Thanks to Miles for Blightly for letting me know that Club Carlson is re-categorizing the hotel categories for 329 of their properties. The award structure is staying the same, but out of all the hotels changing about two-thirds of them are going up a category (or two!), while only about one-third are going down a category. Additionally, MANY properties are moving up to the newly introduced (as of last year) category 7 which requires 70,000 points for a free night! This change is happening on June 1, 2015 which coincides exactly with the removal of the free night benefit from the Club Carlson credit card.
You can check all of the categories going up or down a category here, but here is a recap of all the hotels moving to the category 7 level. This is a massive jump where some are currently a category 4 (38,000 points/night), a category 5 (44,000 points/night), or a category 6 (50,000 points/night).
Properties going up to a category 7 (all are currently a category 6 unless otherwise noted):
- Radisson Aruba Resort, Casino & Spa – no idea what is going on with this property as it is in the process of being sold!
- Radisson Hotel Barra, Rio de Janeiro
- Radisson Blu Aqua Hotel, Chicago
- Radisson Blu Minneapolis – currently a category 5
- Radisson Blu Mall of America – currently a category 5
- Radisson Martinique on Broadway
- Radisson Blu Warwick Hotel, Philadelphia
- Radisson Blu Hotel, Dubai Deira Creek
- The Radisson Blu Residence, Dubai Marina – currently a category 5
- Radisson Blu Style Hotel, Vienna
- The Diplomat Radisson Blu Hotel, Residence & Spa, Manama
- Radisson Blu Hotel, Lucerne
- Radisson Blu Hotel, Zurich Airport
- Radisson Blu Hotel, Basel
- Radisson Blu Royal Hotel, Copenhagen
- Radisson Blu Hotel, Madrid Prado
- Radisson Blu Hotel, Addis Ababa
- Radisson Blu Hotel, Marseille Vieux Port
- Radisson Blu Resort & Spa, Ajaccio Bay
- Radisson Blu Hotel, Paris-Boulogne
- Radisson Blu Resort, Arc 1950
- Radisson Blu Hotel, Nice
- Radisson Blu Hotel, Edinburgh
- Radisson Blu Edwardian Kenilworth Hotel – currently a category 5
- Radisson Blu Edwardian New Providence Wharf Hotel
- Radisson Blu Edwardian Sussex Hotel
- Park Plaza Sherlock Holmes London
- Park Plaza Victoria London
- Park Plaza County Hall London
- Radisson Blu Edwardian Berkshire Hotel
- Radisson Blu Edwardian Bloomsbury Street Hotel
- Park Plaza Westminster Bridge London
- Radisson Blu Portman Hotel, London
- Radisson Blu Edwardian Leicester Square Hotel
- Radisson Blu Edwardian Mercer Street Hotel
- Radisson Blu Edwardian Hampshire Hotel
- Radisson Blu Resort & Spa, Dubrovnik Sun Gardens
- Radisson Blu 1919 Hotel, Reykjavik – currently a category 5
- Radisson Blu Hotel, Kuwait – currently a category 4
- Radisson Hotel, Astana
- Radisson Blu Hotel, Maputo
- Radisson Blu Anchorage Hotel, Lagos VI.
- Park Plaza Victoria Amsterdam
- Radisson Blu Hotel, Amsterdam
- Radisson Blu Scandinavia Hotel Oslo
- Radisson Blu Resort, Trysil
- Radisson Blu Airport Hotel, Oslo Gardermoen
- Radisson Blu Hotel Norge, Bergen
- Radisson Blu Royal Hotel, Bergen
- Radisson Blu Plaza Hotel, Oslo
- Radisson Blu Atlantic Hotel, Stavanger
- Radisson Blu Polar Hotel, Spitsbergen
- Radisson Blu Royal Hotel, Stavanger
- Radisson Royal Hotel, St. Petersburg
- Radisson Resort, Zavidovo – currently a category 5
- Radisson Blu Hotel, Riyadh
- Radisson Blu Royal Suite Hotel, Jeddah
- Radisson Blu SkyCity Hotel, Stockholm-Arlanda
- Radisson Blu Royal Viking Hotel, Stockholm
- Radisson Blu Waterfront Hotel, Stockholm
- Radisson Blu Strand Hotel, Stockholm
- Radisson Blu Mammy Yoko Hotel, Freetown – currently a category 5
- Radisson Blu Hotel, Istanbul Pera
- Radisson Blu Bosphorus Hotel, Istanbul
- Radisson Blu Hotel Waterfront
- Radisson Blu Plaza Hotel Sydney
If you counted the list above, you’d see that 67 hotels are now going up to a category 7 hotel. Just to give some comparison, there are currently only 11 hotels in that top category 7 tier. That means come June 1, this level will go from 11 hotels to 78 hotels which is absolutely ridiculous.
While I understand annual category revamps, this one is pretty major. This combined with the credit card benefit changes really makes me not so happy with Club Carlson. Honestly, once I redeem all my points I will be done with this program. Credit card will be cancelled and no more points will be earned. I am now re-evaluating whether or not the Club Carlson card is still worth it.
About 4-5 years ago, this program invested a lot of money to get their name out there. They ran unbelievable offers where you could earn 50,000 points after just 1 stay. They did this multiple times, you could take advantage under multiple accounts (and then combine point balances), and then you could sign up for their lucrative credit card offering up to 85,000 points, earn a ton of points with manufactured spend, and then get your second night free on all hotel redemptions. I personally believe they gave out way too many points and are now cutting back.
I personally recommend getting all your hotel stays reserved by May 31, 2015. As long as you make your reservation by this date you will be locked into the current category and be able to take advantage of the second night free as long as you have the Club Carlson credit card. Some hotels even allow you to make award reservations well into 2018, so make sure to look ahead! Unfortunately though, if you need to change your reservation for a future date, you will have to redeem more points and not get the 2nd night free benefit.
This was not a change I was hoping to wake up to this morning! What are your thoughts? Will you be giving up on the program?
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This is bad, real bad, there is not denying, with the second night the value of my points have been reduced by 2/3.
But I am still conflicted as to what to do. I stay for business 5 nights a week. I have my pick of Marriott, Hyatt, IHG or Radisson (I gave up on Hilton and there are no spg…plus we don’t know where that is going now). I would do Hilton if they had a good bonus deal.
My rewards spending is mostly on high end properties (St. John Westin, London & Aruba Radissons, Hawaii Marriotts, etc.)
Anyway, I look at my stay for one night (not counting CC points)
Radisson – 25K per night (10K megapoints, plus room rate at triple points). This still gets me a hotel at the above list in 3 nights. But Radisson’s are few and in between…very few for a beach family vacation.
Marriott – 4K per night. So that’s say 1/8 to a night at a decent Marriot (counting a cat 8 5 night for 4).
Hyatt – 2.5K per night. Got my diamond status already….will stay more next promo, why not more? Not that many hotels. Hmmm….but maybe I have it wrong between Hyatt and Marriott
IHG – around 14K (10K bonus on rate plus regular points). Gets me a decent way up to an Aruba and 1/4 into some super high end (50K)
So I know the above is the stupidest problem to have…but I am wondering if anyone else who lives similar to me has looked at this and how they have set the value…
I have over a 1M in Marriott, CC, IHG, 400K in Hyatt, 175K in SPG, 160K in Hilton…the point is that I cannot spend them fast enough….so I need a long term strategy (vs. the infrequent traveller who goes for the bonuses and tries to burn through things immediately).
@Mike – I’d probably drop Club Carlson. The Radisson Aruba is being sold (at some point), so there goes the beach option. And their properties abroad are primarily in major cities and just eh (for the most part).If you are looking at family beach vacations, there is Hyatt Aruba, Hyatt Kauai, Hyatt Maui, Hyatt Honolulu, Hyatt Curacao, and the new all-inclusive properties. Then there are a bunch of Marriott’s in the Caribbean, Mexico, and Hawaii. For IHG, aside from Florida, there is the Holiday Inn in Aruba which is right on the beach and a fine hotel, but definitely not the nicest property there – dated, but still a beach hotel. Since you have so many points, I’d probably look to see where you redeem them the most. Promotions these days are nothing too great. The current IHG property will award you a bunch of points. Marriott is always a safe bet since so many properties worldwide and 5th night free which is nice for a beach vacation. And Hyatt points go further, but there aren’t as many of them as Marriott. Look at the next year or two and try to figure out where you want to go and then go from there.
I totally get your dilemma as I used to be in the same boat as you. Traveled every week for many years, had all property options available, but I would pick based on the promotion. At that time they were running some amazing stay twice, get a free night, so I would maximize the promotion. Right now, the offers aren’t nearly as good.
Thank you…
Yes, I need to convince myself to drop CC. After I wrote the above they send me a promo for 5K per stay for June/July. So in June I have triple points+1K mobile+5K+10K megapoints…35K per night with food……
They just make it really really hard to stop…..
The Aruba story has me really worried though. We stayed in St. Martin for a week before that left the system…it was amazing…
sorry for my repost here, i posted MISTAKENLY on US bank flex post.. SO I replied back on my BBB & CFPB complaints saying, they must remove the hard inquiry and refund my fee $75 or I will report you guys to states AG’s office for fraud, dishonest deceptive business practise. The rep called again saying they can’t remove the hard pull but they can refund me $75 fee and 25k points compensations and asked me if that is ok. I replied yes. will cancel it once the next fee comes up.
not worth any more since the bonus award night is gone and award rate for 210 of their motels are going up worldwide
@Dan – Great, thanks for letting us know!