Maximise your Avios, air miles and hotel points

Ignore the Radisson Rewards 30% points rebate on airline mile transfers

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Radisson Rewards is running a promotion to encourage you to transfer your points to airline miles.  You should ignore it.

As you can see on this page of their website, you will get a 30% points rebate if you transfer your points to miles before 26th May.

The transfer rate from Radisson Rewards to most airlines, including Avios, is 10:1. With this promotion, the rate is 7:1.  It still stinks.

I would value a Radisson Rewards points at 0.33p, and you can easily do better at peak times.  I generally value airline miles at 1p.

On the basis, a ‘fair’ ratio between Radisson Rewards and airline miles would be 3:1.  Since I accept that the scheme does not want to encourage you to transfer to airlines, since it costs them ‘real’ money, I would have accepted 5:1.

10:1, however, is a joke and 7:1 is only slightly better.  You are still giving up over 2p of free hotel room for 1p of airline miles.

This promotion isn’t even any use if you want to use up a small pile of Radisson Rewards points.  You are not getting a 30% discount …. you’re getting a 30% rebate.  If you have 6,000 points to use up, you will receive the standard 600 Avios but you’ll get 1,800 Radisson Rewards back later.  Which is useless, because you are trying to use them up.

If I still haven’t talked you out of it, the landing page is here.


How to earn Radisson Rewards points and status from UK credit cards

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:

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.)

Comments (55)

This article is closed to new comments. Feel free to ask your question in the HfP forums.

  • Stu says:

    OT:

    Tiny little 2,000 Skywards on the verge of expiring. Is there anything I can do with that?

  • rams1981 says:

    OT just received the Amex letter re plat fees. What have people decided to do? I’m thinking the Marriott card. The insurance on that not as comprehensive as Plat I guess and no lounge access but £500 cheaper pa!

    • Memesweeper says:

      I’ve cancelled. But I have no international travel planned for the foreseeable — might feel differently if I was spending significant time in hotels, airports and so on. My travel is all UK at the moment so little benefit.

    • Rob says:

      1.5p per £1 return (in Bonvoy points) can’t be beat, if you spend enough to offset the fee.

      No bonus for you though.

    • Anna says:

      I’ve cancelled all my Amexes apart from SPG and Lloyds. Thanks to HFP I’ve got premium cabins booked for my 4 trips booked for the next 12 months and I should have enough vouchers and avios to last me till the end of 2021. Unless the rules have changed again by that point I will start over with BAPP and Platinum, if I’ve got it right!

  • Graham Walsh says:

    Thanks for the Lyft tip. Used them in Seattle a few months ago. Much quicker and cheaper than Uber at the Airport. Will certainly be using them in Denver in a few weeks.

  • Munch says:

    OT Have 2000 points in my Melia Hotel account. Trying to transfer to Avios but keep getting the following error “com.solmelia.cats.Alert.CO_OPERATION_USED/Operation”. Anybody had any luck transferring small balances out.

    • marcw says:

      Are these your welcome points? Then you won´t be able to transfer them. Only hard core earned points can be converted into miles (or Avios). Promotiona points and purchased points cannot be transfferre.

      • guesswho2000 says:

        Yes, those days are gone sadly, they fixed their IT!

        • DaveL says:

          I did a melia transfer to avios 10 days ago but nothing has landed yet… Any ideas how long it should take?

  • Bill says:

    OT. I have a one way flight booked with Tap next Feb: TFS-LIS-MAN

    Due to a schedule change the LIS-MAN flight is now an illegal connection and departs prior to our arrival in LIS.

    I’m not familiar with this scenario. Can anyone advise my options? A refund isn’t helpful since it is very expensive to rebook It’s a travel agent booking. Thanks

    • Czechoslovakia says:

      Speak to your agent. They will have to rebook you onto something suitable. Not a big issue, happens often enough.

      • Bill says:

        Is the rebooting restricted to Star Alliance or can I get the travel agent to book me on easyjet or ryanair who have direct flights?

        • marcw says:

          Depends on TAP. TAP must have instructed changes/refunds polic to your travel agent.

  • N says:

    Got Marriott Titanium, any easy route to AA status through this collab?

  • Leafwarbler says:

    OT: Am I being unreasonably miffed at IHG? I’m Platinum Ambassador and booked and paid for a Club room at an Intercontinental here in Canada at least 8 months ago. A bit early for checkin we hang around in the club lounge and eventually at 16:30 get the keys to the smallest, dingiest of the original room type booked. Armed with a welcome letter in French which thanks me for my loyalty and promises a room upgrade, I go down to reception and ask why I haven’t been upgraded. The answer is 1) there is no availability and 2) I’d booked a high grade of room already (?). I’m offered 10,000 points and a complimentary breakfast. I point out that breakfast is already complimentary in the club lounge and I’m then offered $75 f&b. Is that a good result? I’m still in the dingy room; they’ve had 8 months to ensure that an upgrade is available and I’m failing to see the point of paying for Ambassador status…..

    • guesswho2000 says:

      The upgrade should have been guaranteed, unfortunately the changes to AMB mean they can wriggle out of it by giving you 10k points instead, which is a terrible trade off, but saves them a fortune, especially on longer stays.

      So no, it’s a terrible result, but about what you’re ‘entitled’ to, unfortunately. Paying for AMB, for me, is still just about worth it, as even when assigning a low value to the benefits, the free night cert and 15k points + 10% back on redemptions (on renewals, this doesn’t apply to new signups) is worth it.

      • guesswho2000 says:

        I say ‘saves them a fortune’, it saves them nothing really, as the cost to them giving you a different room is marginal. But they can then sell that higher room, which they should have given to you at the lower rate (which you paid for the original room type).

      • Sundar says:

        Would emailing the hotel/program in advance and asking for a guaranteed upgrade help ? Maybe YMMV but thinking of possibilities…

        • guesswho2000 says:

          Defo YMMV, but I’ve done this in Canada, and they’ve been able to confirm what I’ll be upgraded to beforehand, which is nice. I tend to do this to determine whether I’ve got a shot at club access on the cheap 😂

    • Graham Walsh says:

      Try complaining via Twitter

  • Shoestring says:

    Oh dear! Shopper Points fecks up admirably by not running the handsome cheap Nectar points weekend story!

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