Perhaps as a result of the disappointing news about Hyatt’s upcoming non-dynamic-yet-dynamic award chart update, Chase has added a new Ultimate Rewards transfer partner: Wyndham Rewards.
Transfers are on a 1,000:1,000 basis. The terms state that “Most point transfers process by the next business day, but may take up to 7 business days.” However, I did a test transfer of 1,000 points just to see how quickly it would process and the points showed up in my Wyndham account immediately. There’s obviously no guarantee that transfers will always take place instantly, but I suspect that’ll be the usual speed and 1-7 business days is a caveat they’ve added just in case there are delays for one reason or another.
Ultimately though, transferring Ultimate Rewards points from Chase to Wyndham is a poor use of your points. Even taking into account Hyatt’s upcoming devaluation, transfers to Hyatt will likely still prove to be more valuable than to Wyndham, not to mention all the airline transfer partners Chase has that are all more valuable than Wyndham Rewards points.
Wyndham frequently sells its points for ~0.7 cents per point, so in most cases you’d be far better off buying their points than transferring to them from any transferable currency that they partner with (the others being Citi, Capital One, and HSBC). The only time I might be remotely interested in transferring Ultimate Rewards to Wyndham (other than the 1K test transfer I did earlier) would be if there was a 100% transfer bonus.
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It could also be a valuable transfer if you’re staying in places where the only chains are Wyndham or maybe Choice.
I’m working on a Northern California/southern Oregon coast trip where the closest Hyatt is 350+ miles away and there’s no Marriott or Hilton chain at all. There’s not a Hyatt, or a Marriott, along the coast between Seattle and San Francisco.There’s three Hiltons and 8 IHG on that stretch. There’s 19 Wyndhams along that stretch. And not all of them are ratty Days Inn/Super 8.
Now, portal might be a better way to book them than points, just don’t forget that there are still large areas where Hyatt (or the other big three, but it’s more common with Hyatt) simply doesn’t exist. If I want to use points in Crescent City, California, it’s either use a portal or transfer for Wyndham or Choice. Best Western has an amazing footprint for areas like this, but they don’t play with any of the transferrable point programs either.
Good news- thanks for the report. This would be nice for a top-off need in the event there’s no point sale going on for purchase.
More options are always welcome. For some, it could be helpful merely as a top-off. I agree that it’s generally bad value to transfer to this particular partner. If transferring UR, it’s mostly Hyatt, United, for me.
Just saw this in the app because I was transferring to Hyatt. Hoping there will be a transfer bonus to encourage people to use the new partner.