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Club Carlson have a 7 day promo on the purchase of Gold points. They are giving 75% bonus points on all points purchases. Should you be a buyer at this level ?

Club Carlson is the name of the loyalty program for the Radisson group of hotels, the currency being Gold Points. The maximum you are allowed to buy each year is 40K. So with this promo, that means you can buy up to 70K points (40K plus bonus 30K). The cost of those 70K points during this promo is $280. That’s 0.4c per point, or approximately 0.33p.

But as always with these bonus promos, you have to determine if the promo is of value to you. And as usual, the answer is, “it depends”.  If you are booking a hotel on short notice or at a time of high demand, you might well find that it makes sense to purchase the points.

My go-to test city for things like this is Manchester. Room rates are always expensive on any Saturday night that corresponds with Man United playing at home.

So I’ve looked at the 19th of November, when Man United are at home to Arsenal, to see whether buying points makes sense.

First the Park Inn by Radisson, City Centre

This hotel is category 4, which means it requires 38K gold points for 1 night, which  during this promo would cost £125. Points stays can be cancelled up to the day of the stay. This means we need to compare it to the flex rate of £232.75.  There is a £100+ saving by buying the points.  So for this hotel, on this date, it makes sense to buy the points and do an award stay.

Now let’s look at the Radisson at Manchester Airport.

It’s location means it isn’t in demand as much as the city centre hotel,even on a game day. It’s also a category higher than the city centre hotel, which means a standard room is 44K points, which would cost £145 to purchase during this promo. However the flex rate is just £140.60. For this hotel, on this date, It’s cheaper to pay cash than it is to buy the necessary points.

It’s worth remembering that American Express MR points convert to Gold Points at a ratio of 1:3.  In the city centre example above, it would require 12667 MR points to get 38K Radisson Gold Points. If you value MR points @ 1p, then that works out pretty much the same as buying Gold Points. Personally, I value MR points more than 1p, due to their flexibility.

As you can see, buying Club Carlson Gold points during this promo can make sense in some circumstances. However, I’d only be a buyer if I had a specific redemption in mind, I don’t see the value in doing a speculative buy. The offer is on until the 30th October, and the link to buy points is here.