Last week I received an email from Wyndham hotels letting me know of a new promotion – stay at a participating hotel and receive 16,000 points after your first stay. Pretty good promotion in my opinion and goes through October 6th. However, I looked at the list and saw that only 20 hotels were participating and none of them were even close to where I lived or a location where I am visiting. Good promotion for a select few, but for the mass majority it is a flop.
I was then reading a blog today which reminded me that Wyndham is one of the few hotel chains that gives points on no show hotels (read between the lines here…). While Wyndham Hotels are typically not a chain I stay at, I am very familiar with their generous transfer rate to Southwest points – 8,000 Wyndham points = 2,400 Southwest points. With this 16,000 point bonus, those points can be transferred to 4,800 Southwest points. 4,800 Southwest points is worth a fixed $80 in airfare. I found a one night hotel stay at a participating Wyndham hotel for as cheap as $61.32 including taxes.
So with each hotel stay, assuming this low fare, you can actually make $18.68 to use on Southwest airfare. While this actually might be more effort than it is worth to some, the huge perk is that when you transfer your hotel points to Southwest points, those points are included in the amount needed to earn a companion pass. So if you are a few points shy this is a great way to top off the account. And since you can take advantage of this Wyndham promotion a total of 3 times, you can actually get a total of 14,400 points transferred over.
So if you maximize this promotion you can “stay” at three hotels for a total of $183.96 and earn48,000 points. Those points then equal 14,400 Southwest points or $240. As long as you are a Southwest flier, this is a win-win situation. You are essentially pre-buying Southwest points with a 31% bonus while helping your companion pass status balance! If you already have the companion pass this year, you can wait till next year to make the transfer, but just know the risk that programs can change.
Now, if you are not a Southwest flier, blogger Travel by Points, reminds us that with some of the other airline partners, they actually transfer at 2.5 to 1, allowing you to essentially take advantage of this promotion and purchase points for slightly less than a penny a point. If you typically redeem at about 1 cent/point then this promotion is not for you (and we need to have a conversation about your strategy!), but if you redeem for much more then this could be a great way to top off an account for that award you are looking to redeem. You can see all of Wyndham’s mileage partners here.
Or, if you actually have a reason to stay at these hotels, you can actually have these three stays for free! There is a current promotion where you’ll get 4x points starting with your 2nd stay – this promotion expires September 13th and you must register. You can actually opt to earn 4x miles instead, which is great, but I am not sure if you have to be earning points to receive the 16,000 bonus point promotion. With the base points and bonus points, the three hotel stays will earn you at least 50,000 points. Those 50,000 points can then be redeemed for $200 in a variety of gift cards! If you get a cheap rate, you’ll be paying at most $200 total for the three stays!
Some things to keep in mind:
- Some hotels will cancel your reservation if you do not show up, thus you will not receive the points.
- It is unclear whether or not this is a targeted offer, my gut feeling says no as the link is publicly available, but T&C in the email might suggest otherwise – the title of the email is “Your point balance, member offers & Summer Rewards” and the terms state “click through the email and book a stay.”
- There are times when some airlines offer promotions for transferring your hotel points to airline miles, i.e., US Airways. If you transfer the points during these promotions, it makes this deal even better!
- You need a total of 110,000 points to earn a companion pass – to learn more about the Southwest companion pass, check out this prior blog post
- I have my first “stay” next weekend, so if anyone wants to hold off until my stay is complete, feel free and I will post my results.
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Since this offer is open for a while, I`ll be waiting to here how yours goes; I`d hate to book , be a no show , have to pay and maybe not get points , or have them cancel, all for nothing
Could be a home run….if it works as described
My 2 cents is that this is a case of us miles addicts going too far. Booking hotel stays in far away cities with no intent to stay in them is almost up there with the Travelocity shenigans and the NFB code. I won’t be taking part in this one and can’t believe so many bloggers are hyping this.
@Mattolo – I understand what you are saying. However, this is a great deal for those able to utilize the promotion, and I actually might be able to stay at one of their hotels in Chicago. On the other hand for the no show stays, the hotel is still getting the money whether you actually stay at the hotel or not.
I wiill be visiting rochester, Mn (mayo clinic) 9/28-10/4. Don’t want to get a car so looking for hotel in walking distance from mayo.
Ultimate rewards offers 4% extra if booked on hotels.com. Using CSP, I get 2% for 6% total.
Kahler grand hotel: $85/day. $566 total * 6% = 3,396 UR points which I’ll convert to united.
Any other ideas of deals to do? I just want a tolerable place to stay. Don’t want to spend over $100/night.
[…] hotels is offering 16,000 bonus points for a 1 night stay at 20 of their participating hotels. This is a great way to earn Wyndham points for cheap or transfer them to miles. You can also make […]
Which hotel have you booked. I will wait for your results too 🙂
@GMASH – One of the ones right outside of Chicago in Schaumburg
Got this email today:
“Thank you for contacting Wyndham Rewards®.
A promotional email was sent to a targeted group of U.S. Wyndham Rewards members and past guests of Revere announcing the 2012 Revere Promotion. Members must click the link in the email they received and book their stay during the promotion timeframe at one of the 20 participating Revere properties to receive the 16,000 bonus points.
If you did not receive this special offer via email, then I regret to advise you that you are not eligible for this promotion. The selection of Wyndham Rewards members and past guests of Revere was determined by our Marketing department.”
@Don – Let’s see if anyone gives it a try without receiving the email and actually gets the points. I am skeptical that this was targeted, but I dunno.
Well, I did get targeted. Any word on if this works on no show stays?
@Don T – My stay in Schaumburg posted.
I do believe this promotion is targeted as I spoke again with customer service. Staying at the Hawthorne Suites outside Chicago did NOT net the 16,000 points even though reservation was booked through link listing this hotel and hyping the points promotion. Very disappointing since it was a little more expensive to stay there and definitely a less convenient location. Clearly a case where going for the points was foolish.
@Sandy – I received the promotional email and have already stayed three times. I still have NOT received my 16,000 points. They should come 6 weeks after. I’ll let you know when (if) mine start to appear.
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