Quick background: Club Carlson recently announced that Bonus Award Nights, the best feature of their co-branded credit cards, would no longer be available as of June 1 2015. Instead, they are offering: A one-time 30,000 point bonus for a one night stay (for current cardholders, only); Triple points on stays through the end of August; and a new credit card benefit of a free night at a US property after $10K spend. Details can be found in these posts:
- Club Carlson Visa dumping Bonus Award Nights
- Top 7 ways to milk the Club Carlson card before and after June 1
- Club Carlson offering triple points between April and June
- How to maximize Club Carlson point earnings: 30,000 points plus 92 points per dollar
As a result of these changes, many are scrambling to book their Bonus Award Nights before the end of May. Even though the ability to book Bonus Award Nights will go away soon, you can use them now to book stays pretty far into the future.
A common question I’ve received about this, is whether it is OK to cancel your Club Carlson credit card before your stay. Will the Bonus Award Night that was booked before you cancelled still apply? I always assumed that the answer was yes, but I decided to check directly with Club Carlson for confirmation. Here is what they said:
Dear
Thank you for following up via email.
A reservation using a Bonus Award Night will be honored even if you
cancel your Club Carlson Visa as long as the reservation is completed as
it was originally made (no changes or cancel and re-booking after Visa
is cancelled).Hope this helps, please let us know if you have additional questions or
concerns!Regards,
So, there you have it. Book now and feel free to cancel your card after booking.
NOTE: I don’t have any evidence of this whatsoever, but I have a feeling that Club Carlson will introduce something new in June to help counteract this devaluation. So, I plan to keep my credit cards open at least through June – just in case. Plus, of course, the credit cards will continue to offer 40,000 bonus points every year. That’s pretty good, even without Bonus Award Nights. My point is: it is OK to cancel your credit card after booking Bonus Award Nights, but that might not be the smartest move.
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Does a credit card account closure result in immediate loss of gold status?
I doubt it, but I don’t know for sure
[…] Yes, you can cancel your Club Carlson card after booking Bonus Award Nights – An answer to a frequently asked question and predictions for what is coming in the future. […]
[…] According to the FrequentMiler blog, you do not have to keep the card. He received an email from CC confirming this as shown here: http://frequentmiler.boardingarea.co…-award-nights/ […]
Did the response from Club Carlson come from a senior person at CC that you know or just from a random customer service person?
Random CSR, but since this is how I expected it to work from the get-go, I believe it to be true.
Wish they would come out with a 3rd or 4th or 5th night free offer. The second night free was a unsustainable offer.
Yeah I didn’t mention it here but I wouldn’t be surprised if they do fifth night free like Marriott, Hilton, and SPG
While the 5th night free would help bring back their value…the downside is CC has very few properties I’d like to subject myself to, for 5 days, on a vacation.
I always viewed CC as a nice perk for a stopover location or place where you only wanted to stay a couple/few nights and move on, so staying in a “blah” hotel wasn’t detrimental to the overall trip experience.
2 cents
You obviously don’t travel Europe much, CC is one of the best properties in many of the biggest cities there…
Terms and conditions of the card say
” Your Account must be open at the time of redemption to qualify for Bonus Award Nights;”
SO it is a little confusing as to what the right answer is..
That refers to your Club Carlson account not your credit card account
In that case that is great news ..thanks!!
btw, I called the customer service and got 7,500 points for both of my accounts.. I would recommend you to call them again and speak with a supervisor..
Sam, what exactly did you tell them?
I 2nd asking for a supervisor. Regular agent offered 2.5k, I asked to speak to supervisor. Got the 7.5k. Just told them “hey buddy, I just paid annual fee 2 months ago and then got a total bait and switch…pony up something!”
if I have two club Carlson accounts, due to having one associTed with my business credit card and one associated with my personal credit card, can I get the 30000 point bonus two times . Could it even be consecutive paid nights at the same hotel, just one booked and crediting to each carlson account and using each credit card?
Thank you
Yes that’s exactly what I plan to do
Just a heads-up, it looks like CCarlson has started to charge fees for cancelling your reservation as of May 1st. Perhaps it just happened to be my hotel, but I tried a few bookings thru apr. and I could cancel up to 6pm the day I check-in, q/ no fees. Come 5/1, it’s the full cost of the stay. I did try 3 different price points, not just promotional ones as well….
yet another thing for CCarlson to go down the drain faster…