Today Only: Hotels In Europe for $20

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Note: Some of the offers mentioned below may have changed or are no longer be available. You can view current offers here.

Update at 2:47 PM on 3/25/15: These packages sold out before I could buy one.

Today is the third day of five weeks of discounted travel packages from the US Travel Association called Daily Getaways. Every weekday at 1 PM ET, a discounted travel package or packages will go on sale and will often sell out in a few minutes. Every weekend I’ll preview the deals for the next week, and the morning of interesting deals, I’ll have a full write up.

Today only, Club Carlson points are being sold cheaply enough that you can stay at a hotel in Europe for as low as $20 per night!

Today’s deal is:

• 100,000 Club Carlson points for $450 (0.45 cents each), 50 packages available
• 50,000 Club Carlson points for $225 (0.45 cents each), 100 packages available
  

Award nights start at 9,000 points, and those of us with a Club Carlson credit card get the last night free on award stays of 2+ nights, so on two night stays, we pay half price.

• How can you get in on the deal?
• How good is this deal?
• How does the Club Carlson deal make buying points twice as good of a value?

The two offers today are:

• 100,000 Club Carlson points for $450 (0.45 cents each) | 50 packages available
• 50,000 Club Carlson points for $225 (0.44 cents each) | 100 packages available

You can buy up to two of each package, four total. If you bought the maximum, you would be getting 300k Club Carlson points for $1,350.

Club Carlson points can be used at over 1,000 hotels with the following brand names:

• Radisson Blu
• Radisson
• Park Plaza
• Park Inn by Radisson
• Country Inns & Suites By Carlson

Here is a map of all Club Carlson properties.

How far do Club Carlson points go? Here’s the award chart.

A Category 1 hotel costs 9,000 points, which is $40.50 if you buy points for 0.45 cents each. Needless to say $40.50 is a great deal for a hotel night in Europe at some decent Category 1 properties. I have my eye on the Park Inns in Sofia, Bulgaria; Budapest, Hungary, and Vilnius, Lithuania for this summer.

There aren’t any aspirational Club Carlson hotels at the level we see from Hyatts and Hiltons, but the top tier hotels are still under their retail price at $315 per night (70,000 times 0.45 cents per point). The full Category 7 list is here.

I recently stayed at the 70,000-points-per-night The May Fair, London. It was a fantastic location from which to explore the city, and I really liked the hotel. Its retail price is $1,107 per night this summer.

Make the Deal Twice As Good

The hotel awards I’ve described already are enough for some to get in on the deal, but the deal can be twice as good.

The Club Carlson Visa from US Bank has the following offer:

• Up to 85k bonus points
• 50k bonus points on first use
• 35k points after spending $2,500 in 90 days
• 10 points per dollar at Carlson hotels
• 5 points per dollar on all other purchases
• 40k bonus points on renewal
• Automatic Gold Status while holding the card
• When you redeem points for an award stay of 2+ nights, the last night is free
• $75 annual fee, not waived

The last-night-free benefit means if you buy a 100k package and make all two night award stays, Category 1 hotels cost $20 per night and Category 7 hotels cost $158 per night! Those are all-in prices for Europe, Australia, and other places where hotels cost an arm and a leg.

Application Link: Club Carlson Premier Rewards Visa Signature Card

If you buy points today, you can redeem them for awards with the last night free as soon as you have the credit card.

My Plan

I’m going to buy two 100k point packages. I am considering several hotel stays in Finland, Latvia, Lithuania, and Estonia, all of which have several Club Carlson properties in their capitals. If I stay in each city about one week as a series of three or four 2-night stays at alternating hotels, I’ll get fantastic value.

I can do 24 days in Helsinki, Tallinn, Riga, and Vilnius for 278k points, which is $1,251 at 0.45 cents per point. That’s about $50 per night for hotels in Europe.

Will This Deal Sell Out?

During last year’s Daily Getaways, Club Carlson points went on sale for the same price with the same number of packages and sold out instantly. I expect this deal to sell out in less than a minute.

Purchasing the Packages

To maximize your chances of getting in on the deal, I recommend using a site like whattimeisit.com to figure out the official time. The sale starts at 1 PM ET / 10 AM PT / 7 AM HT. This year’s sales all started on time to the second. Keep refreshing the deal page until you see the BUY NOW button replace the SEE DETAILS button.

This is what happens if you try to purchase something when all quantities are already in someone’s cart.

This doesn’t mean the deal is sold out. If someone doesn’t complete his purchase, that quantity will immediately become available for someone else. Keep checking until the dreaded “Sold Out” appears.

Key Links

• Daily Getaways home page
• Daily Getaways Help
• Daily Getaways FAQ
• 100,000 Gold Points for $450
• 50,000 Gold Points for $225

Do you plan to buy Club Carlson points? Post your successful or failed attempt in the comments, so we can gauge how quick you had to be to snag a deal.