Frequent Miler's latest team challenge, Million Mile Madness, is almost done! The last two weeks Greg, Nick, and Stephen competed to earn 1 Million SAS miles by flying 15 airlines. But who completed the challenge with the most Speed, Affordability, and Style?
Wyndham Rewards announced some time ago that they’d be extending status through December 31, 2021. This was good news for those of us who’d already hopped on the status-match-go-round, but it wasn’t helpful for those who’d missed out seeing as they’ve temporarily paused status matching.
If you don’t currently have status with Wyndham Rewards and it’s something you’d like, they’ve made it easier to earn by reducing the requirements by 40%.
The usual requirements for earning Wyndham Rewards status are as follows:
- Gold – 5 nights
- Platinum – 15 nights
- Diamond – 40 nights
For 2020, the requirements have been reduced to the following number of nights:
- Gold – 3 nights
- Platinum – 9 nights
- Diamond – 24 nights
While earning status with Wyndham Rewards is hardly aspirational, it could prove useful for future status matching opportunities. Other hotel chains might launch generous status matches in the coming months, so having top tier status with at least one chain could make it easier to match to others. You can get Hilton Diamond status without staying any nights at Hilton properties thanks to the Aspire card (albeit with a $450 annual fee), but if you don’t have that card then 24 nights at Wyndham brands might be easier to attain than 55 nights at IHG properties for Spire Elite status.
It’s certainly not worth mattress running 24 nights, but if you were going to be booking paid stays anyway and you found some non-mediocre Wyndham properties, at least you can pick up status more easily.
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I’ve never been upgraded at a Super 8. Ha! In all seriousness, I racked up hundreds of thousands of Wyndham Rewards points about five years ago, as their 15K redemptions at their Viva Wyndham All-Inclusive properties was a winning proposition. I’ve had over eight weeks of reward stays at the Viva’s. Then they removed the all-inclusives from the program with no notice. Also, during the pandemic they did very little to extend the life of points, as Wyndham points expire after four years regardless of activity. The majority of my points expire in October, and two of my spring and summer trips were canceled due to COVID. As such, I phoned Wyndham Rewards and was told that I needed to somehow use them or lose them. They suggested gift card redemptions, which is a horrible value. Accordingly, I booked a two week trip for August, assuming the country isn’t shut down again. After I exhaust all of my points, I will never step foot in a Wyndham flagged property again.