Radisson Hotels was purchased from Carlson by Chinese conglomerate collapsing HNA Group, and then sold to Jinjiang International.
Come June Radisson in the Americas (United States, Canada, Latin America and the Caribbean) will be separate from Europe, Middle East, Africa and Asia. And they’re splitting the rewards program in two. This satisfies a U.S. government demand to separate U.S. customer data and firewall it off from its Chinese ownership.
- Members in the Americas will belong to the new Radisson Rewards Americas program.
- Points will move over into that new program. Members can continue to earn and redeem for Americas properties. It’s not clear what redemption options will remain for properties in the ‘other program’ covering the rest of the world, although it should be possible to move points from one program to the other. It’s unclear how this linking will operate consistent with U.S. demands for walling off data.
- If staying at a Radisson property in the Mideast, Africa, Europe or Asia, members will need to separately join Radisson Rewards – the program for that region, that U.S. members will no longer be a member of.
Radisson Blu Belgrade Will No Not Be Part Of Radisson Rewards Americas
At various times the Radisson program has been extremely rewarding. It once shared a rewards program with TGI Friday (because Carlson owned both) with points worth double towards airline mileage transfers if joining through the hotel group, though one could also redeem for appetizers.
They offered one of the most innovative customer service programs for elites in Europe, Mideast and Africa – “Our World, Your Lounge” – welcoming members to use hotel lobbies and have a complimentary coffee for a place to work, even when not staying on property. This was abolished when Goldpoints Plus became Club Carlson. With the HNA sale to Jinjiang Club Carlson was rebranded Radisson Rewards.
In general Radisson properties are much nicer in Europe than in the United States. They can be great value, especially in conjunction with the chain’s co-brand credit card, however they’ve rarely been the property I actually wanted to stay at. The one closest to my home when I lived in Northern Virginia was a converted Days Inn.
It’s been hard to get excited about Radisson for a number of years. Carving up their geographic footprint makes it even less interesting. We don’t have a lot of details on what the program will look like post-June. Hopefully an even smaller chain will need to work harder, and be more generous, to work to win customers.
“Yes, you will have the opportunity to transfer your points at a 1:1 rate between programs (for free!) using our new Global Points Transfer process launching in June.”
A little sad for a once-great program. One of their strengths was always the international footprint. IDK what the Europeans think of US properties, but I thought the European ones had some nice options for points that were otherwise of questionable value.
I was actually looking to use points to book a room for a vacation I’m planning and they wanted 70k points a night for room at a resort in Fiji and one in Bali. The room in Fiji was selling for about $170 a night and the one in Bali for about $110. No Thanks!! That’s a horrible redemption rate, especially Bali. Sitting at half a million points I would rather convert them to airline miles at 10:1 ratio that use them that way. I guess I need to plan another trip to Iceland or maybe Scandinavia. I had checked about the new resort in the Maldives and it looked at the time to not be available using points as far into the future as the calendar went.
What I don’t understand is why Jinjiang didn’t simply base Radisson Rewards and central reservations out of the U.S. for all regions of the world. That would have likely satisfied the federal governments requirement.
There are some very nice international Radisson properties, but domestically they are a joke. Radisson’s average Radisson (the flagship full-service brand) in the United States is somewhere between a Ramada and Holiday Inn. It’s never even a consideration. Ever.
BTW. This reminds me of Choice. Choice properties in the Nordic countries are 100% times better than Choice properties in North America. Many of the Choice promos are exempted from Europe or vice versa.
A few years ago, the Radisson program was interesting for a branded credit card program that gave you the second award night free. Lots of people, including me, joined the program for that deal. Once they eliminated it, you still earn points renewing your credit card that more than pay for the annual fee. So lots of us are sitting on sizeable Radisson point balances with little incentive to use them in the USA. I did recently use 15,000 points at one of the few Country Inns priced at that level but, otherwise, attractive redemptions in the USA are scarce. I assume that once int’l travel resumes, there will be a logical way to use Radisson points and I’ll keep paying the credit card’s annual fee as long as it makes sense to do so. I couldn’t really recommend anyone join the Radisson program right now, but if you’re already in it, I don’t see much harm having a few hundred dollars “invested” in its future. Having loyalty points in multiple hotel chains is almost always a good idea for frequent travellers.
The surprising thing is that Radisson even exists in the 2020s. The brand has been irrelevant for so long that I didn’t even know they still had hotels
I signed into the old site and it shows my points, but all my reservations are gone. I signed into the new site for the Americas and it shows my points but I receive an error message when trying to look at reservations. Anyone else having this issue?
I’m curious what the deal with be with the status granted from the credit card. I assume you only get Gold with the US program but is there a way for me to match it to the other program?
I really prefer to use these for stays in Europe when I can and the occasional Country Inn & Suites in the US if there are literally no other options in a particular area. Something like a weekend in Asheville when all the other hotels are priced through the roof and I’m saving my other points for something.