One of the most lucrative benefits that the Club Carlson Premier Rewards Visa offers are the free bonus award nights. Basically when you redeem Gold Points for 2 or more consecutive Award Nights, your last night is free. This makes it possible to redeem your gold points for twice as much value, so booking award stays of only two nights is a clear way to maximize your Club Carlson points. In other words, to stay at the Mayfair in London for two nights, it would only cost you 50,000 points, instead of 100,000 points. However the terms state that only “one Bonus Award Night will be available for a stay of two or more consecutive nights at the same hotel (early checkout with one night stay not eligible), regardless of the total length of stay, the total number of reservations or the number of check-in/check-outs...Does not apply to additional reservations booked as contiguous stays at the same hotel.”
The good news is that you can book contiguous stays of two nights at the same hotel as long as you use a different Club Carlson rewards account number for each reservation. I confirmed using both of the methods below with a Club Carlson representative and was told that you can do this as long as the reservations are made with different accounts.
You can stay 4 nights and get 2 free nights by:
1. Booking 2 nights with your personal Club Carlson account and 2 nights with your business account
2. Booking 2 nights with your Club Carlson account and 2 nights with your spouse’s or friend’s account
By staying 4 nights and getting 2 free nights on separate reservations made by different accounts it will require you to check-out and check-in again after the 2nd night. Although it may be a bit of a hassle, I feel that it is well worth the extra free night if you want to stay at the same hotel for 4 nights. Since bonus award nights are exclusively for card members, you will need a Club Carlson Visa registered with the account.
How to transfer gold points for free
Unlike some hotel and airline programs that charge ridiculous fees to transfer points, you can easily gift gold points to another account for free. All you have to do is call into Club Carlson’s customer service number at 1-888-288-8889 and request to gift points--just provide them with the two account numbers and it is complete in a couple of minutes. Club Carlson requires separate accounts if you have both the personal and business cards, but with the ability to transfer points for free this works to your benefit. You can either transfer points to one account to round out your balance to have enough points to book an award night, or you can use them to book a 4 award night stay with 2 free bonus nights by using the different account numbers.
Do you know of any other ways to stay 4 nights and get 2 free nights? Share with us in the comments below!
