I have been a Tourradar Ambassador for 2 years now. I have recommended it to everyone, shared links, and much morem through my trip, moments and answrign surveys i had built up 500€ travel credits. Ok i could not use them before the “use 250 at once” campaign expired, but I thought I had more time, since i even got asked about it in a survey. But thats ok. Life changes, and one cant always travel when one desires (buying apsrtment and moving pushed my plans from this year to next) What is NOT ok is that we have been told in black amd white on app, webpage etc that our travel credits would NEVER expire, and now they suddenly just take them away. If they dont change this stanse, they lose me not just as an Ambassador but as a customer forever. And I will find another plstform for my coming trips.
Thanks so much for taking the time to share this, and for being part of the Ambassador community for the past two years. That genuinely means a lot to us.
I completely understand why the change to Travel Credits has raised concerns, especially having built up your balance over time. I’d like to give you a bit more context, because this is designed to work in your favour rather than take something away.
From August, we’re moving to a new, level-based rewards program. Rather than a set pot of credits you could only put toward the odd booking, you’ll now save automatically on every booking you make, based on your history with us. Travel Credits could only be applied up to 5% of a single booking in any case, so the new program is built to give more back over time, not less.
With the new program, how much you save is based on your booking history with us — the more you’ve travelled with us, the more you save on every booking you make.
We’ll be sharing full details by email soon, and I’ll also drop you a message directly to walk you through exactly what this means for you and make sure it works in your favour.
The big question here is whether my 500€ is transferred on to the new programme or not, because the enail says I have to use them up before august, and your answer here does not say I keep them either. So the question is not really how good the new programme is, but what happens to the remaining credits. Because if they are not removed then you guys have explained poorly! Picture taken from app today, where it still states they never dissappear.
I had similar concerns when I read the e-mail, then dropped them.
Basically, I’ve been a member of a number of ‘Loyalty Programs’ and most of them drop the ‘earned points’ after a certain period, merge with other programs, or close the program completely; often at short notice.
This is one of the most frustrating, least‑discussed truths in modern travel promotions.
At their core, ‘loyalty programs’ are behaviour‑shaping systems that airlines, hotels, and travel platforms like TourRadar use to lock us into their ecosystem, try to influence our booking decisions, extract more revenue per traveller, and reward only the most profitable behaviours.
TourRadar Credits
I was pleasantly surprised when @Claire_TourRadar presented us with $250 in TourRadar credits back in January, just for helping others in the community.
I didn’t even realise there was a ‘Community Contest’ going on. I don’t think anyone did.
I was given a link about the ‘Travel Credit Program’, but didn’t really read everything.
When I received another $250 in February, I was blown away and started looking at tours; even creating something of a Wishlist, without reading the small print.
I don’t think it was until March that the Community Contest was actually becoming a monthly event.
Somehow I continued to top the Leaderboard, through to May.
By now, with €1,250 in available credits, it was time to look closer at where to spend them.
But I couldn’t.
Well, not all of them, not in one hit. Not even a $250 credit, unless the tour was over $5,000.
Yes, now we could only use credits up to 5% of the tour.
I was pretty certain this ‘catch’ wasn’t there at the start of this surprising series of gifted credits.
Maybe I had accumulated too many, that TourRadar would run at a loss.
It was also announced, in June, that TourRadar would be ‘pausing the Community Contest’ while they ‘review and explore potential updates to the format’.
That hasn’t stopped me from being active in the forum, and I do continue to help travellers where I can; and have been since 1997, when we created the Travel Notes Online Guide to Travel for just that purpose.
During 40 years of travel and living abroad I have visited around 120 countries, 220 UNESCO World Heritage Sites and 100+ World Heritage Cities.
Changes to TourRadar Travel Credits
The changes are not surprising as TourRadar is a marketplace, not a tour company itself.
Credits behave like temporary vouchers, or promotional tools, tied to third‑party operators.
If TourRadar aren’t making the commissions, they can’t be handing out ‘funny money’ to use on something they don’t actually own themselves.
Incentives have to be tweaked to incentivise us to spend, so that the company can earn more too.
The Thing to Remember
Points and credits are not money, they are pseudo coupons.
Coupons can be changed, devalued, or voided at any time.
It Is What It Is.
Loyalty programs and ‘travel credits’ aren’t built to reward loyalty, they’re built to reward profitable behaviour
I still like browsing the TourRadar marketplace and checking in with the community. Nothing changes that.
We came in with nothing, and we leave with nothing; except experience.
You are lucky! So far I have travelled 30 countries myself. As long as something is stated “for life” they cant just taie it away. I know some countries (like US) has a whole different rake on coupons etc. But living in a country where consumer protection has always been valued highly (Norway) this does just not fly for me. And if they dont give me back the 500€ either as a one time discount or as a payout, they lose me and many others. We will see what happens, but this is just so bad trwatment of loyal ambassadors
Also. 250€ of the 500€ was for “selling” them pictures they could use for others (moments) and 150-200€ was for spending 3-4 hours total talking to them on phone, helping them. Aka work… the last 50 was bonus from a trip, and thats ok’ish to lose, but not the rest…
Thank you for such a thoughtful discussion, and apologies it’s taken me a little while to get back to you.
Our new TourRadar+ Loyalty Program is designed to be a simpler way for travellers to be able to save on every single booking they make, and save even more over time.
I understand you both have circumstances where it isn’t quite so clear-cut due to the unique way your Travel Credits were earned, and we want to make sure you are not left out or feeling frustrated by what should be an exciting change for TourRadar users!
I’ll reach out to you both directly to make sure you’re part of the discussion and to find the best way forward for you.
During 40 years of travel and living abroad I have visited around 120 countries, 220 UNESCO World Heritage Sites and 100+ World Heritage Cities. 
