Back in August I wrote about the Club Carlson purchasing points promotion, where you’ll get up to a 50% bonus when purchasing their points through October 15, 2013. The bonus amount depends on the number of points you purchase:
- Buy 5,000 – 10,000 points and receive a 20% Bonus
- Buy 11,000 – 30,000 points and receive a 30% bonus
- Buy 31,000 – 40,000 points and receive a 50% Bonus
Points can be purchased in 1,000 point increments and up to 40,000 points per calendar year. This 40k cap does not include points purchased during the Amex Daily Getaways giveaway, however, it does include points purchased during the 75% bonus flash sale. Every 1,000 points will cost you $7.00 (not taking into account the bonus points you’ll earn). So let’s say you purchase the maximum of 40,000 points, you’ll receive a total of 60,000 points for $280. With the 50% bonus, points will cost you 0.47 cents a point.
Deal or no deal?
Determining whether or not this is a good deal depends on your upcoming travel plans. If you are looking to stay in an expensive European hotel, for example, this could provide you with a way to stay for very cheap. The cost to purchase 50,000 points (which is the number of points needed to stay in a standard room at a top category hotel) is $238. Many hotels are MUCH MUCH more expensive than $238/night including tax in Europe. Of course you need to check award availability and do the math for your particular stay. This can also be a way to purchase the number of points needed to top off your account for a specific award in mind.
How can this be a really really really good deal?
Now where this can turn into an amazing deal is if you have the Club Carlson credit card as one of the huge perks of the card is a free night tacked onto every award stay. Even with a two night stay you’ll get the 2nd night free! This means you could stay two nights for 50,000 points total or $119/night when purchasing the points required. Chances are you definitely won’t be able to beat that rate for a top hotel. You can check out more details on the Club Carlson credit card here and how you can earn a free night with every points stay!
Other ways to purchase Club Carlson points for a good deal…
For those that are trying to purchase Club Carlson points even cheaper, here is another method for you:
- Purchasing vanilla reload cards for bluebird usage with your Club Carlson credit card. Since you get 5 points per dollar on all non-Club Carlson hotel spend you can get up to 25,000 points a month for $39.50. To compare the cost to purchasing the points during 50% bonus promo, these 50,000 points will ultimately cost $79.00. This is significantly cheaper, however, three things to keep in mind:
- You must have a Club Carlson credit card, and
- You must be willing/able to purchase and use $5,000 a month of vanilla reloads. You can check out this prior post on the best card to use for vanilla reload purchases to see how the Club Carlson card compares to others
- There is an opportunity cost as you aren’t using another card to purchase the vanilla reloads, so with a 2% cash back card for example, while you’ll spend $79 in fees, you can get points enough $200 worth of points for a net profit of $121. So definitely take that into consideration.
Remember, this promotion ends October 15, 2013.
The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.