I’m learning as I go here.
This morning I wrote that Club Carlson business accounts were not as great as they sound because extra points are not earned when you book special rates (AAA, 30% off, etc.). A reader named Katherine, though, commented that she does earn 10 extra points per dollar with her business account even when she books special rates. What’s going on?
Background
When you signup for a business account with Club Carlson, you’ll get two things: a 6 digit business ID, and a 16 digit business member number. The 6 digit ID can be used at the time of booking and can be used by anyone. If they use the ID, they’ll save 5% off the standard room rates and your business account will receive up to 10 extra points per dollar for the stay. The individual will continue to get the same points they would have normally.
When you receive your business member number, you are invited to activate your membership number online. I had trouble with this because the email address I used for the business was the same as the one used for my personal account. So, I had to change my personal account’s email address in order to be able to setup my business account. With that done, I now have two Club Carlson accounts I can log in to (1 business and 1 personal).
Earning points on all stays
I called Club Carlson a second time to ask if there was some way to earn business points for stays booked on promotional rates. This time the person I talked to checked with his manager and told me that “no, you cannot earn business points with promotional rates.” Hmmm. Based on Katherine’s input, I think they’re wrong. My guess is that if you log in with your business account to make reservations, then all reservations will be awarded the extra points. Let me stress that this is just my hunch. I don’t know this to be true, but it seems reasonable, even if Club Carlson employees don’t understand it. If true, what then?
Big Night Giveaway Promotions
If my guess above is true, then you may need to register your business account with the Big Night Giveaway promotions if you want to earn the extra points. I don’t know if it’s really necessary, but it can’t hurt to do so.
Elite Status
I have Gold status on my personal account, but no status with my business account. If I book stays directly from my business account, I don’t know if I’ll get elite benefits. I contacted Club Carlson to ask if they can match my personal status to my business status. They said no:
Thank you for taking the time to write.
Business accounts are not eligible for Elite status only personal accounts are.
Thank you for allowing us the opportunity to assist you.
So where does this leave us? Do we have to choose between elite benefits or business benefits when booking promotional rates? Or, could we log into our business account and somehow make a reservation for our personal account?
Booking Rooms
Yes, it looks like you can book rooms for personal accounts when logged into your business account. I logged into my business account and setup a fake booking and was taken to this screen:
Note that there is space to put in personal account information: name, address, Club Carlson number, etc.
My assumption now is that the trick is to log in with your business account, but enter in your personal information with the booking. That way you should get business points awarded to your business account and personal points awarded to your personal account. And, you should receive any elite benefits you are due.
Combining Points
Once you have points in various accounts, you can call Club Carlson and have your points moved from the business account to a personal account or vice versa.
Feedback
I would like to publish a step by step guide to booking Club Carlson rooms (and getting the most out of it), but first I’d like to get some feedback about my information and guesses above. In your experience, is what I said correct? Are there any other important pieces of information to add? Please comment below.
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Will I qualify for the promotion if I book thru top Cahback and use aaa discount? Thx
Hai: Yes
Do we have to book hotel through club carlson site? Can we use site like expedia and still qualify for bonus?
I have registered both radisson and country inb promotion but booked the hotel through expedia.
Thanks
David: You do have to book a rate that will earn Club Carlson points. Usually when you use a site like Expedia, you do not earn points so your Expedia booking probably will not qualify.
I spoke to a rep and was told that you sign in with your individual account number, and their is a place to enter the business account number, which they call the “PCR number”. This way you will get credit in both accounts. I haven’t booked anything as of yet, so I can’t confirm anything.
@FrequentFlyerCollector Instead of getting 20 points per dollar you get an extra 10 points per dollar in your business account. You can transfer points from one account to the other.
FM, I copied the entire email in the above comment. Word by word.
This is great, thorough research on the business accounts! I haven’t read in great detail, but I have to ask, is the whole business account thing worth the hassle? It’s been lost on me exactly what you get out of this besides the general assumption of more points and lower price.
OT, but I just found out this that makes me happy when booking cash ans points:
“Gold Points awarded for cash portion of rate”
I hate at Hilton that they dont give HH points when booking a C+P. Basically, I am giving up any earnings by spending points, I saw that as a penalty.
Anyways, happy to get points when on a C+P stay!
FYI…for anyone trying to get a status match to their personal account…email CCare@carlsonrezidor.com and you will get a quick response versus goldpointsplus@carlson.com. I emailed CCare@carlsonrezidor.com and was matched to Silver off my Hilton Gold within 15 minutes. Just send them screen shot of your Hilton account and they’ll match you in minutes (at least they did for me).
reason I ask – one hotel i could rebook but the other had a higher rate and I can’t rebook it – otherwise it costs like $60-80 more which isn’t worth it.
Dave: you can contact them and ask them to merge your duplicate accounts
al613: Thanks for posting this. I’m so confused, though! I called up Tyler Knott and he confirmed what the other phone reps told me: you cannot get business points unless the company ID is attached to the booking AND he said it can’t be attached to the booking if you pick a promotional rate.
Allen: Would you be willing to forward that email to me? I continue to get a different message from Club Carlson people.
Debbie: thanks for the info!
sam: it can’t hurt to try
Hao L: I don’t think anyone knows for sure whether Club Carlson will honor those pre-bookings or not. There is a photo of their orginal Facebook message floating around the blogs, so if you go ahead with that stay, you have some proof you can use to demand your points.
it was posted on the Radisson FB that reservations made prior to the big night promotion but with the stay during the qualifying dates would count – but that post was pulled. anyone know whether or not reservations made prior to the promo signup would count or does it HAVE to be reserved after promo signup?
Thanks!
I got a reply for my biz account. It asks me to give them federal tax id, biz id or a link to biz website. Should i give them my ss number? If thats only i have?
@FM, I think you were right. Here is the reply I just got from CC for Biz:
When you set up your online access with the business account and make reservations that way you company id and cc for business account are automatically added to the reservation.
Right before you put in the credit card information is a spot to put your personal account number so it can earn points also.
Thats it.
@ Seth @ Tom, Business sign up was relatively quick: I applied on the 11th, they emailed for more information which I sent that same day and approved for business on the 14th. Basically 2 business days.
Status match: this took longer. Applied on the evening of the 10th. Just approved about 2 hours ago. Only matched me to Silver despite having Hyatt Gold and Hilton Platinum status.
sorry, I meant, I wouldn’t want to do it unless we get confirmation.
FM, that were some good thinkings. However, I would want to do it unless we can get a confirmation from Club Carlson that works. I don’t want mess up with my big promo. Can you verify with Katherine to see how she got her extra biz points? I’ve sent CCBiz an email, and received a reply saying I need to get access to the account linked to my biz membership, but it didn’t say how to book the stay. I sent them a followup email, still waiting.
al613: That didn’t seem to work. When I put my company id in the rate search with AAA rate in the pulldown menu, only the 5%-discounted “my company rate” showed up, no other rates was displayed for booking.
To: CC for Business Apply
Subject: Re: FW: Your Club Carlson for Business Company ID
Thanks anyway.
One more question. If I put a company code when booking, but I see a rate that is cheaper then our rate, like AAA or 30PCTOFF promo do we still get the points under them?
On Tue, Dec 6, 2011 at 9:40 AM, CC for Business Apply wrote:
Yes, if you put in your company ID at the start of the reservation, but end up booking a different rate you would still receive the Club Carlson for Business points. However, you would not receive an additional 5 percent off for whatever rate you end up booking. Basically, any rate that is eligible for earning Club Carlson points is also eligible for earning Club Carlson for Business points as long as your company ID is attached to the reservation at the original time of booking.
Thank you,
-Tyler
Tyler Knott
Global Content Management, Carlson Hotels
[Frequent Miler edited out contact info]