I’ve covered points expirations, elite status upgrades, and free night certification extensions recently for Hilton, Hyatt, IHG, and Marriott. Today, I answer the question When do my Radisson points expire?
Radisson points expire after 24 months of no activity. And due to COVID-19, all Radisson points set to expire after March 1, 2020, have been extended by six months.
What can I do to keep my Radisson points active?
There are lots of things you can do to keep your Radisson points from expiring. You only need to complete ONE of these activities in a 24-month period to keep Radisson points from expiring. And remember, due to coronavirus, your points are extended an additional six months.
Not all of these activities require you to travel! Although other programs – Hilton, Hyatt, IHG, and Marriott – offer some way of keeping points active without spending any money, Radisson DOES require you to spend at least a little cash to keep your points active. That said, I’ve detailed everything you can do to keep your Radisson points active below, including an approximate “minimum spend” amount based on my research.
| How to keep your Radisson points from expiring | Travel required? (Y/N) | Min spend required? |
| 1. Book a paid stay at a Radisson property. Radisson’s footprint is bigger in Europe than the U.S. You only need a one-night stay. | Y | ~$80 (one cheap night) |
| 2. Get a Radisson Rewards Visa Card. There are two cards, one with a $75 annual fee and one with no annual fee. You can get 30,0000-85,000 signup bonus points with them. I think the $75 annual fee card looks like a pretty decent deal, with Visa Signature benefits, Gold status, and 40,000 free points per year. (Check out my experience having Radisson Gold status when I stayed at the Park Plaza Nuremberg.) | N | ~$10 (the $0 annual fee card requires at least some spend to stay active) |
| 3. Join the Vinesse Wine Club through Radisson. Your first shipment is $41.95 for 6 wines, including shipping. But beware, you’re auto-enrolled to receiving 6 wines per month at a significantly higher price, so make sure to cancel after your first shipment unless you want a lot of wine! | N | $41.95 |
| 4. Buy flowers at FTD. Note, you’ll have to go through Radisson’s portal for FTD in order to get points, which means you won’t be able to get points through other shopping portals FTD might participate in. | N | ~$60 (cheapest purchase including delivery) |
| 5. Rent a car. Make sure you rent an Alamo car through Radisson’s portal, and note that you might not get the best price this way. | Y | ~$50 (cheap one-day rental) |
| 6. Purchase OR give points. You can either buy Radisson points for yourself or for a friend; the cost is the same. As always, I don’t usually recommend purchasing hotel points because they’re not a great value. But you can purchase (or give) a minimum of only 1,000 Radisson points for $7, which makes this a cheap way to keep your points active. | N | $7 for 1,000 points |
| 7. Shop at certain luxury shopping centers in Europe or China. If you happen to be going to one of 11 specific shopping centers, you might as well do this. However, it’s a bit of a hassle because you have to go to the shopping center’s “welcome center” and give them your receipt and Radisson Rewards membership info. I’d bet you need to check up on this one to make sure you get your points. | Y | ~$10 for any purchase at a specific shopping center |
| 8. Book a meeting. You can earn 5 points per dollar for booking a small meeting room at a Radisson hotel. I put this one last because it’s the most expensive and probably least realistic way to keep your points active, but if you book events for work, it might work for you. | N | ~$200 |
When will my e-certs / free nights with Radisson expire?
If you earned an e-cert or free night certificate from a Radisson Visa credit card, AND it was scheduled to expire between March 1 and July 31, 2020, you will have until June 30, 2021 to use it. The subtext here is, if you had an e-cert scheduled to expire in February 2020, or August-December 2020, you’re out of luck.
This is significantly less generous than Hilton’s decision to extend Free Night Certificates through August 31, 2021. I appreciate that Radisson has extended the expiration date of certificates set to expire during the immediate COVID-19 crisis, but it is unrealistic to assume that people are going to begin taking vacations immediately on August 1, 2020. I hope that Radisson decides to extend this policy further as time goes on; you can check out their COVID-19 page here, and I’ll be monitoring too.
How many Radisson points do I need for a free night?
A free standard night at a Radisson property costs between 9,000 – 70,000 Radisson points, depending on the category. Premium rooms cost 50% more. Radisson categories range from Category 1 (9,000 points) to Category 7 (70,000 points). It’s a simple system and you can view the full Radisson award chart here.
The good news about Radisson’s award chart is, free nights cost a standard and steady amount of points per night. This is simple compared to Hilton’s policy, which has full variable pricing in effect. Even Hyatt has recently instituted “peak” and “off-peak” pricing. Radisson’s policy, in contrast, depends entirely upon what Category the hotel falls into and is therefore very straightforward.
The bad news about Radisson’s award chart is, most of the properties I’d want to visit cost at least 44,000 Radisson points per night. Radisson points are only worth about 0.3 cents per point and aren’t particularly easy to earn. In my review of the Park Plaza Nuremberg, a Radisson property, I noted that it cost 44,000 Radisson points per night. This was a 3.5-star hotel in a relatively inexpensive European city. While I had a very pleasant stay, I did not find Radisson points particularly valuable.
There are other ways to redeem Radisson rewards points, however, which may offer a better value. I will be covering how to maximize the value of your Radisson points in a later post.
Will Radisson extend my elite status due to coronavirus?
Yes, Radisson is extending elite status expiration from February 2021 to February 2022. In other words, whatever your elite status would have been at the end of December 2020, you’ll get to keep it a little over an extra year. The full policy language is here for your review.
Remember, if you have the Radisson Rewards Premier Visa Signature Card, for a $75 annual fee, you get automatic Gold status as long as you have the card.
Bottom line
Radisson has made some positive changes in response to the COVID-19 crisis. Your Radisson points will expire with 24 months of no activity, and this has been extended six additional months due to COVID-19.
Generally speaking, Radisson’s updates aren’t as generous as either Hilton’s or Hyatt’s.
In case you’re wondering what ALL the major hotel chains are doing about cancellations during coronavirus, Travel On Points has a handy guide you can check out here!
