When do your Radisson Rewards points expire? How can you stop it?

I receive occasional emails from readers asking ‘How can I stop my Radisson Rewards points from expiring?’ or ‘When do my Radisson Rewards points expire?’. This series looks at the major hotel loyalty programmes and shows you how to keep your valuable points intact.

If you need to refer to this article in the future, there is a link to it on our ‘Hotel Offers’ page in the Radisson Rewards section. This also includes details of current Radisson Rewards promotions.

About Radisson Rewards

Previously known as Club Carlson until a 2018 rebranding, Radisson Rewards is the hotel loyalty scheme for Radisson Blu, Radisson Red, Radisson Collection, Park Inn, Park Plaza and Country Inns & Suites hotels.

When do Radisson Rewards points expire?

According to the Radisson Rewards terms and conditions here under 2 / d / i:

“If there is no points activity in your Radisson Rewards account for any 24-month period, we may, at any time and in our sole discretion and without notice or liability to you, void and cancel any or all of your points.”

What do they mean by ‘activity’?

The key point is that YOU DO NOT NEED TO STAY AT A HOTEL TO KEEP YOUR POINTS ALIVE. You simply need to have some activity go through your account.

There are various ways of achieving this:

Earning points

Transfer American Express Membership Rewards points into your account – the minimum transfer is just 3 points!

Buy Radisson Rewards points

Go shopping at Bicester Village – you will earn 10 points per £1 spent

Credit a car rental to Radisson Rewards. It is partners with Alamo, Avis, Budget, Enterprise, National and Sixt.

US readers can also earn points by ordering flowers or wine via Radisson Rewards partners.

Spending points

Any movement on your account should cause your expiry date to reset. These are the smallest redemptions possible:

If you have at least 9,000 points, book and then cancel a redemption night at a Park Inn in a low cost country (UK Park Inn hotels are now from 15,000 points). This should count as activity, in my opinion, but of course you try this at your own risk.

Transfer points into an airline loyalty scheme. The minimum transfer is 2,000 points.

Radisson Rewards has a number of charity partners on their website who accept donations of points. The minimum donation is only 1,000 points.

Redeem for a pre-paid Mastercard. You can redeem 30,000 points for a £25 gift card. 105,000 points is a slightly better deal as this gets you a £100 gift card. You can also get a variety of High Street gift cards too. Whilst gift card redemptions from airline and hotel schemes are usually poor value, this one is actually no worse than redeeming points for airline miles (100,000 points would get you 10,000 airline miles) assuming you value an airline mile at 1p.

As you can see, there is no excuse at all for letting Radisson Rewards points expire!  By far the easiest option is to transfer the minimum three American Express Membership Rewards points over.

How to be notified of upcoming miles and points expiry dates

If you want to track the expiry dates of all of your miles and points, I recommend signing up to AwardWallet for free. It keeps all of your points balances, including non-travel loyalty schemes, in one place and updates them automatically.

If you pay for the premium version ($30 per year) it also tracks your all expiry dates and emails you when points are about to expire.  On the free plan, you can track the expiry date for three loyalty schemes of your choice.

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.)