PumpkinSmasher

The significant other and I both received the emails and snail mail letters yesterday on both of our cards each (for a total of 4 nights). What a fantastic surprise!

I may have to go back to London sooner than I thought afterall.

For those who have not received, I would say be patient. I did not receive the free nights with the first wave of people. They must be doing this in batches, so give it a little more time and/or call and ask.

NRTBound2015

Well, another tweet from a different csr on the Club Carlson twitter account states that the cert, "was sent to a select group of members and is not available to everyone. We apologize for any disappointment."

So either the people running the twitter account are REALLY misinformed, or this was meant to be a targeted promo.

Congrats to everyone who got the windfall, I guess...

dw

And congrats to CC for managing to yet again piss off a subset of their customers. I would not be surprised if this is the last straw for some cardholders who were on the fence about cancelling their cards.

xcalibir

This makes no sense.... I called yesterday and they said that they are "reviewing my account" to determine if I am eligible. Now they say it is random? Outside of the devaluation, Club Carlson has done a lot to piss me off the past 2 months. From having computer glitches at Radisson Blu Bangkok that "canceled" my reservation and forced me to pay out of pocket for my reservation to this, this is the last straw for my CC.

Jesperss

Ended up with three nights.

Myself (personal + biz), wife (personal). Funny thing is that two of the cards have been cancelled for 3 months not.

Not complaining

teddy25

how long has each person held the cards?

I have both of my cards for 2+ years. paid 2 annual fees on one and 3 on another.

i got the free nights.

notquiteaff

Have had the card since it came out. Put $6k on it last year, $3k this year. Not valued enough to get the free might, so will cancel the card next time fee comes due.

ned

+1

rendezvous

Does any one know if you can use the free night certificate for family members if you are not staying the night in the hotel? I didn't see anything in the T&C that would prevent this.

inY

Maybe it's an experiment? Measure the impact of a free night on retention across a representative sample of cardholders. Also measure breakage rates. They are almost certainly measuring the impact, though that is unlikely to be the primary motivator.

The bizarre thing about this is that they haven't provided us with a reason to keep the card, except in expectation that they might roll out another promo.

fassy

I guess the number of people who are maximizing on credit card bonuses is fairly small but costs them quite a lot of money.

If they loose those customers it is probably not the worst thing in the world as long as they retain the majority of customers using the card in set limits e.g. for the complimentary Gold status and I think a lot people can work with 40k points for 75$ .

Also the still quite generous signup of 85k for a very small spending requirement is not too shabby and will attract some card churners.

Sad thing is that maximizing and overly exploiting a program usually means it ends like this. If everybody heavily maximizing would have been a bit more decent on using the benefits provided, the devaluations and cut backs on benefits might have been not that shocking.

MD/DC Flyer

I'll have to disagree. CC and USBank are businesses. They are not doing anything to be nice. They offer the benefits to make money.

Now, the fact that they make poor business decisions, and by the fiasco of the free night, continue to make poor business decisions, is not a reason to be "nice" to them.

The original program was unattainable, and they should have known so from the start - regardless whether people were using it to the max. Smart consumers SHOULD have used it to the max because it had to end at one point (sooner rather than later).

If it is legal, there is nothing wrong from getting the maximum value out of the program. Don't think for one second they have any problems doing the same to you.

mysticv6

I received a call back this afternoon. I was told that these certificates were issued to people that had called to complain but also kept the card and didn't cancel it. From all the data points I've read this doesn't really seem to be true but I didn't argue with him because he told me he would go ahead and issue a certificate for me.

I should get the certificate in my next billing cycle but it could be two or three billing cycles. He thought mine might come faster since I already paid my annual fee (in early May I believe). I got the impression they were really trying to target people that kept the card after the changes.

I did call to complain when the changes were first announced but that didn't seem to trigger the certificate automatically for me. And I only received the 2500 points then, not the 7500 I've read about from others.

dw

I don't think it could be true as well because several posters have reported getting the free night e-certs for accounts that have been closed for a few months now.

But if this is true, I still disagree with the strategy USBank and/or CC are taking here. Presumably the majority of cardholders are not happy with the changes, but not everyone has the time or the desire to call in to complain, especially since the reports were that people were getting either 2,500 or 7,500 points as compensation... and with so many Blu properties having moved to 70,000 points/night, compensation of as little as 2,500 points is pretty insignificant.

The effect, then, is that they've just pissed off a lot of cardholders. They must have known that it's impossible to target only a subset of your customers in this day and age with a promotion without a much larger subset finding out over social media or blogs.

PumpkinSmasher

I can't understand how so many here have spoken in absolutes as if they have issued every last certificate and that another batch won't be issued after. I understand the panic, but it seems premature to me.