50% bonus when you buy Club Carlson points – 72 hours only

Club Carlson, the Radisson / Park Inn / Park Plaza scheme, is running a 72 hour flash sale for buying points.  The bonus is an impressive 50%.

The link to buy is here.  You need to log in to see the bonus.

Here are the headline facts:

There is NO minimum purchase – even buying just 1,000 points gets you a 50% bonus so this is a good way of topping off your balance

The annual cap on purchases is 40,000 points (this excludes the bonus)

Points are sold at a flat rate of $7 per 1,000

On this basis, you are effectively paying $4.66 per 1,000 points.  That is exactly £3 per 1,000 points.

Following the recent devaluation, which boosted the cost of the top Club Carlson hotels to 70,000 points, I tend to value my Carlson points at 0.33p each.  On this basis, it is possible that you could save some money by buying points instead of booking a room for cash.

A 5-star London property requiring 70,000 points would be £210 if you bought those points during this promotion.  That could represent a saving on a peak date but it would be marginal – it is a better deal if you are topping off a balance.  At the other end of the scale, some Park Inn hotels are only 9,000 points which would be just £27.

The snag with Carlson is that their portfolio is quite varied.  You will find lots of Radisson properties in Scandinavia, for example.  London also has a number of impressive Radisson and upmarket Park Plaza hotels.  There are also quite a few budget Park Inn hotels in the UK.  Other parts of the world have little to offer or, as you will find in the US, the average quality of the hotels is poor.

Before you buy, remember that Club Carlson is also an American Express Membership Rewards partner.  As I wrote in this article, it is potentially their most generous partner at 3 Carlson points for every 1 Amex point you transfer.  Instead of paying £3 for 1,000 points, you could transfer 333 Amex points instead and effectively get 0.9p per Amex point of value.

The link to buy is here if you are interested.  The deal ends on the 14th at 9am US Eastern time which will be 2pm in the UK I think.  Best to buy today to be sure!

How to earn Radisson Rewards points and status from UK credit cards (December 2021)

Radisson Rewards does not have a dedicated UK credit card. However, you can earn Radisson Rewards points by converting Membership Rewards points earned from selected UK American Express cards.  These include:

• American Express Preferred Rewards Gold (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 20,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 60,000 Radisson Rewards points. This card is FREE for your first year and also comes with two free airport lounge passes.

• The Platinum Card from American Express (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 30,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 90,000 Radisson Rewards points

• American Express Rewards credit card (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 5,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 15,000 Radisson Rewards points. This card is FREE for life.

Membership Rewards points convert at 1:3 into Radisson Rewards points which is a very attractive rate.  The cards above all earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent on your card, which converts to 3 Radisson Rewards points.

Even better, holders of The Platinum Card receive free Radisson Rewards Gold status for as long as they hold the card.  It also comes with Hilton Honors Gold, Marriott Bonvoy Gold and MeliaRewards Gold status.  We reviewed American Express Platinum in detail here.

(Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from the major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.)