Well, it looks like it’s been four years since my wife and I both picked up the Wyndham Visa card. I jumped when the card had an initial offer of 45,000 points plus 15,000 points every account anniversary after paying the $69 annual fee. This was essentially a free night every year for $69. Not a bad deal at all.
Except now it really isn’t a free night. All of the top properties now cost twice what they did. Wyndham really gutted the value of their program. There are a much smaller number of good properties available at the 15,000-point level. Sure, you can now get two nights for 15,000 points at some properties, but only if you’re looking at properties like the Days Inn just off the highway outside Dayton, Ohio.
Plus, we have a different problem with my wife’s Wyndham points.
Wyndham Points Expiration Policy
Unlike most hotel programs, all Wyndham points eventually expire. Most programs just require you to have some activity to keep the points alive, and any qualifying activity keeps all of them alive. With Wyndham, this doesn’t matter. They have an 18-month window for maintaining activity. But all points also expire 48 months after you earn them. You cannot indefinitely stockpile points.
As it turns out, we’ve only used 15,000 of my wife’s points. Kinda silly to keep paying for a card where we aren’t using the benefits, but I didn’t want to give it up. Plus, I’ve tried to use them a number of times but always end up canceling due to various reasons. We’ve used lots of mine. A total of 105,000 to be exact. These were spent at a few different properties where we got over $1,200 in value for the points used. Totally worth paying that $69 per year.
The Plan For My Wife’s Points
With expiration of ~30,000 of her points looming in just over a month, I’ve decided what to do with them. Rather than try to use them for a hotel stay, transferring them will be easiest. Wyndham points can be transferred to a number of programs, but generally not at a good rate. You can check out all the transfer partners here.
Of these, one stuck out to me where we would maintain decent value: Amtrak. A number of others could be marginally useful, such as AAdvantage Miles, LifeMiles, Aeroplan Miles, United Miles, or even Turkish Miles&Smiles. The rest (Aeromexico, Air China, China Eastern, Fortune Wings, Frontier and Hawaiian) can be written off.
The transfer rate for all of these partners is 6,000 Wyndham points to 1,200 partner points or miles. If I’m generous and assign a value of 1 cent per point to Wyndham Rewards points and 1.5 cents per partner mile, you’re trading $60 in value for only $18 in value. It’s a terrible rate, but at least you’re getting something for your miles. If you have a specific use and can get 4-6 cents per airline mile, it might be a wash.
In the case of Amtrak, it’s still not a win, but it is much better. Amtrak points are worth ~2.9 cents each. At this rate, you’re getting about $35 for $60 worth of Wyndham points. If you only value Wyndham points at 0.8 cents each, you’re keeping over 70% of their value transferring to Amtrak.
We don’t have any imminent plans to take Amtrak, but we could easily augment a small stash by picking up the co-branded Bank of America card. We’d quickly have enough for a long-haul trip across the country, which would be a great experience with the kids.
Conclusion
Transferring Wyndham points to Amtrak is not an ideal solution, but with a “use it or lose it” policy like theirs, it’s better than nothing. Plus, it might be a plus to just dump the card and be done with them. After the recent changes and the awful blackout dates for many of their condo and timeshare properties, I’m pretty much over the program.
What would you do with expiring Wyndham points? Would another partner besides Amtrak make more sense?
Image courtesy of Will Buckner via Flickr under CC-BY-2.0 license.
I transferred to Caesars Total Rewards for use at their hotels. Very happy to turn 15k points into $150, especially combined with free Diamond match status (waived resort fees etc).
Sounds like a plan if you frequent casinos! I’m the last person who would seek to do that. I’ve never even status matched Wyndham or Hyatt to Ceasars or MLife, respectively.
I have found GREAT value in the Wyndham program. Since I am Diamond with Wyndham, I am Diamond with Caesar’s. That relationship has resulted in five free nights in Las Vegas over the past two years as well as $200 in food credits. This all despite the fact that I do not gamble.
I’ve read about the Vegas angle. I just…don’t…like…Vegas. 🙂
I used 45k or 60k in nyc last December for 3 or 4 nights and using 60k again this December in nyc at a new la Quinta that’s only 15k per night
Nice! Burn them anytime you can still get good value.
I cashed out my 165K for 11 nights where the rate on avg is $252 A full service Ramada. It is during peak Holiday time and I was very surprised to see it available for points. I usually stay at a neighboring hotel that is $160 on avg. So I see the 15k saving me $160 per night, still very decent in my book This is an Intl property, and thats where you will usually find it worthwhile to use points. Or even in the US say during peak times near the Natl Parks a Days Inn can cost upwards… Read more »
That sounds excellent. I have heard that there are some very nice Ramadas internationally. Haven’t ever stayed with any.
I had 120,000 points saved and cashed out all in April before changes went into effect when rooms were still 15,000 per night. Stayed 4 nights at TRYP in NYC in June and am staying 4 nights again in September at New Yorker. It would have cost me close to $3000 for those nights cash. I agree the point increase is BAD and I won’t be doing business with Wyndham any longer as far as points. I have 200 points left in my account. Its too bad they changed their tiers. I think they have lost a lot of business.
Awesome that you were able to book the TRYP!! I looked into that for one trip, and there was no availability. Hopefully you enjoy the New Yorker. I’ve read mixed reviews.
I got the card version after yours which is now awful. Your legacy card, though, would cost you $138 over 2 yrs for a night at their top properties, still not a bad deal. I wish I had your card to keep!
Yeah…I still see that value. But at the rate we are *not* using points, I would like to ditch one of the two we have.
For past two yrs we have attempted to use Wyndham points for “value” hotels. The Super 8’s with a couple of exceptions would not meet health standards if inspected. Exceptions were Wheatland, WY & Duluth, MN. This year we stayed in a Baymont in Colorado Springs & a LaQuinta in Santa Risa, NM. Why would Wyndham stake their reputation on these hotels? The Baymont room had broken shower wand, hair dryer that didn’t work & phones in rooms did not work. At LaQuinta we were assigned to a room that had not been cleaned. Imagine opening the door to that… Read more »
All your experiences sound awful!!! 🙁
Mine at Super 8s and Baymonts have been marginal. Nothing like what you experienced, just a typical budget hotel experience.
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I used a ton of my and my wife’s points for a great stay at a classy Wyndham in the historic district of Philadelphia. Got 2 rooms. I also used for 2 nights at a time share property at National Harbor near DC. I have almost 90,000 points left to use. I will find some place to burn them. Not a fan of their Days Inn products at all. You can use them for their “cottage” program as well. These are private places all over the world. I am not a fan of Wyndham, but there is always a use.
The cottages in Europe do look like a great use! But who knows when we’ll make it over there.
It’s tough, ’cause I *do* see some decent uses, but either through blackout dates or limited locations, they are much harder to use effectively than most hotel points.
I am so done with Wyndham. With their new three-tier redemptions, I’ve had just about enough. I redeemed two weeks at the Viva Wyndham‘s last month, while I could still do so at 15,000 points a night. Next month, we are doing the national parks, and redeemed another seven nights. The balance of my Wyndham points begin to expire in August 2020, so we will likely use them next summer for a multi week trip. We had hoped to use them again at the Viva properties, but as you may be aware, they are no longer participating in Wyndham rewards,… Read more »
Same. They’ve stripped so much of the value lately. I have thought about the parks angle. Places like Zion (Hurricane) and Olympic National Park (Port Angeles) in summer have interested me.
The fact all Viva properties were removed is so painful.