If it’s Thursday, it must be Park Inn Bedford

Later today I will be visiting the Park Inn in Bedford, which is absolutely not the sort of place that I usually spend my Thursdays, or indeed any other day.

The reason is the Park Inn One Plus One promotion, which offers 44,000 bonus Club Carlson points to the first 20,000 people to register at the above link and then complete a Park Inn stay before 22nd July.  

As the bonus is only once per account, I have registered various family members and will do a few stays on their accounts during the promo period.  

It is possible to transfer points from one Club Carlson account to another for free, but that may not be necessary as I will have roughly 50,000 per account with the normal points added to the bonus, and that is the key redemption level.

This is purely a mattress run for me, as I am not staying overnight at the hotel.  The maths is £49 for the hotel and £20 for the train from London, so £70 plus a couple of hours of my time.  

In return, I will have 50k Club Carlson points.  That is worth a free night at the most luxurious properties in the CC portfolio, such as a higher end Radisson (or 5 nights at a poor quality budget hotel) or 8,000 airline miles.  If I transfer points from two accounts together, 100k is worth 18,000 airline miles, so 9k per 50k CC.

This is a decent deal for the airline miles, especially if you transfer to a programme where it is harder to earn miles in the UK but where you have a balance – eg Miles & More, where I have 100k and would like more, but which is  not an Amex Membership Rewards partner.  

The best value will come from using them for hotels stays, however.  If I had a definite plan for when I would use them I would hit this promotion harder, but as I don’t I am happy doing 3 or 4 mattress runs over the next 6 weeks.

There is also a Radisson version of this promo worth 50,000 points, although in the UK Radisson properties are more expensive and so difficult to use for a mattress run – although if you are travelling anyway, it is well worth diverting a night to a Radisson if you can.  

The Radisson promo finishes a week early, on 15th July, and you CAN have both the Park Inn and Radisson bonuses on the same account.  And if you are travelling with your partner for 2 nights or more, book 1 night from your account and 1 night on your partners account – that will trigger two bonuses!

---

How to earn Radisson Rewards points and status from UK credit cards (April 2024)

Radisson Rewards does not have a dedicated UK credit card. However, you can earn Radisson Rewards points by converting Membership Rewards points earned from selected UK American Express cards.

These cards earn Membership Rewards points:

• American Express Preferred Rewards Gold (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 20,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 60,000 Radisson Rewards points. This card is FREE for your first year and also comes with four free airport lounge passes.

• The Platinum Card from American Express (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 40,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 120,000 Radisson Rewards points

• American Express Rewards credit card (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 10,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 30,000 Radisson Rewards points. This card is FREE for life.

Membership Rewards points convert at 1:3 into Radisson Rewards points which is a very attractive rate.  The cards above all earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent on your card, which converts to 3 Radisson Rewards points.

Even better, holders of The Platinum Card receive free Radisson Rewards Premium status for as long as they hold the card.  It also comes with Hilton Honors Gold, Marriott Bonvoy Gold and MeliaRewards Gold status.  We reviewed American Express Platinum in detail here.

(Want to earn more hotel points?  Click here to see our complete list of promotions from the major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.)