Radisson extending certs to 6/21, points to 12/21, and status to 2/22

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UPDATE 12/21/20: Radisson has updated these extensions:
Point expiration suspension:
We are extending our pause on the expiration of Radisson Rewards points. Any points that were set to expire between March 1, 2020 and December 30, 2021 will now expire on December 31, 2021, if the account remains inactive.
Elite status extension:
We have extended your 2020 status – whether it’s Silver, Gold or Platinum – through February 2022, for those whose status would have expired in February 2021. This means you will continue to enjoy all the great Silver, Gold or Platinum member benefits you have access to today.
Elite earning roll over:
All eligible nights and stays earned in 2020 will roll over to 2021 and be applied toward maintaining or increasing your Elite status in 2022.
e-Cert extension:
e-Certs earned using the Radisson Rewards Visa® Card, that were scheduled to expire between March 1 and May 31, 2021, can be redeemed through June 30, 2021.

 

Radisson Rewards has announced that they are extending elite status for those whose status would have expired in February 2021 until February 2022. Furthermore, they are extending the expiration dates for points and free night certificates set to expire in the next few months. This is about as customer-friendly a move as one could want — let’s hope that other chains follow suit.

a box on a table

From the announcement from Radisson:

As COVID-19 affects travel plans around the world, we believe our Radisson Rewards members deserve to use the points that they have acquired and should not be penalized due to circumstances out of their control. As a result, Radisson Hotels is suspending it’s point expiration policy by 6 months, effective March 1, 2020. We have also extended the elite status of our members through February 2022, for those that would have expired February 2021. In addition, e-certs earned using the Radisson Reward Visa card, that are scheduled to expire between March 1 and June 30, 2020, can be redeemed through June 30, 2021.

To parse that in bullet points:

  • Point expiration policy is suspended for 6 months effective March 1st (This is not totally clear to me — I think this means that if you had points scheduled to expire within 6 months of March 1st, they will either not expire until September 1st or perhaps you’ll get an additional 6 months added)
  • Elite status: Extended until February 2022 for those whose status would otherwise expire in February 2021. In other words, if you earned status last year (in 2019), your status would ordinarily be valid until February of next year (February 2021). Now you’ll be extended to February 2022 — in other words, you don’t need to make any more stays this year to maintain status.
  • Free night certificates: If you have a free night certificate earned from spending $10K on the Radisson credit card and it was set to expire between 3/1/20 and 6/30/20, it will now be valid until 6/30/2021.

This is a very customer-friendly move. Frankly, I’m surprised at how generous this is. While this is obviously the kind of policy that customers want, I didn’t expect that any chain was going to free members from the requirement to stay at all this year to maintain status. Then again, Radisson doesn’t give much in the way of benefits to members with status (and they give away Gold status with a credit card), so it isn’t an expensive proposition from one standpoint. Still, at a time when hotels are bleeding money / closing locations for months, I am surprised that they are essentially dropping requirements altogether rather than giving triple or quadruple night credit or something that encourages you to come back and spend some money at their properties when we get past the COVID-19 pandemic.

We can all hope for other chains to do the same, though I suspect we’ll be more likely to see some chains instead offer heavy incentives to encourage customers to spend money at their properties when this is over. Of course, a move like this one from Radisson would make me more loyal — it’s good to see that Radisson is offering a solution that doesn’t encourage unnecessary travel at the moment and comes out more beneficial for customers than for Radisson. Kudos to them for doing well by customers.

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