I admit that I haven’t paid much attention to Wyndham Rewards. The program has tried several things over the past years to make it more appealing, including adding the Wyndham Earner co-brand cards which are a good value if you’re a Wyndham fan. I just haven’t paid much attention to the program as most of their hotels I’d want to stay at price at the 30,000 point level per night and that’s hard to swallow when cash rates aren’t usually over $300.
But one advantage of the Wyndham Rewards program is that it hasn’t gone to a dynamic redemption model. This means a 15,000-point hotel will always cost that price, as long as there’s award availability. So if there’s a single day that’s overpriced in a market, like a weekend in a tourist area, you may be able to catch a break.
This is precisely what happened when I was looking for a room for a single Saturday night.
Hotel prices in the area were through the roof as everyone had planned their final summer vacation weekends. The nicer hotel cost over $400 and the Hampton Inn, HI Express and La Quinta cost over $200 a night.
Initially, I went through my corporate Perkspot account and booked a room at the La Quinta. This saved me an additional $30 over the best rate for Wyndham Rewards members.
After taxes, the one-night stay at a roadside La Quinta cost $207. I was resigned to paying for it because it’s better than $400.
That’s when I remembered the website showing that the same room was available for 15,000 points. I was able to upgrade to a Deluxe suite for the same number of points, a nice quirk of the Wyndham Rewards program.
I already had 3,000 points orphaned in Wyndham Rewards from the LaQuinta merger which I’ve had to work to keep active. I’d only need 12,000 more points and both Citi ThankYou and Capital One are Wyndham transfer partners.
I logged into my ThankYou account and set up a transfer.
The transfer was instant and I now had over 15,000 points in my account.
An equivalent room for the night is going for $217, which means I received 1.45 cents per point for the free night. It’s not the best redemption but for Wyndham Rewards, it’s not bad. I’d gladly spend 12,000 points instead of paying $210 for a hotel room.
I could have purchased the 15,000 points from Daily Getaways for $175 and saved money on the deal.
Just a reminder not to ignore the lesser-known award programs, as sometimes they offer an oversized value for points.
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