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Hey Wyndies Rewards! Where’s the Miles?

An interesting situation happened with my Wyndham Rewards account for my hotel stay in Asheville the other night. When I checked my Wyndham Rewards account today, I was surprised to see I received 180 miles for the $90 hotel stay at the Ramada Asheville Southeast, North Carolina. Sure enough, my Wyndham Rewards account earning preference was set for earning US Airways Dividend Miles.

I had expected to earn 4,000 Wyndham Rewards points for the hotel stay with the 3,000 bonus points with the Summer 2015 promotion for my first stay between May 11 and September 7, 2015. Plus, another 1,000 Wyndham Rewards points for the stay as the new minimum earning level with the new Wyndham Rewards hotel loyalty program. That was the only reason I spent $90 to stay at a Ramada Inn off the interstate while visiting Asheville.

As far as I recall, my stay in Asheville was actually my first ever paid stay in the Wyndham Worldwide hotel chain. The dozen or so nights I have stayed at Ramada Inn and Wyndham Hotels & Resorts over the past few years were all through redeemed points. I purchased about 200,000 points through U.S. Travel Association Daily Getaways over a couple of years.

Thinking back, I realized that my Wyndham Rewards account was probably set to US Airways many years ago for a Dividend Miles promotion. I can only fault myself for that oversight. My mistake was not checking my Wyndham Rewards account to be sure it was set for earning Wyndham Rewards points before the Asheville hotel stay.

Hey Wyndham Rewards! Where’s the Miles? 

The more interesting aspect of this situation is my Wyndham Rewards account shows I was credited 180 miles for the hotel stay in Asheville.

But, where are those 180 miles?

US Airways Dividend Miles program merged with American Airlines AAdvantage March 25, 2015. My Dividend Miles account number does not recognize me on the US Airways website, probably because I had no activity in that account for more than three years. I called US Airways customer service number and a representative told me that miles from Wyndham Rewards will not credit to my deactivated Dividend Miles account or go directly to my American Airlines AAdvantage account.

I called Wyndham Rewards and was told that I can’t reverse the stay to credit points, since I was already issued miles for the hotel stay.

What I would like to know is where are those 180 miles for my $90 Ramada Asheville hotel stay?

The entire morning run around on the phone with Wyndham reminds of the 1984 Wendy’s commercial “Where’s the Beef?”.

 

The Wyndham Rewards call center representative told me I will probably not receive anything for my Ramada Asheville stay.

Welcome to the new Wyndham Rewards. Kind of reminds me of the old Wyndham Rewards.

The truly disappointing aspect for me is I could have stayed at the centrally located Aloft Asheville Downtown for about the same rate as the Ramada Inn that night.

Update June 22, 2015: Wyndham Rewards reached out to me by email and posted 4,000 points to my account for my stay at Ramada Inn Asheville.

Aloft Asheville

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4 Comments

  • Carl P June 10, 2015

    Unless I thought I could talk them into acting as if I had been set for points as my preference all along (so I would get the 4,000) I have do admit I wouldn’t even call. 180 miles might be worth $4 and just not worth the aggravation.

    I also wouldn’t sour on Wyndham because of my own error (although admittedly that might be my first knee-jerk reaction). I like the looks of many of the 3,000 point and cash deals I’m seeing too much.

  • DaninMCI June 10, 2015

    Well the good news is you just got a “Hit” in the US Airways 2015 Grandslam promotion.
    The bad news is….US Airways doesn’t exist AND you had to stay at a Wyndham property 🙂

  • Ric Garrido June 10, 2015

    I don’t fault Wyndham over the miles credit. That was my account setting for my profile earning preference.

    What is more a concern for me is that US Airways is still listed as an earning partner for miles earning from Wyndham Rewards. Perhaps if a member had accounts linked, then the miles post to an American Airlines AAdvantage account. My accounts are not linked, since I have not earned US Airways miles in years.

    This situation was my fault for not checking my account settings before the hotel stay. That is a lesson I already know. Probably did not check since I have no other hotel accounts set for earning miles. I set accounts to miles only when I am researching an article like a hotel stay miles promotion. Some hotel guest programs require setting miles earning preference to check details of earning miles offers.

    The broader consideration for me as Loyalty Traveler is what happens when a hotel loyalty member has a linked frequent flyer account that is deactivated. Deactivating inactive accounts is a common practice these days in the airline frequent flyer program industry.

    I never thought about this issue before, but specifically what happens in hotel guest loyalty programs, not just Wyndham Rewards, but all hotel frequent guest programs, when the setting for miles is for a frequent flyer account that has been deactivated?

    ****
    This particular Ramada hotel stay was the most uncomfortable of the 10 hotel nights this trip since the AC was not cooling the room and it was humid and warm. The windows did not open in the room. The room was warmer than outside. I did not sleep well. I was in and out of the hotel in about 9 hours.

    Otherwise, the room looked fine and the shower reminded me of the scene in the old Robin Williams movie comedy Club Paradise. That shower was a blaster – great. Breakfast at Ramada was good quality compared to several other hotels this trip, however, I arrived at the same time as a bus tour group for breakfast and I was feeling crowded.

    I stayed in a Days Inn the night before Ramada and that was a better Wyndham experience. That was a high value Wyndham Go Fast reward stay where I saved $80 redeeming 3,000 points.

    As far as souring on Wyndham Rewards, much of my sour puss attitude is I have been on the phone four or five times with Wyndham Rewards in the past two weeks to cancel one reward stay and get the points credited back to my account. There was no online functionality to cancel my reward stay. I have had this issue before with Wyndham Rewards points stays I needed to cancel. When I make the comment about new and old Wyndham Rewards, it is from the perspective as a member who has redeemed points for free Wyndham hotel nights for several years.

  • Carl P June 11, 2015

    I can see the cancellation problem being irritating. I did a recent Comfort Inn (Choice) cancellation and didn’t get my points returned. I called (just once) and they manually refunded the points.

    Watch out with their new web site (or at least they said that’s where the fault was). There was also a point where all my reservations dropped off the new site.

    The cancellation problem did have a bright side. The points being used were expiring this year and the manual adjustment made them new again.

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