I totally feel your pain.
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.
