Different hotel loyalty programs have different policies regarding how many points, elite qualifying stays, and elite qualifying nights you can earn if booking multiple rooms. In other words, if you often travel with family and book two rooms, can you…
Radisson Rewards has just announced the details of their next global promotion, which is valid for stays through the end of the year. Radisson Rewards' new promotion is rather straightforward -- between July 1 and December 31, 2020, you can earn 5,000…
Through June 30, 2020, Radisson Rewards is offering a 100% bonus on purchased points. Note that you have to log into your account to see the offer so it's possible not everyone will see the same promotion. The accounts I manage all show a 100% bonus,…
At the moment the Radisson Rewards Premier Signature Visa Card has a welcome bonus of up to 120,000 Radisson Rewards points. You can earn those points by spending $3,000 within the first 90 days. This is the second time we've seen this offer, as we also…
It’s pretty common for the major global hotel chains to adjust hotel categories annually. We’re not talking about them actually adjusting the number of points required for a stay at a particular category of hotel, but rather adjusting which hotels are…
With 2018 now behind us, I thought it would be interesting to reflect on what status I've earned in the past year with both airlines and hotels. I love miles and points every bit as much as I did a decade ago. What has changed for me over the years is…
HNA Group is a massive Chinese conglomerate that has stakes in all kinds of travel brands. This includes about a dozen Chinese airlines, as well as major international hotel brands. For a while they were investing like crazy, and now they're selling…
Earlier I wrote about how Club Carlson is being rebranded as Radisson Rewards. This is part of a bigger shift, as Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group is being rebranded as Radisson Hotel Group, to better leverage the Radisson name. The brand has quite a bit…
A few weeks ago I wrote about how Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group is rebranding as Radisson Hotel Group. This seems like a logical move. I see how it got that name, since Curtis Carlson was one of the founders of the company. The problem is that while the…
Carlson Rezidor Hotel Group has over 1,000 hotels around the world, with their most popular brand being Radisson. While I understand why the hotel group is named the way it is, I've always found the branding to be strange, especially with their loyalty…
December 31 and January 1 are big days when it comes to elite status qualification. On December 31 all your accounts look as good as they'll ever look, as all the activity from the past year has posted. Meanwhile come January 1, it's time to start all…
It's pretty normal for the major global hotel chains to adjust hotel categories annually. We're not talking about them actually adjusting the number of points required for a stay at a particular category of hotel, but rather adjusting which hotels are…
Club Carlson used to be one of my favorite hotel loyalty programs. On the earning side, they used to run some killer promotions that were totally mattress runnable. The best of those awarded 50,000 Carlson points for one a night stay at a Radisson hotel,…
Given our early departure the following morning, we decided to spend the last night of our trip at a hotel at the Oslo Airport. Having stayed at the Park Inn by Radisson Oslo Airport on the first night of our trip, we decided to try the Radisson Blu…
Given our relatively late arrival into Oslo, we decided to stay at the airport the first night. I'm sure we could have headed into the city, but with three tired kiddos this seemed like a good option. And the Oslo airport has two very convenient hotels…
I was arriving from Kuala Lumpur at around 2:30PM, and departing to Dubai the next night at around 9PM, so I had one night there. After doing some research, it seemed I had two practical options -- I could book the Radisson, which had a great location…
The reason I heard about Longyearbyen in the first place was because of the Radisson Blu, given that it claims to be the world's northernmost full service hotel. Based on the pictures it didn't exactly look glam, but then again, Longyearbyen isn't a…
A lot of my travel is centered around trying new airline products, since that's primarily what I write about. Planning for this trip started when I was able to combine a new business class product with a destination I've long wanted to visit. For years…
Airline loyalty programs have increasingly been adding opportunities for members to enroll in TSA Pre-Check. Some airlines have given TSA Pre-Check memberships away to elite members for free, while others have been allowing members to redeem points for…
Formalized hotel status match programs seem to be increasingly common. I'm not sure if it's due to the consolidation which is occurring in the hotel industry, or if it's simply a case of "monkey see, monkey do," given that Hilton launched a status match…
Consolidation is rampant in the hotel industry at the moment. IHG is buying Kimpton, Marriott is buying Starwood, and Accor is buying Fairmont, Raffles and Swissôtel. Now we have news of the next merger -- Carlson hotels are being taken over by HNA Tourism…
Oh boy. We've seen the "big three" US airline emerge as a result of some huge mergers over the past decade, and it looks like we're now slowly seeing the same thing in the global hotel industry. It started with IHG taking over Kimpton, followed by an…
As I explained in the introduction, we decided to spend a weekend in Colorado Springs, one of our favorite destinations for a quick getaway. Oh, who am I kidding -- we all know the real purpose of the trip was to earn a shipload of Carlson points given…
In early April Club Carlson first announced a huge change to the Club Carlson Premier Rewards Visa Signature® Card. For years the card offered an amazing benefit whereby the second night of every award redemption was free, which is an incredible perk.…
