What are your plans with Radisson Rewards now?
 

I'm curious if the recent development with the Radisson Rewards program is impacting your plans on staying, spending and redeeming Radisson Rewards.

The devaluation, the split of the Radisson Rewards program between Americas and the rest of the world, and now US Bank is discontinuing the Radisson Rewards credit cards. It is not clear if another bank will offer a Radisson Rewards affiliated credit card at this point. Frankly, I am not expecting any bank to.

Radisson has limited footprint in my area, and the number of points needed to redeem for one room at a basic Country Inn has gone way up. Even for future prospective European trips, I feel like expecting to have a smooth experience transferring points into the "rest of the world" program and then be able to redeem points successfully is just a pipe dream at this point. Not to mention many Radisson hotels I've looked at in Europe do not have any availability for points redemption at all.

I don't know what plans Jinjiang (the owner of Radisson hotel group) has in store for Radisson. It doesn't feel like they are actively developing the brand. I am finding it harder and harder to justify keeping one more hotel loyalty program active. I'm not quite giving up yet but I think I'm close.

How about you?

I currently have around 200,000 points and live pretty close to Minneapolis/St. Paul, so Radisson has a decent footprint in the area.

There is even the Carlson School of Business, which was named after the Radisson founder.

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Carlso..._of_Management

I fly out of Minneapolis at least once or twice per year, so I'll probably burn the points slowly, redeeming for airport hotels. If Radisson eventually partners with another bank, and the card has decent benefits, I may reapply.

I have a 300k point stash that was mostly from CC spend/annual 40k on renewal. Honestly with the split in the program, the end of the US cc, their crappy IT (using the free night certs was so painful) and the rather inconsistent experiences I have had at their mid-tier hotels, I am looking to burn my points and dump the program. I'll stick to Hilton and Bonvoy at this point for chain hotels.

I have a couple of million points, so plan on spending them down in the Americas program. I am no longer planning any revenue stays with Radisson, as I just can't bring myself to deal with the two programs.

Found it impossible to move the status from international to Americas so have started with a new program in the USA for me and my team. Whilst the Radisson hotel was fairly close to the site we will be working for the next month other hotels are even closer so without the advantages of the program its just easier to start from scratch with the better options.

I will still keep my radisson international but have abandoned radisson americas.

Wow, and I thought I had a oversized account with about 500k points. :)

Other than a stay here and there at an airport property or a three-day in downtown Trier, Germany (beautiful historic city, by the way), I haven’t really used Radisson much in recent years. My goal is to use up the account balance over the next few years for road trips and airport stays. Already booked three nights at Country Inns where I otherwise would have picked a Hampton Inn or HIX as my go-to chain. That’s only 90k points, so I have more work to do :)

I was Club Carlson Concierge for around 5 years but after they stopped their excellent weekend extend deals I no longer saw a reason to stay and so slipped down the levels. I’m currently on the lowest rank: Club

I don’t stay at Radisson Group hôtels much at all now but I saw in January that I had 45,221 points and I’m burning 45,000 of them on a three night ‘cash and points’ stay at Amsterdam West Park Inn this Bank Holiday weekend.

I have no loyalty left for Radisson Group; should I stay with them in the future it will be based solely on price and location rather than a desire to build status up again in their programme which is worthless now.

I tend to be a hoarder when it comes to points and miles. Unfortunately, they keep getting devalued and I have yet to learn my lesson. Ugh!

I never had loyalty for Radisson, but I collected their points from occasional stay due to long-forgotten promos and their credit card. Going forward (once I had used up my points), I think any Radisson stays will likely be booked via hotels.com and earn credits in their loyalty program.

I keep learning (and forgetting) that lesson again and again :)

I should have booked a lot more Radisson awards when they had the BOGO offer for credit card holders.

Down to about 15k points. I will be looking for one final redemption (possibly cash and points), then I'm out.

I'm staying, there is no other chain that can match Radisson's footprint around my travel pattern. I can either be Platinum with Radisson or, at best, (equivalent to) Silver in another program.

Radisson has plenty of nice hotels in areas I travel to and some of them are great with elite recognition. At the same time, this is very inconsistent so there definitely are locations where I no longer bother with loyalty and just go shop around.

I'm at about 1.5 mio points and had planned to use a bunch on a summer vacation to Europe back in 2020 but then the pandemic hit. Well of course that plan was put on ice but still looking at moving a good chunk by summer of next year. Europe is really the only option for me to move any decent amount of points since their footprint in NYC dwindled back down to 2 crappy properties (like to use points for weekends in the city) and I haven't found any place else in the US worth staying at on vacation. I travel in Europe for business a couple of times a year so I usually have a stay or two at Radisson properties but definitely not going out of my way to earn points any longer.

I stayed at the mid-town property last year and yeah it was crappy. It had the worst internet access I have experienced the last 10 years easily. Folks were at the front desk complaining about it all the time. Thankfully I was there on work so not terribly impacted. I burned up a couple of e-certs there (cannot use them overseas). The couple of nights I spent at a Marriott on free certs was so much better.

The lack of a decent property in NYC for Radisson is beyond my comprehension. Logic would seem to dictate that Radisson should have decent Radisson or Radisson Blu properties in most of the larger US cities like NYC, LA, Chicago, etc., etc. Reality is their NYC footprint has always left a lot to be desired. They had just the so so Martinique for the longest time and then that hotel left and got a reno to join the Hilton Curio brand. They then added an indepedent hotel called the Cassa that actually wasn't bad but that only lasted a year or so. Then they kept announcing a new Radisson Times Square that was delayed and once it opened the pandemic hit and it was deflagged and I think it is now a DoubleTree. In the past there was rumors of a Radisson Red and even an Art'otel in the works but who knows if those still even on the table.

Again...just incomprehensible that in a city like NYC there is no flagship property for their brand....and even more incomprehensible is charging 70k for an award room at the Midtown property you commented on.

I stayed at their Fifth Avenue property a few times last year, and each stay resulted in a call to Radisson Customer Service. The property does not honor any of the Radisson Rewards Elite benefits. When pressed, the hotel reinterprets the benefits. For example, they allow an early check-in up to an hour for a $50 fee. Why I kept going back is beyond me.

Accumulating points for years with the expectation of bookings in Europe. Ultimately transferred 800,000 points from Radisson American to Radisson. 75,000 points per night for a $600 per night hotel in London far exceeds the options in the United States. The points and miles game is a moving target. Not clear if accumulating Radisson points in the future will be simple as a United States resident.

Same as you I have been collecting the Radisson points from the credit card and never used once, as I usually stay with the 3 main chains in the US and hoping to burn these points for Europe. I decided to transfer all my 550k pts last night to Radisson and will have to plan a trip to use them up overseas. London and Paris seems to have highest priced properties, and the one in Maldive gets really good review too but a bit far to travel to.

Can't believe how few folks posted to this thread.This must be the least popular program in history!
I just awoke from a deep sleep to discover my measly 100k plus account can no longer be used abroad for redemption nights
or the free night voucher I have good for any property worldwide issued by Radisson America which has turned into a pumpkin
My sympathy to those with fat point balances now good for Rattisons US and Choice properties :rolleyes:

Option 1 transfer left over points from Radisson America to Radisson International but I hear folks complaining about bad award availability
Option 2 Transfer 100k to 10,000 Delta or United Miles and end the misery of this association being my elite status wont transfer over to Radisson Int
Think I am better off just paying for what I want at this point as typically I go Hyatt ,Hilton, Bonvoid and InterCon first
Any other advice all?

I’ll probably follow Frenchie2 and transfer to non-Americas, but I wonder if Choice has something else up their sleeve. Isn’t the poor availability in Europe due to the travel surge or is it always like that?

I wouldn’t transfer to miles now since Choice also allows it.

Good point except that when i spoke to the rep today that struggled with English but meant well she indicated anything can happen
until the deal closes sometime early into the New Year
I take that to mean in my perception they could also end mileage transfers and or moving points to Radisson Int
As for tight award availability that may be just as you state.
.Whats 70k points really worth 300 to 400 dollars? I'm still tempted to bail
Also for the life of me why don't they continue to partner with one another split just like Hilton did many years ago when it was
Hilton Int and Hilton North America :confused:
Though I can certainly speculate

The transfer ratio to miles is so horrible there is just no way I would do it!
I have been poking around to see where the nice properties are with Radisson International - London Paris and Lucern Switzerland seem to have expensive hotels with good review.
Much to my surprise, there is a Radisson in Maldive with excellent reviews and awards are wide open!!! I have enough points for a week!! :D if I can find the time to take vacation!

That's precisely the reason I transferred all mine out to Radisson Intl two nights ago. They could end the transfer to Radisson Intl any day without any notice!

Well said and well done!
Does Radisson Int have a points to miles option?

Yes at same horrible ratio as Radisson America program.

Why not? Status match was pretty easy. Now, I don’t actually think that it is going to be very useful since there is no chance that I will renew status in either program next year. Maybe I get a nicer room as Gold when I have a four night stay in Helsinki in a few months :)

I have about 2.5 million points.. I don't have any plans for travel in Europe anytime soon, or in the US for that matter. I was debating what to do. I'm thinking about transferring half my points into the international account and keeping half in the US account, in the event Choice decides to stop transfers. I'm sure someday I'll make my way over there... And this way I'll have points in that account for hopefully award night hotels....

With the international account, can you simply book an award night then cancel to keep that account active? I used to have the Radisson Rewards credit card, but since thats gone, I'll have to do the same trick with my US account..

Yikes! I assume most of those points are from using the credit card? That is a lot of points to use up without concrete plans.

This thread has some info on extending the points expirations:

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/radi...xpiration.html

Seems there are some technical issues with getting points returned after cancelling an award:

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/radi...cellation.html


Welcome to Flyertalk!

I have over 1.5 Mio points and will likely transfer a good chunk over to the international program in which I have only 25k and use those for stays in Europe. Seems RR International has added some recent new properties (at least since I last looked) in both Italy and Greece where I like to vacation. A couple of years ago RR had two properties in Greece (one in Athens and one on Crete) but they now have one on Santorini, one on Mykonos and one on another island that I will consider. Same situation in Italy, used to only be one crappy option in Rome at the train station but now they have a total of 11 options including in Rome, Venice, Florence and Milan. So overall the International program seems to have gained options while the US program has gotten worse. I would suggest if you have done so recently.......to research and see what additions the International program may have added recently. The most recent additions and the new developments can be found here but you can also search by country if a specific country is of interest to you:

https://www.radissonhotels.com/en-us/new-hotels

https://www.radissonhotels.com/en-us/destination

I just stayed in some Radisson properties in the Caribbean (Barbados and Grenada). Perhaps a nice way to redeem and get in some Caribbean waters over the winter. The Barbados property is old, but waters are gorgeous. Grenada property is newer but has a party/cruise ship vibe (i.e., not restful).

No plans to travel abroad for me, so I didn't move any Radisson over to EMEA prior to the massive devaluation, thus nothing to move back. I combined family's Radisson Rewards account balances into one (easier to administer since no more credit card for 40k/night).

I'm eagerly awaiting the Radisson/Choice conversion ratio. In the interim, I changed some Citi Premiers to Rewards+ without speculatively converting any TYP to Choice (despite me finding 1:2 to be a very attractive ratio). Sitting on a small amount of Choice points via a reservation that didn't pan out and had to cancel (Travelodge SF Taylor Street didn't onboard fast enough into Choice). I'm burning Radisson Americas slowly as it makes sense (15k stays + even a 10k/night stay in Charlotte UNCC due to points saver). Sitting on ~250k points so nothing ridiculously crazy.

Edit: it seems like there is now a Rewards Saver event for late December, including around Christmas and New Years. Time to burn some points for some properties at ~1/3 off (15k for 10k, 30k for 20k etc).

Well, after the credit card went away in May 2022, I still haven't used any of my accumulated points or had any paid stays. Today I got email that "Your stay activity qualifies you for Radisson Rewards Americas Silver status beginning March 2023." I still aspire to burn all/most of my points and be done.

I think a lot of us are in this boat and some transferred points out to the International program only to transfer them back to the US program after the huge devaluation. Right now I think most are in a "hold" pattern until we get some news of how the Radisson US program will be worked into the Choice program but those details are taking forever to release.

Personally I think the prices of Radisson hotels in Asia are still reasonable and I intend to spend all points during a future stay there. In Europe prices are crazily expensive and the devaluation make most of points almost useless.

I am in hold mode myself. I truly don't cherish Choice Rewards, but have too many Radisson points to simply burn them.

I can't believe this is called a Loyalty program. What kind of loyalty can you have for a program where you accumulate for many years and your 75k per night aspirationnal redemption jumped overnight to 400k per night? Staying at a Radisson in Stockholm in September, I spent over US$1400 which gives me enough point to get a $60 discount at a hotel. Where do I dind a $60 hotel. In a Kosovo ghetto?

I am of the opinion that regulators should get on this and find a way to limit the ability of these programs to bait and switch customers.

I can understand and share your frustration. I doubt however regulators will never enter into this.
Points value in Europe has reached the lowest level. At the end of the day it will be convenient again to spend money through Expedia, Booking etc which in some cases can credit back 5pc of the value of your booking as a credit or points. True hotels say they offer better fares (now there's a discount booster in Radisson) but at the end of the day most of the business is done by OLTA and they can't be unreasonably more expensive there. So I expect prices to align in the medium term and people making booking in OLTA where awards are clear and immediate. This unless an hotel program gives you real perks and benefits which is not just a free breakfast (that's valuable for those who eat a lot for breakfast but worths zero for those drinking a coffee) or a room upgrade if available (which is rarely the case).

Lowly Premium, and still value early checkin and late checkout, plus complimentary upgrade to higher category. Discount booster on gets me decent prices. No need to go for VIP just for the free breakie in selected properties.

Radisson EMEA used to be better tban
average loyalty programs, now they devalued like many others and are just average. But Premium suits me just fine.

Whether it makes sense to go for VIP depends on what will VIP upgrades look like following the revamp. Platinum upgrades in the old programme were usually great and definitely worth it compared to Gold/Silver tier. Technically, VIPs now get the same upgrade policy as Platinums used to have, though in reality that won't be the case since VIP has far lower qualification requirements, thus more members fighting for the upgrade.

It's actually the main reason why I gave up on any loyalty Radisson. Suite upgrades were a good motivation to stay with them even if otherwise the competition looked a bit better.

Same here, save the Radisson points balance issue.

I don’t have any great desire to use Choice hotels outside of the Nordic area. And Radisson in the EMEA and just about everywhere isn’t special enough to incentivize me to do much of anything with them unless and until they have a lucrative promo.

Choice Hotels and Nordic Choice are separate loyalty programs, I believe. Therefore no points transfers or even status match possible between the two.