Ignore Radisson Rewards 30% points rebate on airline mile transfers

Radisson Rewards is running a promotion to encourage you to transfer your points to airline miles.  You should ignore it.

As you can see on this page of their website, you will get a 30% points rebate if you transfer your points to miles before 26th May.

The transfer rate from Radisson Rewards to most airlines, including Avios, is 10:1. With this promotion, the rate is 7:1.  It still stinks.

I would value a Radisson Rewards points at 0.33p, and you can easily do better at peak times.  I generally value airline miles at 1p.

On the basis, a ‘fair’ ratio between Radisson Rewards and airline miles would be 3:1.  Since I accept that the scheme does not want to encourage you to transfer to airlines, since it costs them ‘real’ money, I would have accepted 5:1.

10:1, however, is a joke and 7:1 is only slightly better.  You are still giving up over 2p of free hotel room for 1p of airline miles.

This promotion isn’t even any use if you want to use up a small pile of Radisson Rewards points.  You are not getting a 30% discount …. you’re getting a 30% rebate.  If you have 6,000 points to use up, you will receive the standard 600 Avios but you’ll get 1,800 Radisson Rewards back later.  Which is useless, because you are trying to use them up.

If I still haven’t talked you out of it, the landing page is here.

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.)