Radisson Rewards: Earn up to 120,000 Bonus Gold Points for stays at Radisson Hotel Group Hotels

Earlier this month Carlson Rezidor Hotels and Club Carlson re-branded to a more recognizable name as Radisson Hotel Group and Radisson Rewards. Not too long after this re-branding we see the new Radisson Rewards first systemwide global promotion being launched! This offer sees members earning up to 120,000 bonus points for stays at Radisson Hotel Group hotels worldwide. The main thing to note with this promotion is that bonuses kick in after your second night stay (the nights do not have to be consecutive or at the same hotel) and unlike previous Club Carlson promotions this new promotion is starting to follow in the footsteps of programs like Aeroplan where bookings made before the promotion start date are not eligible and also their is shorter registration and booking window than the actual promotion run time. On top of the stay bonuses you can also earn an extra 500 bonus points for each booking made via their app.

Offer details:
Earn up 120,000 Bonus Gold Points at participating Radisson Collection, Radisson Blu®, Radisson, Radisson RED, Park Plaza, Park Inn® by Radisson, and Country Inn & Suites® by Radisson hotels worldwide. Register Online (Registration is required) / then book online at Radisson, Country Inns & Suites, Park Plaza, Radisson Blu, Radisson RED or Park Inn

• Book & stay 2 nights: Earn 5,000 bonus points
• Book & stay 5 nights: Earn 15,000 bonus points
• Book & stay 10 nights: Earn 50,000 bonus points
• Book & stay 20+ nights: Earn 120,000 bonus points

Plus, earn an additional 500 bonus points for every booking you make using our Radisson Rewards mobile app.

Find many more Radisson Rewards offers here. 

March 5 Update: Episode 40 of our Podcast now available for download, Club Carlson officially becomes Radisson Rewards and more!

Episode 40 of the Rewards Canada Round Up Podcast is here! You can listen to or download it on Apple iTunes, Google Play, our website and Soundcloud.  In this milestone episode we discuss the hot topic of No Foreign Transation fee credit cards, new IHG hotels in Canada, Hyatt's new stay promotion and the very valuable new RBC Avion Visa Infinite sign up bonus!

As we mentioned a few weeks ago, Carlson Hotels and their Frequent Guest Program Club Carlson were going to be re-branded under the Radisson moniker. That change officially happened today with the company now being called Radisson Hotel Group and the FGP being renamed to Radisson Rewards. Most of the program remains the same save for two parts: Elite status qualifying and points earning on stays.

The Elite qualifying requirements have been relaxed, especially for reaching the first level, Silver:

• Silver Qualification: 9 nights or 6 stays (used to be 15 nights or 10 stays)
• Gold Qualification: 30 nights or 20 stays (used to be 35 nights or 20 stays) 
• Platinum Qualification: 60 nights or 30 stays (used to be 75 nights or 30 stays)  

This is good news if you are a Club Carlson Radisson Rewards regular as you can now qualify sooner. Remember as well if you have the Platinum Card from American Express you get Radisson Rewards Gold status automatically.
For points earning, the adjustment to easier elite qualifying doesn't come without any detraction as Silver and Gold members will now earn a little bit less on stays:

• Base earn rate: 20 points per US$ (no change)
• Silver earn rate: 22 points per US$1 (used to be 23)
• Gold earn rate: 25 points per US$1 (used to be 27)
• Platinum earn rate: 35 points per US$1 (no change)

Learn all about the new Radisson Rewards program here

Posts since our last update:

• Air France KLM Flying Blue Promo Awards - Save 25% on Business Class award tickets between Calgary and Europe
  The newest set of Air France KLM's Promo Awards were released last week and this time we only see…
• British Airways Executive Club: 35% Bonus Avios when you transfer hotel points until March 31
  British Airways Executive Club has brought back their transfer bonus for moving points from hotel programs into Avios. The…

Travel Deals
Contiki: 25% off Europe Trips on Select Departures from Canada with Contiki! Full details & online booking

Remember to visit Rewards Canada's Travel Booking site to book travel directly with many of your favourite airlines, hotels and more!

Canadian Bonus Offers
AIR MILES
Get up to 500 AIR MILES Bonus Miles plus 3x the Miles on all your purchase in the first 3 months with the Shell AIR MILES MasterCard from BMO. More...

BMO Rewards
Get up to 20,000 BMO Rewards welcome points when you apply for and receive the BMO Rewards Mastercard. More...


Other Bonus Offers
AeroMexico Club Premier
- 2,000 Bonus Club Premier Points for stays of 2+ nights at participating hotels in Latin America and the Caribbean. More... Until Dec 15, 18

American AAdvantage
- 750 Bonus AAdvantage Miles for stays at any Best Western Hotels worldwide. More... Until Apr 1, 18

British Airways Executive Club
- Earn up to 16,000 Bonus Avios when you fly between the U.K. and Albania, Austria, Belgium, Bulgaria, Croatia, Cyprus, Czech Republic, Denmark, Estonia, Finland, France, Germany, Gibraltar, Greece, Hungary, Iceland, Ireland, Israel, Italy, Luxembourg, Malta, Netherlands, Norway, Poland, Portugal, Romania, Russia, Spain, Sweden, Switzerland, Turkey and Ukraine. More... Until Jun 30, 18
- 35% Bonus Avios when you convert hotel points from Carlson Hotels, Hilton Worldwide, Hyatt Hotels & Resorts, Intercontinental Hotel Group, Marriott Hotels, Shangri-La Hotels & Resorts to British Airways Executive Club. More... Until Mar 31, 18

Delta SkyMiles
- Up to 1,000 Bonus SkyMiles on your 1st booking with airbnb. More... Ongoing

Stash Hotel Rewards
1,000 Bonus Stash Rewards Points when you book any hotel (including non-Stash Hotels) worldwide via Stash Rewards Travel. More... Book by Mar 31 ,18

Follow Rewards Canada:

February 20 Update: Increased fee and benefits on the Business Platinum Card® from American Express® and Carlson Rezidor Hotels to rebrand to Radisson Hotel Group

First update in what seems like ages! Rewards Canada is back from vacation and it's time to play catch up! Lots of you have emailed or asked us questions via blog comments and we'll get to them as soon as we can!

The Business Platinum Card® from American Express® underwent some slight changes. First off it has become more expensive at $499 per year now but to offset that $100 increase American Express has upgraded the Priority Pass offered on th card to not only have the waiver of the US$99 annual fee on that membership but also provide free entrance to the lounges for the cardholder and one guest. That's up to a US$54 value each time you travel. Find out more about The Business Platinum Card® from American Express®

On March 5, Carlson Rezidor Hotels will change their name to Radisson Hotel Group and also rename (and possibly relaunch) Club Carlson to Radisson Rewards. Right now that is all the details we have but will be watching closely on March 5th (or sooner if details are leaked) and pass along any news. If you have read Rewards Canada for some time now you'll know one of our pet peeves is where hotel chains and their associated programs using a nomenclature that doesn't relate to any of the actual hotel properties. There are no Carlson Hotels, there are no Choice Hotels, no Accor Hotels, no Starwood Hotels nor IHG Hotels. In fact we believe it is the reason some of the programs and their credit cards haven't done well here in Canada. When you try to market to the non-frequent traveller (or points/miles know it all) you can't sell your product. The average Canadian does not know Carlson Hotels they know Radisson and the same goes for the other brands. So this will be a welcome chain and hopefully help this brand out worldwide. (Source Meetings and Convnentions)

Posts since our last update:

• 500 FREE Voila Hotel Rewards Points for suggesting new hotels
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• BMO launches a whole new slate of business rewards credit cards
  Earlier this month BMO launched a whole new slate of small business credit cards that all offer rewards. From proprietary…
• Top 5 Mastercard Cards to use at Costco - 2018 Update
  This is an excerpt of a feature that appears on the main Rewards Canada site which has been updated to…
• BMO Rewards World Elite MasterCard Review - 2018 Update
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• Marriott Rewards Hotel Category Changes for 2018 - 21% of the chain worldwide is going up in price
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• Starwood Preferred Guest Hotel Category Changes for 2018 plus a new shorter booking window
  This year we've already seen hotel category changes from the likes of IHG, Carlson Hotels and Hyatt and now…

Travel Deals
Remember to visit Rewards Canada's Travel Booking site to book travel directly with many of your favourite airlines, hotels and more!

Canadian Bonus Offers
N/A
Other Bonus Offers
Air France KLM Flying Blue
- Earn up to 75% Bonus Flying Blue Miles when you buy miles online. More... Until Mar 19, 18

Avianca LifeMiles
- Earn up to 125% Bonus LifeMiles when you buy miles online. More... Until Feb 28, 18

Best Western Rewards
- Triple Rewards Points for stays at the Best Western Plus Oak Mountain Inn Pelham. More... Until Dec 31, 18
- Double Rewards Points for stays at the Best Western Plus Tucson Int'L Airport Hotel & Suites. More... Until Mar 31, 18
- Double Rewards Points for stays of 2+ nights Sun-Thu at the Best Western Plus Laguardia Airport Hotel Queens. More... Until Mar 15, 18
- Quadruple Rewards Points for stays at the Best Western Plus Arlington/Marysville. More... Until Dec 12, 18
- Double Rewards Points for stays at the Best Western Baraboo Inn. More... Until May 20, 18

Miles & More
- Earn up to 2,500 Bonus Miles & More Miles for stays at participating Hilton hotels Worldwide. More... Until Mar 25, 18

Voila Hotel Rewards
- 500 FREE VHR Points to participate in a survey on Facebook about where and what hotels should be added to the global VOILÀ network. More... Until May 31, 18


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February 6 Update: Lounge Passes Giveaway winner, Club Carlson hotel category changes with 5 in Canada going down in price!

Congratulations to Steve B of Winnipeg who won the 2 Maple Leaf Lounge passes in our giveaway from last week!

Club Carlson, the loyalty program for Carlson Rezidor Hotels (think Radisson, Country Inns & Suites) has announced their 2018 hotel category changes. Five hotels in Canada (well Alberta) are changing and the good news is they are all going down a category! Globally there are over 120 hotels changing (either going up or down) and you can view that list here.

Primera Air, the low cost European air carrier is expanding their service between Toronto and London Stansted. Bookings must be strong as the initially announced 3x weekly service starting May 19, which still stands but then as of August 24th that will move up 5x weekly service. (Source RoutesOnline). The airline, like most low cost carriers, does not have their own frequent flyer program or participate in other airlines programs but is ideal to be used with Canadian credit card proprietary programs, you can learn about them here and how to use them for airline like this.

Posts since our last update:

• Top 5 Credit Card Sign Up offers for February
  Here are the Rewards Canada Top 5 Credit Card Sign Up offers for the month of February!
• Save up to 50% on Economy and Business Class award tickets from Toronto to Austria & Poland
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• Wyndham Rewards - Earn a free night after completing 2 stays Worldwide
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Travel Deals
WestJet has launched a Valentine's Day Sale. Book by Feb 8 for travel until June 27. Find out more here

Remember to visit Rewards Canada's Travel Booking site to book travel directly with many of your favourite airlines, hotels and more!

Canadian Bonus Offers
Wyndham Rewards
- Earn 15,000 Bonus Wyndham Rewards Points when you complete 2 separate stays at participating Wyndham Hotels & Resorts Worldwide. More... Until Jun 30, 18

Other Bonus Offers
Alaska Airlines Mileage Plan
- 500 Bonus Mileage Plan Miles when you spend $150 or more shopping via the Mileage Plan shopping portal. More... Until Feb 11, 18

Hilton Honors
- Earn up to 100% Bonus Honor Points when you buy points online. More... Until Mar 16, 18

Marriott Rewards
- Earn up to 5,000 Rewards Points on rentals of 2 or more days at participating Hertz locations in the U.S., Canada, Europe, Mexico, Puerto Rico, Australia and New Zealand. More... Until Apr 30, 18

Starwood Preferred Guest
- OFFER EXTENDED Double Starpoints, Up to 35% Off and 5th night free for stays in Hawaii, Tahiti or Bora Bora. More... Until Jun 30, 18

United MileagePlus
- Triple MileagePlus Miles per stay at La Quinta properties in the U.S., Mexico and Canada. More... Until Jun 30, 18


Follow Rewards Canada:

Earn 5x Aeroplan Miles for Radisson and Country Inn & Suites stays in Canada and the U.S.

A nice holiday bonus if your travels are taking you to a Radisson or Country Inns & Suites location this month. You can earn 5x Aeroplan miles for stays at either brand in Canada or the U.S.

Offer details
5x Aeroplan Miles for stays at Radisson hotels and Country Inns & Suites By Carlson in the U.S. and Canada. Simply present your Aeroplan card at check in. Full details and online booking or book direct at Radisson or Country Inns & Suites  Until Dec 31, 17

Find many more Aeroplan bonus offers here

Carlson Hotels Club Carlson: 100% Bonus for buying points until November 28

A very short term buy points bonus from Club Carlson is a good one! For today and tomorrow you'll receive a 100% bonus on any Club Carlson Gold Points you buy. Normally you pay US$7 for 1,000 points and now you'll get 2,000 points for that same amount. You can buy up to 40,000 points per year so if you have not purchased any Club Carlson points yet this year you can come out with 80,000 points with this promotion for only US$280.00 or only .35 cents per point. With free nights starting as low as 9,000 points you could be paying as little as US$31.50 for a hotel stay.




A quick check of a random Category 3 hotel shows the potential savings here:

This Radisson Blu in Warsaw is 28,000 points, which with the buy points promotion would cost you US$98 or about C$130 where the best members rate that can be cancelled is C$184. That's close to a 30% savings if you bought points and used them for the stay rather than booking the room directly.

Offer details
100% Bonus Gold Points when you buy Gold Points online. Buy Points Here. Until Nov 28, 17

Find many more Club Carlson bonuses here

30% Bonus Aeroplan Miles when you convert hotel loyalty program points to Aeroplan until December 11

We see the return of another Aeroplan conversion bonus! Last seen this past summer, the hotel only transfer bonus is back but this time it's a flat 30% bonus miles instead of the flat 35% seen in the previous version. You have the make sure that you transfer enough hotel points to earn 5,000 Aeroplan Miles in your account by December 11 to get the 30% bonus which of course is lower than the summer promotion but what is good again is that the bonus is not tiered like we were used to prior to the summer and 30% is still a pretty good deal especially if you have you eyes on a flight reward in the next few months.

Most of Aeroplan's hotel partners are participating in the promotion so you can convert from any of the following to add to your final tally:

Your best bet for transfers is Starwood Preferred Guest of course since they transfer 1 to 1 to Aeroplan and if you transfer 20,000 Starpoints at one time SPG will throw in an additional 5,000 miles for 25,000 Aeroplan miles. With the conversion bonus you are actually looking at getting 32,500 Aeroplan Miles for the 20,000 Starpoints. Those miles can get you two short haul tickets so you can see the potential value in transferring Starpoints to Aeroplan.

Of course if you have points sitting in other hotel programs that you may never use or are about to expire you should look at transferring them to Aeroplan so that you actually get some value out of them!

Offer details:
30% Bonus Aeroplan Miles when you convert Hotel loyalty programs points to Aeroplan Miles.  Full details Until Dec 11, 17

Normally we would recommend getting the Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card to be able to take advantage of this offer but seeing how there is only a one month window for it chances are getting that card and the points from would most likely happen after December 11th. You could look at getting the American Express Cobalt Card since it earns Membership Rewards points which you have access to immediately and start putting tons of spend on it in the 5x Food & Dining category and then convert whatever points you have to SPG shortly before December 11 and that will equate to 2.5 Starpoints per dollar spent.

October 26 Update: Qantas Frequent Flyer enhancements, 3,000 easy Club Carlson points & British Airways closing Toronto lounge

If you are lucky enough to be a frequent traveller to Australia, not only are we jealous of you but now you can earn more points if you are making those flights on Qantas! Australian Business Traveller reports that Qantas Frequent Flyer has increased the points and status credits earned on Premium Economy and Business Class tickets from Vancouver, Los Angeles and San Francisco to Australia. Meanwhile they have also lowered some of the points requirements for upgrades out of Los Angeles.

Photo Credit: Australian Business Traveller

Over on our global site, FrequentFlyerBonuses.com we highlighted a very easy way to earn some bonus Club Carlson Gold Points. Via thier app, Club Carlson has added an Extra Partners section where you can shop and earn Club Carlson points for doing so. They are promoting the section by awarding 3,000 Gold Points on your first eligible purchase (many of which only require US$1) and iTunes music purchases seems to be the way to go. The only thing we are unsure of is whether Canadian accounts will work. If you give it a shot let us know how it goes just make sure you are spending enough in C$ to be over US$1 (so I would go with C$1.35 at a minimum). eBay and Groupon also look like easy options for us Canadians. Find out more here.

Per this FlyerTalk thread British Airways will be closing their lounge at Toronto's Pearson airport on October 31 and will begin to use one of the Plaza Premium lounges for their elite members and people fliyng in a premium class. Not good news at all as this lounge was one of their better offerings in North America according to many flyers.

Posts since our last update:

• Groupon expands mileage/point earning to six more airline & hotel programs
  Back in May we detailed Groupon's first foray into the world of miles and points with their partnership with…
• Hilton Honors Weekenders offer - Save on Saturday and Sunday night stays
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• 100% Bonus when you buy IHG Rewards Club Points - timed to coincide with the new PointBreaks
  Later today we should be getting a preview of 5-10 hotels that will be on IHG Rewards Club's newest…

Canadian Bonus Offers
N/A

Other Bonus Offers
Carlson Hotels Club Carlson
- 3,000 Bonus Gold Points for completing your first transaction with any of Club Carlson's Extras Partners, including iTunes, eBay, Groupon and more via the Carlson App. More... Until Dec 31, 17

Choice Privileges
- Earn up to 50% Bonus Privileges Points when you buy 5,000 or more points online. More... Until Nov 14 ,17

Emirates Skywards
- Double Skywards Miles for stays at Oberoi Hotels & Resorts worldwide and Trident Hotels across India. More... Until Mar 31, 18
- Triple Skywards Miles for stays of 2+ night at the Raffles Hotel Le Royal, Phnom Penh or Raffles Grand Hotel d'Angkor, Siem Reap. Exclusive offer for EK388 passengers. More... Book by Dec 15 for stays until Dec 20, 17

IHG Rewards Club
- 100% Bonus IHG Rewards Club Points when you buy points online.  More... Until Nov 3, 17

Qatar Airways Privilege Club
- Earn up to 1,000 Bonus QMiles when you earn miles from 2 or more Privilege Club travel (non airline), service or financial partners. More... Nov 1 - 30, 17

Follow Rewards Canada: