Update 9/10/24: Unfortunately the news that points earned from spend on Wyndham Rewards Earner credit cards don’t expire turned out to be untrue. Despite Barclays sending out an email stating that points earned on credit card spend don’t expire, Wyndham members were still seeing an expiry date listed for their points.
We therefore reached out to Wyndham to gain clarification on this and they’ve advised the following:
The line within the email stating points earned from the card never expire was an error. Points earned from the credit cards are no different than points earned from other aspects of the Wyndham Rewards program, and they follow the same expiration policies – expiring four years after they are posted to the Member’s account so long as the account is active.
~
Conventional wisdom has long held that Wyndham Rewards points expire 4 years from when they are earned, regardless of activity. It has been possible to extend the life by transferring to Caesars Rewards and back, though it’s a slow process and subject to annual limits. However, an Eagle-eyed reader named Jay noticed that an email sent to Wyndham Earner Business cardholders yesterday said that points earned from the card never expire — and it looks like that indeed might be true. This looks to be a positive, announced program change.
Email sent to Wyndham Earner Business cardholders
An email sent to Wyndham Earner Business credit card holders yesterday indicates that points never expire — “The best part is there is no limit to the number of points you can earn. Plus, they never expire.”
That said, the line indicating that points never expire has a citation, indicating that there may be a “gotcha”. Following that to the footnotes, the email says:
Please log in to your account to view your Reward Rules for more information about the rewards associated with your account.
That’s certainly not as clear as I’d like it to be, but that sent us to the full program terms & conditions for more information.
Wyndham Rewards Terms & Conditions policy on points expiration only addresses points earned from stays
Jay pointed out that the full Wyndham terms and conditions do still note the 4-year points expiration policy, but only in reference to points earned from stays. See the terms from section 14, headlined ” Point Expiration, Cancellation and Account Inactivity”:
Except as may otherwise be required under applicable law, Wyndham Rewards points expire four (4) years after the checkout date of the stay for which the applicable points are posted to the Member’s account (the “Four Year Rule”), unless the points are forfeited or cancelled earlier due to membership inactivity (as more particularly described below), or otherwise in accordance with these Terms and Conditions. All accrued points in a Member’s Wyndham Rewards account may be cancelled or forfeited if the Member has no Account Activity (as defined below) for a period of approximately, but never less than, eighteen (18) consecutive months. For purposes of these Terms and Conditions, “Account Activity” means any (i) point earning, and (ii) redemption or transfer activity involving a change in the Member’s Wyndham Rewards point balance, in each case, conducted in accordance with these Terms and Conditions. All issues related to the value, redemption and expiration of Travel Partner Currency will be governed by the terms and conditions then in effect for the applicable program.
Interestingly, the terms only reference the points expiring 4 years after the checkout date from the stay from which they are earned. The terms go on to note that you do need activity at least once every 18 months or else “all accrued points” in your account may be cancelled or forfeited. The wording there seems to indicate that Wyndham recognizes that you may have points other than those earned from stays since it references “all” points and not just the points earned from stays.
My read of these terms, particularly when taken in context with the email about points earned from the Wyndham Earner Business credit card, is that the four-year expiration policy likely does not apply to points earned from credit card spend, credit card welcome bonuses, or points earned through the Wyndham Rewards shopping portal or other partners.
Bottom line
We previously thought that Wyndham Rewards points had a hard expiration policy of four years from the date they were earned (and I do believe that policy had previously been enforced). Thanks to an eagle-eyed reader, we’ve noticed that it appears that only Wyndham Rewards points earned from stays expire 4 years from the date they are earned. That’s great news and makes spend on the Wyndham credit cards much more appealing going forward with the knowledge that those points appear to be safe from expiration so long as you continue to earn, redeem, or transfer points once every 18 months.
Want to learn more about miles and points? Subscribe to email updates or check out our podcast on your favorite podcast platform.
I got a retraction / correction email today from Wyndham. Just plain a mistake.
Whop whop. 🙁
I noticed this in my email a couple days ago, too.
As of tonight, my Wyndham app ONLY shows the 18-rolling-month expiry date; there is no 4-year “hard” expiration showing. AFAIK, all my points at present are from spend on the card.
I have the biz card. All points earned thru the card. And one 60k transfer last year to/from Caesar. No stays ever.
Here is what I see on my account this morning (from website as app offers less info). Current balance is ~170k.
———-
NOTIFICATIONS
Points expire 4 years after they are earned. You have 23,306 that will expire on 02/30/2027.
In addition, after 18 consecutive months without any account activity, all of your points will be forfeited. Be sure to stay or redeem with us by 02/18/2026.
02/30/2027? That’s funny, I didn’t know February had 30 days.
Wonder if the same rules (whatever they are) are applied to points earned through the consumer card. Any thoughts?
Huge if true and IMO that’s a big if. Sitting on a nice stash that I can’t find a use for. Seems like they don’t have too many nice properties in the US.
I just checked my Wyndham account and it shows about 22K points expiring next year due to the 4 year rule. All of my Wyndham points are from the Business Earner card (zero from paid stays or any other source) so unless this is very new and has not yet been applied to my account for some reason, it appears that the 4 year rule does apply to points earned from the credit cards.
Small correction, but not relevant to my prior comment: I do have 30K Wyndham points originally from the Business Earner card that are now sourced as Caesars due to a back and forth transfer last fall, but this could not be the 22K showing as expiring next year. If this is truly the new policy for points, possibly it is being applied prospectively only. Also possble Barclays meant that points don’t expire as long as you have the card (because of the anniversary bonus). But this is only true for the 18 month rule and for those with an AF card (the no AF card requires substantial spend to receive the anniversary bonus). Totally agree their T&Cs are a mess. Would be worthwhile to get some official comment from Wyndham (or Barclays). It would be great to avoid dealing any further with the mess that is Caesars just to get around that ridiculous 4 year hard expire rule.
Like you – my account shows 50K points expiring in about a year due to the 4 year rule -and all those points were earned from the Wyndham Earner Business card. It either isn’t true, or – like you – this has not applied to my account yet either.
does wyndham allow pooling points between spouses to book on vacasa?
Not any more since last year.
crxxx. i have like 200k in each acct which is not enough individually for the redemptions i had in mind, even when split in 2, as you lose out on the lower price per night for longer stays.
Greg reported paying for a redemption using two accounts late last year, when was this stopped?
I’m not sure when it stopped, but they did stop it unfortunately
Just called Wyndham rewards. All my points came from opening bonus and spend. My points are indeed subject to the 18 months inactivity rule and 4 year expiration. Email is misleading and incorrect.
I would put very little confidence in a phone agent knowing the correct answer / being familiar with the intricacies of rewards program terms. I’d put far more faith in what the terms actually say.
For what it’s worth, that’s a universal truth. The average phone agent is someone clocking in for a few hours and doing a job off of a script, they aren’t pouring over program terms or earning and redeeming piles of their own points, etc. I always say that I don’t ask a phone agent a question that I don’t already know the answer to.
I’ll concede that the terms aren’t as clear as I’d like them to be in the sense that they only refer to points earned from stays, but between the fact that they do individually call out points earned *from stays* expiring and not other points and the fact that they emailed cardholders specifically saying that points never expire, I am very highly confident that points earned from credit card spend will not expire (though they may still be forfeited after 18 months of inactivity).
Well put. Noted.
I got the same email. I attempt to redeem wyndham points a few times each year. useful program that I use at the Horseshoe casino in Bossier City, Louisiana.
FYI: the 4-year “rule” after checkout from a stay has been in the T&Cs since at least 2021, as I noted it while applying for my Wyndham business earner card.
Too ambiguous. I am staying with the four-year expiry rule.
This begs the question: when redeeming points do they first come out of the cache subject to the “4-year rule”? Also, how do we track the 2 types of points?
> when redeeming points do they first come out of the cache subject to the “4-year rule”?
I’m assuming the oldest points to hit your account will be redeemed first, regardless of what type of points they are. So for example, let’s say you had these points in your account earned on these dates.
7/1/24: 1000 points from credit card spend
8/1/24: 8000 points from stays
If you redeem 7500 points, I’m guessing it’ll take 1000 points from 7/1 CC spend first since they’re older and then 6500 points from 8/1 stays.
Would it be accurate to assume that points transferred in from Caesars would also no longer be subject to the four year expiration rule since they’re not from stays?
I’ve certainly had Wyndham points expire before I knew about the Caesar’s transfer method, and all of my points came from the card, so I can confirm Nick’s statement this was previously enforced.
I’m always amazed hawkeye readers like Jay.
No pun intended.
then you learn about folks who have amazing eyesight….like 20/6 or better….