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Wow, I didn’t see this coming. Via The Points Guy and Loyalty Traveler, I learned today that Wyndham is planning to overhaul their rewards program, in a very good way, on May 11th. The startling part of the Wyndham announcement is that they will have a single flat redemption rate for hotel nights: 15,000 points per night, regardless of the property – with no blackout dates. Yes, many of Wyndham’s properties are low-end and probably not worth 15,000 points, but they do have a number of mid to high end properties around the world. In many cases, 15,000 points per night will be a fantastic bargain.
When I first read about this I actually thought it was an April Fools Day joke released a day early. If so, count me as one that’s been fooled. Wyndham has full details of the new program here.
Some nice properties
Wyndham’s brands include Ramada, Wingate, Baymont Inn & Suites, Travelodge, and many more:
Both The Points Guy and Loyalty Traveler point out some high end properties that will be bargains under the new scheme. I particularly like the look of Le Moulin de Vernègues:
And, the Wyndham credit card suddenly looks interesting…
For a while now, Barclaycard has offered a 45,000 point signup bonus for one of their two Wyndham cards:
Starting May 11th, those 45,000 points will be worth 3 nights in any of Wyndham’s top properties.
How to get Wyndham points?
Now that Wyndham points are suddenly interesting, one wonders how to go about getting them when needed? The credit card (shown above) is an obvious option. How about transfer partners? According to the Frequent Miler Transfer Partner Master List, Wyndham points transfer from… nowhere. Amex? Nope. Chase? Nope. Surely Diner’s Club? Nope. Wyndham points aren’t even available from Amtrak!
This Wyndham page lists several unappealing options for earning points such as paid stays at hotels, car rentals, Life Lock, etc.
You can also currently buy points from Wyndham for 1.1 cents each. That means that you can theoretically buy a night at any Wyndham hotel (starting May 11th) for only $165. At some hotels that could be a huge bargain. However, Wyndham has a 5K limit: “A maximum of 5,000 Wyndham Rewards Points can be purchased and received in a single calendar year.” So much for that idea.
The only good option I see for earning points quickly is through the credit card, which earns 2 points per dollar for all spend. A one night stay, then, would require $7,500 spend. How does that compare to the Club Carlson credit card which offers 5 points per dollar everywhere? Club Carlson standard award nights range from 9,000 to 70,000 points per night. With the Club Carlson credit card, you would have to spend between $1,800 and $14,000 to earn enough points for a free night. At the top end, the Wyndham card appears to be the better deal. However, the Club Carlson credit card also gives you your last night on an award stay for free. So, for a two night stay, the amount of required spend is unchanged: $1,800 to $14,000. With the Wyndham credit card, a two night stay would require $15,000 spend. All else being equal, the Club Carlson credit card is still the better deal.
Conclusion
Overall I’m excited about the positive change to Wyndham’s rewards program, but I’m also a bit frustrated by the lack of obvious options for earning points quickly and easily. At least there’s the credit card. I’ll probably give the application a try… very soon. My bet is that the 45K offer will disappear before the new program is put into place.
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Can you get a listing of “participating properties” for us?
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They killed the 45K credit card offer, now only 30K.
Wow, that was fast. Thanks. I’ve updated the Best Offers page.
This change raises the Wyndham Rewards redemption rate on more rooms than it lowers them on. And it reduces the value of the points.
The 14k and 16k rooms I exclude because the numbers are close enough, both in points required and number of nights/searches for each in my data set. Looking at the other results, however, shows at least 3,200 hotels increasing in redemption cost while only 425 are reduced. The change actually reduces the average cents/point valuation of a Wyndham Rewards point from 0.5610 cents to 0.4773 cents, a cut of ~17%. The median point value drops from 0.5946 to 0.4666 cents.
Thanks Seth. That doesn’t surprise me since so many of the Wyndham hotels are lower end. This change is clearly good for those who seek high-end reward stays, but not so good for those seeking the lowest price awards in general.
What is your opinion on applying for the wyndham credit card. Is it better to apply now for the 45,000 points offer or wait to see if they have a better offer after they revamp the rewards program. I’m also wondering will they keep the 2x points on spending.
I would have said apply now, but the offer has already dropped to 30K
I have read the blogs from a few people. I went to the info on the Wyndham web page. They make it clear that all properties are NOT participating. Here is the wording from their website:
Not all Wyndham Rewards Hotels participate in go fast Award Program.
So I think it is too soon to plan stays at some of these nicer properties until the full list is out showing who will and will not participate in the “go fast Award program”.
I was surprised no bloggers covering this noted this information. All I see are photos are their high end properties when we don’t even know if they would be included.
Our go free award will replace our Free Night Stay program. The go free award will allow you to redeem 15,000 Wyndham Rewards points for one free night at any of our participating hotels worldwide – any standard room (up to max. occupancy), any participating property, down to last room available. No blackout dates.
(note they said PARTICIPATING twice!!)
A lot of these hotels are individually owned and operated.
Well, the Go Fast program is different than the Go Free program. The fact that Wyndham is very explicit about the fact that Go Fast is limited makes me think that Go Free is not. For Go Fast they say “Not all Wyndham Rewards Hotels participate in go fast Award Program.” For Go Free, they do mention “participating hotel” (as you pointed out), but they don’t explicitly say that not all Wyndham Rewards Hotels participate. My interpretation of all of this is:
1. Not all hotels participate in Wyndham Rewards
2. All hotels that do participate in Wyndham Rewards are eligible for Go Free Awards.
3. NOT all hotels that participate in Wyndham Rewards participate in Go Fast”
Obviously I could be wrong about that interpretation, but that’s how I read it.
“Subject to availability” is the key here, right? No blackout dates but aggressive capacity controls that make it impossible to ever get one of the good hotels with points, whereas you’re more than welcome to book the Knights Inn in East Bemidji MN for 15K points a night…
I don’t think that’s how they intend it. They explicitly say in their FAQ: “…any standard room (up to max. occupancy), any participating property, down to last room available. No blackout dates.”
I don’t think that’s how they intend it. They explicitly say in their FAQ: “…any standard room (up to max. occupancy), any participating property, down to last room available. No blackout dates.”
It doesn’t take much thought to realize this won’t work long term. There will either be severe capacity controls or the program will change.
Maybe, but many said the same about the Club Carlson credit card when it was announced. They’ve only had a minor devaluation since then. Anyway, it appears to be a great deal at least in the short term.
Heh. Nevermind. Club Carlson Visa dumping Bonus Award Nights
I bet everyone is cursing transferring their Wyndham points to airlines, or not taking advantage of the Daily Getaways deals last year right about now! (I still have 103k! A FULL WEEK AT KOLOA LANDING POIPU (kauai))
😀
Yeah I WISH I could get a whole week at Koloa Landing. We stayed there a few times when it was 30K points but stopped when it went to 50K… But there is a note on this that not all properties participate.
I would not be surprised if places like Koloa Landing do not and stay at a higher level….
That’s great!
And here I was excited after getting 4X UA miles my last few stays…