Bumper 40%-60% discount using Radisson Rewards points for selected gift cards

Radisson Rewards will no longer let you redeem your points for UK High Street shopping gift cards from 25th March.

In order to run down supplies, it is offering a discount of up to 60% on selected retailers.

Here is the deal, taken from this page of the Radisson website:

What does this mean in reality?

Only a small number of gift cards are actually reduced. For UK residents, you need to choose from:

What value am I getting?

Usually, redeeming Radisson Rewards points for gift cards was shockingly, terrifyingly bad value. When something is such poor value, even a ‘60% off’ sale doesn’t make it a no-brainer.

Normally, you get around 0.1p per point using Radisson Rewards points for gift cards. It can be even worse.

When used for hotel redemptions, I target 0.33p per Radisson Rewards point.

With the discounted gift cards above, you are getting:

• £25 Amazon, £25 Sports Direct, £25 TK Maxx – 0.139p per point

• £50 Amazon, £50 Clarks, £50 Argos, £50 Sports Direct, £50 Swarovski, £50 TK Maxx – 0.2p per point

• £100 Swarovski – 0.25p per point

Even the best deals, at 0.2p per point, are still worse than redeeming for a hotel room where I target 0.33p per point.

However, you may still want to do it. Personally, as someone who doesn’t use Radisson much and has only a small stack of points (18,000), I see this as a good opportunity to cash out.

I also think that 0.2p ‘cash in hand’ is worth as much a potential 0.33p per point for some theoretical redemption months down the line. I would not necessarily say the same with a chain I use more, like Marriott, but Radisson is very much a minority interest for me.

Is it worth transferring across American Express Membership Rewards points?

Radisson Rewards is one of the most generous American Express Membership Rewards transfer partners as my analysis here shows.

If you value a Radisson point at 0.33p when used for a room then, based on the impressive 1:3 transfer rate out of American Express, you are getting 1p per American Express point. You can’t argue with that.

It is NOT worth moving Amex points to Radisson purely to cash them out for gift cards.

It might be worth topping up your Radisson Rewards points with an American Express transfer, in some circumstances.

There is one point to note: American Express Membership Rewards transfers to Radisson Rewards have a stated 10 day transfer time. They should still arrive in time for you to redeem for gift cards by 25th March, but you also taking a risk on suitable gift cards being left. Our crowdsourced list of Membership Rewards transfer times suggests that they should arrive in four days.

Conclusion

If you have some Radisson Rewards points in your account and no firm plans to use them, this gift card sale is decent – although not spectacular – way of cashing them out.

Apart from Amazon, however, the choice of retailers is thin. Argos and TK Maxx do not currently show on the Radisson gift card site and so could be sold out already.

It is worth doing the maths on whether it is worth topping up your Radisson account with some Membership Rewards points to allow you to redeem for a higher value gift card. You need to initiate the transfer ASAP to ensure it arrives by 25th March, assuming the 10 day transfer time applies.

You can find out more about this offer on the gift cards page of the Radisson Rewards website here.

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How to earn Radisson Rewards points and status from UK credit cards (September 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.)