Good morning everyone, I hope your Easter, Passover, and Ramadan weekend is going well. Long ago, I got the US Bank Club Carlson Premier Rewards Credit Card in 2013. I then got the Club Carlson Business Rewards Credit Card in 2014 and I also had another no annual fee Club Carlson credit card for a while, but I closed that years ago (read 4 Flavors of Club Carlson Credit Cards (High, Medium, Low & Biz). I used to be a huge fan of Club Carlson when the credit cards debuted since the cards came with an 85,000 point sign up bonus, a 40,000 point anniversary bonus, and the awesome BOGO night deal. Sadly, the BOGO night deal ended in June 2015, which I still miss.
Thankfully, I did get the chance to stay at several great Radisson Blu properties around Europe over the years: Amsterdam, Rome, London Edwardian Mercer Street, Nice, France, Royal Dublin, and Milatos, Crete. In 2018, Club Carlson rebranded as Radisson Rewards and the above cards changed to the US Bank Radisson Rewards Premier Credit Card and US Bank Radisson Rewards Business Credit Card, respectively. Fast forward to now when US Bank announced that beginning in June 2022, Radisson Rewards credit cards will no longer exist. My US Bank Radisson Rewards Premier Credit Card will become the US Bank Altitude Go Credit Card and my US Bank Radisson Rewards Business Credit Card will become the US Bank Triple Cash Rewards Business Credit Card.
I called US Bank yesterday and asked a lot of good questions about the conversion process, annual fee refunds, and product change options. I will share what I found out, but first, here is the letter I received about the US Bank Radisson Rewards Premier converting to the US Bank Altitude Go.
Here is the lower half of the front and the terms and conditions on the back.
First things first, if you do nothing and allow the conversion to the US Bank Altitude Go Credit Card, you will not receive the current $200 sign up bonus after spending $1,000 in 3 months. I am not sure if US Bank will allow you to sign up for this credit card in the future or if you will be eligible for the sign up bonus in the future. If you are interested in this sign up bonus, you should sign up for this credit card directly before June 2022.
When I called US Bank, I asked if I could product change to another credit card besides the US Bank Altitude Go and the rep said no. They did say that after the conversion process is completed, I may be eligible to convert to a different credit card, like the US Bank Cash+ Credit Card. I then asked about prorated annual fee refunds if I closed my credit card before the conversion and the rep said I would not be eligible for any prorated annual fee. When the conversion process is completed, US Bank will automatically process the prorated annual fee refund. Lastly, the rep said the conversion will begin on May 20. Based on the above info, I plan on allowing the conversion process to complete around May 20, look for my prorated annual fee refund, and then product change to a second US Bank Cash+, to unlock more 5% cash back categories.
I went through the same steps for my business credit card and here is what I found out. Here is the letter I received about the US Bank Radisson Rewards Business converting to the US Bank Triple Cash Rewards Business in June 2022.
Here is the lower half of the front and the terms and conditions on the back.
First things first, if you do nothing and allow the conversion to the US Bank Triple Cash Rewards Business Credit Card, you will not receive the current $500 sign up bonus after spending $4,500 in 3 months. I am not sure if US Bank will allow you to sign up for this credit card in the future or if you will be eligible for the sign up bonus in the future. If you are interested in this sign up bonus, you should sign up for this credit card directly before June 2022. I currently have this credit card and earned the sign up bonus in November 2021, so I am not concerned about having two of the same credit card.
When I called US Bank, I asked if I could product change to another business credit cards but the rep said no. They did say that after the conversion process is completed, I may be eligible to product change to a different credit card. I then asked about prorated annual fee refunds if I closed my credit card before the conversion and the rep said I would not be eligible for any prorated annual fee. When the conversion process is completed, US Bank will automatically process the prorated annual fee refund. Lastly, the rep said the conversion will begin on June 3. Based on the above info, I plan on allowing the conversion process to complete around June 3, look for my prorated annual fee refund and then keep the credit card open.
Here is my current line up of US Bank credit cards. I already have a Business Triple Cash Rewards, so I guess having a second one will be fine.
I checked my Radisson Hotels Americas account and the only activity I have from the Radisson Rewards Premier since January 2021 are the two 40,000 anniversary point deposits.
I then checked my other Radisson Hotels Americas account and the only activity I have from the Radisson Rewards Business since January 2021 is the 40,000 anniversary point deposit.
After the conversion process is completes for both credit cards, I will call Radisson Hotels Americas and combine the points into a single account. I don’t have any immediate plans for the points, but I’m sure I will use them at a Radisson Blu property in Europe over the next year or two. It was a nice run Club Carlson / Radisson Rewards, but I think your best years were long ago. I will cherish the memories and hopefully redeem the points at a great hotel in the future. RIP good friend.
If you have any questions about these 2 credit cards or the conversion process, please leave a comment below. Have a great Easter, Passover, and Ramadan weekend everyone!
Good info to have. Was thinking about closing the business card, but will wait until partial refund of annual fee.
If you have an annual fee due between now and June, you might be better off closing now and not dealing with a partial annual fee refund. If you just paid the annual fee, make sure you get your anniversary points.
@Grant It’s worth mentioning that current Gold status that comes with the Radisson cards is only in effect thru March 2023 (per email from US Bank 4/14/22). I believe that only elite members can move points from one account to another so your readers may want to do that in June after the dust settles and not wait a year or 2.
Hi Denis, that is a great tip, I must have missed that email. I plan on combining all my points after both conversions are completed in June. Do you need status to transfer points from Radisson Hotels America to Radisson Hotels?
@Grant Yes, I think so.
Any idea if the annual points bonus earned for renewing cards in April will be prorated along with the annual fee for those of us whose card anniversary is in April?
I don’t think US Bank has any way to prorate the anniversary bonus points. You should get the full 40k points of you have the premier or business credit card.
plans for keeping points active? also, I may have missed it, but Radisson status ends when? thx
Hi CR, I’m not very familiar with the expiration policy for Radisson Rewards but it looks like points expire in 24 months of inactivity. I think you can book an award stay and then cancel the stay to reset the 24 month clock.
Per Denis, gold status will last through March 2023 according to an email from US Bank on 4/14/22.
Thanks for your thoughts and looking into this. Like you, I’ve been a holder of both the personal and business versions of the card. I’ve just kept them for the annual points, which amount to around 250K points in each. Since I really don’t find the value of any other US Bank cards compelling I intend to close both cards, merge my award accounts,a and use the points in Europe somewhere. While I like the Radisson Blu Beke in Budapest a lot, even now that it’s gone up to 30K points, are there any hotels in the chain that stood out to you as being a good value?
After spending some time on the Radisson website, it really looks like you can transfer points to or from your USA account with no real issues. The site is a little vague but that’s my read on things.
Hi Christian, I’ve stayed at several Radisson Blu properties in Europe but I’m not sure how much they charge now and if they are good values. I think you just need to figure out the correct CPP. If you buy 40k points for $75, then it’s roughly 0.2 CPP, so 50k points would be worth $100. You can probably find some good deals with that price in mind. Hope that helps :)
Apologies, I was unclear. Are there any of their hotels that you particularly liked and feel offer a good value as well?
Also, this is going to sound really dumb but here goes anyway: Does Radisson really sell 40K points on any kind of regular basis for $75? That would be a whomping good deal. I could absolutely find big value there in tons of places since that would mean paying no more than $150 for even their really expensive hotels in London, Copenhagen, etc.. I rarely buy any points or miles and never theirs so please forgive the naivety of the question.
Hi Christian, I really liked the Radisson Blu in Amsterdam, Dublin, and Crete, but I stayed at those hotels 3+ years ago so I can’t say if they are still good now.
The 40k points for $75 is the cost of the annual fee and anniversary points. I don’t think Radisson Rewards sells points that cheaply, but they do sell points and occasionally have promos running.
Thanks for your Radisson cover over the years. It was great while it lasted, but is a shell of it’s former self as a program.
Hi Lochquel, I totally agree. It was great while it lasted…
Hi Grant. I have 3 Radisson cards. Two are linked to Radisson Americas and one is linked to Radisson. I have about 500k points in Radisson Americas and 250k in Radisson. Can you point to any blog posts that discuss how to convert from Radisson Americas to Radisson? I suspect that I will have to do so in order to use these points in Europe sometime in 2023. My plan is to use all the points for one long vacation in Europe during the summer of 2023, and then be done with the Radisson program.
Thanks for the recommendations on nice Radisson hotels in Europe. My favorite Radisson redemption was at the Radisson Blu Vienna. It is a very nice hotel within walking distance of the main square in downtown Vienna. Vienna is a beautiful city. It is probably the most “livable” city I have ever been to. My favorite thing to do there was to have a picnic lunch in one of the parks downtown. It was great to see many of the locals doing the same with their families. The little kids there are free to play in the parks without fear of being harmed by strangers….not something I encounter in the big cities in the USA.
Hi Gary, I haven’t had a chance to move points between Radisson Hotels Americas to Radisson Hotels, so I’m not sure what the process is like. Since most of the best Radisson Blu properties are international, I will probably move all my points to a Radisson Hotels account.
I have been to Vienna before and it was a beautiful city that was very walkable with delicious food. I’m glad you had a great time in Vienna too.
also request a status match at the same time…
https://www.radissonhotelsamericas.com/en-us/rewards/redeem/global-points-transfer
Good idea Robert.
Anybody found a way to transfer biz points to consumer or vice versa? This used to be possible since Radisson/Carlson did the transfer themselves, but now that Points.com does it, there’s no way since Radisson requires a diff email for each acct, but Points.com requires the same email in each in order to transfer.
Hi Rick, are you talking about transferring points from 1 Radisson Hotels America account to another Radisson Hotels America account? The last time I did that, I just called Radisson Hotels America customer service and they were able to do that for me over the phone.
@Grant I was trying to transfer Americas consumer points to Rewards (European) biz points (no luck because my accts have diff email addresses for points.com), but I’ll try transferring Americas points between consumer & biz via Radisson customer service and then a separate points.com transfer to Rewards. I’m currently abroad so this will take a few weeks til I get back. Anybody else successful with this type of transfer post-Radisson split?
Ya, it sounds like you might need to do a 2 part transfer to get all your Radisson Hotels America points in one account that uses the same email address as your Radisson Hotels (International) account. Then you can transfer the points to your Radisson Hotels (International) account.
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