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Earlier this year, Radisson Rewards split in two. Now the Radisson Rewards Worldwide program (outside the Americas) has devaluated several parts of the program. Members earn fewer points, points are worth less, etc. Here's a summary of changes, and what you can do about them.
Let me be clear that this applies to the worldwide half of Radisson Rewards — not Radisson Rewards Americas.
Devaluation of Radisson Rewards
New Membership Tiers
The first big change is in the reward tier benefits for Radisson Rewards members. Formerly, award points were collected as follows:
- Radisson Club members earned 20 points per dollar spent
- Silver elite earned 22 points per dollar
- Gold elite earned 25 points per dollar
- Platinum elite earned 35 points per dollar
The new program only has three status levels and the reward points earned are as follows:
- Radisson Club members now only earn 9 points per dollar spent — a 55% reduction.
- Platinum status (comparable to the old Silver status) earns 27 points per dollar spent.
- The new Radisson VIP status (comparable to the old Platinum status) earns 36 points per dollar spent.
It's a bit confusing that the Radisson Rewards page says Club members earn 9 points per dollar spent, but the chart says only 8 points.
The positive change here is that elite statuses are easier to attain. Formerly, Silver required 9 nights or 6 stays, Gold required 30 nights or 20 stays, and Platinum required 60 nights or 30 stays. Now, Platinum only requires 5 nights or 3 stays, and VIP requires 30 nights or 20 stays.
New Dynamic Award Pricing
The biggest devaluation of Radisson Rewards is in the rewards chart — or rather lack thereof. Here's what the old rewards chart looked like:
Radisson Rewards has now introduced a dynamic award chart, allowing you to redeem a chosen number of points for each stay. When redeeming points, there is a sliding scale for how many you want to use. The more points you use, the more cash amount you still need to pay drops, as low as zero.
Formerly, Radisson Rewards points were valued anywhere from .3 to .45 cents per point. In practice, the new dynamic award pricing puts the value of points as high as .28 cents each, and as low as .15 cents each!
There is no rhyme or reason to how many points you'll have to redeem at each property to get the cash required down to $0, or what the value of each point will be. But it is certain that the value of points isn't nearly as good as before.
Transferring Points to Radisson Rewards Americas
Your Radisson Rewards points are not good at any property in the Americas…unless you transfer your points to Radisson Rewards Americas. This is a very simple thing to do, and probably a good idea with the devaluation of Radisson Rewards. Simply visit this link to transfer your points between programs.
Earlier this year, Radisson Rewards Americas was acquired by Choice Hotels. We have yet to see what will happen with that change, if Choice Privileges will take over, and if there will be a devaluation of Radisson Rewards Americas points.
Our Take
This is hardly a smart move for Radisson Rewards, and I have to wonder at their reasoning. While other rewards programs are working to attract more members, this move is sure to turn members away. At least you can still transfer your points to the Americas program for redemption.
It seems members are almost punished for not having an elite tier. Perhaps it's a balance to make the higher tier level more easily accessible. Either way, it will be interesting to see what people think of the devaluation.
What are your thoughts on the devaluation of Radisson Rewards? Have you tried to redeem your points since the change?
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With all of this going on, where are the best places worldwide to get max value for the points we already have???
Any suggestions greatly appreciated!!!
Unfortunately this update really killed off the value of the Worldwide points. But you can still transfer points to the Americas program and redeem for decent value in the Americas!
Radisson was a pretty weak program even BEFORE this massive devaluation. almost no elite benefits of value.
Now it is at the BOTTOM of the list.
Fortunately my colleagues and I rarely stayed with them nor accumulated points.
Marriot with all of its faults still stands out as the best overall loyalty program (hyatt is too hard to get status and small footprintoutside usa).
So sick of Radisson and their shoddy practices. Didn’t think they could get worse. Their website and app stinks, their CS stinks. When you cancel an award booking with them they don’t refund your points. You have to call them and ask them for a refund! So ridiculous and now this? Man I hate this chain when I used to love it. Can’t wait to use up my points so I never have to stay at one of their hotels again!
The Mayfair went from 75K/night to 170K/night. My estimates are they dropped from .4cpp to .2cpp. with the new Pay-With scheme. Of course I transferred out to Americas a,s,a,p. while the going was good. BUT if Americas stays separate from Choice for a while it will very possibly devalue the same. And even if it merges fast (unlikely) it may be devalued in the conversion. (if it’s 1:1 with Choice that would be great).
A possible “out” is Americas still has a 50% bonus until Oct 31 going to transfer to United Air. That is a decent transfer with the bonus. So decent that Americas has added a note on the transfer page urging people to stay because so many opportunities will come with Choice. (hmmm) IDK. I’ll decide Oct 31.
This isn’t the 1st of the new “Pay-With Scheme” devaluations. Aer Lingus has been fighting with Avios.com which has decent awards on Aer Lingus. They’ve been refusing to reinstate miles on cancellations as avios.com is a “3rd party vendor” ! They just recently had an Aer Club 50% off “sale” which gave 1.2 cpp toward ticket payment, exposing that Aer Club’s normal “Pay-With” value is only .6ccp
“Pay-With-Points/Miles” is the new scheme to drastically gut frequent traveler awards.
Honestly I’m ticked at them splitting into 2 programs. They make you transfer points into a second program to use it abroad…I saved a LOT of RR and was planning to use them in Europe, they make it a pain and I was certain devalued redemptions would be forthcoming. Funny thing is I listened to Clark Howard complaining on the radio about all the programs devaluing rewards programs on everything from Dunkin Donuts to Marriott Bonvoy and came home to this story! Companies have become very much Disloyal…guessing we should do the same