Wyndham Rewards Expands in Middle East and Asia Pacific; new airline partners added

Turkish Airlines and Saudia Airlines partner with Wyndham Rewards.

The value for Americans and other Wyndham Rewards members with the expansion of Wyndham Rewards to other countries is new international airline partners.

Wyndham Rewards has the highest exchange rate of any hotel loyalty program for points-to-miles transfers.

1,000 Wyndham Rewards points exchange to 400 miles in most miles-based frequent flyer programs. All hotel brands in Wyndham Rewards earn 10 points per USD$1, except the extended stay brand Hawthorn Suites earn 5 points per USD$1. This means every $1 spent at Wyndham earns 4 airline miles. That is a great rebate.

Generally a Wyndham Rewards member will earn more miles by choosing points and exchanging points into miles instead of earning miles directly for hotel stays. When you have 8,000 points you can redeem for 3,200 miles in most major U.S. airlines. That is the highest exchange rate of hotel loyalty programs for most frequent guests. Marriott offers some better deals at high transfer rates and SPG Super-Platinum elites may earn points at a faster rate for comparable transfer rates to Wyndham Rewards.

Basic rule for people who want miles is earn Wyndham Rewards points and not miles for Wyndham brand hotel stays. Transfer Wyndham Rewards points to frequent flyer miles for the better value.

Wyndham Rewards hotel brands:

• Baymont Inn & Suites
• Days Inn
• Dream
• Hawthorn Suites hotels
• Howard Johnson
• Knights Inn
• Microtel Inn & Suites by Wyndham
• Night
• Ramada
• Super 8
• Travelodge
• TRYP
• Wingate by Wyndham
• Wyndham Garden
• Wyndham Grand Collection
• Wyndham Hotels and Resorts

Airline Partners are Bright Side of Wyndham Rewards Global Expansion 

One of the major benefits of Wyndham Rewards global expansion is the addition of new airline partners to Wyndham Rewards. The growth of Wyndham brand hotels in China is boosted by four airline partnerships with Chinese airlines.

• Air China (Star Alliance)
• China Eastern Airlines (SkyTeam Alliance)
• China Southern Airlines (SkyTeam Alliance)
• Hainan Airlines

Growth in the Middle East and Asia has added new airline partners to Wyndham Rewards in the past six months with Saudia Airlines, Turkish Airlines and Jet Airways.

Saudia Airlines

• Earn 2 Alfursan Miles for $1 (USD) spent OR 500 Alfursan Miles, whichever is greater, for qualified stays at Wyndham Hotels & Resorts, Wyndham Grand Collection, Wyndham Garden, Wingate by Wyndham, Hawthorn Suites by Wyndham, TRYP by Wyndham, Ramada Worldwide, Dream and Night.
• Earn 2 Alfursan Miles for $1(USD) spent OR 250 Alfursan Miles, whichever is greater,for qualified stays at Days Inn, Super 8, Baymont Inn & Suites, Microtel Inn & Suites by Wyndham, Howard Johnson, Travelodge and Knights Inn.

Wyndham Points-to-Miles Transfer with Saudia Airlines

1,000 Wyndham Rewards points = 250 miles

Turkish Airlines (Star Alliance)

• Earn 500 Miles&Smiles Bonus Miles for qualified stays at Ramada and Howard Johnson.
• Earn 10 Wyndham Rewards pointsfor every $1 (USD) you spend on qualifying room rates at all other brands.Earn 500 Miles&Smiles Bonus Milesfor qualified stays at Wyndham Hotels and Resorts and Hawthorn Suites by Wyndham.
• No option to redeem Wyndham Rewards points for Turkish Airlines miles on Wyndham website at this time. 

7,200+ hotels in Wyndham Worldwide, but only 6,500 participating hotels in Wyndham Rewards

Wyndham Rewards has hotels in 66 countries, yet the hotel loyalty program is currently only available to members in 50 countries. The discrepancy between Wyndham Worldwide having 7,200 hotels globally and the loyalty program having 6,500 participating hotels is due to countries with hotels that do not participate in Wyndham Rewards. Travelodge as a hotel brand does not participate in Wyndham Rewards in Canada.

Even so, Wyndham Rewards with 6,500 hotel members is the largest hotel loyalty program globally by number of hotels.

Here is a list of countries currently participating in Wyndham Rewards.

The list of countries is good to know when traveling internationally since if you stay at a hotel in a non-participating country like Australia at the Wyndham Resort Surfers Paradise, you will not earn any points at this time and you can’t redeem your points for a free night. The odd thing though is there are several Ramada Hotels and one Wyndham Hotel in Torquay, Australia where you can redeem points for free nights.

Wyndham Hotels Torquay, Australia is a hotel available for redeeming points, yet Wyndham Resort Surfers Paradise does not participate.

India, Sri Lanka and Philippines now in Wyndham Rewards

The Philippines, India and Sri Lanka are the most recent countries where Wyndham Rewards members can earn and redeem Wyndham Rewards points. China and Thailand already participated in Wyndham Rewards.

In the Middle East Wyndham Rewards is available to residents of Saudi Arabia, Qatar, UAE, Bahrain, Jordan, Kuwait, Lebanon and Oman.

Australia, New Zealand and countries in Latin America are set to participate in Wyndham Rewards by the end of 2012.

Loyalty Traveler original post link: http://loyaltytraveler.boardingarea.com/2012/08/02/wyndham-rewards-expands-to-middle-east-and-asia-pacific-new-airline-partners-added/

Ric Garrido, writer and content 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.