Wyndham Rewards have announced a new promotion through which members can earn 15,000 bonus points after two stays at participating properties – enough for a free one-night stay with over 9,000 of their hotels worldwide.

Current offer

There is no minimum night requirement for this offer – you could have two one-night stays at the same property, with at least a 24-hour gap in between, and you’ll earn the bonus 15,000 points.

Key terms are:

• You must register and book your stays before 30 June
• Stays are eligible if they post to your account between time of registration and 1 July 2018
• All Wyndham properties in Australia and New Zealand are participating in the promotion
• The bonus points are in addition to any standard points that you would usually earn for your stay
• Stays must be booked directly via Wyndham – e.g. online, over the phone, or at a hotel
• The bonus points will be credited to your account within 2-4 weeks of checking out after your second qualifying stay

Why this offer is valuable

15,000 Wyndham Rewards Points are equal to a one-night stay with any Wyndham branded hotel around the world.

For example, in June, you could book two separate one-night stays at the Ramada Suites Auckland for a total of $280.

For these stays, you would earn at least 2,000 standard points, plus a 15,000 point bonus.

You could then aim to use these points at an aspirational property that may have more expensive rates, such as The New Yorker, a Wyndham Hotel, where a standard room could cost $323 USD ($445 NZD) per night.

That’s effectively three nights at a cheaper overall cost than you’d pay for one night in New York!

These points could also be redeemed for 2,400 miles with programs like AAdvantage, Avianca LifeMiles, and United MileagePlus, though this is probably less appealing.

Our take

Wyndham have a decent number of properties in New Zealand and Australia, so this offer should be very easy to take advantage of if you have travel planned over the next five months.

You could then use these points for a free night at some of their more expensive properties overseas.

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A guide to Wyndham Rewards point earn, frequent flyer partners and transfers

Wyndham Rewards points are a useful points currency to consider if you have an affinity for the Wyndham chain.

While very US-centric, they do have a wide selection of hotels in New Zealand, Australia, and other Asia Pacific countries, and their rewards program is very simple to understand and use.

In this guide, we cover key hotel locations, status benefits, how to earn frequent flyer points, and how to get the best value from earning and redeeming Wyndham points.

Locations

Wyndham has a massive global reach of hotels, with 9,000 properties under 21 brands. A full list of Asia Pacific properties can be found here.

Seven of these properties are in New Zealand, and we’ve provided direct links to each of these below:

Ramada Suites Auckland – Federal Street

Ramada Suites Albany

Ramada Suites Christchurch City

Ramada Hotel & Suites Queenstown Remarkables Park

Ramada Resort Rotorua Marama

Ramada Resort Reia Taipa Beach

Ramada Resort Wanaka

Status

Wyndham Rewards offer four status tiers in the following order (from lowest to highest): Blue, Gold, Platinum and Diamond. You can find more information about the status tiers and benefits on the Wyndham Rewards website.

It’s worth it to join the program just to get free internet.

Blue

Requirement: just enrolment in the program

• Complimentary Internet
• Rollover nights that never expire (e.g. if you stay one qualifying night each year for 5 years, you’ll then receive Gold for your fifth year).
• For every go fast, or go free award night book in these destinations, you’ll receive a $5 USD gift code providing savings on a local experience.

Gold

Requirement: 5 nights

In addition to Blue benefits:

• Dedicated member services number
• Choice of preferred room within same room category
• Late check-out up to 2 hours after normal check-out time
• For every go free award night you book in these destinations, you’ll receive a $10 USD gift code providing savings on a local experience. Go fast award nights will see you receive a $5 USD gift code.

Platinum

Requirement: 15 nights

In addition to Gold benefits:

• Early in up to 2 hours before normal in time
• 3,000 bonus points
• Avis and Budget car rental upgrade (U.S. and Canada only)

Diamond

Requirement: 40 nights

In addition to Platinum benefits:

• Complimentary suite upgrade (where available at time of check-in), including on reward stays
• Ability to gift Gold status to anyone, providing you have earned your status through stays
• 6,000 bonus points
• One snack and/or beverage welcome amenity per stay
• For every go free award night you book in these destinations, you’ll receive 2 free passes to a local experience. Go fast award nights will see you receive a $10 USD gift code.

As a bonus, any go free or go fast award night redemptions are included in your qualifying nights.

Earning points with Wyndham Rewards or with airline programs

When you join, you’ll automatically be earning Wyndham Rewards points, though you do have the option to earn frequent flyer points instead. You can earn points for each stay with up to 3 rooms booked.

You can change your earning preference in your member profile, look out for this section:

You can change your earning preference as often as you like, before any stay.

We would recommend that if you’ve only got a one-off stay at a Wyndham property, you opt to earn frequent flyer points instead.

However if you think you’ll stay regularly, there are often great bonus point promotions that let you earn a heap of Wyndham Rewards points, which can then either be used for free nights, or transferred to select frequent flyer programs at better rates.

Wyndham Rewards

You’ll earn Wyndham Rewards points on your stay based on how much you spend, but with a guaranteed minimum 1,000 points per stay.

For example, you’ll either earn 10 points per $1 USD spent, or 1,000 points, whichever is more.

Any promotional points earned will be added on top.

Points Expiry

Any accrued points will be forfeited if you have no account activity for a period of 18 consecutive months. Otherwise, points will expire after four years.

Retrospective Points

You can earn Wyndham Rewards points on stays that have occured within 30 days before enrolling in the program, simply by contacting Wyndham Rewards within 12 months of the date of enrollment. You’ll be asked to provide your hotel receipt and Wyndham Rewards member number, dates of applicable stay, and name and address of the hotel.

Frequent Flyer Points

Although Wyndham have a reasonable footprint in New Zealand and Australia, there are unfortunately no local frequent flyer points partners. However this doesn’t mean you can’t get value out of the programs that they are partnered with, especially if you frequently purchase miles with the likes of AAdvantage, Avianca LifeMiles, and United MileagePlus.

If you opt to earn frequent flyer points for each stay, you’ll receive the following:

You can see the Wyndham Rewards Travel Partner Currency page for more information, including a wider range of partners than those listed above.

Note that if you stay at any Super 8 properties in China, or TRYP by Wyndham properties, you’ll need to contact Wyndham to have your frequent flyer points credited.

Buying points

Buying Wyndham Rewards points can represent good value for topping up balances for specific redemptions, including the points + pay go fast redemption option, which we explore more below.

You can purchase a maximum of 10,000 points per calendar year, for a cost of $130 USD.

Redeeming points

There are three key redemption options that New Zealand travellers can take advantage of. All award nights can be booked for others also, and not just yourself.

Go free award nights

Instead of having different award rate categories, as is the case with most hotel programs, Wyndham Rewards is actually very simple. 15,000 points will see you receive a free night, with no blackout dates, at most properties worldwide.

This means you’re effectively earning a guaranteed free night at any hotel, after an absolute maximum of 15 stays.

You can then aim to use these points at an aspirational property that may have more expensive rates, such as the Ramada Resort Port Vila in Vanuatu, where a standard room can cost at least $300 NZD per night.

Remember that points bookings come with booking flexibility and free refunds, so this should be factored into any price comparisons that you do.

Go fast award nights

If you don’t have at least 15,000 points to redeem for a free night, you can choose to redeem 3,000 points + cash instead.

These awards can also be combined with go free award nights if you have at least 18,000 points.

If the difference between the normal rate and the go fast rate is more than $39 USD, then you could save by purchasing points specifically to redeem for a go fast award night.

For example, Days Hotel London – Waterloo costs £126.65 ($241 NZD) for a random night in June.

However, the same room on the same date would only cost you £53 + $39 USD for 3,000 points ($154.03 NZD) via the go fast option instead – a saving of around $80 NZD once you account for any credit card currency conversion charges.

Again, these award nights come with booking flexibility and free refunds, so factor this in when comparing rates.

Transfer points to frequent flyer programs

You can redeem 6,000 Wyndham Rewards points for 1,200 miles with programs like AAdvantage, Avianca LifeMiles, and United MileagePlus.

See this page for more information, including a wider range of partners than those listed above.

You should expect it to take at least 6 to 8 weeks for points to make it into your frequent flyer account.

Current offers

You can find the full list of Wyndham Rewards offers here.

Summing up

If you haven’t already, start by joining the program for free here.

I personally think that the best value to be had from this program is saving up your Wyndham Rewards points for stays, particularly for use at more aspirational properties in the region.

This is because the program is very simple to use, with fixed-rate 15,000 point redemptions for one-night stays at any of the participating properties worldwide.

They often have great points promotions that allow you to earn points very quickly.

Unfortunately Wyndham don’t yet partner with any local frequent flyer programs, so you’re largely restricted to transferring your points to US programs. However this may be helpful if you’re trying to save on the number of miles you’d otherwise need to purchase for a redemption.

And, as always, keep an eye on your inbox and the Point Hacks website for current offers and bonus points promotions from Wyndham Rewards and other loyalty programs.

All images courtesy of Wyndham and associated brands.