Wyndham Rewards Wyndham Worldwide

Big change to Wyndham Rewards GoFast and GoFree rewards

a screenshot of a hotel

2017 hotel loyalty program changes so far have seen Club Carlson eliminate 2-for-1 and 4-for-2 Gold elite member rates in Europe, Hilton announce it is doing away with standard reward pricing, Hyatt Gold Passport launching World of Hyatt on March 1 and now Wyndham Rewards appears to have eliminated one of its most valuable benefits available with GoFast and GoFree rewards.

GoFree points rewards are still available for 15,000 points per night at hotels worldwide and GoFast rewards for 3,000 points and a cash copay from $25 to $150 per night are still in place. The change is the type of rooms available with these points rewards.

Update Feb 17: I also see Wyndham Rewards has increased copay amounts for GoFast Rewards at several hotels I looked at three days ago in Europe. Hotels that were 49 EUR + 3,000 points are 61 EUR today. Most of the same hotels I see today are about 11 or 12 EUR higher copay than they were three days ago.

Wyndham Rewards stays using points eliminates redemptions for high category rooms, including suites?

One of the little publicized benefits on travel blogs for Wyndham Rewards is one that I kept relatively low key on Loyalty Traveler, since I am one of the few hotel loyalty travelers who finds great value and personal benefit in Wyndham Rewards points for hotel rooms.

Wyndham Rewards room nights booked with points have allowed members to book high category hotel rooms, including suites at many hotels. This is a benefit I used many times over the years.

The changes came to my attention this week when I called Wyndham Rewards customer service about 12,000 points missing from my account for a canceled reservation I made last week for a Ramada hotel stay in Europe.

One of my biggest complaints about Wyndham Rewards is the need to call customer service for hotel reservation cancellations. Dealing with customer service is a real drag.

My customer service phone call was even more upsetting when the agent came back on the phone and told me my reservation was canceled and 9,000 Wyndham Rewards points were re-deposited in my account.

The customer service agent mistakenly canceled my upcoming 3-night reward reservation stay I booked in January for a hotel suite on a GoFast reward using Wyndham Rewards points. When my reservation was reinstated, I no longer had a suite. That pissed me off.

Wyndham Rewards compensated me for the customer service error by rebooking the reservation and crediting my account with 9,000 points. I have a deep discount room rate, but I no longer have a suite for my 3-night hotel stay.

I also had a 2-for-1 Radisson Blu hotel stay booked as an alternate hotel in the same city, but I canceled that reservation last week in favor of the Ramada suite. No longer an option for Club Carlson 2-for-1 bookings in February 2017 either.

There have been a lot of negative changes in travel programs this past month.

No More Wyndham Rewards Suites on Points Found Anywhere

I made an analysis last month of Ramada hotel rewards for 8 properties in Romania for my July trip to Europe.

Loyalty Traveler – Roaming Romania in Ramada Hotels (Jan 17, 2017).

What I did not mention in my post on Ramada hotels in Romania is nearly every Ramada had one bedroom suite availability with points reward nights for dates I checked in July 2017. The opportunity to stay in major tourist cities of Romania in confirmed suites for $30 to $45 + 3,000 points per night placed the country and Wyndham Rewards points at the front of my travel plans for July.

After losing my suite reservation for February, I looked again at Romania to create reservations for my summer trip. There are no longer suites offered at any of these hotels when redeeming points. I could not find any hotels anywhere worldwide still offering suites on points reward stays.

January 16, 2017 Ramada Cluj-Napoca suite on points

Ramada Cluj suite Jan16

2 Kings, 2 Bedroom Suite = 3,000 points + 41 EUR with Wyndham Rewards Go Fast rate or 15,000 points Go Free reward for July 20-23, 2017.

February 17, 2016 Ramada Cluj-Napoca standard rooms only on points

Ramada Club Feb17

King Bed Room = 3,000 points + 41 EUR. There are no higher category rooms available.

I checked more than a dozen hotels in different parts of the world to see all offered only standard rooms with points rewards. Looks to me like this incredibly valuable feature of Wyndham Rewards is truly gone.

The opportunity to book suites with Go Fast and GoFree rewards using Wyndham Rewards points was one of the best deals around using hotel loyalty points for confirmed suites at many hotels.

Another lucrative hotel loyalty program benefit bites the dust in 2017.

16 Comments

  • James King February 17, 2017

    Just booked a 3-night stay in a Junior King Suite at The Mining Exchange A Wyndham Grand Hotel & Spa, Colorado Springs, using cash & points. Got a confirmation as well.

  • Kate February 17, 2017

    Enjoy your blog, just find it a little frustrating that you choose to share this information with your readers when it is no longer an option for them. If you were going to leave me in my state of ignorance earlier, I wish you had left me there permanently. I’m under impression that these blogs are meant to be helpful to readers? There is helpful other information, of course, and maybe I’ll look into Wyndham before going to Romania.

  • mwwalk February 17, 2017

    @Kate, i feel the same way. Saying it after the fact just comes across as bragging about having this thing most people didn’t know about and then whining because it’s gone. I’m going to go turn on my add blocker for this site. I know you can’t tell everybody everything but this just leaves a bad taste in my mouth.

  • Ric Garrido February 17, 2017

    “The deal with Wyndham Rewards is there are often a choice of hotel room categories when booking a reward stay. There were three room categories available for points during our dates: Standard, Deluxe, and Executive. Of course, I booked the highest room category available.”

    Hotel Review: Ramada Apollo Amsterdam Centre on Wyndham Rewards GoFast rate

    http://loyaltytraveler.boardingarea.com/2016/04/07/hotel-review-ramada-apollo-amsterdam-centre-on-wyndham-rewards-gofast-rate/

    Choice Privileges and Best Western Rewards have the same feature. I have booked upgraded rooms with points, including suites, at many hotels over the years, I have posted about my upgraded reward stays many times over the years in hotel reviews of stays in these programs.

    Best Western Alpen Resort Zermatt canceled my reward nights and did not tell me
    http://loyaltytraveler.boardingarea.com/2016/08/15/best-western-alpen-resort-zermatt-canceled-my-reward-nights-and-did-not-tell-me/

    Choice Privileges competitive edge is suites on points
    http://loyaltytraveler.boardingarea.com/2015/06/03/choice-privileges-competitive-edge-is-suites-on-points/

  • Ric Garrido February 17, 2017

    @James King – good to hear. There might be more hotels with the upgraded rooms feature still available.

  • Ric Garrido February 17, 2017

    Am I the only person donating all my Starpoints to charity for Wyndham Rewards bonus points today?

    http://loyaltytraveler.boardingarea.com/2016/10/11/am-i-the-only-person-donating-all-my-starpoints-to-charity-for-wyndham-rewards-bonus-points-today/

    “I chuckle when I see blogs like One Mile at a Time and View from the Wing analyze the value of Wyndham Rewards points. I doubt even The Points Guy or Frequent Miler has seen any value in Wyndham Rewards points since the program eliminated their airline transfer ratio from 10 points = 4 miles to 10 points = 2 miles several years ago. I know Mommy Points has actually stayed in Wyndham brand hotels, but she does not point out the GoFast reward night option either in her post on today’s promotion.

    The tell these bloggers reveal to show they are not too familiar with Wyndham Rewards is every blog only mentions the ability to book any Wyndham Hotel worldwide on a GoFree reward for 15,000 points per night. There is some value in that, but by far the real value I find in Wyndham Rewards, as someone who actually uses my points for hotel stays, are the high value opportunities with Wyndham GoFast Rewards at 3,000 points + copay for each reward night.

    One of the little known aspects of Wyndham Rewards is the availability of higher category rooms for the standard reward night rate. The image above shows the option of a 2 twin beds Deluxe room or 1 King bed Executive room. Both of these room types are higher category rooms than a Standard room.

    In my quick searches for hotel reward nights at Ramada properties in Europe this morning, I found a one bedroom suite available next summer where Wyndham Rewards points drops the room rate from 201 EUR ($222 USD) per night to 41 EUR ($46 USD) + 3,000 points. Since there is only one suite available, I won’t tell you the location.”

  • Alan February 17, 2017

    Thanks. I have learnt a lot from your blogs and it is interesting that people are claiming they dont know this. you have posted all these stuff for years and any long time readers should have been aware of it. I booked suites using wyndham rewards back in 2012 already based on advice here. In fact, anyone with wyndham rewards points can go to booking engine and see that all rooms were bookable.

  • bluecat February 18, 2017

    Yeah, Wyndham has done a great job irritating both loyal customers and us gamers.

    Yesterday, I learned my points stay at a (European) Marriott gives no free breakfast, but the cheapest paid rate does.

    So maybe I’ll just use the best points currency out there from here out: dollars.

    (Based on yout flights, it appears that you mostly pay for your flights now too! )

  • bluecat February 18, 2017

    one follow up q: Is your AA status still active? i recall your posts that talked about going for it, but little since. was it worth the effort?

  • Ric Garrido February 18, 2017

    @bluecat – I have AA Platinum for 2017. I like the lounge benefits.

    Airfare is so low right now that I am flying whatever airline is most convenient. Looking at KLM for $480 Stockholm to SFO via Amsterdam for April ticket to get home from $70 SFO-Copenhagen one way ticket on WOW. San Jose SJC has some very cheap fares in 2017.

    This year is a transition to Aegean elite for Star Alliance Gold elite status. I will be flying through Greece in next two weeks to be Aegean qualifying flights.

    Unfortunately, changes to AAdvantage make the program fairly useless for me since I won’t spend anywhere near the dollars needed for elite status. I developed plans for Aegean and British Airways status. I am earning Aegean in 2017 and may go for BA Executive Club in 2018. Looking at Alaska Airlines too.

  • Ric Garrido February 18, 2017

    @Alan – Wyndham is the program that used to offer a free night as a best rate guarantee (BRG). Then, the bestrateguarantee blog started posting daily BRG opportunities for Wyndham brand hotels. It did not take too long until BRG free night policy was dropped.

    Reason I did not point out Wyndham Rewards high category rooms too frequently is the only reason this feature lasted this long was a lack of broadcasting across the travel blogs. Anyone who actually looked for Wyndham Rewards points nights would have seen upgraded rooms at some hotels. Wyndham Rewards showed all room types available for points without even member login to website, unlike Choice Privileges, which requires a user be signed in with points to see room types.

  • bluecat February 18, 2017

    why are you even chasing an elite status? why chase aegean ot whatever when you’ll probably just hop on whatevers cheapest anyway?

    for me, lounge benefits come with credit cards.

  • Ric Garrido February 18, 2017

    @bluecat – Aegean gives me a reason to go to Greece. Crediting wife’s United flight to SAS. We will have enough SAS Eurobonus points to take a trip in Norway or Sweden this summer.

  • […] Big change to Wyndham Rewards GoFast and GoFree rewards by Loyalty Traveler. Not a big change for most people, but if you were booking better than standard rooms via Wyndham this will be a big loss. […]

  • […] Traveler says Wyndham Rewards no longer allows members to redeem points for premium […]

  • Terri Clark February 19, 2017

    I got the Wyndham rewards card for 45k points a few months ago and am really glad I did. Planning a trip to your area that happened to coincide with the Monterey jazz festival and I booked the Days Inn downtown for 3K points + 55.00 per night. Trip advisor was showing them for $959.00 a night! I’m OK with a clean budget motel a few blocks from attractions I want to see, free parking and free breakfast.

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