Radisson Will Sell You Points With A 50% Bonus

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Radisson Rewards is running a sale through 18 July 2018 in which members are being offered a bonus of 50% on all points purchases. A 50% bonus may sound like a reasonable deal but it’s important to work out the math and look into the details of the promotion before you decide whether to buy or pass.

Radisson Rewards Points Sale – Headline T&Cs

• The promotion is valid for points purchased between Monday, June 18, 2018 at 12:01 am EDT through Wednesday, July 18, 2018 at 11:59 pm EDT (“Offer Period”) only.
• Bonus points will not be applied to the yearly 40,000-point purchase maximum.
• Bonus points and purchased points will be posted to the member’s account as one transaction within 24-48 hours of purchase.
• This offer does not apply to points purchased as a gift.
• Price includes all applicable fees.
• GST/HST will be charged to Canadian residents.
• Radisson Rewards reserves the right to add, modify, or discontinue the Offer without notice.
• Void where prohibited by law.
• Other exclusions may apply. By participating in this Offer, you agree and consent to these Terms and Conditions, the Purchase Terms and Conditions (except as modified above), Radisson Rewards Program Terms and Conditions

Link to sale

The Offer

• Buy 3,000 – 10,000 Radisson Rewards points and get a 10% bonus
• Buy 11,000 – 30,000 Radisson Rewards points and get a 25% bonus
• Buy 31,000 – 40,000 Radisson Rewards points and get a 50% bonus

The Math

The price within each band remains constant but the cost per point decreases as you progress up the three bands.

What this means is that whether you buy 31,000 or 40,000 points you’ll still get the lowest cost/point that’s on offer.

Buying 40,000 points will see you net 60,000 points after the bonus has been applied and that will set you back a total of $280:

60,000 points at a cost of $280 comes to ~0.467 cents per point.

Should You Buy Points?

In this sale Radisson is offering to sell points at 0.467 cents each while in April points were on offer for 0.4 cents each and, back in the Black Friday sale we saw in November last year, points were being sold for 0.35 cents each….so this isn’t exactly the best price we see.

Still, there may be value to be had here for some.

I value Radisson Rewards points at around 0.4 cents each so I’m not going to be buying points in this sale speculatively…but there will be time when buying points in a sale like this is worthwhile.

The biggest problem with this promotion is that buying the maximum number of points (40,000) wouldn’t see you net enough points to book a night at the top Radisson properties worldwide (you would net 60,000 points while the top properties cost 70,000 points/night) but you can still top up an account.

If, for example, you have 25,000 Radisson Rewards points in your account you can buy a further 31,000 points for $217 and, together with the 50% bonus, you’ll bring your account balance up to 71,500.

If you take a look at the Radisson Rewards award chart you’ll see that you won’t get very much for 25,000 points….

….but 70,000 points (which you would now have) will get you a night at any top Radisson property worldwide.

You cold view your 25,000 points as a sunk cost (if you’re not a regular at Radisson properties) in which case spending $217 to book a top Radisson property can be a great deal….especially when prices for a single night in expensive cities can look like this:

Buying points in this promotion and booking a room on a night like this would save you a lot of money…but then I cherry-picked that example to make a point.

I could also make an argument that on cheaper nights of the year it would be madness to buy points to book a 70,000 point Radisson property – you would almost certainly lose money.

The Key Is To Be Sensible

While it’s easy to find ways that buying points in this promotion could provide a saving over the nightly cash rate it’s important to bear three things in mind:

1. You can’t buy enough points in this sale to book a top Radisson property so you either need to have points already banked or you need to settle for a lower category property.
2. Even if you can top up an account to afford a night at a top Radisson property you’re still only booking 1 night. with points. What this means is that, unless you’re not traveling too far from home, you’re probably going to have to pay out for more nights and the cost of those nights needs to be factored in to your calculations.
3. If you weren’t planning a trip then buying points and using them for a hotel stay isn’t actually saving you any money – don’t let this promotion tempt you into booking a stay you wouldn’t have otherwise made as it’s not that good a deal.
4. Although I’ve used the more expensive Radisson properties as examples in this post there’s also a lot of value to be had lower down the scale – don’t be afraid to explore the lower category properties which cost fewer points and, during the summer months, aren’t always all that cheap if you’re paying with cash.

Bottom Line

Here’s the best way forward:

• If you know which city (cities) you’d like to visit then go check out how much a room costs for your preferred dates and, more importantly, if award nights are available.
• Work out if buying points would save you cash on your reservation
• You should now have your answer if buying points is a good idea or not.

If you’re not sure where you’d like to visit or if you can’t see award availability for the dates you want to visit then don’t be tempted to buy points speculatively – who knows when Radisson will choose to devalue is program again?

Featured image courtesy of Radisson