A reader pointed out to me that Wyndham has a new promotion to highlight 20 of their new hotel properties, offering 16,000 points per stay as a bonus on top of the usual points earned. The bonus is valid on up to 3 stays through December 31, no registration required.
That promotion is stackable with Wyndham’s fall promotion (that does require registration) of 5500 bonus points on your second and fourth stays between September 26 and November 3026.
You’re thinking, the 16,000 point bonus applies at only 20 hotels and I’m not headed to Greensboro and really don’t want to stay at the Hawthorne Suites there anyway, right?
But according to the terms and conditions of Wyndham Rewards, no show stays earn points.
If the property requires a credit card for a reservation, the Member is a no-show, and the hotel charges his/her credit card for the first night of the no-show stay, the Member will receive points for such night as if he/she had stayed.
This has always been my experience as well. And some of the hotels on the list are really quite cheap.
I’m seeing the prepaid rate at the Hawthorn Suites by Wyndham Orlando Altamonte Springs for $50.99, a total of $56.60 all-in with taxes.
So if you book 3 stays there — you don’t even have to show up — it will cost $169.80.
And you’ll earn:
- 48,000 bonus points from the new hotel promotion
- 5500 bonus points for on the second stay for the fall promotion
- 1530 points for the cost of the rooms (10 points per dollar on the $51 base rate three times)
That’s 55,030 Wyndham Rewards points earned earned (and doesn’t factor that you will earn miles for your credit card spend).
And Wyndham Rewards points transfer at 2.5 to 1 airline mile (minimum of 8000 Wyndham points to transfer). So you earn 22,000 miles in your choice of airline program (per account, you can repeat this for each of your family members) at a cost of $0.0077 per mile.
Of course you can book free room nights with these points or move them into miles now or whenever you wish later (such as when you know what miles you need to top off an account, or if you need to drop a few miles into an account for ‘partner activity’ as part of a promotion or when there is a bonus for transferring hotel points into miles).
Wyndham’s points transfer partners are:
- Aeromexico
- Aeroplan
- American
- Amtrak
- Delta
- Frontier
- Southwest
- US Airways
- United
- Air Berlin
- Czech
- Saudia
- China Southern
- Air China
- China Eastern
- Hainan Airlines Fortune Wings Club
That’s an interesting list since it includes some of the more obscure programs that don’t seem to partner with anyone else. Transfers from Wyndham to Hainan Airlines, for instasnce, can be especially useful for upgrades to business class on their Toronto or Seattle to Beijing flights.
I think it’s well worth transferring US Airways miles under the current share miles promotion, and this is about 40% less expensive and applies to a number of airline programs. So a very very good deal.
Register for Wyndham’s fall promotion then book three one-night stays at any of the participating new properties. Book the cheapest rate you can, and the points are supposed to post even though you don’t actually check-in.
Wyndham ran a similar promotion that ended October 6, the Deals We Like blog wrote about it and I’m not sure how I missed it. Hopefully this is a recurring offer for new hotel properties and we can buy miles inexpensively each time as a result.
Thanks, Wyndham!
Update: as far as which property to use for this promotion, Deals We Like emails me that the property in Orlando I suggest above “was canceling reservations for those who did not show up and not charging the credit card.” So another property might work better.
Update 2: The Salt Lake City property is a good one for cheap stays. Also I made a small calculation error in the number of points you receive, I noted that you earn 10 points per dollar spent on the base room rate — and that’s standard for the Wyndham Rewards program — but when you book a Hawthorne Suites property it is only 5 points. So calculate the number of points you want and if you need to jump over a threshold then consider booking a rate that includes 1000 bonus points.
I guess using the Chase Freedom card to get 5% cash back would be good idea for this also?
Can anyone confirm 8000000066 still yields a valid rate? Helps keep cost low.
@Ben: I think that “Not Applicable” means that you didn’t burn points from your account on this reservation.
Is it confirmed that one receives these points even when not receiving the email containing the link in this post?
Funny… Recall the United promo of $1k spend and 5k points changed retroactively… Imagine how many people are now doing this… Obviously not what they intended and I beleive many will have stays, policy changed, and out your money with no bonus. This is now everywhere…. Most promo’s except track it back were pulled at this point rate. The Wyndham policy of giving credits for no shows when you were inside the cancellation period is likely over. Very sad…..
I just had a look at the deal and as far as I can see you can also transfer Wyndham points to PAYBACK. From there you can transfer 1:1 to MILES and MORE! Might be worth mentioning!
@ Gary, can’t we set the preference to earn miles instead of points? As I see it, all Hawthorne properties give only 5 points per dollar but 500 miles per stay. And we would get 1000 miles from the fall promotion making it a total of 2500 miles directly deposited in FF program. That leaved the easily redeemable chunk of bonus 48000 points to 19200 miles. Therefore, it should obviate the need to go for higher rates. And if we do get the 3000 points bonus for online booking, the 51000 is still easily redeemable in 2 packs of 17.5K and two packs of 8K! I hope my maths is correct 🙂
@matt – receiving the email link was part of the previous promo, nothing in the terms and conditions about such things this time
Perhaps I’m being dull here, but has anyone else noticed you can’t initiate an airline mileage transfer online? Perhaps it’s because I don’t have points in my account?
https://www.wyndhamrewards.com/trec/consumer/redeemMiles.action?variant=
Heads UP!!
At least one property, SLC, has upped their room rates for the same night by more than $10 since last night.
If your going to play here may need to lock up all your reservations soon.
@dennybob Thanks for the heads up, good catch. I had booked 2 stays, and was waiting to see those finish before doing the 3rd. But now I booked a 3rd one at the good price before prices change.
The Wyndham rep on FT said this is an extension of the old promo – which was invite only. Gary, can you get a conf. from Wyndham this is no longer the case?
From my 30 minute conversation with Wyndham & a supervisor….this is STILL TARGETED!!! This webpage went out on a flyer to certain targeted individuals and is not open to everyone. I was told that if you book under this website…and your account is not coded for this promotion, then you will not receive the 16K bonus points. The rep said to me that whoever posted this (bloggers included) are doing people a great injustice because they will not get the 16K points if they were not on the email or mailing list. This website is not advertised anywhere except the flyer that went out to targeted individuals… buyer beware!
@gary – I agree! Looks like they stuck a website on their mailing and put no terms and conditions. Website went viral…now what? In 6 to 8 weeks lots of people might end up calling in to fight for these points. How they handle it is yet to be seen! Hope they make it right!
@Kelly @A lawyer, the terms and conditions of this offer are clear — “To qualify for the “16,000 bonus Points” promotion (the “Promotion”) and earn 16,000 Wyndham Rewards® points, the member must (i) be an active member (ii) book a stay at any of the 20 participating properties at a qualifying rate between 9/12/12 and 12/31/12 and complete their hotel stays by 1/3/13 (the “Promotion Period”). ”
There is nothing in the terms and conditions about being targeted.
In fact, the opposite is true. The terms and conditions say that if you are an active member of Wyndham Rewards and book astay at one of the 20 properties on a qualifying rate during the promotion period and complete that stay by January 3 then you will earn the points. Period.
The last time, Wyndham said it was a targeted promotion.
Am wondering if it’s the same this time and we may end up losing $165+ and not get any pts to show for it?
Official word from Wyndham rep on Flyertalk:
Sorry for the confusion everyone. To clarify there were 2 parts to this promotion.
First part were for members who were targeted through email and the dates for that part were August 6, 2012 to October 6, 2012 and completed by October 9, 2012.
Second part is for member’s who were targeted through direct mail. Dates for this part are 9/12/12 to 12/31/12 and completed by 1/3/13.
To qualify you need to have been sent the direct mailer and book through the link provided. If you were not sent the direct mailer and you book through the link you will not receive the points for the promotion.
The second part of this promotion is not an extension of the first so if you had received the email and had not completed your stay you are not able to take part in the second part of the promotion unless you had also received the direct mail offer.
Hope this clears up any confusion.
It means, second part is also targeted, right??@@
Please ignore – I got my response. But the cheapest rate I am seeing is $70/night. Any suggestions?
@Ben – looks like it. I don’t want to take a chance so opting out. They were clear last time on flyertalk (in september) that these promotions are always targeted.
@Gary: time to insert UPDATE 3: Targeted offer??? hehehe
In light of Wyndham’s reps response, I think you would do your readers who booked stays, including two of mine that are no longer refundable, to reach out to Wyndham on this one.
I booked several stays based on this posting, and now they are saying it is specifically for targeted people. I know what the terms and conditions say. But what recourse do we have?
@A lawyer – working on it…
Trying to find someone below the level of Robin Korman or Mike Mueller to reach out to there and so ar just finding folks who manage the website.
A manager from one of the properties said that points will post regardless if you check in or not… but this is getting interesting.
@BigRedBears: points posting is fine–but the real ‘white meat portion’ of this deal is the bonus points–which personally I am after. Thats what we need verification on.
In the meantime I’ve put up a new post about where this stands.
@gary: I did another call and rep said this one is not targeted. Asked for a supervisor. This supervisor stated that although they did not intend for this to be open to everyone, something happened “behind the scenes” and now it is open to anyone who books through the link on the website. I even had the supervisor note my account since I was given so many different answers…including a private message I just received from the Wyndham rep on Flyertalk saying it was targeted!! I hope they get on the same page soon! But at least for now my account is noted so that makes me feel a little better! Also, FYI they call this promotion the “Revere” promo internally…
Made my 3 (refundable) bookings a few weeks out. Gives everyone some time to sort this out. If it’s a no-go, I’ll just cancel, but wanted to have the bookings now in case they change the T&Cs.
If this is targeted:
I am wondering there is a way to check if one’s account is targeted. Since we are moving to a new location, we might have lost some postmails. Thanks
Called Wyndham Rewards also. Last night and today. Both times thy said as long as I clicked ‘the link’ or ‘the website’ then I will get the 16k.
I think the site (landing page) is not accessible to the general public and my guess is that’s how they track it only.
I booked 1 prepaid before that and will stay put until we find out more but my guess is that it will work, but may require more phone calls (esp. given no shows) and patience (8 wk)
I don’t understand the transfer restrictions. Why can’t you maximize your transfer with the 54,265 (765 base points + 48,000 from the big bonus + 5,500 from the small bonus). Can’t you transfer 30k once, then 8k three different times to get to 54k? Why pay the extra money to get to 55,500?
Thanks for posting this Gary, bet you didn’t expect this much confusion
.
I spoke to a rep who said its targeted and repeated it twice. I wasn’t going to call but considering several people already did, thought I’d check it out as well.
I actually have Wyndham points and am an old member and still was not ‘targeted’. Asked what the criteria to get the offer was and the rep did not know.
Is there any ways I can do this on my own UA account multiple times? I have looked into this matter, and was hoping that is the case. =)
(would be a super deal if I can top it off with 60000 miles for around $500. LOL)
This is really depressing. Should have recognized that this was not going to fly. I am now out $$ having made three non refundable reservations before Wyndham changed the offer to a targeted one. Cannot get through on the phone, guess I am not the only one who acted precipitously, have emailed customer service, but think I will be swallowing over $200.00. NOT happy>
Deep breath, my personal belief is that Wyndham will come through and honor this for folks involved in the deal prior to their changing the rules.
Had my first “stay” last night at the Park City property, and my CC got charged. Two more stays this week (and three for the wife). How long do you think I should wait to see if points post before calling/emailing someone?
Oops, Salt Lake City, that is.
I finally had all of the base and bonus points from my three stays post today (12/18) after additional prodding of Wyndham on my part. It’s been nearly two full months since the date of my first “check-in”.