Updated 6/7/2014 at 3PM PST: Manufactured spending costs have risen to $50, from $40. Club Carlson has also added a new tier of hotel properties that is classified as Category 7 and costs 70,000 Club Carlson points per night. Adjust your calculations to determine the cost for a Category 7 hotel property.
$40-$50 Radisson Blu Stays and Cheaper Club Carlson Stays
Good morning, this might be one of my last posts before my 2 week trip to Europe. I will be leaving tomorrow night to fly up to SFO and returning home on Super Bowl Sunday (February 2). I will try to blog while on my trip, but no promises.
Here is a good post to pique your interest. Everyone is aware that the Club Carlson credit card from US Bank offers “last night free” on award stays. To maximize the benefit, let’s assume you only stay 2 nights at any Club Carlson property. Therefore, every stays is BOGO or every stay is half off, however you want to look at it. Here are the 6 categories of Club Carlson properties:
One of the great things about having the Club Carlson credit card is that you get 5 Club Carlson points per dollar spent… on anything. Therefore, if you bought a $500 Vanilla Reload Card, the total comes to $503.95. If you are earning 5x on the purchase, you will receive 2,520 Club Carlson points for a $3.95 fee. If my math is correct, that comes out to 0.157 cents per point (that’s more than 6 points per cent, by the way).
Assuming you bought all your Club Carlson points at 0.157 cents per point, here is the cost per category if you stay in 2 night stays.
| Category | Points | Half Price | Stay |
| Cat 1 | 9,000 | 4,500 | $7.05 |
| Cat 2 | 15,000 | 7,500 | $11.76 |
| Cat 3 | 28,000 | 14,000 | $21.95 |
| Cat 4 | 38,000 | 19,000 | $29.78 |
| Cat 5 | 44,000 | 22,000 | $34.49 |
| Cat 6 | 50,000 | 25,000 | $39.19 |
Therefore, my stay at the Radisson Blu in Amsterdam would only cost $39 for a standard room or $59 for a premium room. Forget points and cash prices!
Likewise, a stay at the Radisson Blu Rome would be $34.50 for a standard room and only $47 for a premium room. Once again, forget about points plus cash rates.
Right now, I am trying to rack up a ton of Club Carlson points before something happens (probably going to raise the hotel redemption rates sometime this year). If you want to apply for the Club Carlson credit card, please read my application procedure of freezing 2 small credit bureau reports here.
If you have any questions, please leave a comment below. See you all in Europe!
“Assuming you bought all your Club Carlson points at 0.157 cents per point,…….”
How do you buy Carlson points and how much do they cost?
Where do you get 5X points with the US Bank card? At CVS?
The US Bank Club Carlson credit card earns 5x on all purchases and 10x on Club Carlson purchases. You can MS at CVS easily with this card.
Hey Grant! Great website and great articles. I just have a quick question. I usually like searching for places to stay on ReservationCounter.com but I would like to find a website where i can search for hotels where I can spend my points. I would like to search for a place or a city and the available options for me to book with points. Is there something like that?
Usually the only place to search is on the specific hotel website that you have points with. There is no Hotels.com-like website for using points, at least that I am aware of.
Hi Grant,
I just receive the Club Carlson Biz card. When I applied they asked me the Club Carlson number so both personal and biz will have the same Club Carlson number? The reason I asked since you or someone told me I would get the different account number for biz card so I can book back to back hotel and take advantage of the one night free. I also have another question regarding to book 2 rooms di I still get one free night for each room?
By the way it take so long to get 40K renewal bonus.
Thanks
You should have 2 separate Club Carlson accounts. That way you can book back to back award stays from both accounts. As long as you have a Club Carlson credit card, you will get the last night free.
I hope the 40,000 bonus points don’t take too long to post. I’ll call them if it doesn’t show up after the first statement.
Yes, it would be nice but how since when I applied they asked for Club Carlson number. I called them after first statement 2 weeks ago but they insisted sometime it takes 2 or 3 billing cycles.
How about book 2 rooms the same time? Do you get 2nd night free for both rooms?
Only if the reservations are made from 2 different Club Carlson accounts. If you try to book the stays from the same account, I think the second booking doesn’t get a free night.