Stay One Night at Radisson, Earn 50,000 Bonus Points

I got those 5k for myself, but hadn't created an account for my wife at the time.

Nope. Though I think I'll definitely pay more attention to CC now.

Exactly.

2 of my hits (I'm going through Grand Slam with drawls...) posted. 1 is missing on my sister in laws so emailed to make sure everything is ok. Going to do wifes stay and fathers stay on Dec. 23rd and Dec. 24th. when the 30% special was good for our local radisson. Tallying everything up I'm at 267k points for $150. Love club carlson now.

I believe it's outlined somewhere when you first register for CC. A one-time bonus for your first booking.
It got that bonus too btw.

So I decided to add 1 more stay. Signed up a friend with the 4500 point bonus from TGI Fridays. I'm now looking at 320k for $225. Did this one so we could use 5 nights at 44k per night at the Radisson Blu 1919 in Iceland and 2 nights in Paris for 50k per night. That totals 320k exactly. That figures out to be $32 per night for our summer vacation. What I'm not sure of is if that includes the tax. Does anyone have any experience with redeeming Carlson points in Europe and how much...if any..tax is collected? Thanks!

I was not charged tax when I redeemed in the U.S. Don't know if Europe is different.

Well, two incredible things happened. First, when I signed up for the promotion, I had actually booked a room prior to the promotion sign-up for a stay that wouldtake place within the parameters of the promo but then thought the early res would negate the points. Secondly, I booked at a 30% off special summer rate. I was informed that the special rate would not earn any points. I gave the res to a friend of mine who lives in Charleston for a little staycation night and was prepared to do it all over again.
Imagine my surprise to find out that I not only earned the 50K bonus for the stay, But also 1442 points for the night, and a 1000 point bonus for booking online!
SCORE!

Checked today (7th) and she now has 55,414 Gold Points ($135 after tax price). The hotel was non-exciting but the points will be used for a nice RKV/AMS trip in the summer. We will be at the Arlington, VA location the night of the 16th to get my points for $79 after tax - which feels to me lik e a very nice rate for this area.

That Radisson is not bad, but not-very aspirational. Not sure it should be a Cat. 5 redemption option. The area it's in is actually kind of dead at night. Lots of office buildings and other hotel airports. On the plus side, you're very close to the Metro, so you could always go into town if you get bored.

Edit: Oops. Just realized you're from the area. So disregard my comments about the hotel's surroundings since you're probably already well aware of that.

Yes, the location will be much better than the hotel in Baltimore. We will find a happy hour place and then probably get the daily special stew thing from the 24 hour Kabob place at the bottom of 23rd st - I think its name is Kabob Palace... Honestly I’m just hoping there are not drunks in the hallway like we had last weekend in Baltimore.

As a data point for those who are still waiting for bonus points to post, I emailed CC and mentioned that my wife had a stay one night after mine and her bonus points posted last week. This is the response I received this afternoon:

A few questions:

I signed up for a Club Carlson account to take advantage of this promo, but with my internet freezing and with myself having so many email accounts, I accidentally now have 2 Club Carlson accounts. I registered both the promo just in case, but I have a feeling that I should only go through with having one, right?

I found an $80 AAA a/i rate at the LAX Radisson ... I know I need to drive over and check-in in person, but do I have to check-out in person? Can I just leave the key in the room and check-out remotely? I live not too far away and would rather just go home and sleep in my own bed. Sorry for the newbie question, have never done an MattR, but 56,000+ points from this $80 stay will go a looooooonnnnggg way with my travel plans for 2012.

Also, how much do you all think goldpoints are worth? I'm in need of booking a 1-night stay in LIM soon and I can either use 28K points for a $103 room (.37 cpp), 5K points for $69+points (.68cpp), or a hotels.com voucher I have for $128 (which I'd use on either the Westin or JW since they are around $130 for that night so I can max out the voucher and pay just a little bit out of pocket). I'm thinking I can get much better value on future trips, even if I'm getting these points at .15cpp.

Lastly, since I've status matched to Silver, does Radisson give upgrades on cash+points rooms?

You definitely do not need to check out in person. You need to call CC to merge your two accounts. Personally I would say these points are worth 1/2 cent or a little more, though I am sure it is possible to get more value from them.

Thanks! I'm not very well-versed in hotel points since I've usually only focused on airline miles, and have recently seen how valuable promotions like this can be.

I agree with the 1/2¢ per point, IF used at a Radisson, but if they are used at a County Inns & Suites, I think they are worth quite a bit more. Most smaller areas don't have a Radisson, but do have CI&S, and they can be quite comfortable. Many can be had for 15K points, so that would make this deal worth 3 or 4 stays.
I just booked the Radisson at MLI for the 30th for $77a/i. Booked my son too, he just doesn't know it yet

Indeed there are some good redemptions to be found at 9000 points and 15000 points. It's definitely a YMMV situation.

OK, strange new twist.

I did my stay 12/6-12/7 and yesterday got:

20X for stay - 1035
25% for Silver (free with promo code) - 259
Big Night Giveaway - 50,000
Online booking bonus - 2000
Welcome Next Stay - 2000

All for a hotel that cost ~$65 and was actually useful for our Disney vacation.

Meanwhile, my wife only got her 20X, 25%, 2K, 2K for her 11/26-11/27 stay on 11/30, but still no 50K bonus.

Here is the strange part . . .

I signed up for the free Accor Diamond status for both my wife and myself and faxed in for status match. I got an email back that they do not status match to Accor but my wife never did get the email. This was about two weeks ago. I checked today and she is now Gold. Guess we know who will be getting the points transferred and making our Europe reservations.

If you haven't made your stay for the 50K points club carlson has a three day sale for 25% off.
It has list of select hotels you can get 25% off at. However the hotel I wanted wasn't listed, but I put in
the promo code LMD25OFF and it let me make the reservation with the 25% off.
Terms say you earn points and bonus points for online reservations.

Registered on the 10th at 9:30 and stayed the same night. Never got an email confirmation (did anyone get an email conformation from the 10th?) CSR is telling me I registered on the 11th that's why I am not getting points. That's so ridiculous. They can't demand proof which they never sent out!

I just called Radisson and the representative said it's "one promotion or the other." I used the AAA rate for mine and this saves me an extra $6 only, so I'd rather not risk it (especially since it's a pure mattress run since I don't have any more required stays for the year).

However, the Big Night Giveaway T&C say: "A "Qualifying Stay" is defined as a stay of one or more consecutive nights through the Promotion Period, for which the guest specifically booked a rate for which Gold Points are awarded in accordance with the Club Carlson Program terms and conditions."

Is this just a rep that doesn't know any better?

Just booked my stay for the 29th! Can't wait to load up on some points

I think I have my mother inlaw and sister doing a run for me as well! 150k points will come in handy, now if we can just see what they do with the credit card from carlson I will be set.

My (and my wife's) 50k bonus points finally posted! That took longer than expected, but I'm glad they're finally there.

For what it's worth, the landing page still shows the 50k point offer.

My rate in the US was AAA and qualified.

Yeah that's ridiculous... it's been weeks and 50k people haven't signed up?