Bits: 8000 Flying Blue miles with one hotel stay, Club Carlson Radisson RED triple points

News in brief

8,000 Flying Blue miles with one PointsHound booking

Flying Blue, the KLM / Air France programme, is offering a very generous 8000 Flying Blue miles with your first hotel booking via PointsHound.

Full details can be found here.

Apart from being a first-time PointsHound customer there are few rules – you need to book for two or more nights and book, but not stay, before 30th November.  If you have a Flying Blue account this is well worth a look.

Remember that bookings via PointsHound are treated as non-qualifying and will NOT earn you points in any hotel loyalty programme.  You may also be denied your status benefits.

Prepaid seating now available on Comair through ba.com

Comair is a British Airways franchise based in South Africa and operating across the region.  The planes are in BA colours, the staff wear BA uniforms and you earn Avios and tier points as you would on a ‘standard’ British Airways flight.  You can also redeem Avios on Comair flights, although you cannot book them using a 2-4-1 British Airways American Express voucher.

If you do not have British Airways status, Comair is now finally letting passengers choose their seats – but it’s not for free.  From 27th October Comair passengers have been able to pay a small fee to secure their preferred seats when booking their flight.

Comair charges passengers R64 for flights shorter than 90 minutens and between R80 and R144 on flights longer than 90 minutes.

Club Carlson Radisson RED triple points until February

Club Carlson launched a major double points offer this week which we will cover in detail over the weekend.

In the meantime, if you are heading to Brussels, to celebrate the opening of the second Radisson RED property Club Carlson has launched a promotion giving you triple gold points.

Radisson RED is a new contemporary Rezidor brand which focuses on music, art and fashion.  It has plans to gradually expand with a couple of new properties already in the pipeline including one in Campinas which will open towards the end of this year.

Until 28th February 2016 guests staying at a Radisson RED will earn 60 instead of the usual 20 points per $.  You are restricted in where you can use this deal though – the first Radisson RED opened in Brussels earlier this year with a second one in Minneapolis to open imminently.

You need to register online on this page to qualify for this promotion.  Full T&Cs can be found on this website.

How to earn Radisson Rewards points and status from UK credit cards (December 2021)

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 include:

• 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 two free airport lounge passes.

• The Platinum Card from American Express (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 30,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 90,000 Radisson Rewards points

• American Express Rewards credit card (review here, apply here) – sign-up bonus of 5,000 Membership Rewards points converts into 15,000 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 Gold 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.)