Wyndham have announced three changes to their credit cards:
- Annual fee has been increased to $75 from $69 on the annual fee card
- Instant elite status:
- The no annual card will now come with Gold membership status
- The annual fee card will now come with Platinum membership status
- Both cards will now no longer charge any foreign transaction fees
Contents
Elite Status
Let’s take a look at what both of these status levels actually get you. Keep in ind that late check out and early check in need to be requested and the request will only be granted if they have availability.
Gold Status
This normally requires five nights and gives you the following benefits over Blue status (basic level everybody gets)
- Dedicated member services
- Preferred room
- Late check out
Platinum Status
This normally requires 15 nights and gives you the following benefits over Gold status:
- Early check in
- Annual point bonus of 3,000 points
- Avis & Budget car rental upgrade
Diamond Status
This requires 40 nights and neither of the cards offer this status level. It gives you the same benefits as Platinum but with 6,000 annual point bonus, suite upgrades (including award nights), welcome amenity and the ability to give gold.
Match Status
There are no reports of people using their Wyndham status to match to other programs, so not sure if that is possible and as far as I know Wyndham don’t offer any sort of status match themselves.
Our Verdict
Overall two positive changes from Wyndham. The good thing about the annual fee card is the extra 3,000 annual points (the card already comes with an anniversary bonus of 6,000 points so this brings your total up to 9,000 – keep in mind that all properties cost a flat 15,000 points per night), although that does come with an annual fee increase of $6, most people would be happy to pay 0.2¢ per point. Wyndham only introduced these loyalty tiers in May. You can read our full reviews of these cards here and some ideas on the best properties to redeem points for here.
If Wyndham offered a total of 15,000 annual points on the annual fee card ($75) then it would definitely be a must hold card as that means you’d be getting a free night at any property for $69. As it stands you need to earn another 6,000 points annually (either $3,000 in non bonused spend or $1,200 in Wyndham spend). Still pretty good offers, but less enticing.
There is a 45,000 point offer on the annual fee card, but that offer doesn’t show the new changes. You should still be able to get 15,000 + $50 on the no annual fee card as well.
I also am under the 15k a year terms with the annual fee card. This makes the card a keeper, and I do occasional spending on the card as the 2x points make it worthwhile for purchases in non bonus areas covered by other cards. I hope they do not change the terms for the existing card users, as it is I love it and will keep it.
If it changed I’d cancel it as I would not see the benefit for me any longer as I rarely stay at a Wyndham property. The card is the only reason I do the occasional stay at one, if I didn’t have the card I would never stay at one actually and they would lose me as a customer in general.
I signed up under the 15k anniversary bonus too. AF just posted, so haven’t paid it yet, but confirmed that I would get them.
Nice sounding changes…but I’ll echo the earlier poster…if they removed the anniversary bonus going forward or knocked it down…I would strongly consider cancelling – the status is not that valuable vs the points. Status at lower end properties is also non-existent / n/a. AF of $6+ if not grandfathered…I can live with that…
I put minimal regular spend on it. Have an upcoming trip where I will stay at a Days Inn so I do plan on using it there. My value of using the 45k point bonus was about 1 cent / point if I recall – $150/night room. Something like that. So, 5x / 5% is ok, not great – considering how many points are actually required to do anything…and Go Fast awards are few and far between.
When I applied about a year ago it was 45,000 + 15,000 each year. My year just turned and I did get the 15,000 bonus. Hadn’t spend a dime after the promo. My concern is them replacing the 15,000 bonus or the 6,000 bonus that some are getting with 3,000 – and not making it in addition to. Guess we’ll have to see.
That’s awesome you’re getting the annual 15,000 points. That was a great deal and I hope they keep honoring it.
William, I too was pleasantly awed to get the 15,000 annual bonus, the day after paying the $69 annual fee renewal….. (they also have a promo on currently doubling the 2% purchases for gas, grocery, restaurant, purchases — 4% total per dollar spent — you have to sign up for it)
But oh my, I too am worried that the general spending benefit has been halved…. really disappointing. (and I’d barely taken advantage of this … but was planning to for second year )
FYI,
Canceled arrival 2 weeks ago. Just got approval for another one.
Happened to a few people I know. No more 6 months.
Note that the earning rate goes down from 2 to 1 for non-bonus spend.
That’s a valid point and shouldn’t be glossed over. The old offer of 18k on the no-AF card but with 2x everyday spending points seems much more valuable. I assume the older offer will match the same status benefits.
The old cards used to earn 2 points per $1 spent outside of Wyndham.
The new offer is:
Earn 2 points per $1 spent on eligible
gas, utility and grocery store purchases
(excluding Target® and Walmart®)
Earn 1 point per $1 spent on
purchases everywhere else (excluding
Wyndham timeshare downpayments)
Definitely a benefit cut here. I hope all cards get grandfathered.
Thanks, can’t believe I missed this. Their media team sent over the changes but only mentioned the positive ones and wouldn’t send the creatives until it went live. Looks like they were trying to hide the negative changes.