Park Inn and went to Timmensdorf to stay at the only Country Inn and Suites in Germany, then back to Luebeck where we stayed at the Radisson(great property!) and then to Cologne and the Art’otel by Park Plaza. Great promotion and even better because we tied it in with a previously scheduled vacation!
AJ, that’s fantastic man. Congratulations 🙂
I opened a club carlson business account and also took a status match to Gold and then took advantage of all three promos and between my mom, dad and I we ended up with close to 500K with all bonuses and credits.
I am taking Ma and Pa to Europe in September and took advantage of the 50% off redemptions for Radisson Blu (their best hotel) in Sweden, Hungary and Switzerland.
You should check it out and redeem if you can, here’s the link – http://www.clubcarlson.com/offers/5313887
Now, to contemplate, how to get to the only Park Plaza in US 😉 LOL
Neet, how long is that code good for?
Dh and self did three nights, I got the 4,500 points, but missed the bonus sign up for him. With a couple of adjustments for crappy rooms (Millville, NJ) and customer of the day, we ended up with well over 308,000 points, give or take. I’m very much looking forward to a European trip in the next two years.
Made my boyfriend stay in 3 different hotels in four nights =) hehe but we ended up with just under 300,000 points total for the promotion.
I registered accounts for myself and my wife. I was able to stay 5 nights paid by work, and we spent one might at the local Radisson (at a discount weekend rate) to get all the bonus points. Between last fall’s promo and now we have gathered 409K CC points for eight paid stays, and 5 of those were paid by my employer for work trips. This has been the best promo I have seen.