Louise just smiles now whenever I tell her I’ve cancelled another hotel reservation. This time, though, I think there’s actually a method to my madness.
It started with a change to two nights at a Wyndham in Kamloops, to ensure we could pick up our election ballots via General Delivery. And it escalated from there.
I decided to complete a status match with Wyndham Rewards. If you’re not familiar with the idea, a status match is when one hotel chain recognizes your elite status with another program and gives you comparable status without having to earn it from scratch. It’s a great way to test-drive a loyalty program before deciding whether it’s worth pursuing.
In my case, Wyndham gave me Platinum status for 90 days as part of my Hilton match. To keep it beyond that, I would need to complete 10 qualifying nights. Honestly, I didn’t know if that would happen, but I figured it was worth seeing where the experiment might lead.
At the same time, Wyndham announced a significant change to its rewards program that really caught my attention. Beginning 15 September, the award chart will expand from three redemption levels to four. Hotels that currently cost 7,500 points may drop to 5,000 points, while the existing 15,000-point and 30,000-point levels remain the same. A new 45,000-point tier will be added for some higher-end properties.
The headline for me isn’t that some luxury hotels are getting more expensive. It’s that some hotels will become 33% cheaper, dropping from 7,500 to just 5,000 points a night. Since most of my travel these days is made up of road trips, airport overnights, and short getaways, those are exactly the kinds of hotels I use. Even better, Wyndham is keeping fixed award pricing instead of moving to dynamic pricing. I much prefer knowing what a hotel will cost in points rather than watching the price change every time demand goes up.
Then I noticed a promotion that changed everything. Until the end of September, Wyndham is offering bonus points on consecutive stays:
2 nights: 7,500 bonus points
3 nights: 11,500 bonus points
4 nights: 15,000 bonus points
Our plan was already to spend three nights on Vancouver Island before flying to China. I had booked a perfectly nice hotel in Nanaimo, but after running the numbers, I cancelled it and booked a Travelodge instead, which is part of Wyndham. Boom! Three nights for 11,500 points.
No, it isn’t quite as nice. Yes, it includes a decent continental breakfast. It’s also less expensive, qualifies for the promotion, and because of my temporary Platinum status I may even receive a room upgrade. Plus the bonus points for the stay. Add that to the 7,500 bonus points in Kamloops, and I am suddenly adding well over 20,000 points
Wyndham doesn’t necessarily reward luxury travel. It can reward cheap travel extremely well. And that’s a rather different game from Marriott, Hilton or Hyatt.
What is key to keep in mind, from my perspective, is this: we had already committed to a big expense with the China leg of our travels, so keeping the cost low without adding stress or comfort is important. By switching to Wyndham Hotels, we reduced our costs by about $750 before bonuses and probably had a one-star step down from our original bookings,
The following is research right out of ChatGPT on why this is a program worth considering:
Comments
Nothing yet. Say the first thing.
Sign in to join the conversation.