In 2022, Choice Hotels acquired Radisson Hotel Group Americas. The deal was worth around $675 million, and with this, Choice Hotels acquired nine new brands, 624 hotels, and over 67,000 rooms.
From early on, we saw the introduction of some reciprocal loyalty program perks, with the goal of eventually having the programs fully merge. There’s an exciting update, as Radisson Rewards Americas has fully been merged into Choice Privileges as of this week.
In this post:
Radisson Rewards Americas program ceases to exist
As of July 26, 2023, the Radisson Rewards Americas program has officially been merged into the Choice Privileges program. We knew this was coming, so just to recap the basics:
- Radisson Rewards Americas points are being converted into Choice Privileges points at a 2:1 ratio (so every two Radisson Rewards points gets you one Choice Privileges point)
- It’s now no longer possible to transfer points between Choice Privileges and the global (non-Americas) Radisson Rewards program
- If you had higher status with Radisson Rewards Americas than with Choice Privileges, your higher status will automatically be matched in the Choice Privileges program
- Any reservations or award nights booked through Radisson Rewards Americas will be honored, and there’s nothing that needs to be done
Going forward, you’ll want to book all your stays at Radisson Rewards Americas’ nine brands through the Choice website. And those stays will be treated the same as any other Choice stays, in terms of qualifying for promotions, elite perks, and more.
Choice Privileges is pretty robust at this point!
I’m sure I’m not alone in suddenly having a big balance of Choice Privileges points. I had quite a few Radisson Rewards anniversary bonus points that I accumulated over the years from the company’s co-branded credit (which no longer exists). In the end I decided to transfer all of those points to Choice Privileges rather than the global Radisson Rewards program, given the extent to which the latter program devalued without notice.
Choice Privileges has fair award costs, though doesn’t publish a single award chart with categories. You should now see the award prices published for each hotel through Choice’s website when doing a search. The pricing is more or less in line with what I would have expected, and seems fair and reasonable. I’m curious what OMAAT readers who are loyal to Choice or Radisson observe.
Bottom line
Radisson Rewards Americas has been fully integrated into the Choice Privileges program. It’s now possible to earn and redeem Choice Privileges points for all Radisson Rewards Americas properties. On top of that, there’s officially no more link between Radisson Rewards and Radisson Rewards Americas.
What do you make of Radisson Rewards Americas’ integration into Choice Privileges? Any initial observations?
Radisson Americas customers got robbed. I routinely redeemed Radisson points for more than one cent per point. Choice points are worth less than a quarter of one cent. Compounding the inequity of devaluation, Choice is stealing half of Radisson customers points. If this isn't fraud, what is?
Jim Worrall I feel your pain, was just checking my Award Wallet balances and it reminded me of the bendover deal of the year...I'll go you one better, I went from 442k pts to 221k points and while typing this they did change my expiration time to give me almost 2 years. For the last 6 months I was unable to reset my RR account and the RR Americas points couldn't get transferred. I gave...
Jim Worrall I feel your pain, was just checking my Award Wallet balances and it reminded me of the bendover deal of the year...I'll go you one better, I went from 442k pts to 221k points and while typing this they did change my expiration time to give me almost 2 years. For the last 6 months I was unable to reset my RR account and the RR Americas points couldn't get transferred. I gave up in disgust. I logged into my Choice account tonight and saw my bal of 229k and it said they'd merged my accts, NOT. So after a lengthy call, and once again not being able to change my name over the phone (after sending documents several times over the years, calling, etc.) they set up a 2nd account and did transfer my points. I had to email them my passport again to try to get the accounts merged. It was really crappy what Radisson did, they basically decided they didn't want us using points on any of the good hotels and sold off the crap U.S. properties and our points to Choice and those of us who'd had those Radisson cards and high balances got screwed. Sure, some redemptions may be great but most Choice properties here are pretty low rent 1* properties as opposed to the Radisson Blues abroad I'd saved my points to use. Yes, I'm familiar with earn & burn but it takes some time to earn enough for a proper vacation, you don't earn enough overnight but this is certainly a lesson.
mbarrassing question: if I had lots of Radisson points but forgot to open a Choice account, what should I do? If I open a new Choice account now, will the points automatically appear or do I need to call…?
I also did not set up a choice account but one was apparently set up for me using the email address associated with my Radisson account. I clicked on the reset password link using the same email address as my Radisson account and was able to log in to the newly created Choice account and did see the transfer of my Radisson points at the 2:1 ratio.
also, The Prague City Clarion is still just 8K Choice points. Great hotel I use a lot.
I tried 100 times to link my accounts and the final solution (I found, they didn't know) was to open a new Choice account from Radisson. Points transferred immediately.
Just booked my honeymoon at the local Rodeway inn!
My Radisson America points not transferred yet. Should I be worried?
Mine have not transferred either.
I wouldn’t call myself loyal to Choice, but the 2:1 Citi to Choice transfer can be a phemoninal value. I booked a weekend at an Ascend hotel on Lake Superior where rooms sell at $450+ per night peak season for 16k Citi points per night, which is 2.8 cents per point. For my next trip at a different resort-area hotel I redeemed at around 4.4 cents.
Obviously there are a lot of awful Choice...
I wouldn’t call myself loyal to Choice, but the 2:1 Citi to Choice transfer can be a phemoninal value. I booked a weekend at an Ascend hotel on Lake Superior where rooms sell at $450+ per night peak season for 16k Citi points per night, which is 2.8 cents per point. For my next trip at a different resort-area hotel I redeemed at around 4.4 cents.
Obviously there are a lot of awful Choice hotels out there but if you’re smart there is a lot of value. Especially when status can be essentially worthless (free water bottle?) at Fairfield and Hampton.
shhhhhh... don't tell people about Choice or it will end up devalued like all the other ones. Let the blogs keep pushing Hyatt and Marriott.
Embarrassing question: if I had lots of Radisson points but forgot to open a Choice account, what should I do? If I open a new Choice account now, will the points automatically appear or do I need to call…?
Had linked Radisson and Choice Acounts (and transferred points) but somehow my Radisson Account doesn't show in the Choce App,
Went through "Click here to see the Radission Info" (my email is different between accounts) on the website and needed to create a new password > system error can't change my email.