Club Carlson has a new promotion for buying Gold Points and getting up to 50% bonus. This offer is valid for buying points between August 13 and October 15, 2013.
The bonus points earned under this promotion do not apply towards the yearly maximum of 40,000 points that one can buy. You can access this offer on Club Carlson’s website here.
The price of a Club Carlson Gold point purchased under this offer is .47 cents (less than half of a US cent). Note that Points.com processes these purchases for Club Carlson.
Does paying $280 for 60K Gold Points make sense?
So, the price of a Gold Point purchased under this offer is 0.47 US cents. If you are planning to trip to let’s say London or Paris, the maximum price of a hotel night would be $233 for just buying the points and using them instead of cash.
This would be a better deal, if you re going to a city during an event, when the regular rates are through the roof like the Eurovision Song Contest example that I wrote about few weeks ago (you can access that piece here).
You just have to note that Club Carlson doesn’t offer last room availability using points. Hotels need to make certain percentage of their rooms available using awards. But once they have hit the requirement, it is up to the hotel if they wish to offer more.
Conclusion
If you don’t have plan to use the points in a meaningful way, I wouldn’t buy them. Just because they are on offer at 50% bonus doesn’t necessarily make them a deal.
Here are the terms and conditions of this offer:
Bonus Point Purchase Offer “Offer” applies to Gold Points purchased between August 13, 2013 and October 15, 2013 only. For each qualifying purchase, members will receive a point bonus equal to 20% for purchasing 5,000-10,000 points, 30% for purchasing 11,000-30,000 points, and 50% for purchasing 31,000-40,000 points. Bonus points will not be applied to the yearly 40,000 point purchase maximum. Bonus points and purchased points will be posted to the member’s Club Carlson account or the gift recipient’s Club Carlson account, as applicable, as one transaction within 2-5 days of purchase. Price includes all applicable fees. GST/HST will be charged to Canadian residents. Gold Points purchased using this option are non-refundable and will post within 2 to 5 days. All Points Purchase Terms and Conditions and all standard Club Carlson Program Terms and Conditions apply to your purchase and use of Gold Points.
How likely is it that Club Carlson will run another promotion for domestic properties this fall? Seems like SPG and Hyatt are.
Club Carlson currently has a promotion for stays at some hotels in Europe. I doubt that we would see a systemwide promo before that one ends.