Club Carlson Point Conversion Significantly Devalued Without Notice
The Radisson Blu Waterfront Hotel — a property which participates in the Club Carlson frequent guest loyalty program — in Stockholm on January 28, 2012. Photograph by FlyerTalk member kaidus. Click on the photograph for a trip report written by kaidus.
The value of Club Carlson frequent guest loyalty program points has been significantly reduced if you want to convert them to airline frequent flier loyalty program miles — and the reduction was quietly implemented without any advance warning or notice.
This chart illustrates the devaluation:
| Club Carlson Frequent Guest Loyalty Program Points 2,000 points 50,000 points 100,000 points |
Previous Conversion to Airline Miles 250 miles 8,000 miles 18,000 miles |
Unannounced New Conversion to Airline Miles 200 miles 5,000 miles 10,000 miles |
Value Reduction by Frequent Flier Miles and Percentage 50 miles or 20.00 percent 3,000 miles or 37.50 percent 8,000 miles or 44.45 percent |
Some FlyerTalk members are as livid with Club Carlson not giving any advance notice as they are about the devaluation. I personally agree. Not giving some form of advance notice of a significant change in a frequent travel loyalty program is poor customer service at best — and can foster distrust and skepticism amongst customers who are members…
…and some of those members of the frequent travel loyalty program are arguably the best customers. It would be an absolute shame if Club Carlson destroyed the loyalty base which it has built in recent years through its promotions, which were refreshingly different from what the competition in the lodging industry offered.
Until today, Club Carlson was a differentiator in the frequent guest loyalty program space. Now it is becoming similar to its competitors.
Was this devaluation simply the “writing on the wall” due to all of the generous past promotions by Club Carlson — such as earning 50,000 Club Carlson frequent guest loyalty program points for staying only one night in a Radisson hotel property, or earning 9,000 Club Carlson frequent guest loyalty program points for using your Club Carlson frequent guest loyalty program points…
…and is this only the beginning, portending further significant devaluations by the Club Carlson frequent guest loyalty program?
It looks like they changed to a flat 10:1, rather than a sliding scale depending on how much you redeem.
This seminds me of a similar change that Priority Club (now IHG Rewards) did many years ago. It used to have a “special” award with certain airlines including AA that was 67000 PC points to 25000 miles. (They called it a “free ticket” award, but it actually just transferred to the amount of miles for a certain kind of free ticket.) That was an alternate to the usual flat conversion rate. All of a sudden one day those “special” awards disappeared (after I’d used them a few times), and thus only the flat conversion rate remained.
Is the SPG 25% bonus on bigger transfers going away next??? (That’s the main remaining “sliding scale” of points transfers that I’m aware of.)