Just a few days ago I wrote about how I planned to transfer my “worthless” Wyndham points to Amtrak. We won’t be able to easily use them before they expire, and Amtrak provides a solid 2.9 cents per point in value, much better than other travel partners. Sure, you can get a lot more for the points if redeeming for first or business class, but this isn’t a guarantee. Besides, it would be nice to have a stash of a currency that we’re short on.
But now Wyndham just threw me a curveball.
Wyndham 100% Bonus Transferring to United
Out of all the airline miles to which I could transfer Wyndham points, United Mileage Plus and Avianca LifeMiles are the two most valuable programs to me. Maybe Aeroplan as well, although I’ve never actually booked an award with their miles. At the typical rate of 6,000 Wyndham points per 1,200 airline miles and pegging Wyndham points a 1 cent and airline miles at 2 cents, I’m giving up $60 in hotel value for $24 in airfare value. Sure, it’s simplistic, but it’s math I can do in my head. And it’s close enough. Horeshoes, hand grenades and points, people.
But Wyndham is now offering a 100% bonus transferring to United, which means I get 2,400 miles for my 6,000 Wyndham points. This changes a lot. Now I’m looking at trading $60 for $48. This retains 80% of the value of my points and is better than what I would get transferring to Amtrak.
Should I Cash Them All Out?
Now I’m left with a new choice. I was considering only ditching the points that were going to expire. But maybe now we should ditch them all? I still have my own stash of Wyndham points. This would be my wife’s. This would also let us drop the Wyndham card next month, saving $69 in the process. If Wyndham re-launches a new card product that is actually decent, we could pick that up.
The only questions in my mind are:
- Will United’s new dynamic awards price tickets out of Arcata higher than 12,500 miles one way?
- Will we use these United miles in the coming year or so?
Miles and points are not an investment. As we’ve seen with Wyndham points, they mostly just sat there until Wyndham killed their one-tier chart and we lost a potential chunk of value. I don’t really want to “invest” in United if we don’t have a plan. I guess transferring to Amtrak is pretty much the same predicament. Investing in the program of a government-owned railroad that loses millions of dollars per year is certainly dubious. At least when I write it that way.
Conclusion
I’m not sure what I’m going to do yet. We have until September before the points expire. The 100% transfer bonus for Wyndham points to United miles runs through August 15. Link to website here. So if you’re looking to ditch Wyndham points, now is a great time.
Featured image courtesy of Matt Kieffer via Flickr under CC-BY-2.0 license.
