Over the past two years I’ve been accumulating more Wyndham Reward points than I really need. I purchased points during two years of Amex Daily Getaways and then earned a ton of points when they ran a stay one night get 16,000 points promotion (and they did this twice). I have yet to use my points, I’ve truly been hoarding them. And this isn’t only for my Wyndham account, but for my mom’s and Mr. Deal’s account as well – which they have no idea about I am sure!
With Wyndham points expire at the 18 month mark if there is NO account activity. I check out Mr. Deal’s account and sure enough his last activity date was April 25, 2012. The 18th month mark is no other than today. While I should have been more on top of it by crediting a car rental or flowers or something to his Wyndham account, I wasn’t. It’s been a busy past few months and his Wyndham account was the last thing on my mind – what has happened to me?! So instead of earning points the hard way (and for free), I pulled the plug and purchased points to keep his account active. Luckily there is a promotion where you get 20% bonus points on all purchases. So I purchased the minimum amount of points possible – 1,000 points for $11 and due to the bonus ended up with 1,200 points. I really did not mind as $11 is minimal and at some point time is money. So $11 later and his account is now active for another 18 months.
Keep in mind that with Wyndham Reward points, regardless of account activity, all points expire 4 years after they are earned. For those that purchased points during the Amex Daily Getaways promotion make sure to keep this in mind. If you have points expiring, you can currently transfer them to United with a 25% transfer bonus. I am personally holding onto them until January 1, 2014 so I can transfer them to Southwest and earn the companion pass, again!
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Why not just transfer them to airline miles? I think SWA transfers are better than other FF programs plus they count toward the companion pass if you were interested.
@Grant – With my certain situation I couldn’t transfer any points as I need them all come Jan 1 to then transfer to Southwest and count for the companion pass for 2014 and 2015.
I never do this as I always try to keep accounts active, but I am letting my 640 points expire.
Thanks for the heads up, I also had those 32K points from the Amex Promo, I opted to spend the $11 for points to keep it going.
I just realized that I purchased Choice Points at the same time, needed to extend those too at the same rate…
Buying points speculatively is always a risk. Often one which doesn’t pay off very well.
@WA – absolutely agree. Although when it was only 1,200 points for $11 I do not mind.