Radisson Rewards massive devaluation - canary in the coalmine?

[dajop]

My partner had accrued a reasonable stash of Radisson award points, mainly through one hotel he used to stay at for work purposes regularly. (For the version of Radisson that covers Europe, Asia, Australia).

We went in last night to look at booking some London hotels (they have some excellently located hotels in London under the Radisson Blu flag) and low and behold they've completely done away with award charts and move entirely to dynamic pricing.

A bit of research (which turned up the below Points Guy article) confirms our own gut feel that the most you get now is about .28c (USD) per point, as the points he had would have covered 12-13 nights now only cover 5-6 nights. A massive devaluation with no notice.

C est la vie.

But we've seen devaluation of all the programs recently, nothing quite so brutal as this. I wonder if this is ultimately what will happen to Bonvoy next year. It's already creeping (or taking significant strides, depending on the hotel) in that direction.

Take your pick of bloggers for more info.

Shocking Radisson Rewards points devaluation - you've lost 50% of their value

Radisson Rewards has launched an astounding devaluation with no notice. Your points balance has lost at least 50% of their value overnight. Tough luck, it seems.

www.headforpoints.com

Details: Brutal Radisson Rewards Program Changes

The Radisson Rewards program has undergone major changes, including the introduction of dynamic award pricing, and new elite tiers.

onemileatatime.com

Devaluation: Radisson Rewards makes huge changes to its program, moves to dynamic pricing - The Points Guy

New changes to the international Radisson Rewards program are now in effect.

thepointsguy.com

 

[burmans]

I've got a few points in Radisson, about 85K myself and 35K for my wife. Any idea on what is best value now, I see you can transfer to Radisson America and then on to Choice hotels (2:1) which may be best value as we have a trip to Norway/Denmark coming up and reportedly Choice are very good for Nordic stays?.

 

[PineappleSkip]

Greetings from my Radisson Rewards (RR) points burning expedition, which is yielding about 1/2 the nights it would have before the mega devaluation.

Recent experiences. Three consecutive stays at Radisson (Melbourne, Brussels, Bristol) yielded zero member recognition at checkin, although token points were awarded. The irony is this has requalified me as a RR "premium" member, for what that's worth. The annoyance is that on two of those three stays I arrived early to be told check in is later, although I'd requested early checkin. Kinda suggests there aren't many members left and they aren't bothering to check status on arrival.

In Melbourne I got zip as a member, but a profuse apology when I provided feedback. In Brussels I got a paid upgrade offer to the best available room for about €30, as well as two free drinks and a free meal, both unadvertised benefits, and in Bristol I got one of the best rooms in the house on arrival, although the advertised benefit for privelege members is a single category upgrade. I get the impression that some of their properties are offering extra given the lameness of the basic benefits.

I see you can transfer to Radisson America and then on to Choice hotels (2:1) which may be best value as we have a trip to Norway/Denmark coming up and reportedly Choice are very good for Nordic stays?.

This article talks about the maths of that and about Nordic Choice. I've found that in using the new RR points direct there is marginally better value in booking the whole stay on points in a basic room, and a reasonable chance of a cheap or unpaid upgrade. And FWIW (not a lot) it's dead easy to get privelege membership.

hope this helps
cheers skip

 

[burmans]

Yes, I have moved to Choice, can get much better value there!