GUWonder

Maybe some of the Starwood employees who ended up moving to Wyndham really have an axe to grind?

dilbertsdaddy

Why in the world would someone want to switch from SPG to Wyndham??

pinniped

I'm really tired of Westin, W, and Sheraton. It's time for Travelodge!!

GUWonder

There are some Wyndham Rewards proprieties that are not exactly bottom-fishing for the locality, but those properties are a tiny sliver of Wyndham properties when talking about large cities.

I have used WR for hotels in Miami and NYC. Starwood has more upscale properties in both places.

swag

Loyalty Traveler blog explains why he was doing this (before it got pulled).
http://loyaltytraveler.boardingarea....-points-today/

Wyndham Alison

Hi cln,

Those who have already submitted will be contacted via email with further instructions regarding points awarding and status match. We are working to respond to all of the email inquiries and review submissions as quickly as possible. For more: https://a.pgtb.me/dBfc49.

spgplat21

He basically had no points or status with SPG, so I think that explains the person who would do this.

There isn't a ton you can do with only 12K SPG points.

GUWonder

But 48k Wyndham points can go a long way in saving money relative to 12k SPG.

I would have considered changing 12k SPG to 48k Wyndham, even as I've got status with SPG and prefer SPG properties overall to WR properties overall.

eponymous_coward

Yeah, I've tried some of his suggestions in Europe. They're solid. And I have bought points during Discover Americas so I could stay at the Miami Beach Shelbourne at a significant discount, or at the New Yorker (managed to score a suite with a sweet Chrysler Tower view and a balcony).

The problem is that WR has pulled these kind of no-notice stunts where they jerk people around over and over again, so I'm pretty disinterested in them save on a transactional basis "("Oh, this particular thing I can do looks like a win, so I'll try it"), not as a loyalty program I'd want to accrue a balance in or have a long term relationship with (very earn and burn). That doesn't mean I won't stay at a Travelodge and get points for it if it's the right thing to do (at that point I consider loyalty programs pure bonus), but I simply don't put much faith in Lucy keeping the football where I can kick it when it comes to WR program rules.

Johnny Rocket

Before the offer even began, there were obvious and significant examples of fraud.

Before the OFFER even BEGAN! How???

We will, however, make a donation of 5 million Wyndham Rewards points to charity as the work they do on behalf of others is real magic.

The charity already has their points! Why do they need another 5 million? (That's also not very many SPG points!)

Cos 'that's where the magic happens'!

Who writes this dreadful copy?

Don't these loyalty schemed think it through?

GUWonder

Wyndham Reward is indeed rather notorious for rushed implementation of customer-unfriendly shenanigans. And some may say this promotion cancellation is yet another sign that the program management still leaves much to be desired before investing too much into WRs.

It's WR's history that made me most hesitant to jump into this promotion. Trust is lacking.

sheetz

Yes, and Wyndham has virtually no blackout dates. I was planning on using the points at the New Yorker in Manhattan for New Year's Eve. Would have been a sweet deal!

charlesonmission

Any guesses on what fraud Wyndham saw before the promotion went live?

GUWonder

Not sure they have proof of any actual customer-committed fraud to show us, when it comes to submissions for the promotion. But false account balances and false charity transfers are the two approaches I would have expected to be a potential fraud problem to be anticipated before even publicizing the promo.

The peddling of a photoshop-type service to misrepresent the SP account and SPG account activity? That wouldn't surprise me, but I saw no such thing either.