Wyndham Rewards 16,000 points per stay promotion for up to three stays by December 31, 2012 at any of 20 new hotels received plenty of attention when View from the Wing posted Wednesday, Oct 17 “Opportunity to Buy Miles at $0.008 in Your Choice of Airline Programs Thanks to Wyndham Rewards”.
That is $8 per 1,000 miles for those without a mental geek calculator.
A couple hours later on October 17, I posted “Wyndham Rewards 48K points on 3 stays.” Admittedly, my blog post title was not as alluring a title as Gary Leff’s.
Update 10am Pacific, Fri 10/19: The promotion page has been updated with this term:
Only members who received the direct mail invitation are eligible for this offer.
Wyndham Rewards promotion page for 16,000 points per stay (targeted)
What made this deal particularly attractive is the Wyndham Rewards promotion page made no mention of this offer being targeted to a subgroup of members. The same offer ran from August 6 through October 6 with the term that Wyndham Rewards members must click through their member email. I wrote about the earlier offer on August 14 and put “targeted” in my blog post title, Wyndham Rewards 16,000 points per stay Aug 6-Oct 6, 2012 (targeted promotion).
The absence of any targeted group in the T&C of the current promotion led me to think Wyndham Rewards opened this offer up to all members in a follow-up promotion to the similar promotion that ended last week.
The other factor that helped this promotion gain traction with people looking to earn cheap miles was the Wyndham Rewards program rules state members receive hotel points when their credit card is charged for a no-show stay.
I certainly don’t advocate people book hotel stays with the intention of being a no-show. But I can understand why people would book and pay for hotel room reservations with no intention of actually staying.
The current two Wyndham Rewards promotions offer the opportunity to earn 55,000+ points for under $200 and exchange those points for 22,000 airline frequent flyer miles. Thus back to the headline on View from the Wing advertising the opportunity to buy airline miles at the rate of $8 for 1,000 miles.
I figured with Gary’s detailed description of how a person can just book and pay for the cheapest stays at any of the 20 Wyndham properties and not even plan to show up while earning 22,000 miles was an enticing offer that would go viral in social media.
The Fallout – Wyndham Rewards responds this is a targeted member only promotion
Wyndham Rewards 2, Company Representative member on FlyerTalk posted yesterday and today that this offer was a direct mail targeted offer that does not apply to all Wyndham Rewards members.
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.Wyndham Rewards 2, company representative
FlyerTalk
Thursday, October 18, 2012 11:17am Colorado time
Just an hour ago, October 19, 2012 8:33 mountain time, this follow-up post by Wyndham Rewards 2 on FlyerTalk.
Clarification
Hi,
I hope this will help to clarify for everyone…
There were 2 separate offers.
One offer was communicated to a group of existing members through an email invitation. This offer ended 10/6/12. Only those members who received the email invitation were eligible for this offer.
The second offer was communicated to a group of existing members through a direct mail invitation. Only those members who received this direct mail invitation are eligible for this offer. This offer is valid through 12/31/12.Wyndham Rewards 2, company representative on FlyerTalk Oct. 19
Here are the Wyndham Rewards promotion terms still posted at the time of this writing 8am Pacific 10/19/2012.
* 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”).
Members will receive 16,000 Wyndham Rewards points for up to three stays within the Promotion Period at any of the 20 properties regardless of the number of rooms booked.
16,000 bonus points is redeemable for one free night stay at a Tier 4 hotel. Member stays with check-out dates after 1/3/13 will not be counted towards the Promotion.
Members should allow six to eight weeks after completion of stay for the enrollment points and stay bonus points to be credited to their account.
The terms simply state the member must be an active member of Wyndham Rewards and book a stay.
Bottom Line:
This is a confusing situation with Wyndham Rewards. They may ultimately It now looks like Wyndham Rewards will refuse to honor the promotion for members who are not on their targeted list.
Wyndham Rewards may drop this promotion altogether.
The only people really impacted at the moment are people who booked prepaid, nonrefundable reservations.
I am not a fan of prepaid, nonrefundable reservations at all. I avoid them whenever possible. I did not even consider booking this offer with prepaid, nonrefundable reservations since shit happens.
Wyndham Rewards could always state that their no show stays earn base points, but not promotional bonus points and be within their program rules. This promotion may get Wyndham Rewards rethinking their program terms regarding no show stays earning points.
I think this promotion will have more fallout and Wyndham Rewards responses in the coming days.
Stay tuned.
Ric Garrido, writer and owner of Loyalty Traveler, shares news and views on hotels, hotel loyalty programs and vacation destinations for frequent guests. You can follow Loyalty Traveler on Twitter and Facebook and RSS feed.
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