The Radisson Rewards Premier Visa Signature card once again has its highest-ever new cardmember offer: get 120,000 Radisson points after spending $3,000 in the first 3 months. While this card is much less popular today than it once was, that’s still a potentially solid offer on a card that I personally think is underrated in the hotel card space. Don’t get me wrong — it’s not my favorite card on the market, but the return can be surprisingly good for a hotel credit card and the anniversary points easily justify the annual fee in my opinion.
The Offer
| Card Offer |
Key Card Details
| Card Name w Details & Review (no offer) |
Quick Thoughts
The standard offer on this card is 85K points (usually after $2.5K spend). In 2019, this card offered a 120K bonus — the highest they’ve ever offered on it — but that offer had expired. It’s always great to see an all-time high offer return.
These days, the Radisson Rewards Visa is much less popular today than it once was because Radisson (formerly called Club Carlson) used to offer the last night free on award stays for cardholders. This meant an effective BOGO on award stays (provided you booked them in 2-night batches) — so while the new 120K offer is the most points ever offered, it isn’t necessarily the most valuable bonus offered on this card since you could have gotten more mileage out of 85K points back when that benefit existed. That was a lot of fun while it lasted. When that benefit died, so did most enthusiasm for this card. That certainly made sense as it was a huge devaluation, but for those looking to rack up points quickly for a good use, this new 120K offer really isn’t bad.
—>Link to Radisson award rates and category filters. Simply select a category from the drop-down to see the hotels in that category organized by region.<—
I’ve written before about the Radisson card and why I like it despite the fact that I do not love Radisson hotels or the Radisson Rewards program. In short, the card offers a very reasonable return at 5x everywhere (10x at Radisson properties) and a free night within the US for each $10K spent during your cardmember year (up to $30K). Further, it offers 40K points at anniversary each year, which offsets the $75 annual fee in my opinion (I’d much rather have points, which do not expire and can be combined with your other points for the redemption you want, than an annual free night certificate limited to a specific category). If you opened it now and spent $10K the first year and kept it open past the anniversary, you’d end up with a free night certificate valid at any property in the US and 210K points (120K from this new cardmember bonus, 50K from spending $10K on the card at 5x, and 40K from the anniversary points). For the cost of two annual fees ($75 this year and $75 at anniversary), you could have up to 4 nights at one of the few top-tier US properties (or use the cert for a night in the US and the points as you see fit). That seems like a reasonable enough offer, especially now that Radisson once again has properties in Manhattan.
I completed $10K spend for a free night certificate last year. While there aren’t many hotels within the United States where I’d be excited about using the free free night certificate, I used use mine last year to stay at the Radisson Blu Mall of America (which is actually attached to the mall – that was awesome for simple access while traveling with a baby). I got upgraded to a Junior Suite sorta thing for having Radisson Gold status (a benefit of the card).
While Radisson properties within the US are mostly limited to road-trip-worthy Country Inn & Suites locations, some of the Radisson Blu properties in Europe are quite nice. I recently discovered what looks like a real gem in the Radisson Blu Milatos on Crete. (Travel with Grant stayed there last year and confirmed that it’s a pretty nice place to kick back for a few days).
I’ve further found Park Inn locations in cities I’ve wanted to visit and my stays at them have not failed my expectations for a simple and clean place to sleep. Apart from the handful of European Radisson Blu gems, most properties within the Radisson portfolio are not luxurious but rather functional and earning 5x on everyday purchases puts award stays within relatively easy reach.
A hundred and twenty thousand Radisson points is not quite enough to stay two nights at their top-tier properties, though when put together with the 15K points you’ll earn from meeting the minimum spend, you’d be just 5K short of 2 nights anywhere or many nights at lower-end properties.
All that said, I probably wouldn’t burn a Chase 5/24 slot for this offer unless I had a really good use of points in mind, nor would I choose this hotel card over the World of Hyatt card. It’s not my top pick, but it’s good to see an increased bonus for those folks who can make good use of the points.
H/T: Doctor of Credit
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