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How To Get Hotel Elite Status With Radisson Rewards Americas [2021]

BY 

Jarrod West

- UPDATED: September 17, 2021   |    4

1. Travel  / 
2. Hotels

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Radisson Rewards is a very solid, albeit often overlooked, hotel loyalty program. The program offers guests more than 1,200 properties in over 100 countries worldwide, a reasonable award chart, valuable loyalty benefits, and strong point-earning opportunities.

If you enjoy visiting Radisson hotels, and are a fan of the Radisson Rewards Americas loyalty program, then do yourself a favor to enhance your Radisson stays even further — get Radisson elite status.

Getting Radisson elite status won’t just earn you great benefits like room upgrades, hotel restaurant discounts, and late checkout, it will also help you earn Radisson Rewards Americas points even faster, decreasing the amount of time it will take you to earn enough points for your next award stay.

So let’s take a look at what elite status within the Radisson Rewards program has to offer and how you can work your way up the loyalty tiers.

The Benefits of Hotel Elite Status With Radisson Rewards Americas

How To Join Radisson Rewards

Joining Radisson Rewards Americas is free, easy to do, and required for anyone who wants to earn rewards for all of their future Radisson stays. To join the program, all you need to do is head to the Radisson Rewards Americas homepage and create an account. Once you’ve done that you’ll receive your Radisson Rewards loyalty number and can begin earning Radisson Rewards Americas points for all of your stays and working your way through each of the levels of elite status.

Hot Tip: Be aware that Radisson has split its rewards program into 2 depending on your region: Radisson Rewards Americas and Radisson Rewards. Radisson Rewards Americas covers the U.S., Canada, Latin America, and the Caribbean. Learn more about the program here.

Status Benefits at Each Elite Level

Speaking of working your way through the level of elite status, let’s take a look at what each tier of the Radisson Rewards Americas program has to offer to loyalty members.

Club Member

When you first join the Radisson Rewards Americas loyalty program, you’ll start out at the Club member level, which comes with the following benefits:

• 20x points per $1 on stays
• 5% discount on hotel food and beverages (excluding alcohol, tax, and tip)
• 2 complimentary bottles of water per stay

Silver Member

Silver status requires you to complete 9 nights or 6 stays at Radisson properties within a calendar year. Once you achieve Silver status you’ll receive the following benefits:

• 22x points per $1 on stays (10% bonus)
• 10% discount on hotel food and beverages
• Rollover nights
• Complimentary room upgrades (if available)
• Early check-in and late checkout (if available)

Gold Member

To reach Gold status you’ll need to complete 30 nights or 20 stays at Radisson properties within a calendar year, or be a cardholder of the Radisson Rewards™ Premier Visa Signature® Card. Once you reach Gold status you’ll receive the following benefits:

• All Silver status benefits
• 25x points per $1 on stays (25% bonus)
• 15% discount on hotel food and beverages
• In-room welcome gift
• 72-hour guaranteed room availability

Platinum Member

Finally, top-tier Platinum status in the Radisson Rewards Americas program requires 60 nights or 30 stays at Radisson properties within a calendar year to receive the following benefits.

• All Gold status benefits
• 35x points per $1 on stays (75% bonus)
• 20% discount on hotel food and beverages
• Complimentary Suite upgrades (if available)
• 48-hour guaranteed room availability
• Complimentary breakfast
• Platinum member services line

Bottom Line: Anyone who stays at Radisson hotels, even if it is just a few nights a year, should join the Radisson Rewards Americas program. Even if you never reach the top tiers of Radisson elite status, you’ll still earn points on all of your stays that can later be redeemed for future free nights!

How To Qualify for Radisson Rewards Americas Elite Status

Stay at Radisson Properties

The most straightforward way to qualify for Radisson Rewards Americas elite status is by completing a certain number of qualifying nights or qualifying stays within a calendar year. Here are the thresholds you need to reach for each status level:

• Silver status — 9 nights or 6 stays
• Gold status — 30 nights or 20 stays
• Platinum status — 60 nights or 30 stays

Paid stays, award stays, and Points + Cash stays all count towards Radisson Rewards Americas elite status.

Hot Tip: Due to COVID-19, Radisson has extended the elite status of members through February 2022 for those that would have expired in February 2021.

Request a Status Match

If you have elite status with another hotel loyalty program, you can request to have your status matched to an equivalent level in the Radisson Rewards Americas program.

To do so, you’ll need to email proof of your status in another program to [email protected]. But keep in mind that the highest status level you can be matched to is Gold status. So even if you have top-tier elite status in another hotel program, Radisson will not match you to Platinum status.

Here are some examples of hotel elite status levels that you might have, and what they will match to in the Radisson program.

The Fastest Path To Radisson Rewards Americas Elite Status

Complimentary Elite Status With the Radisson Rewards Premier Card

By far the easiest way to get elite status in the Radisson Rewards Americas program is by being a cardholder of the Radisson Rewards Premier card.

There are 2 Radisson co-branded cards for you to choose from, but only 1 offers elite status in the Radisson Rewards program. Here is a look at what each card has to offer.

If you’re someone who stays at Radisson hotels somewhat frequently, then the Radisson Rewards Premier card would be an excellent addition to your wallet. It gives a nice boost to the number of Radisson Rewards Americas points you’ll earn each stay and comes with complimentary Gold elite status.

How Radisson Rewards Americas Credit Cards Enhance Radisson Stays

Welcome Bonus

Getting a new credit card welcome bonus is a great way to boost the account balance of your loyalty accounts. Here is the current welcome bonus offering for each Radisson credit card.

• Radisson Rewards Premier card — 100,000 points
• Radisson Rewards card — 30,000 points

Since award nights in the Radisson Rewards program start at just 9,000 points per night, the 100,000 points welcome bonus for the Radisson Rewards Premier card would get you up to 11 free nights at Radisson hotels.

Spending Bonus

Each Radisson Rewards Americas credit card also offers a spending threshold that allows cardholders to earn free night certificates throughout the year. With each Radisson card, when you make $10,000 in eligible purchases, you’ll receive a free night certificate.

This can do be done up to 3 times per year for those who have the means to spend $30,000 on their Radisson credit card, leaving you with the opportunity to earn 3 free night certificates each year. Better yet, these free night certificates can be redeemed at any Radisson hotel worldwide — including top-tier Category 7 hotels that ordinarily cost 70,000 points per night!

Earning free night certificates through spending bonuses gives Radisson Rewards Americas credit cardholders the chance to receive a tremendous amount of value out of their cards each year.

Anniversary Bonus

Radisson Rewards Americas Premier cardholders have another way that they can boost their points balance, and that is through the card’s anniversary bonus.

That’s right, each year that you hold the Radisson Rewards Americas credit card, and pay the $75 annual fee, 40,000 Radisson Rewards points will be deposited into your account. That is enough for a free night each year at a Category 4 Radisson hotel, or 4 free nights a year at a Category 1 Radisson property.

For most people, this benefit alone completely justifies paying the $75 annual fee to keep the card open each year.

Increased Earnings on Radisson Stays

Holding either of the Radisson Rewards Americas cards allows you to increase the number of points you earn for each of your Radisson stays. Here is a breakdown of what that might look like.

• Radisson Club member with Radisson Rewards card: You’ll receive 20x points per $1 for being a Radisson Club member and 3x points per $1 for paying with the Radisson Rewards card for a total of 23x Radisson Rewards points per $1 spent. This represents a return of 6.9% on your Radisson stays based on our valuations.
• Radisson Gold member with Radisson Rewards Premier card: Since all Radisson Rewards Premier cardholders get automatic Gold status, you’ll receive 25x points per $1 due to your status, plus 10x points per $1 for paying with your Radisson Rewards Premier card, for a total of 35x Radisson Rewards points per $1 spent. This represents a return of 10.5% on your Radisson stays based on our valuations.

So if you want to earn enough points for a free night at a Radisson hotel even faster, using 1 of the Radisson credit cards is a great way to do just that.

Free Hotel Nights

Speaking of free hotel nights, let’s take a look at the Radisson Rewards Americas award chart, and about much you’ll need to spend at Radisson hotels in order to have enough points for a free night at each hotel category.

For convenience, we will continue with the same examples used above, but feel free to tweak the math to fit your specific status level and whether or not you hold a Radisson credit card.

As you can tell, having Gold status, thanks to the Radisson Rewards Premier card, and using the card to pay for your stays allows you to earn enough points for a free night significantly faster than base-level members using the Radisson Rewards card — over 34% faster on average! This way, you can spend less and earn more.

Bottom Line: If you are someone who enjoys staying at Radisson hotels, adding a card like the Radisson Rewards Premier card to your wallet can be extremely lucrative thanks to the automatic elite status and benefits of that status you’ll receive, plus the significant boost to the number of Radisson Rewards Americas points you’ll earn during your stays.

Final Thoughts

Anyone who visits Radisson hotels, even if it is just once a year, should be a member of the Radisson Rewards Americas program since it is free to join and helps you earn points towards free stays in the future. But if you want to take your Radisson stays to the next level, then you should make an effort to earn Radisson elite status.

Fortunately, for Radisson Rewards Premier cardholders, earning elite status doesn’t take much effort at all. They earn Gold elite status in the program just for being a cardmember which not only gives them benefits like room upgrades, food and beverage discounts, and welcome gifts, but also helps them earn points significantly faster — putting them that much closer to their next award stay.

Curious what other hotel loyalty programs come with credit cards that offer hotel elite status? Our detailed guide shows you how to take all of your hotel stays to the next level, no matter which hotel loyalty program you prefer!