Why is Radisson Rewards splitting in two? What does it mean for you?

If you have a Radisson Rewards account, you should have received an email this week about a strange restructuring of the programme.

Radisson Rewards is the loyalty scheme for the Radisson Hotels group. In Europe, this primarily consists of Radisson Blu, Radisson RED, Park Plaza and Park Inn.

This is a complex tale but the bottom line is you won’t be any worse off, although you will have more paperwork to deal with.

This page of the Radisson Hotels website has the official line, but it is not the whole story.

Why is Radisson Rewards splitting?

Radisson was historically two separate businesses – as was Hilton not too long ago – with the North American arm run by Carlson and the rest of the world run by Rezidor.

The two businesses merged in 2012. Radisson was subsequently taken over by Chinese insurance group HNA which hit severe financial difficulties. The company was subsequently picked up by Chinese hotel group Jin Jiang International.

Jin Jiang International is state run, which means that it is impacted by US Government restrictions on the transfer of data on US citizens to Chinese Government entities.

This means that the business is being split into two. Jin Jiang promises, honest guv, not to look at any of the guest or account data for the Americas.

The Chinese Government will have full access to your UK passport and credit card details, however …..

What is happening?

This is how it will work for a UK resident.

The current Radisson Rewards scheme will continue to cover Europe, the Middle East, Africa and Asia Pacific.

You remain a member of the original Radisson Rewards. Your membership number and points balance remain unchanged. As long as you are not staying in a hotel in the Americas, you won’t notice any difference.

If you find yourself with a Radisson hotel stay in the Americas, you cannot earn points from it and your status benefits will not be recognised.

However, you can open an account with Radisson Rewards Americas and receive a status match. You need to book your stay via the Radisson Rewards Americas website and your points will drop into your new Radisson Rewards Americas account.

There will be a ‘Combine My Avios’-style mechanism to allow you to move your points between Radisson Rewards Americas and Radisson Rewards.

If you want to redeem your points for a hotel in the Americas, you need to follow the same process. You must open a Radisson Rewards Americas account and transfer your points across.

It’s a mess but you don’t lose anything

Because you can transfer your points and status between the two programmes, you won’t lose out much.

The only issues I can think of will be:

• stays in the Americas won’t count towards status with Radisson Rewards, even though you will get the points

• each region will presumably run its own promotions, and you won’t be able to combine your stays between the Americas and the Rest of the World to benefit

All of this kicks in from June.

You can find out more on this page of the Radisson 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.)