Thursday Giveaway: Club Carlson $500 Gift Card and Concierge Status Twitter and Instagram Giveaway

This week, the good folks over at Club Carlson have given me another set of two $500 gift cards and two of their highest-tier Concierge level status valid through February 2015 to give away to lucky readers.

As a reminder, Concierge status gets you get the following perks:

-Complimentary room upgrades
-Elite Rollover Nights – above and beyond qualification for each elite status level
-Early Check-in and Late Check-out
-Elite Customer Service Line
-3,000 bonus points for online booking
-75% bonus on earned points
-In-room welcome gift
-48-hour room availability guarantee
-Free restaurant continental breakfast
-Global concierge access

Normally to earn Concierge status, you need 75 nights or 30 stays per year, but you can earn it, and a $500 gift certificate easier than that with this giveaway.

Though in the past Starwood and Hyatt have been my hotel programs of choice, this year I’ve been paying more and more attention lately to Club Carlson, the loyalty program of Radisson and Radisson Blu (as well as other brands like Park Inn), because of some high-value features including half-price award redemptions on two-night award stays if you have one of the Club Carlson credit cards, which is one of if not the most lucrative hotel credit card perks out there.

For last week's giveaway you had to leave a comment on my post telling me which tropical Club Carlson property you'd use your gift card at and how you'd maximize your elite status. But for this week, let's take the fun to social media where you can Tweet and Instagram your responses to me - and let's get into the holiday giving spirit.

I want you to tell me who you would give this prize to as a gift and where you/they would go with it - and yes, it can be your significant other, friend or family member who'd take you along to enjoy the fun. You can enter in two ways:

1. Twitter: Tweet me @thepointsguy and tell me in 140 characters or less about someone special in your life that you think deserves this gift. Be concise, be clear, be creative - pictures and rhymes welcome. Be sure to include the hashtag #TPGCarlsonGiveaway so I can find your tweets easily. For instance, my tweet could be: "Want to treat my folks to a weekend at the Radisson Aruba Resort for their 60th birthdays! #TPGCarlsonGiveaway"

2. Instagram: Upload a picture to Instagram with your entry - maybe it's a photo of you and your friend, maybe it's the Club Carlson property you'd want to take them to, whatever it is, make it eye-catching! In order for me to see it, you need to follow me @thepointsguy and hashtag it #TPGCarlsonGiveaway. For instance, here's a post of me and my friends in Paris over Thanksgiving and my entry could look like this:

You have until 5pm ET on Monday, December 16, to enter. You can only enter once by each method. We'll pick the winners after that and announce them next week. I can't wait to see all your entries!

Last Week's Winners

For last week's giveaway, I was dreaming of warmer climes as cold weather settled across the US, and apparently a lot of readers were as well because we got nearly 1,000 comments telling me about the tropical Club Carlson properties people wanted to visit most. There were a lot of votes for the Radisson Blu Resort Fiji Denarau, two upcoming hotels in the Maldives, and Radisson Blu Plaza Resort Phuket Panwa Beach among many others.

We created a list of comments and chose the following two winners of $500 gift cards and Concierge status at random:

Jill: The Radisson Blu in Capetown, South Africa! A room upgrade and breakfast would be wonderful. The rest of the year I would definitely use the 48-hour advance reservation guarantee since I need to be flexible with my last-minute business travel lodging.

Chelle: I'm planning a trip to Samoa and it looks like we'll have a 24-36 hour layover in Fiji. So, I definitely would stay at the Radisson Blu Fiji. With my new elite status, I'd book online to get the 3000 point booking bonus and 75% point bonus. Then I'd grab a free breakfast and consult the Global Concierge for the best things to do during my short time in Fiji!

Thank you to all who entered, and please go for it again this week!

For more background on the program, check out my Maximizing Club Carlson series, whose posts include Base Level Earning and Redemptions, Business Program, Elite Status and Cash + Points Redemptions.

U.S. Bank, Carlson Inc., and their respective affiliates and employees are not sponsors and are not responsible for any part of the giveaway.
[card card-name='Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card' card-id='22125056' type='javascript' bullet-id='1']