Good afternoon everyone, I hope your week is going well. Earlier today, Radisson Hotels Americas sent out emails to all their members informing them that they are officially joining the Choice Hotels family. The email also said that combining the programs would take some time, so in the short term, the programs would continue separately and we would be informed when the combing process becomes closer.
At this point, you may be wondering what to do with your Radisson Hotels Americas points. A few months ago, I wrote What Should I Do with my Stash of 200K Radisson Hotels Americas Points? In that post, I highlighted all the possible options. In this post, I will share what I did with my points.
First things first, here is my starting point:
- 3,000 Radisson Hotels points
- 40,000 Radisson Hotels Americas points – account 1
- 133,854 Radisson Hotels Americas points – account 2
I have had a good run with Radisson Hotels (before the split into Radisson Hotels and Radisson Hotels Americas), so I’ve decided that I will embrace the merger with Choice Hotels and have a nice stash of Choice Hotels points someday. So the plan is to combine all my points into a single Radisson Hotels Americas account and patiently wait for the Choice Hotels merger.
Another major consideration is the fact that none of my transferable points programs transfer to Radisson Hotels, so if I have orphaned points or need more points, I will either have leftover points or need to purchase more points. Choice Hotels is a transfer partner of American Express Membership Rewards, so I could always top off my account if I need more points.
I signed into my Radisson Hotels account and went to the Global Points Transfer page to transfer my 3,000 points to my main Radisson Hotels Americas account. According to the terms, the names and email addresses for both accounts must match.
Goodbye 3,000 Radisson Hotels points, I hardly knew you.
However, if you decided to move all your Radisson Hotels Americas points to your Radisson Hotels account, you can sign into your Radisson Hotels Americas account and go to the Global Transfer Page. According to the terms, the names and email addresses for both accounts must match.
Since I have 2 Radisson Hotels Americas accounts, I wanted to transfer my points to my primary Radisson Hotels Americas account (the account with the same name and email address that matches my Choice Hotels account). I called the Radisson Hotels Americas customer service department (1-888-288-8889) and explained to the rep that I wanted to move points from 1 account to another. He suggested that I merge my accounts (instead of doing a points transfer), so we went through the process of merging the accounts. After a few minutes on hold, the process was completed and I am now sitting on 216,854 Radisson Hotels Americas points.
Depending on how many points you have in different accounts and what your long term plan is, you may want to copy my approach or wait for more info to come out about the merger. If you have any questions about moving points between programs or accounts, please leave a comment below. Have a great day everyone!
Makes sense to transfer them to Choice for US redemption but I think some locations you might do better to put them over on the Radisson international side. I still can’t make up my mind.
I think the deciding factor will be the conversion rate to Choice Hotels. If it’s terrible, I might move the points to Radisson Rewards for some international Radisson Blu properties.
Between my wife and myself we have over 600,000 Radisson Rewards points and 120,000 Radisson Americas points. Award Wallet shows the Radisson Rewards points expiring in seven months. Is there a way to keep them alive now that the credit cards are history? It seems that if I move them to Radisson Americas it will be easier to keep the from expiring. Yes or no?
Hi Jeff, I think if you have any type of activity on your account it should reset the expiration date. You could book and cancel an award or you could transfer one single point to another account. I don’t think you need to worry either, the program should probably merge or announce details of the merge before your expiration date.
I guess the question we’re all wrestling with is will we have a chance to transfer to Radisson International after we find out the conversion ratio?
I would assume so, but if we are all wrong, would you rather have your stash of points in your RH or RHA account?
Good question, I just can’t make my mind up. I think Radisson International points can definitely be kept alive by buying 1000 points every 24 months and possibly by just making an award booking and cancelling it, so they would be safe there.
Perhaps hedging and transferring some to Rad Int is the way to go?
That could be a good option. I wish Choice Hotels would just buy Radisson Hotels too, so we could have access to all the nice Radisson Blu properties worldwide :)
They can also transfer points from wife to husbands account so you have it all in one place. I did this last week.
Yes, that’s true. You can transfer RHA points to anyone, you just need their account number, name, and email address.
What do you plan on doing with your RHA points?
It’s onerous to check point requirements for Radisson hotels in Europe (where we spend a lot of time). I don’t stay in a lot of Choice hotels in the USA, opting for higher end places to avoid noise and crime.
I am leaning toward converting all to Radisson (not USA) to avoid Choice, but what about their EU properties?
I guess conversion rate is important too.
If you assume each Radisson Blu is 50k-70k RH points, that should give you an idea of how many nights you can redeem points for. I wonder if RH will have another devaluation in the near future.
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Do you know how long we have to decide whether we want our Radisson points in the Americas account or the international account? I’m wondering when the global transfer will be turned off. Thanks.
That is the million dollar question. There is no date (rumored or announced) yet, so we should still have time to decide before the transfer option is turned off.
Always enjoy reading your posts and the insight you share. This one I’m taking the exact opposite approach….transferred all of my Radisson Americas to the Radisson International, because they often have some incredible properties abroad, and really won’t have any way to generate these points anymore….whereas can create more Choice points pretty easily through Citi TY points transfers. Just find in some destinations, there are limited options, so like to have as many options to transfer from as possible. Keep up the great work!
Hi Bruce, I appreciate your viewpoint. I definitely can’t argue against the nice Radisson Blu international properties. All my favorite Radisson properties that I’ve ever stayed at have been Radisson Blu international properties. I actually redeemed 150k RHA points for 3 nights at the Radisson Blu Aqua Chicago when it was on sale this week. Still have 60k RHA points left that I need to figure out what to do.