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Shocking Radisson Rewards devaluation – the value of your points is cut by half

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Radisson Rewards (the programme for guests based outside North America) has unveiled an astonishing devaluation with no notice.

The value of your points has been slashed overnight, by roughly 50%.

It is the most extreme hotel devaluation we have ever seen – worse than Hilton’s jump from 50,000 points to 90,000 points a few years ago. It is made worse by the fact that no advance warning was given apart from a vague email talking of upcoming changes.

Shocking Radisson Rewards devaluation

We will get into detail of the changes in a minute – and some of them are decent, but sadly now ignored due to the devaluation – but let’s focus on the headline changes to points redemption.

As a reminder, Radisson Rewards split into two schemes earlier this year:

  • Radisson Rewards Americas
  • Radisson Rewards, covering the rest of the world including the UK

Members of Radisson Rewards cannot earn or redeem points for stays in North America, and stays in North America do not count for status. The opposite applies for members of Radisson Rewards Americas.

However, you can status match between schemes and move points in both directions to get around most of these restrictions.

What has happened to the Radisson Rewards chart?

Historically, free nights were based on the reward chart below. The most luxurious five star hotels were capped at 75,000 points per night.

Shocking Radisson Rewards devaluation

Going forward, redemptions are revenue based. 1 point gets you a 0.2p discount on your next booking.

Let’s assume that a 5-star hotel sells for £300 – which, in most big cities, is a huge underestimate at the moment. You will now need 150,000 Radisson Rewards points instead of the 75,000 you needed on Sunday. That’s brutal.

The only upside is that you can use as few as 10 points per booking. My wife, who has 1,204 orphaned Radisson Rewards points, can at least cash them out for £2.46 saving on her next booking:

Shocking Radisson Rewards devaluation

Your existing Radisson Rewards balance has been destroyed

If you were sitting on a large pile of Radisson Rewards points, I feel sorry for you. You have lost at least half of the value overnight, and potentially more.

It’s not clear if Radisson is having a laugh when it says on its website:

Our new program has been created with a completely new approach to loyalty in mind.

Obviously transferring Radisson Rewards points from American Express is no longer the best Membership Rewards redemption as we have often written.

If the transfer rate stays at 1:3 then it is now one of the worst, with 1 American Express point getting you just 0.6p of value if you transfer them.

What happens with Radisson Rewards status?

The existing status levels have been replaced with just three.

What is fascinating is that people on the lowest level earn virtually nothing in the way of points. Take a look here:

Shocking Radisson Rewards devaluation

‘Club’ members earn 8 points per $1. ‘Premium’ members earn 27 points per $1 whilst VIP members get 36 points per $.

(Why the programme uses the $ as its base currency when the scheme has no hotels in the Americas is a different question …..)

With $1 worth 88p, a base member gets (8 x 0.2p = 1.6p / 88p) 1.8% back on their ex-tax spending. This is a joke. Why would you take Radisson Rewards points worth 1.8% when Hotels.com Rewards gives you 10% of the ex-taxes cost of your booking back? It’s madness.

Obviously it gets better for Premium customers. 27 points per $1 is worth around 6% of your pre-tax spending. 36 points per $1 for a VIP member is worth around 8% of your pre-tax spending.

Note that, even for a VIP member, you are better off using Hotels.com Rewards and getting 10% of your pre-tax spending back.

What is happening to American Express Platinum cardholders?

If you have Gold status from Radisson Rewards via American Express Platinum, you have been moved to Premium status.

What are the other status benefits?

The fascinating thing about the new scheme is that you move from ‘Club’ to ‘Premium’ after just five nights or three stays. This unlocks an increase in your points earning of over 3x, albeit it still isn’t hugely generous.

Other ‘Premium’ benefits of note include:

  • a one category upgrade ‘when available’
  • early check-in and late check-out ‘subject to availability’, so not worth much
  • ‘Discount Booster’ (I will return to this)
  • ‘My Favourite Hotel’ – nominate one property to give you exclusive benefits and/or let you guarantee your favourite room number by adding it to your profile

The only major benefits of VIP status (39 nights, 20 stays) are:

  • free breakfast for two people
  • upgrade to best available room

You can see the full list of benefits on the Radisson website here.

Some of these benefits may not actually be terrible but the devil is in the detail.

When a VIP gets an ‘upgrade to best available room’ does that includes suites or not? It isn’t clear.

‘Free breakfast’ has value, but I doubt Radisson has many members who do enough stays to reach VIP level.

What is ‘Discount Booster’?

This is, at least, novel.

Members of Radisson Rewards get a discount when they book, in the same way as member of most other hotel programmes.

If you are Premium or VIP, you can switch on ‘Discount Booster’ in your profile and save more BUT you receive far fewer points. For a Premium member, your earnings drop from 27 points per $1 to 9 points per $1.

If the extra discount is more than 4% of the pre-tax amount, it makes sense to use ‘Discount Booster’. In any event, since there is no real value in sitting on points now, it is worth keeping it on permanently in my view. After all, what is the value in earning points to get a discount on a future stay when you can get a discount on your current stay?

Here’s an example. Radisson Blu Hamburg Airport for Sunday 30th October with full points earning:

Shocking Radisson Rewards devaluation

…. and with ‘Discount Booster’ enabled, earning fewer points:

Shocking Radisson Rewards devaluation

I save €15 in return for giving up around €5 of points. This is a good deal. It is also a genuine discount – I booked this very hotel for my wife over the weekend, albeit at a flexible rate, and I recognise the original price.

But does it really matter?

What I don’t understand is what Radisson Rewards is playing at by cutting the value of your points balance by 50%.

Those people who woke up yesterday morning to find they are now VIP – do you think they are most concerned by the upside of free breakfast (not even relevant on work-paid stays) or concerned about losing potentially hundreds of pounds from the value of their points?

It is jaw-droppingly stupid. How is Radisson Rewards meant to build customer loyalty when they gut the value of their points overnight? At the very least, giving people a few weeks notice to book stays at the old rates would have been the decent thing – and would still have gone down like a lead balloon.

Alternatively, it could have doubled your existing points balance. This would at least have preserved most of the value of existing balances.

Conclusion

The changes to the status scheme are not necessarily terrible. ‘Discount Booster’ seems to offer genuine savings for Premium members if you agree to receive minimal points for your stay, and you now easily use up any small balance you have as a discount on your next stay.

The ‘best available room at check-in’ benefit for VIP guests is also attractive, as is free breakfast. I’d question how many people stay enough at a Radisson to earn this status though.

The ‘one category upgrade if available’ upgrade for Premium members is a surprisingly good benefit for someone who does just three stays per year.

I don’t even have a problem with Radisson moving to dynamic redemptions. I personally think it stinks as a model, and I think removing ‘gamification’ from the scheme is stupid but it is a model that others use.

What I don’t understand is why Radisson is happy to see all this forgotten in the furore over cutting the value of your existing points balance by 50%. Our UK readers may see parallels here in recent political activity …. and I don’t see this ending any better.

PS. This change is definitely a kick in the teeth for American Express Platinum cardholders. Not only is Membership Rewards devalued – because Radisson transfers were the most valuable redemption option – but swapping Gold for ‘Premium’, which only requires three stays, is clearly a devaluation.

PPS. As I mentioned above, you can transfer Radisson Rewards points to a Radisson Rewards Americas account. There has been no change to the Radisson Rewards Americas scheme. If you are planning a trip to North America soon, it makes more sense to use your points for a free night over there (using the standard reward chart) instead of redeeming in Europe for a pathetic amount.


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

How to earn Radisson Rewards points and status from UK credit cards (November 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. You can apply here.

Got a small business?

You can get free top-tier Radisson Rewards VIP status with the new Capital on Tap Pro Visa credit card for small business. Clck here to apply.

Capital on Tap Pro Visa

30,000 points (TO 9TH DECEMBER) plus good benefits Read our full review

(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 (154)

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

  • JD says:

    Furious over this as I currently have over 500000 points. I was a loyal customer back in the day and these points are a left over from that time. This just shows total contempt to their most loyal customers!

    As people have already pointed out, you should never save too many points in any scheme right now.

    BTW regarding the free breakfast. Back in the days of the old scheme when I was Club Carlson Concierge we were entitled to free breakfast then and it was never communicated to the hotels. I was constantly having to tell front desk/restaurant managers/guest relations managers about the scheme so I doubt much has changed with the current one.

  • Harrier25 says:

    I currently have 180,000 points. I shall use them all on a 3 night stay in Jersey next year in a Premium room with breakfast added and after that, will never darken their front door again. Which of course is easy to do with a small brand such as Radisson with a tiny UK footprint.

  • VickyTM says:

    I was trying over the weekend to book a redemption booking that was 15k points. Just kept getting an error message at the final page. Contacted Radisson about it and they said to call them, (which I was going to do today). Now the same hotel is 24500 points…. Lovely…

    • AnotherUser says:

      I had similar (made one phone booking for this week, but that took 20mins so I didn’t bother with bookings that were further out). Very annoying!

  • HAA says:

    What I find truly disgusting is, while they were running a points sale just a few weeks ago, they probably were preparing the IT systems for changes, trying to milk the cow for one last time.

    It’s a shame it was a pretty generous program 8-9 years ago, when I earned most of my points. Having just under 500k points, I’m very annoyed of course, but the truth is I haven’t been able to use my points for all this time because many of the hotels I wanted to stay at wasn’t available for points redemption anyway.

    Now I’ll transfer to Americas and see how it goes, if it will be any use.

    And Radisson Europe will be the brand I forget it existed when booking hotels, just like Accor.

  • roberto says:

    The only Radisson I ever use is the Blu at Manchester Airport but after a trip through MAN last week I have decided never to set foot in that airport ever again. The security was akin to an interrogation with both our bags getting second screened due to (1) a hotbrush in hers and (2) an Inhaler in mine. 40 mins later we were on our way after getting scolded by morons. I fly most weeks and have never been treated in such a maner.

    • RussellH says:

      That was pretty normal for MAN – many such comments here over the years.

      I got done for a (dry powder) inhaler too last time I was there.

  • Andrew says:

    Next question – I’m thinking of cashing out and using another hotel group from now on – I can see plenty of other more loyalty-inducing organisations with whom I can spend my hard-earned.

    Any status matches (from Radisson VIP) worth exploring?

    • Rob says:

      Hilton has a long running status challenge if you search HfP. IHG has just launched one too which we will cover this week.

  • Colin MacKinnon says:

    Are we not looking at this from the wrong angle (understandable from a points point of view!)

    The biggest issue for hotels is price matching with hotels.com. So they offer membership (loyalty) programmes that give private “discounts”. Often only a few quid, so less than hotels.com’s 10%.

    So the “private” rate undercuts the agency room rate for price comparison purposes, but they tell agencies to price no lower than the “public” room rate?

    Radisson are maybe playing it smart with the Discount Booster as the main “benefit” going forward: keep it simple, give the discount now.

    Whereas points were often seen as the long game, a saving for the busy traveller to give the spouse a free weekend away?

    • Chas says:

      I’m not sure that I agree. Competing on price is generally a race to the bottom, and isn’t really a way to appeal to your regular and loyal customers (it perhaps appeals more to your one-off or sporadic customers). The Discount Booster be of little or no interest to them, because they may not be aware of such a feature, especially if t’s hidden away in your profile settings as other comments suggest.

      I’d argue that the purpose of a loyalty programme is to drive repeat custom from your most regular guests by offering intangible benefits or benefits with a lower marginal cost but with a high perceived value. Whether that’s through upgrades or points which you save for some “better” redemption. As far as I can see Radisson have destroyed this raison d’être with these changes.

      I don’t do a huge volume of stays in any scheme, but have had two separate Radisson stays this year. Going forward I’ll be treating them in the same way as Accor – that is my last choice if there aren’t any better options around.

      • meta says:

        Discount booster is only available from mid-tier status, so it wouldn’t be on the radar of your average customer who books on hotels.com although the threshold to reach it is quite low. Your average customer is not aware of hotel or loyalty status and what it means.

  • Yorkshire rich says:

    Apologies because I haven’t looked through every comment but I booked 4 nights at CapeTown waterfront radisson Blu. Through my platinum amex I have gold, and as it certainly wasn’t cheap, I thought in the back of mind I would get a fair few points back to redeem later on.

    As it is non refundable, I’m kind of screwed now, and probably should have booked a different hotel possibly.

    Also, I wasn’t impressed with radisson before as they never got back to a complain of mine but I gave them the benefit of the doubt.

    • damboy5 says:

      I’ve stayed in the Raddison waterfront Cape Town probably 30 nights over the years. Fabulous location, great bar and good rooms (albeit I haven’t stayed there in the last 5 years). I wouldn’t have changed my booking even if I could have. You’ll have a great stay there.

    • QFFlyer says:

      No, their customer service sucks, they refused to honour a promotion they’d emailed to me and I’d signed up for, claiming I wasn’t targetted, despite me having all the emails to prove it. I gave up in the end, but it left a bitter taste I haven’t forgotten.

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