Is Radisson Rewards the best American Express Membership Rewards hotel partner?
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American Express Membership Rewards has three hotel partners in the UK, assuming you want to redeem for points instead of a voucher for a free room:
Hilton Honors, with a conversion rate of 1:2
Starwood Preferred Guest, with a conversion rate of 2:1
Radisson Rewards, with a conversion rate of 1:3
Because Starwood Preferred Guest points can be transferred into Marriott Rewards at the ratio of 3:1, you can add to that list:
Marriott Rewards, with a de facto conversion rate of 1:1.5
You can also redeem for various Melia properties via a voucher as I explained here.
Radisson Rewards, the loyalty scheme for Radisson, Park Inn and Park Plaza, is often forgotten about. This is probably because the scheme is still relatively new – just six years old – and because their core brands are relatively low profile.
You ignore Radisson Rewards at your peril though. The chain is bigger and broader than most people imagine, especially in London.
The Park Plaza hotel on Westminster Bridge (reviewed here) has become my default London property for visiting friends and family. It is relatively new, it has a pool, it is in a fantastic location for the Westminster and South Bank tourist attractions and it is a relatively quick taxi ride to us.
The 1:3 ratio of American Express Membership Rewards points to Radisson Rewards points is very attractive. Let’s look at how many Amex points you would need for a good quality hotel in London:
Radisson Rewards requires 70,000 points for Park Plaza Westminster Bridge which is 23,333 Amex points
Hilton Honors requires up to 70,000 points for Hilton London Tower Bridge which is up to 35,000 Amex points
Starwood Preferred Guest requires 20,000 SPG points for Le Meridien Piccadilly which is 40,000 Amex points
I would consider all three of these hotels to be relatively equal in terms of positioning, being the ‘just below the best’ property in London for that particular chain.
Radisson Rewards does not have the largest footprint of the hotel chains – although they are particularly strong in Scandinavia and have some good European properties – so there is no reason to do a speculative transfer of Amex points. If they have a good property in a place you need to go, though, it is worth a look. At the bottom end of the market, some Park Inn hotels are only 15,000 Radisson points, ie just 5,000 Amex points.
The other thing you can see from the analysis above is that Radisson Rewards actually offers better value than pretty much any other Membership Rewards redemption.
You will be getting around 1p per Membership Rewards point in the Park Plaza example above. I don’t value an Avios point – or any airline currency – at more than 1p. Redeeming Membership Rewards points for gift cards tends to get you just 0.5p.
How to earn Radisson Rewards points and status from UK credit cards (April 2024)
Radisson Rewards does not have a dedicated UK credit card. However, you can earn Radisson Rewards points by converting Membership Rewards points earned from selected UK American Express cards.
These cards earn Membership Rewards points:
- American Express Preferred Rewards Gold (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 20,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 60,000 Radisson Rewards points. This card is FREE for your first year and also comes with four free airport lounge passes.
- The Platinum Card from American Express (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 40,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 120,000 Radisson Rewards points
- American Express Rewards credit card (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 10,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 30,000 Radisson Rewards points. This card is FREE for life.
Membership Rewards points convert at 1:3 into Radisson Rewards points which is a very attractive rate. The cards above all earn 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 spent on your card, which converts to 3 Radisson Rewards points.
Even better, holders of The Platinum Card receive free Radisson Rewards Premium status for as long as they hold the card. It also comes with Hilton Honors Gold, Marriott Bonvoy Gold and MeliaRewards Gold status. We reviewed American Express Platinum in detail here.
(Want to earn more hotel points? Click here to see our complete list of promotions from the major hotel chains or use the ‘Hotel Offers’ link in the menu bar at the top of the page.)
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