Wyndham is changing its award chart. After September 15, it will move to a four-tier chart: 5,000, 15,000, 30,000, and 45,000 points, instead of the current 7,500/15,000/30,000 three-tier structure. There’s good and bad here: the lowest redemption level is dropping, which helps at the low end where you can stay at basic roadside properties. But the high end is increasing to 45,000 points, a 50% jump, which is effectively a devaluation. My guess is that some of the best-value hotels will quietly be moved up to 45,000 points.
If you have a hotel in mind, it’s a good idea to book before September 15. If the new chart later lowers the points required, you can cancel and rebook; if the price goes up, you can just keep your original reservation.
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About Wyndham Hotels
Wyndham Rewards covers 24 brands and more than 9,000 hotels across 95 countries, making it one of the largest hotel loyalty programs in the world. Wyndham Rewards is the loyalty program of Wyndham Hotels & Resorts. The program includes 24 brands, and members can earn Wyndham points on stays and redeem those points at participating properties.
Wyndham Rewards is generally positioned in the midscale to lower-end hotel segment, so it can be a good option for travelers on a budget. As a leading economy hotel brand, it can offer especially strong value for a one-night stay on a road trip. That said, among hotel programs, Wyndham Rewards does not get as much attention as Marriott, Hilton, IHG, or Hyatt, mainly because the benefits are not as comprehensive.
How to Earn Points
The fastest ways to earn Wyndham points are hotel stays and credit cards. Transfer ratios from other points programs into Wyndham are generally not attractive, so I do not recommend doing that.
Earning from stays
Wyndham’s earning rules for stays are very simple: points are based directly on your room rate. You earn 10 points per $1 spent, with a minimum of 1000 points per night. For example, if you stay in an $80 room, you would earn 1000 points for the night because of the minimum. If you stay at a $120 hotel, you would earn 1200 points.
Qualified Stays at Most Hotels by Wyndham: You'll receive 10 Wyndham Rewards points for every dollar you spend, or 1,000 Wyndham Rewards points, whichever is more.
If you have elite status, you also receive some additional bonus points.
Credit cards
Wyndham has three co-branded credit cards, and all of them are actually pretty decent. Besides the welcome bonus, they also give you bonus points every year. If you can use those points, they can basically offset the annual fee. In addition, the cards come with elite status. The status itself does not offer major practical advantages, but it is still better than having nothing.
Barclays Wyndham Earner+ Wyndham Credit Card
Get 15,000 points every year! Free Wyndham Platinum status!
- Welcome bonus: 45,000 Wyndham points (spend $1,000 in 90 days) + 55,000 (spend $500+ at Wydham hotels within 180 days)
- Rewards: 6x at Wyndham hotels; 4x at supermarkets, restaurants, gas stations, and travel; 1x on all other spending
- Redemption: Redeem for Wyndham hotel stays; get 10% off redemptions
- Annual fee: $95
- Apply now>>
Barclays Wyndham Earner Credit Card
No annual fee
- Welcome bonus: 30,000 Wyndham points (spend $1,000 within 90 days) + 45,000 (spend $500+ at Wydham hotels within 180 days)
- Rewards: 5x at Wyndham hotels; 3x at supermarkets, restaurants, gas and EV charging; 1x on all other purchases
- Redemption: Redeem for Wyndham hotel stays; 10% discount on redemptions
- Annual fee: $0
- Apply now>>
Barclays Wyndham Earner Business Wyndham Credit Card
15k points every year! Complimentary Wyndham Diamond status!
- Welcome bonus: 50,000 (spend $4,000 in 90 days) + 25,000 (spend $12,000 in one year)
- Rewards: Wyndham hotels; 5x on travel, gas and EV charging, marketing, advertising, office supplies, and shipping; 1x on all other purchases
- Redemption: Redeem for Wyndham hotel stays; 20% discount on redemptions
- Annual fee: $149
- Apply now>>
Redeeming Points
Wyndham’s redemption rules are also very straightforward.
- All hotels use category-based award pricing (currently 7,500/15,000/30,000 points across three tiers).
- The redemption value is roughly around 0.9 cents per point on average (10,000 points can typically cover about a $90 hotel stay).
- In addition to standard award bookings, Wyndham also offers Points + Cash redemptions priced at 3,000 points plus some cash.
- Wyndham properties in places like Hawaii, the Caribbean, and Asia-Pacific can be quite good (except Super 8 and Days Inn).
- Wyndham Hotels & Resorts and Caesars Entertainment formed a partnership in June 2017, so redeeming for Caesars properties can also be a worthwhile option.
You can search hotels directly on the official website. I spent a day looking at hotels in Las Vegas.
You can see that the 15,000-point tier still includes quite a few high-value hotels. Getting more than 1 cent per point is not hard.
In general, if you want higher redemption value, resort properties can sometimes offer pleasant surprises. With some luck, you may get 2-3 cents per point in value.
Elite Status
Status overview
Here’s a quick overview of Wyndham elite status. You can earn status through stays, and holding one of the credit cards above can also give you complimentary elite status directly.
- Blue: Comes with joining
- Gold: After 5 nights
- Platinum: After 15 nights
- Diamond: After 40 nights
In short, there are not many truly meaningful benefits. Only Diamond status offers suite upgrade benefits. No status tier includes free breakfast. The bonus points from elite status are also fairly minimal.
Status match
If you have elite status with another hotel program, you may be able to get Wyndham elite status through a status match. Marriott and Hilton Gold can be matched all the way to top-tier Diamond. The match gives you 90 days of status.
If you complete stays within the required time period, you can keep the status tier.
