40K Club Carlson Points for an Error
As someone who is always looking to “maximize everything”, I love when I receive points/miles when they aren’t expected. Yesterday I received a rather non-descript piece of mail promising me 40,000 points.
As you can see, this letter promises 40,000 points for some “confusion about what qualified for the Annual Renewal Bonus.” I quickly Googled the phone number since no bank or specific card was mentioned in the letter. I concluded that it was US Bank and verified through the last four of the card number that it was my Club Carlson credit card.
Why the Gift?
You may recall that I downgraded my Club Carlson credit card during the strangest retention call I have encountered. The downgrade involved going to the no annual fee card which earns less (I don’t really use it for spend) and doesn’t come with an annual 40,000 point bonus.
My goal in downgrading was to keep the card open so I could get my free night certificate which they were offering to all holders after the removal of the Bonus Award Night. Downgrading did indeed work since I received the annual free night cert which we used in Florida a couple of months ago. I now just keep the card open to extend my average age of accounts.
Getting the Points
After receiving the letter on on Friday, I checked my Club Carlson account and found no points. Then, late last night Award Wallet sent me a notification that my Club Carlson account had a change. I then logged into find the following:
I remember when I made the conversion to the no annual fee card that the rep had a fairly elaborate script to read about the benefits of the new card. My guess is that the script didn’t clearly explain that the annual 40K bonus wasn’t included with the new card. Perhaps someone complained and they proactively decided to give the points out to everyone who had converted. While I am not a huge Club Carlson fan, I did recently re-match to Gold status and am sure I’ll find a use for these points.
Conclusion
This was definitely a welcome and nice surprise. Over the years I have found that this sort of stuff does happen from time to time and I have learned to gladly accept as long as it is not some sort of error or glitch. In this case they meant to give me the points, so I’ll take them!
Has anyone else received a similar gift from US Bank or Club Carlson? Was your situation similar to mine? Let me know in the comments!
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[…] many folks, including Shawn from Milestomemories blog got the points as well. So I guess I’m not […]
I will only say that I knew that this was Club Carlson before I even clicked on the link. It had to be, because this kind of thing happens all the time with them.
Yep. Got it. While it is a pleasant surprise, I miss the stay one night get the next night free. Got us through Germany last year. But I’ve already used some of the new mistake points at country inn and suites in Jacksonville. So, thanks for ding the right thing club Carlson!
I received the same letter, but I do not see any points credited to my account.. or pending… what do you think I should do?
I’m in the same boat. I saved the letter and set a calendar reminder to check again in a month to see whether the points have been credited. If they haven’t, I’ll call them or submit a secure message to check.
I just looked at my account and I received 80,000 when I should have received 40,000 from US Bank for the Business Visa
ACTUALLY, we received the 40,000 points for the Visa card in May and in June we received 80,000 more, best $60 annual fee I’ve ever paid!
I’ve gotten a bunch of points unexpectedly like you over the years. I’ve lost track of most errors but one that stands out is the IHG free night. Wife and I booked two rooms @ the Crowne Plaza Time Square for New Year’s Eve. They treated it as two paid stays and awarded us 80K points. The two rooms w/ tax was about $5K.
I received the exact same thing under the exact same scenario. Mine is still pending, but at least it showed up as pending. Radisson Blu is by far my favorite hotel chain.