Le Chic Geek
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We decided to have our wedding up in New York, since I have an incredible (and overwhelming!) number of relatives. Because Bill is from Texas, we currently live in DC, and we both have country-hopped a little, we had friends coming in from all over.
This required us to get a room block and figure out a post-wedding brunch for all those guests staying over.Â
There were only two hotels right by the venue. Because of previous family history and snowstorms (long story), I insisted on having the hotel be near where we were getting married. This eliminated a lot of options, Starwood Hotels, Ritz-Carltons, Hiltons, and left us with a choice between a Residence Inn and a Radisson.
We drove to the area and popped into each hotel just to have a look around. The Residence Inn looked really dated, and the Radisson had a much more modern, sleek feel to it. When I inquired about food options, the Radisson was really on the ball, so we started working with them. Tegan Ziehl, especially, was really helpful and the main reason we started working with them.
We received a great rate for the NY area, and I really liked the great hot breakfast options they had for lunch. (I’m a huge hot breakfast person). It was becoming so easy to work with them that I began wondering about the rehearsal dinner. I asked about options for that, and was extremely surprised at the affordability, again, for New York–especially in the costs for beverages. So I booked it.
What does this have to do with miles and points? Well, first, the staff agreed to let me apply what I spent on the meals to my gold points account. And I ended up applying for the Club Carlson Premier Visa Card.
Between hitting minimum spend requirements and the amount we actually spent on the two events, I walked out with way over 200k in points. If it were possible to buy 200k Club Carlson points at once, it would cost $1,400. Not bad for money I was going to spend anyway.
One note about this Radisson, the New Rochelle Radisson, they are in the process of updating rooms, so some guests had a very different experience from the other guests in terms of modernity of rooms (I loved my room). But I enjoyed the staff there, and the room service pizza is so excellent, I’ve been craving it while writing this post.
