Guide to Wyndham Rewards (2021)
Hotel Strategies, Hotel Loyalty Program Reference Guide
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Quick Guide
- Wyndham had a brief experiment with eliminating award categories. For a couple of years, every hotel in the program required the same 15,000 points for a free night. They reintroduced hotel categories in early 2019, but still only have three different levels: 7,500, 15,000, and 30,000 points.
- We value Wyndham points at .8 cents each.
- Wyndham’s points and cash option can be the best way to book your room. You pay only 20% of the points cost for 30% off the room rate. When prices are high or low, you are better off with a straight points or straight cash redemption, but when prices are in the middle, "Go Fast" redemptions are the best option.
- Wyndham has a partnership with Caesars Rewards. You can earn and redeem Wyndham points at their casinos hotels and your Platinum or Diamond status in each program is automatically matched by the other. There are some valuable benefits associated with this program.
- You can use your Wyndham points to book a large set of vacation homes and condos, rather than hotels. At these locations, you’ll pay 15,000 points per bedroom. So, a 1-bedroom condo would be 15,000 points per night and a 4-bedroom house would require 60,000 points. And since you won't be charged the cleaning and other fees, you can save a substantial amount of money, especially on shorter rentals.
Wyndham Brands
You can also earn and redeem points at the Caesar / Harrah’s family of hotels, and for thousands of vacation homes and condos.
Award Chart
Wyndham has a simple award chart.
| Cat | Free Night | 35% off |
|---|---|---|
| 1 | 7,500 | 1,500 |
| 2 | 15,000 | 3,000 |
| 3 | 30,000 | 6,000 |
Only about 500 of their 9,000 hotels require 30,000 points, but the vast majority of their other hotels are very inexpensive members of chains like Day's Inn.
Go Fast Awards
With "Go Fast" awards, you pay 20% of the required number of points to book the hotel room at 70% of the daily room rate.
- You are not really getting a full 30% discount. The required cash portion is calculated based on the regular non-discounted rate. Cheaper rates (such as "member rates" and AAA rates) are almost always available. As a result, using points will save you less than 30%. For example, if the regular room rate is $100, the cash portion of the Cash and Points award will be $70, but a discounted room rate might only be $90. In this case, the Go Fast award would only drop the rate an additional $20 (or 22%).
- If room rates are high, you are better paying the full award cost to make a "Go Free" reservation. For example, if a category 2 room has a $150 room rate, you can either use 15,000 points or you can use 3,000 points plus $105. Spending the extra 12,000 points saves $105 and provides an incremental value of almost .9 cents per point (which is a good deal).
- If room rates are very low, you are better off with a cash reservation. For example, if the same Category 2 hotel only costs $70 per night, you'd only be receiving .47 cents per point if you spent the full 15,000 points to book the room. With a Go Fast awards, you'd need to use 3,000 points to get a 30% ($21) discount, getting around .4 cents per point. Neither of these is a good deal.
- When rates are in the middle, the cash and points reservation is the better option. At a value of .8 cents per point, Cash and Points reservations make sense for room rates in the following ranges.
- You need to adjust the bottom end of this range based on the true discount you are receiving. At a value of .8 cents per point, the difference between the actual discounted rate you would need to pay for the room and the cash portion of the "Go Fast" rate needs to be at least $10, $20, or $50 for Category 1, 2, and 3 hotels.
| Cat | Range |
|---|---|
| 1 | $40-70 |
| 2 | $80-140 |
| 3 | $160-275 |
At room rates higher than this range, use the full amount of points (if you have them). At room rates lower than this range, don't use any of your points.
Booking Vacation Houses and Condos
Wyndham operates many different vacation clubs and has also partnered with a number of other vacation home and condo rental companies, including many Vacasa rental properties.
You can you your Wyndham points to book thousands of different vacation homes and condos. When you do, you pay by the bedroom.
For example, a Go Free award for a 2-bedroom condo would be 30,000 points per night, a Go Fast award at 4-bedroom vacation house requires 12,000 points plus a cash payment, and a roomy 1-bedroom condo doesn’t cost any more points than a normal hotel room.
And if you were thinking about booking a vacation house, using your points will save you the often-hefty cleaning and extra fees.
Unfortunately, you'll need to call in to make these reservations, the normal representatives often can't help, and just because a unit looks like it should be available, doesn't mean you'll be able to book it. But it doesn't hurt to call in and try.
Acquiring Points
Acquiring last minute points
If you see a great redemption deal at Wyndham hotels, there are several ways that you can acquire a few additional points.
| Transferring Venture points |
You can transfer points from Capital One's Venture cards. You'll get 3,000 Wyndham points for every 4,000 Venture points you transfer. Normally, this isn't a high value way to use your Venture points, but it can easily be worthwhile for a high-value Wyndham reward redemption. |
| Purchasing points |
You can only purchase up to 45,000 points per year, in 1,000-point increments, for 1.3 cents per point. Sometimes promotions are available, which allow you purchase points for less money per point and enable you to purchase more points per year. Get a Discounted Room Rate by Buying the Points for an Award Night. |
| Daily Getaway promotion |
Every Spring, the US Travel Association runs a promotion called “Daily Getaways”. Each day, they offer limited numbers of a specific travel “offer” for sale. In previous years, they offered packages of 15,000 Wyndham points for about $150. While this is only a little cheaper than the normal purchase rate of 1.3 cents per point, it bypasses the normal limit of only 45,000 points per year. Each buyer could purchase two packages for a total of 30,000 points. |
Earning Points from Your Stays
Members earn 10 points for every dollar spent at Wyndham. The minimum reward is 1,000 points per stay, so you earn at a slightly higher rate at less expensive hotels. Note that any elite status bonus points are factored in first. If that takes you over the 1,000 point minimum, you don't receive additional points. Gold, Platinum, and Diamond members earn bonuses of 10%, 15%, or 20% on stays.
If you use the Wyndham credit card, you'll earn an additional 5-8 points per dollar. The business version earns 8 points per dollar and the regular version earns 6 points. Even the 5 points per dollar from the no annual fee card is probably more valuable than what you can earn from another credit card (assuming you're likely to have good opportunities to redeem your Wyndham points in the future). Best Credit Cards for Travel Spending.
Other Ways to Earn Points
The best way to quickly earn a bunch of points is by signing up for the Wyndham credit card. The annual-fee-based and the business card has a normal signup bonus of 45,000 points ($1,000 initial spending requirement) and the no-annual-fee card has a normal signup bonus of 30,000 points. The cards are issued by Barclays, and you should be able to periodically cancel and re-apply to earn the signup bonus again. Credit Card Signup Bonuses: The Easiest Path to Free Airplane Tickets and Hotel Nights.
A couple other options are available and can be viewed here.
Keeping your Points from Expiring
You will lose your points four years after you’ve earned them. This happens, even if you are actively earning points. You need to make sure to use them. You can also lose your points if you go 18 months without qualifying activity.
Because you can freely transfer points between the Wyndham and Caesars programs, you can keep your account active by transferring points to Caesars (and then back again if you want to).
Member Benefits
Extra elite nights rollover to the following year.
Blue (entry level)
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| Gold (5 nights) 10% bonus points plus the following benefits:
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| Platinum (15 nights) 15% bonus points plus the following benefits:
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| Diamond (40 nights) 20% bonus points plus the following benefits:
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Caesars Rewards Benefits
Wyndham has a partnership with the loyalty program of the Caesars and Harrah’s family of casinos. Platinum and Diamond status in either program is matched at the other.
You can also get Total Rewards Diamond status via the Founders Card program. If you do, you’ll get Wyndham Diamond status for free and access to its potential suite upgrades.
| Platinum Includes the following benefits:
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| Diamond Adds the following benefits:
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Shortcuts to Wyndham Elite Status
Each of the Wyndham credit cards gives you some level of elite status. The no-annual-fee card gives you Gold status, the Earner+ gives you Platinum status, and the business card gives you Diamond status.
Historically, Wyndham has typically matched your status from other hotel programs. They even have a dedicated [status matching webpage. Unfortunately, that program was put on hold during the pandemic and they haven't brought it back yet.
Once you get status once, you can keep it going indefinitely. Caesar's status lasts until the end of January each year. During January every year, you can match your Caesar's status to Wyndham to restore your Wyndham status (if necessary). Then during February, after your Caesar's status resets, you can restore it by matching your Wyndham status back.
The Wyndham Credit Cards
- If you are willing and able to get business credit cards and you are interested in the valuable benefits that come with Wyndham and Total Rewards Diamond status, you might want to get the Wyndham Business Card. It provides automatic Diamond status in both programs and its annual 15,000 point bonus more than offsets the $95 annual fee (assuming you occasionally have the opportunity to spend Wyndham points).
- The Earner+ and Business cards have a typical signup bonus of 45,000 points. The Earner card provides an additional 7,500 points each year when you renew ($75). The Business card provides an additional 15,000 points. The typical signup bonus for the no-annual-fee card is 30,000 points.
- All the cards give you a an additional discount on your reservations. Award Stays cost 10% fewer points and you'll save an additional 2% on member rates (either 12% or 7% off, instead of 10% or 5%). If you are not interested in holding onto the Earner+ card for its platinum status, you might want to downgrade it to the no-annual-fee card to retain these discounts.
- When staying at Wyndham, you are likely to get slightly better rewards by using the Wyndham card. The business card's 8x Wyndham points are worth about 6.4 cents per dollar and the Earner+ card's 6x points are worth about 4.8. Best Credit Cards for Travel Spending.
- The cards also have nice reward rates for gas and utilities.
Since Wyndham often makes it very easy to get a status match, you don't necessarily need the card for easy Diamond status. But the status benefits of the card are locked-in regardless of Wyndham's current status matching situation.
