Wyndham Rewards – The Most Annoying Program Still Worth My Time

Wyndham Rewards Loyalty Program

I find the Wyndham Rewards Loyalty Program to be the most annoying of its kind in our points and travel hobby.  But I’m confident many of you find others more exasperating.  If I was in your position, I’d probably agree.  I bet some would bother me more, but they don’t in reality, since I opt out of them, anyway.  Conversely, Wyndham Rewards uniquely irritates me because I continue to put time into the program.  Today, I’m describing why I come out ahead as both of those things continue occurring.

Why Wyndham Rewards Annoys Me

Points Expiration

It’s paramount for travelers to remember that the Wyndham Rewards has what I consider the worst points expiration policy out of any major hotel loyalty program.  Long story short, points expire after 18 months of inactivity (no big deal) and four years after they post to your account (ouch).  That’s right, Wyndham points expire four months after you earn them, and there’s pretty much nothing you can do about it.

One option is to transfer points to the Caesars Rewards program, then push them back to your Wyndham account.  The annual limit there was previously 60k points, with infrequent increases to that rate, such as 100k.  Unfortunately, it’s gotten worse than the previous norm.  A Wyndham Rewards loyalty program member can now only transfer 30k points annually.

Regardless, all of those denominations are relatively small for people who earn tons of Wyndham points – a few of whom I know.  Regardless, huge bonus category multipliers on certain Wyndham cards – such as 8x gas on the business card and 6x grocery on the Earner Plus – come back down to earth due to this expiration policy.

An Unhelpful Website

Okay, so let’s say you’re a generally-attentive hobbyist who wants to ensure that Wyndham points don’t expire.  What are the online options?  Basically, there’s only one.  After a member logs into their account and navigates to the My Activity page, they can view their next-expiring points on the left side under Notifications.  Here’s mine:

Great, so I know I have just over 14k points set to expire if I don’t use them before the end of Aug 2027.  But what about those other, more recently-earned points?  Unfortunately, there is no online option that I know of to view those respective expirations.  Wyndham Rewards members’ next option is to call 1-866-996-7937.  From what I’ve heard from a few MtM Diamond members, reps are ready and able to provide the expiration dates of all points.

It shouldn’t be that difficult, but sadly, it is.  Another option could be manually tracking Wyndham point earning as they post to your individual account, but – like a Travelodge stay – that’s a special kind of masochism where I choose not to participate.  That brings me to my next point.

Wyndham Properties Mostly Suck

In the past few years, many have flocked to Wyndham Rewards based on one simple, weird word – Vacasa.  My family and I aren’t those types of travelers, generally preferring hotel options.  Indeed, we’ve been in the Wyndham system for many years (quite a flex, I know) but are still confounded at the dearth of desirable brands and properties.

I’ve even found vast inconsistency at their higher-tier properties.  In my experience, it’s also hard to expect a particular standard at should-be-reliable, middle-of-the-road brands like Wyndham Garden and Wingate.  Roughly half the brands are a hard-no from the wife.  I’m open to trying other properties but sometimes end up regretting it.  So many of the Wyndham redemption options are a displeasure.

But then why are we sticking around?

Why Wyndham Rewards Is Worth Our Time

Simplicity

The Wyndham Rewards loyalty program holds one of our strongest “set and forget” strategies.  Well, mostly forget, since we only need to remember two things: pay a few credit card annual fees and avoid points expiration (see above).

What am I talking about, specifically?  We primarily earn Wyndham points by paying the annual fees on two of Barclays card types – the Earner Plus and the legacy Wyndham Rewards Visa.  We pay $75 for 7.5k anniversary points and a few other useful, ongoing perks on the former and $69 for 15k anniversary points on the latter.  In general, we focus on obtaining at least one cent per point on redemptions (more below).  That’s solid enough for us but understandably frightening to many of you.

Regardless, we like this annual influx of points in a remarkably low-maintenance manner.

Just Enough Redemptions

Let’s get back to Wyndham properties sucking.  Wyndham offers travelers approximately 9,300 hotels.  Even if 99% of them aren’t viable options for us (conservatively overestimating), that means we could find worthy redemptions with 93.  Again, it’s probably not that harsh a split, though.

Over a four-year period, we’ve inevitably ended up satisfying a travel need with a serviceable Wyndham award stay.  They don’t occur often, but they happen enough.  And there’s another more unique redemption that I enjoy.

I’m a big fan of transferring Wyndham points to Caesars Rewards and redeeming them for folio charges at one cent per point.  I get a kick out of covering an expensive Vegas meal, drinks, and/or a reliable Caesars stay with points from Wyndham.

Taking into account our modest Wyndham points earning, we’ve found a healthy balance infrequently redeeming on these two primary options.

Diversification

The Wyndham Rewards Loyalty Program is just one more “free” lodging option for us, and most anything we can add helps to mitigate devaluations of others.  Of course, I can’t overemphasize this, because it’s not like Wyndham did anything to deserve this, other than existing.  Nonetheless, I’m glad I have Wyndham Rewards as another doohickey in my tool belt, as wacky and rarely-used as it is.

Wyndham Rewards Loyalty Program – Conclusion

We spend $144 and a few hours annually on the Wyndham Rewards loyalty program.  Our boring but reliable redemptions more than make up for that investment.  That’s fine with us.  Indeed, while our hobby is most noticed for the spectacular, so many solid, unsexy reward options continue.  In my view, leveraging those is where hobbyists take things to the next level.  And I can always get better.

Where do you find value in the Wyndham Rewards loyalty program, other than Vacasa?