Frequent Miler's latest team challenge, Million Mile Madness, is happening now! Follow us as Greg, Nick, and Stephen compete to earn 1 Million SAS miles by flying 15 airlines before November 23rd. Who will complete the challenge with the most Speed, Affordability, and Style?
Update 8/15/20: This appears to be resolved as I am now finding standard award room availability in both the US and abroad whether using points or e-certificates.
~~
We had an interesting report in our Frequent Miler Insiders group last night about Radisson Rewards: for some unknown reason and as far as I have seen, no Radisson hotels are offering standard award bookings. That is to say that although standard rooms are available and bookable with cash, only points & cash rates or premium room rewards are bookable with points. I expect this is a temporary glitch, but it has apparently gone on for at least a week, so that’s problematic if you’re looking to redeem Radisson points.
Standard rooms available, but not with all points
As a quick example, see the Radisson Red Minneapolis from February 2-3, 2020. As you can see, a standard room (Studio with 2 queens) is available with points & cash.
There is no option to book that room entirely on points. However, if I apply a free night certificate to the same date and hotel (I have certificates earned from spend on the Radisson Rewards credit card), that same standard room would be free.
I checked the same thing at a number of other properties and in all cases found that when standard rooms are available, they are only bookable with points & cash or with a free night certificate, but not entirely with points. In some cases, premium room rewards are available with points (these cost more points than a standard room).
Frequent Miler Insiders group members Liz and Zed have both reported contacting Radisson via Twitter without favorable response (and Zed tells us that this problem has persisted for at least a week).
Bottom line
Since this appears to be affecting all hotels, it would be reasonable to assume that this is some sort of temporary glitch rather than an intentional blockage preventing members from using their Radisson points. That said, I am surprised to hear that the problem has persisted for a week. While I’m still not traveling at the moment, I would be very unhappy if I needed to and intended to use Radisson points and could not redeem them for an available standard room. Hopefully this problem does not persist and is not indicative of an award chart change.
Again, I expect this is a temporary thing, but I hope that it ends sooner rather than later for those looking to book Radisson Rewards award stays.
Want to learn more about miles and points? Subscribe to email updates or check out our podcast on your favorite podcast platform.
I am having trouble using my E-certs to reserve rooms. i have tried many hotels and used the E-cert a few ways and it doesn’t work. At first I thought it was a problem with the extended E-certs but even the new ones don’t work. Do anyone have any tips?
I’ve been having the same issue. I’ve reached out via email to customer service with no response. However I have talked to their overseas Radisson Rewards customer service (again twice) and they acknowledge it’s a system issue. They can’t override the system for me but tried multiple types of rooms on multiple browsers – which seems to be their solution. This used to be a great program but It’s becoming worthless. And who knows what’s happening with the split between US and Europe
[…] Hat tip to FM […]
[…] said, we reported earlier today that Radisson has fixed its award search tool and you can now book standard room awards again both in the US and abroad. Awards at the Radisson […]
Still going on!
[…] Miler: Radisson standard awards not available (but e-certs work) (July 11, […]
Wow, I’d missed this news when you first posted, so thanks for re-posting in the weekly recap. I’d though it had something to do with where I was checking rates — resort locations…. that only had the previous suite rates. Maybe just as well (for me that is), but concur with others, the Radisson chain continues to fall so fast and hard….
ps, noticed one line in your report: that your sources had tweeted Radisoon, “without favorable response”
So pray tell, just what response did they get? anything?
self-correct…. learned of your post via a DoC link to you. (and still glad for the news, ominous as it is….. We may need to organize some collective action on this…..
What are the odds the usual hotel shill sites, like loyaltylobby, have covered this? nada, zilch, in most cases, Olila only reports what they, often his clients, spoon feed ’em. Prove me wrong John, get off your duff.
Radisson’s online points-redemption system was under maintenance for more than a week a few months back, so this doesn’t surprise me. Call in to check if this is a glitch
[…] Radisson standard awards not available (but e-certs work) by Frequent Miler. […]
This “glitch” has happened before, at least I noticed it back in the spring. I contacted Radisson and they said it was a temporary glitch. It lasted about 3 weeks. Doesn’t seem like a glitch. Seems like they are intentionally limiting our ability to reserve nights with points. Of all my hotel brand points, Radisson is the hardest to use, not just because of this “glitch.” Often no properties where I’m going, that kind of thing. Or, outrageous redemptions offered. I still can find value here and there, like the 15k a room I paid for a pretty nice place in Budapest. But Radisson and US Bank are apparently fine with letting this program wither on the vine.
Has any program fallen so far so fast? The difference between when you could basically get two for one stays with 50k properties all across Europe with a cheap credit card to now needing 105,000 for a supposedly upgraded room that doesn’t include breakfast or even anything other than a robe and netpresso machine is staggering. Renewing each year on the credit card for 40k used to be an easy call, but I’m not sure that 40k is even worth $40 now with all the games they play with awards. Even before this latest “glitch” I was having considerable trouble finding standard rooms at good EU properties even 270 days out.
Let’s all complain to Radisson and see if they fix it. Glad the e-certs work because the 70,000 a night hotels are showing 105,000 points. I thought Radisson was going to be more valuable to me since it is a Visa cc and I can order from Simon.
Curious, did you? Response? Explanation? or the ole’ Shanghai stone wall? (ref. to Radisson’s new owner)
ask as I tried to inquire by phone and got tired of the eternal hold….. (and yes, three weeks into this, and the only reward book ratings showing for the properties I checked are the “premium suite” rooms… (e.g. 50% more…. non-starter)
I would say it’s been two weeks
I just checked the Radisson Corning, NY. They don’t have standard point awards but they have premium point awards.