- Should Travel Bloggers Stay Out of Politics?
- Turnover Tuesdays – All My Returns Will Now Going To Be Inspected By Me, Not Amazon by Oren’s Money Saver. Looks like this isn’t possible automatically, but it should be.
- Club Carlson cuts arguably the last remaining valuable offer it had by Wandering Aramean. Seems odd to remove this benefit due to lack of use unless they plan to replace it with something else, sounds like a convenient excuse to me.
- Several American Airlines Clubs Now Serving Complimentary Premium Drinks by View From The Wing. Only clubs currently undergoing renovation.
Ariana A has been among the last travel bloggers who persisted in making a (plausible) case for keeping the CC card….. and oddly enough, I’ve come around to agreeing with her. yes, you get annual 40k points. Then too, there’s the annual free night after 10k in spend. (which in turn gets you 50k additional points) So presuming you know “how” to spend 10k …. efficiently…. that’s 3+ nights right there, say at Melbourne Radisson — for a chep $60 af (business version)….
Yes, CC portfolio is sad shape in US. Yet I’m thinking too of Europe and north africa offerings in the coming year.
I didn’t even know about this last “elite” benefit…. No wonder it wasn’t much used.
Your reasoning for getting rid of the Club Carlson benefit, is the exact same thought I had on getting rid of Amex/Hilton Axon awards. Lack of use as a reason just seems like an excuse to take away something that is useful to members.
To be fair, Axon awards were of very limited use – only a small percentage of stays were cheaper with Axon. I’m a Diamond member/Surpass holder and I only used an Axon award once – and it was a bit of a hassle as had to call in, rather than simply booking online. So I believe Hilton when they say almost nobody was using the benefit. Amex barely mentioned the benefit in their promo material.
Carlson is a crap program with mostly crap properties (especially their domestic properties) – at least that’s what I learned after trying to find some place to redeem the points I’ve had.