We knew it was coming. The day that Wyndham Hotels moved to the “one size fits all” model for award stays, charging 15,000 points per night, no matter the property, we knew its days were numbered. When the Super 8 across town costs the same as a condo property in Orlando, you know which one I’m spending my points on: neither.
Because it’s Orlando and I’d rather be in Charleston enjoying The Mills House. Didn’t expect that, did ya? 🙂
Wyndham moves to three award tiers
As of this week, Wyndham has moved to the following award tiers:
- Lowest – 7,500 points per night, roughly
- Middle – 15,000 points per night,
- Highest – 30,000 points per night, ~200 properties.
This literally doubled the cost of some of the best awards overnight. And Wyndham didn’t let us in on which properties would be changing, although you could take an educated guess that they would be almost all of the best. Here is one that I am glad I locked in:
Here are two that I am bummed I didn’t book speculatively, as they would have been an excellent value:
No trips are planned to either, but we could have made a weekend of it in either, using the great short-haul awards to fly United for only 15,000 LifeMiles round-trip (SEE: 3 reasons why I am SUPER excited for the LifeMiles short-haul awards). Or maybe things would have gone off the rails if we did (SEE: My epic battle with LifeMiles). I’m also sad that The Mills House in Charleston is now among the 30,000 points-per-night properties.
But wait, some gems remain!
Not all is lost. There are fortunately still some pretty good options available at the “old” price. Here are 10 Wyndham properties for which you can still redeem 15,000 points per night, in screenshots:
Then there is the stupidity
Wyndham also introduced some head-scratchers with their new chart, such as this one:
I mean…most of the properties in NYC now cost 30,000 points. But seriously? It’s a La Quinta. C’mon. Another awesome redemption option:
Seriously? Fresno? Not sure what the loyalty folks are thinking with these. At least they kept better properties from being on the list of ~200 that got massacred?
Conclusion
In short, you can still visit San Francisco, Napa (just not the Vino Bello), Switzerland, San Diego (just not the Bayside), Boca Raton, San Antonio or Hawaii. Just avoid NYC now, as everything in/near Manhattan is pretty much now 30,000 points per night.
Sure, these aren’t some of the true creme de la creme properties available before, such as the all-inclusive resorts. But there are a good number that offer exceptional value, including those in San Francisco and Switzerland. I’d still be very happy burning points at any of those. I used to try to get 1.2 cents per point out of my Wyndham points, but I’ll probably settle for 1.0. The jury is out on whether I’ll renew my Wyndham Visa card come fall, but I’m leaning toward no.
What do you think of Wyndham’s changes?
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
There is not much left
Park City Wyndham is still 15,000 points. Going for over $800/night next President’s Day Weekend
Nice find! Missed that one. Ski destinations aren’t really ever on my radar.
Don’t feel too bad about missing out on the Mills House. I just burned a big stash there. The location is great, but the rooms are no more than adequate, in need of a refresh , and they really need a proper bathroom door.
We had achieved Elite status thru La Quinta and never had a bad experience. We began staying there initially because they did not charge for our pet and the occasional free nite and goody bag upon check in was kind of nice…. as soon as Wyndam came on the scene gone is the goody bag and we are now paying 20 for our dog. It’s just sad.
I preemptively booked the Aztec in Mexico. Not that it saves much money but free is free.
I also managed to book Azteca before the price doubled. And now all the AI resorts are not bookable with Wyndham. So sad. I was able to go for 4 nights this April at 15k, and I have booked February 2020 3 nights Azteca. I sure hope they honor the reservation as they are “supposed to”…
At $0.01 per point as a valuation, transferring them over to Ceasar’s becomes a real option.
Unfortunately, that’s about where things stand. I’d honestly be happy now burning them at that value, as most of the best top-tier options have disappeared. San Francisco may be the only place you can approach 2.0 cents per point. There are other single locations at certain times, such as the Park City option mentioned in a comment as well, but it is really coming down to very specific uses for good return.
I have been a Wyndhand gold card member for a while, soon to be platnum. This is very disappointing new since every spring I stay at a 5 star hotel in Va I also just bought a Wyndham Vacation Club membership. Not a happy customer of Wyndham at this moment!
Bummer! I hope you can still find some value from your points.
I literally live in a hotel when I’m on my jobs. I’ve been in a Super8 hotel in Barstow, CA for past two months. This new points system has made one huge change for me; I’m going to “change” rewards program and hotel chains. I’d rather use IHG, Best Western, or even Choice than Wyndham now. Way to screw everything up guys!
Choice has some decent promos, but not a lot in its portfolio that is really aspirational. But there are good uses.
I’m laughing that you are in Barstow of all places. You don’t happen to be a tortoise biologist for the company I work for, do you? XD
Thank you for doing this research. Because you pointed these out, my hubby and I are currently enjoying two nights in Engelberg despite the cloudy, rainy weather.
Awesome! I love hearing stories like this from readers!