Club Carlson is now named Radison Rewards. They have also made a number of minor changes to the loyalty program, for example the membership tiers have new names (Platinum instead of Concierge).
Contents
Fewer Nights/Stays Needed For Elite Status
Earning elite status now requires fewer nights or stays. The changes are as follows:
- Club: Base level, no stay requirements
- Silver: 9 nights or 6 stays (previously 15 nights or 10 stays)
- Gold: 30 nights or 20 stays (previously 35 nights or 20 stays)
- Platinum: 60 nights or 30 stays (previously 75 nights or 30 stays)
Silver status is now significantly easier to earn. Gold and Platinum status is easier if you’re qualifying via nights rather than stays, but not significantly so.
Rollover Nights & All Nights Count
Any nights you complete that are in addition to earning a loyalty tier will carry over to the next year. For example if you stayed 35 nights that would be enough for gold (30 nights) and then 5 nights would carry over to the next year. In addition all stays now count towards elite status (e.g cash, points, free nights and cash & points stays).
Points Earning Decrease
Silver & Gold members will earn less points per $1 spent, other tiers stay the same.
- Club: 20 points per $1 spent (no change)
- Silver: 22 points per $1 spent (previously 23 points per $1 spent)
- Gold: 25 points per $1 spent (previously 27 points per $1 spent)
- Platinum: 35 points per $1 spent (no change)
Free Nights For Credit Card Spend
Co-branded credit cards from U.S. Bank now earn a free night for every $10,000 in spend, up to a maximum of three free nights for $30,000+ in spend.
New Elite Benefits
You now get the following elite benefits:
- Two bottles of water for all members
- Platinum members will receive full complimentary breakfast except in North America
- 24/7 service line for Platinum members
Our Verdict
The properties in North America are usually quite terrible, but they are significantly better in Europe and realistically they are some of your only options in the Nordic countries. I assume that the free night certificates are still limited in that they can only be used in the United States, if that’s the case I find that benefit to be mostly useless. If it isn’t the case, I can definitely see some people spending $30,000 annually to trigger those three free nights. Overall I’d say that these are positive changes, but nothing to get too excited about. For most people this program died a horrible death when they removed the last night free benefit.
The free nights earned by $10,000 spend up to $30,000 must wait until card is renewed. Is the spend restarted every calendar year or anniversary year. A call to Radisson Rewards said calendar year. Anyone have experience to confirm this?
If you have the old CC credit card, can you sign up for the new Radisson visa and still receive the sign up bonus points?
United took 50 hours to get me from Aspen to Atlanta in February.
As a reward I was accommodated in Park Inn Houston, Radisson brand if I am not wrong.
Obviously, I did survive but it was not a hotel I would stay again.
Full breakfast overseas is still a great improvement when they never offered breakfast based on status anywhere.
Thats a good point, If you spend 10k, You get a free night plus 50k points so its like 3 nights. And their north american hotels are not too much worse then IHG.
For example Radison hotel in Piscataway New Jersey is only 15K points a night and has free parking with a pool and whirpool good for a winter weekend gateway.
good point Abey — lots of the legacy Country Inn & Suites at 15k across the south, often times (like in Richmond, VA) the only place with indoor pool, whirlpools & included breakfast (with real metal for your breakfast forks even) *g
Well said. Its all about finding the right one that suits you. Especially if youre willing to drive a bit which is actually part of the fun 😉
Platinum free breakfast not in N.America? That sucks.
Yes, it’s been widely reported the free nights are only for the US. Given the limited footprint of any worthwhile properties in US, this is ineed almost useless.
I agree with atxtravel in what I heard about it being US only. And it is the number one reason I dont bother to put any spend on this card.
This U.S. only rule is for free nights earned per $10k spend? Or for all point redemptions? I had considered this card for free nights for a European trip but it would be a wash if the points can’t be redeemed over there
The points can be redeemed anywhere, the free nights only in the US The way I see it, you can earn at least $200 cash back for that same spend so the free night certificate would have to be usable somewhere with much greater redemption value and that usually ends up being expensive cities in Europe
Good point and thanks for clarifying.
> you can earn at least $200 cash back for that same spend so the free night certificate would have to be usable somewhere with much greater redemption value
You forgot that 10k spend also generates 50k Radison Rewards points and these points are not limited to US properties.
The question really is:
Is 50k RR + 1 free night at any RR US property > $200?
YMMV
This obviously assumes that you will hold eligible RR credit cards. You can account for $60-75 annual fee, 40k renewal bonus, etc separately.
True. For me the US only restriction makes the free night worth a lot less since few locations would allow me to maximize it vs just getting a cheap airbnb.
Well if you’re putting 10k spend on the card, you’re earning at least another 50k points, good enough for 1-2 nights. Add the free night and now you’ve a total of 2-3 free nights a year. Granted that it’s only in the US. But aside from that this doesn’t look too bad.