Back in the day, Club Carlson had one of the best award programs out there. If you had the Club Carlson gift card and booked an award stay, you got the last night free
That meant if you booked stays in 2 night increments, you could essentially double the value of your points. Unfortunately that benefit went away last year. Before it did, we ended up saving 75,000 points by booking the Radisson Blu Roma (ended up regretting it), Wilmington NC, and several other places.
Getting an US Bank Club Carlson e cert
As part of the kerfluffle with US Bank / Club Carlson removing the Bonus Night award, they basically gave anyone that complained about it a free US Bank Club Carlson e certificate to use at any Club Carlson hotel worldwide
I got one for my account, one for my wife’s account, and somehow we ended up with a 3rd one (I don’t know how)
Trying to use my US Bank Club Carlson e cert
So I’m now having trouble trying to use my US Bank Club Carlson e cert free nights. Here’s a sample booking at the Radisson Martinique in New York City for tomorrow. We’re looking at potentially staying here for my upcoming trip to New York City.
Everything looks good, right? Now here’s what happens if I try to use one of my other US Bank Club Carlson e certificates
Note that the US Bank Club Carlson e cert is NOT supposed to have any blackout restrictions. If the hotel has a standard room available, you should be able to use a Club Carlson e cert. I have tried both with and without the USBANKEC promo code
One thing that I thought I saw someone say was that I had made a booking with one of my US Bank Club Carlson e certs and then later had to cancel it, and that might be screwing up one of the bookings. I’ve called
I’m still not 100% sure if the US Bank Club Carlson e cert nights have to be BOOKED by the expiration date or if the actual STAY has to be before the expiration date. Club Carlson keeps telling me that the stay has to be before the expiration date, but we all know that sometimes employees don’t know the actual rules of how things REALLY work…
So, any ideas on how I can use my US Bank Club Carlson e cert?
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
I’m staying at that property in a couple of weeks and had no issues using the same apology free night. I had also used it to book the May Fair in London and had to cancel it, and had no issues reusing the certificate to book Martinique. I am using before the expiration date though.
I am sure they have to be completed by end of this month. I tried a million dates and nothing past 8/31/16 worked for certs that worked on dates prior to 8/31/16
I second Jeremy. I called Club Carlson and they confirmed, I also did not have any luck getting an extension, even by a couple of days.
Hi Dan, Just saw this post, and it happens my wife has been having the exact SAME problem using her residual e-cert still on her account. It’s still indicating as live in her account, but when she tries to do a reservation with it, she gets the exact same error message you did.
She has been trying at this for nearly a month, to use the e-cert at both high end and bottom of the barrel Country Inn & Suites…. even tried calling up the CC reservation reps (at Ariana’s favorite program *tic) to make a reservation for the last remaining CC in San Jose (CA). The so unhelpful rep there at first went ahead and made a reservation on the phone, but when my wife gave her the CC e-cert #, she (and I’m not making this up) said that my wife could only make that reservation on-line…. and that she, the Club Carlson rep, could not help with e-certs! (She wasn’t saying the cert wasn’t still valid, but she couldn’t help us use the *$#@! thing) Seeming madness — yet par for the course at what’s left of Club Carlson)
Have you yet figured out a solution? We actually could put it to use this weekend….
Aside from ensuring the reservation is for one night only, I’ve only read of one other issue – apparently, some certificates use the extra US bank code (“PC” or similar) while others do not. I believe its “USBANKEC”. Might try it with and without the extra code to see if it works.
Hope this helps. Good luck.
Thanks very much for the reply Joe-SC1. Your comment (plus Dan’s reference to it in his original post) prodded me to check up on old posts from last year and found several confirming your good memory. (see frequentmiler for example) Just tried it with the USANKEC in the promotional code line plus the e-cert — and le voila, the $0 rate rooms come up.
Dan, hope you found it to work for your e-cert too!
I’ve tried both with USBANKEC and without and still having some trouble
Wow I was just looking at this last night. I have an e cert that I used but remains in my account. No matter what I do (USBANKEC or not) cant get it to work again.
Assume somewhere it has marked it has been used. Dontknow if your in the same boat.
I’ve noticed the urgent messages about using the Club Carlson “apology” nights by August 31. Although many may indeed expire on that date, I don’t think it is a uniform date for everyone who received these E-certificates. The certificate in my account is labeled “Club Carlson Visa Global Free Night-December 2015” and the expiration date shown is Dec. 31, 2016.
I have 3 Club Carlson e cert certificates – one expires 8/31, one expires 10/31, and one I”m not sure about because although I have the email, I can’t ever seem to get it to work 🙂
I managed to use mine in Orlando, last May. But you are right, I had a hard time finding acceptance anywhere.
Mine was successfully redeemed for a great night this week in the London Edwardian Radisson Blu at Bloomsbury. Really enjoyed room 330, at the end of the hall, and the fantastic restaurants just three blocks south in the Seven Dials neighborhood. (Oddly, one of the front desk clerks asked me to give a printed receipt of the “e-cert”, which I of course did not have. When I asked for someone in charge, one of the more experienced front desk clerks said a printed receipt wasn’t necessary. …otherwise, the stay was fantastic, and customer serine was flawless.)
I have a Global Radisson E-cert which expires 30 Sep. 2016, which I am willing to trade for a later-expiring one or a similar cert from another hotel chain. Mine works fine by just entering the e-cert number in the box on their Website (no “USBANKEC”.)
I have the exact same situation as Pat BB above. Everything in his message above applies to me as well – only difference is that mine are still valid and expire at the end of October 2016. Looking for a comparable trade or even a domestic cert from Club Carlson swap for my global ones. (2 available)
M, please email me at steeds-75232 (AT) mypacks.net . I might be able to help you.
Thanks for the offer but I believe I have it sorted out at the local hotel level now.
OK. Thanks for your response. I’ll stick with using my domestic e-cert exp. Feb. 2017 for my late Oct. stay.
Did you ever find out how to use your e-cert? I have the exact same problem. I cancelled a reservation that was booked using e-cert. E-cert was returned to my account but using that e-cert shows no availability for hotels that are available for other e-certs for the exact same date!
I was able to do it over the phone.