Radisson Rewards is rolling the dice on a new casino partnership: this week they have launched a new tie-up allowing you to earn and redeem points at Treasure Island in Las Vegas. You can now book rooms at Treasure Island for 44,000 points per night. While that’s not a good value most of the time, it is encouraging to see a new partnership at the least and may come in handy when room rates are high. It is also a positive that points bookings will not be subject to the resort fee. Update: It turns out that points bookings will be charged the resort fee. That makes this an even worse deal.
As noted at the top, the value on this isn’t particularly strong since Treasure Island is often quite cheap. I’ve never stayed at Treasure Island, nor have I heard much about the experience staying there. When I was in my early 20’s, it was beyond my price range. These days, I prefer MGM properties. Room rates in Las Vegas can fluctuate wildly, but Treasure Island is now cheap enough in periods of low demand that I wouldn’t be too excited about using points. Here’s a look at next Wednesday night:
Weekends can of course be an entirely different story during popular times and events, so there is certainly a chance that you could get reasonable value out of points if you’re going during a higher-demand time. Also, as reported by Angelina Travels, it seems that bookings made with Radisson Rewards points will not be subject to the resort fee Update: The resort fee does apply to points bookings.
I rarely look beyond MGM since I’m happy to pick up cheap Hyatt elite nights and I’ve been able to maintain MGM Gold status for years, so parking remains free for me. With the status-match-go-round, it is also pretty easy to pick up Caesars Diamond status to avoid resort fees at Caesars properties (and picking that up can also get you a free $100 dinner and show tickets). However, it’s always good to have another option for redeeming points. If nothing else, I’m glad to see Radisson thinking outside the box and creating a non-Radisson partnership. Las Vegas is a popular place for such partnerships and I’m glad to see Radisson get in that game.
H/T: Angelina Travels
The original post on Angelina Travels states that the Resort Fee *** DOES *** apply: “Unfortunately, the mandatory resort fee does apply to award bookings as of now, but hopefully Radisson Rewards realizes that practice is not up to par …”
Interesting. That’s not what the post originally said. I’ve updated our post now as well. Thanks for commenting.
Scott H
Good post I just got back from Vegas $40 car rental (24 hrs) . Booked Don Laughlin’s Resort (2.5*) FLIGHT PKG. @ New Years (2018) $369 total 4 nites .Rental car spent New Years Eve there and ate @ next store hotel 4* that trip to VEGAS then was $2K+ ..
CHEERs
Even if you add taxes and the dreaded resort fees on paid nights, you will get a horrible matching redemption value of .2 CPP.
Not sure if you have to pay parking fee on award night.
TI has free parking.
Like I said, poor value most of the time, but if you’re able to snag a room during a popular period / summer weekend, it might not be horrible.
Look at it this way: you get 40K points upon anniversary with the credit card, so the $75 annual fee almost gets your a free night. That’s not a deal next Wednesday, but on a weekend during spring or summer, it could save you something.
Don’t get me wrong – it’s a bad deal most of the time. So is the Hampton Inn in downtown Atlanta. But on Superbowl weekend, I was glad to have an option for an award stay.
It’s the FEE’s (parking ? ) that kill u in Vegas BUT a very nice Hotel good location . My buddy has gone there many x’s for free .
CHEERs
Parking is free at TI