Rate Wyndham Rewards

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InsideFlyer magazine is reviewing Wyndham Rewards in our December issue and would like your input.

If you would like to participate, please post your response in the thread with the pros and cons of membership in Wyndham Rewards and grade the program from A to F (A being the highest grade). You can include a plus or minus with the rating.

You can also respond directly to the editors at InsideFlyer at [email protected] if you would prefer.

Thank you.
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In many ways Wyndham is a hidden gem for us FTers, They do things a bit different, but often to our avantage.

Pros:
-They have very good and helpful lurkers on FT. CS in general is rather good, and english speaking (vs PCs philipino center).
-They have great AND frequent promos.
-They explicitly award points for no-shows. All chains should do this if they get paid. This is probably related to the fact that they dont have a stay counter/elite program.
-They allow points transfers to other named airline accts. This is very YMMV among other programs, and reallife experiences often differ from t&c. However at Wyndham they treat a customer in a such a way that they accept that you actually own your points. Good example for the industry^
-Lots of hotels, also internationally. Especially good when you want cheap hotels.
- Lots of redemption options and partners. Underrated when it comes to free nights as well.

Cons:
- For FTers, the lack of higher end hotels,elite program, lounges, upgrades etc would often be a drawback.



Basic observations:
-No elite program, but no real need as most hotels are quite basic, so not much of upgrades etc anyway. All program members get the same membership benefits.
- Would also put IT/website in this neutral category. Works mostly fine, but some minor issues. The font in conf mails make them very hard to read, and its not easy to find your reservations online.
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Wyndham points expired - I avoid them
I lost points in the Wyndham Rewards (formerly TripRewards) program, and consequently continue to avoid all properties that are involved with it.

There are so many competitors with good products & services where points clearly "do not expire" and are not otherwise 'devalued.'

Even though this action to expire my points might be "legal" and further the intentions of their fine print writers, and heavy handed anti-customer attitude, customers do make choices.

I don't expect them to change their policy any time soon, or to reinstate me.

When looking for a points program, potential customers should look for policies where the points "do not expire" or at least where there are other ways of easily receiving points without having to purchase them.
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Quote: I lost points in the Wyndham Rewards (formerly TripRewards) program, and consequently continue to avoid all properties that are involved with it.

There are so many competitors with good products & services where points clearly "do not expire" and are not otherwise 'devalued.'

Even though this action to expire my points might be "legal" and further the intentions of their fine print writers, and heavy handed anti-customer attitude, customers do make choices.

I don't expect them to change their policy any time soon, or to reinstate me.

When looking for a points program, potential customers should look for policies where the points "do not expire" or at least where there are other ways of easily receiving points without having to purchase them.
T&C:
"8.Wyndham Rewards points expire four (4) years after being posted to the Members account, unless forfeited or cancelled earlier due to membership inactivity or otherwise in accordance with these Terms and Conditions. All issues regarding the value, redemption and expiration of airline miles and rail points will be governed by the terms and conditions then in effect for the applicable airline or rail rewards programs.

10.A Members Wyndham Rewards account can be terminated and all accrued points cancelled or forfeited if the Member has no account activity for a period of 18 consecutive months. Account activity is defined as the earning or redemption of Wyndham Rewards points. In addition, the earning of airline miles or rail points through Wyndham Rewards and the redemption of Wyndham Rewards points for airlines miles/tickets, rail points, gift card redemption, event tickets and merchandise is included in the definition of activity"

Extend points after 18 months with a simple redemption. Not as good as PC but far better than Hilton and others.
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I get four AA miles per dollar spent at their properties (plus what I get from the credit card spending). I don't know of any other program with that kind of return.

But not every property is good about crediting your account. And you only get credit for the first three rooms. When our company works out of town, we usually get six rooms at a time. Because I'm getting points from multiple rooms (usually for several weeks at a time), Wyndham freezes my account on a regular basis due to suspected fraud.

I transferred 200K points to AA this morning for 80K miles - trying to get close to the next million before the changes to AA's FF program take effect. I like this program, but I don't use it for award stays.
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Quote: T&C:
"8.Wyndham Rewards points expire four (4) years after being posted to the Member’s account, unless forfeited or cancelled earlier due to membership inactivity or otherwise in accordance with these Terms and Conditions. All issues regarding the value, redemption and expiration of airline miles and rail points will be governed by the terms and conditions then in effect for the applicable airline or rail rewards programs.
And how are we supposed to know how far back the oldest of our points are???

I can only get the WR website to show me the last 18 months of activity, and I can't get it to show me "xxx points expire on <date>", the way Choice Hotels does.

So I have no idea how far back my points date! I thus have no idea how close or far I am from having them expire!

I think it's pretty ridiculous to have a policy of unavoidable expiration after 4 years if there's no easy way to tell when your points are going to expire. While Choice has a tougher expiration period (2 to 2.999 years, on Dec 31), it's easy to find out when your points will expire on Choice's site and use them before you lose them.

My opinion of WyndhamRewards was higher 5 minutes ago, because I actually didn't realize until I read your post that they had this expiration policy while not having a way to figure out when your own points will start expiring. (It's obviously been less than 4 years since I started collecting points for eventual hotel redemptions, rather than dumping them into airlines as soon as I hit 8000+.)
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Quote: In many ways Wyndham is a hidden gem for us FTers, They do things a bit different, but often to our avantage.

Pros:
-They have very good and helpful lurkers on FT. CS in general is rather good, and english speaking (vs PCs philipino center).
-They have great AND frequent promos.
-They explicitly award points for no-shows. All chains should do this if they get paid. This is probably related to the fact that they dont have a stay counter/elite program.
-They allow points transfers to other named airline accts. This is very YMMV among other programs, and reallife experiences often differ from t&c. However at Wyndham they treat a customer in a such a way that they accept that you actually own your points. Good example for the industry^
-Lots of hotels, also internationally. Especially good when you want cheap hotels.
- Lots of redemption options and partners. Underrated when it comes to free nights as well.

Cons:
- For FTers, the lack of higher end hotels,elite program, lounges, upgrades etc would often be a drawback.



Basic observations:
-No elite program, but no real need as most hotels are quite basic, so not much of upgrades etc anyway. All program members get the same membership benefits.
- Would also put IT/website in this neutral category. Works mostly fine, but some minor issues. The font in conf mails make them very hard to read, and its not easy to find your reservations online.
A wonderful summary.

If they get the expiration policy worked out so it's clear(er) to customers, that would be great even as I can't see a 4 year expiration policy ever burning me.

As it is, it's a very good program overall from an earning from stays for redeeming for stays program. No less so when I easily rack up 16k points at what I consider a reasonable price and redeem those very same 16k points for a listed price room night costing $290-$344 per night (inclusive of taxes).
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Quote: In many ways Wyndham is a hidden gem for us FTers, They do things a bit different, but often to our avantage.

Pros:
-They have very good and helpful lurkers on FT. CS in general is rather good, and english speaking (vs PCs philipino center).
-They have great AND frequent promos.
-They explicitly award points for no-shows. All chains should do this if they get paid. This is probably related to the fact that they dont have a stay counter/elite program.
-They allow points transfers to other named airline accts. This is very YMMV among other programs, and reallife experiences often differ from t&c. However at Wyndham they treat a customer in a such a way that they accept that you actually own your points. Good example for the industry^
-Lots of hotels, also internationally. Especially good when you want cheap hotels.
- Lots of redemption options and partners. Underrated when it comes to free nights as well.

Cons:
- For FTers, the lack of higher end hotels,elite program, lounges, upgrades etc would often be a drawback.



Basic observations:
-No elite program, but no real need as most hotels are quite basic, so not much of upgrades etc anyway. All program members get the same membership benefits.
- Would also put IT/website in this neutral category. Works mostly fine, but some minor issues. The font in conf mails make them very hard to read, and its not easy to find your reservations online.
I forgot to mention my ranking;

The lack of elite benefits would normally limit any program from anything better than B, but with some of the key benefits mentioned I would rate Wyndham rewards B+^
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give these guys a big fat 0 .
it has been a horrific experience trying to get credits for stay at el paso and still not credited-have been given the runaround by them so many times.
looks like will miss getting the points in time for the grand slam
avoid
Reply
Quote: In many ways Wyndham is a hidden gem for us FTers, They do things a bit different, but often to our avantage.

Pros:
-They have very good and helpful lurkers on FT. CS in general is rather good, and english speaking (vs PCs philipino center).
-They have great AND frequent promos.
-They explicitly award points for no-shows. All chains should do this if they get paid. This is probably related to the fact that they dont have a stay counter/elite program.
-They allow points transfers to other named airline accts. This is very YMMV among other programs, and reallife experiences often differ from t&c. However at Wyndham they treat a customer in a such a way that they accept that you actually own your points. Good example for the industry^
-Lots of hotels, also internationally. Especially good when you want cheap hotels.
- Lots of redemption options and partners. Underrated when it comes to free nights as well.

Cons:
- For FTers, the lack of higher end hotels,elite program, lounges, upgrades etc would often be a drawback.



Basic observations:
-No elite program, but no real need as most hotels are quite basic, so not much of upgrades etc anyway. All program members get the same membership benefits.
- Would also put IT/website in this neutral category. Works mostly fine, but some minor issues. The font in conf mails make them very hard to read, and its not easy to find your reservations online.
I agree with most of this. Elite programs aren't an issue for me as I am a leisure traveller. The points for no-shows is awesome! Other thing I would like to see is the ability to pull up all your reservations by WR member number instead of one by one using name and CF #. Ability to buy points would be nice too if needed to top off an account.
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Quote: give these guys a big fat 0 .
it has been a horrific experience trying to get credits for stay at el paso and still not credited-have been given the runaround by them so many times.
looks like will miss getting the points in time for the grand slam
avoid
Wyndham definately need to train some of their hotel- but hey, we are a strange breed begging them to charge our CCs for no-shows- where we all would be begging for the opposite with other hotels
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Points expire
Some reward programs have easy ways of adding to points, to keep the account active. With this, the points do not expire. A credit card purchase at a restaurant on a list of approved restaurants adds a small number of points, and the matter is resolved. I get this with "Hilton Honors Dining." Some participate with http://www.e-miles.com

Other rewards programs don't expire at all.

Choose them carefully. Participating in a points program usually means staying more than one time in a chain of hotels / motels.
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Wyndham explicitly DOES NOT honor their promotions. I got trapped in the 16,000 points per night for staying three nights. Not only did they not award me any bonus points, but they charged my credit card TWICE for the same stay. I find them pretty shady and unwilling to award me the points or refund the SECOND charge on my card.

Regarding the second charge, I tried to make the reservation online and it errored out with a screen that said the online registration is down and that I should call to make the reservation. I called and they confirmed they were having problems but the phone rep made the reservation. I asked if I already had a reservation and was told no.

Now I essentially paid double for three nights and didn't receive the points. They say I made two reservations.

In the future I am planning on avoiding Wyndham at all costs and am sorry I signed up for the rewards program.
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Quote: Wyndham explicitly DOES NOT honor their promotions. I got trapped in the 16,000 points per night for staying three nights. Not only did they not award me any bonus points, but they charged my credit card TWICE for the same stay. I find them pretty shady and unwilling to award me the points or refund the SECOND charge on my card.

Regarding the second charge, I tried to make the reservation online and it errored out with a screen that said the online registration is down and that I should call to make the reservation. I called and they confirmed they were having problems but the phone rep made the reservation. I asked if I already had a reservation and was told no.

Now I essentially paid double for three nights and didn't receive the points. They say I made two reservations.

In the future I am planning on avoiding Wyndham at all costs and am sorry I signed up for the rewards program.
Have you tried to contact the hotel directly to get credit? Sounds like you will have to dispute with the credit card company if the local hotel refuses to credit you for the duplicate stay. Because "each hotel is individually owned and operated" right?

There was just an instance someone posted about on Facebook where they booked a weekend room. Then they changed the dates of the room online to a week earlier. They even got a written confirmation with the new dates. They showed up at the hotel and the hotel told them "No...you have a room the following weekend and we can't help you...we are sold out". Did not matter that they had something in writing!!! In their hand. The hotel didn't even offer them compensation or try to find them another room. They could not find another room anywhere and had to go home!!!
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Wyndham Rewards - UK Member
Wyndham Rewards - UK member

Pros:
  • Some good offers which award substantial bonus points (although these tend to max out quickly, e.g. after 4 stays).
  • Very reliable complementary welcome bag with water (occasionally fizzy drink) and milky way, twix, (occasionally bag of crisps).
  • Wide range of hotel redemptions at low-ish points (10k, 15k) - if you are happy in a Days Inn/some Ramadas.

Cons:
  • Never, ever, ever, upgraded despite what the publicity says.
  • In the UK the only brands with country-wide presence are Days Inn (which are often ex-Forte Travelodges) a few Days Hotels, Ramada and Ramada Encore.
  • Points only post about 50% of the time in my experience. Some properties are only 10% reliable in my experience.
  • Related to above, Wyndham require 6 weeks to elapse before considering missing stay/points requests. If that stay/points would also trigger an offer, there will then be another eMail exchange to request the offer points because the offer will have expired whilst waiting the 6 weeks to file the missing points report.
  • Reward stays must be booked over the phone - cannot be booked online - ridiculous.
  • Confirmation eMails often include banners relating to US-only offers that cannot be registered for.
  • No way to find upcoming reservations without the conf. number.
  • Points only awarded on room rate, not on full spend.

Summary:
Good to have in your wallet alongside PC if you travel around the mid/lower end of the UK market. At least you can guarantee complementary drinking water in your room, which not even PC Plat can do in a UK Holiday Inn. But you will spend most of your time earning only base points, checking your account, and diarising to submit missing points reports.
In summary, B-
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