Apr 13 Update: IHG Rewards Club launches auction site, KLM YYC/YVR-Stockholm for $729, 2x Aeroplan Miles at Esso

Rewards Canada is back from vacation so it is time to play catch on promos, news and more!

News, Tips & Tricks
We are still asking you for your Aeroplan redemption stories whether they are good or bad! Find out how to submit your story here. We'll compile all the responses later this week and follow up with a summary post.

IHG Rewards Club has introduced a new auction site where you can bid on once in a lifetime experiences using your IHG Rewards Club points. Similar to SPG Moments, the new IHG Rewards Club Auctions are a great supplemental reward option for someone looking to use their points on items other than stays. The auctions start at really low amounts so depending on how many people bid some of these offers could be real steals! Having two young daughters, the American Girl Experience at the IC Chicago stands out for them (and the Ambassador status that comes with it stands out to me!) Find out more about the auctions here.

Posts since our last update!

• Best Western: Receive a US$50 Best Western Travel Card when you complete 2 separate stays Worldwide
  All right! Rewards Canada is back from vacation so its time to play catch up on delivering to you…
• AIR MILES Refuel Rewards Bonus at Shell - Up to 25 Bonus Air Miles per calendar month
  We welcome back Rewards Canada's contributor, Bill W with his next post! Bill is a true road warrior, his work…
• Rewards Canada's upcoming vacation travel - Painting a picture of loyalty programs in action
  We're heading off on vacation so during the coming week there won't be much going on on Rewards Canada. We…
• Top 5 Credit Card Sign Up offers for April
  Here are the Rewards Canada's  Top 5 Credit Card Sign Up offers for the month of April! This is not…

Don't forget to enter our first FFB10 contest!
FFB10 - The FrequentFlyerBonuses.com 10th Anniversary Celebration - Contest #1: Win a package of 50,000 Miles & points

Travel Deals
Air France is offering flights between Vancouver and Athens for $943 all in. Book by Apr 14 for travel this Sping or Fall. Book online at airfrance.ca

 

KLM has yet another great sale out of Canada. Most fares are average but some really stand out like Calgary and Vancouver to Stockholm for only $729 all in!! Book by Apr 14 for travel this Sping or Fall. Find out more here. 

Bonus Offers
Air Canada / Aeroplan
- Double Aeroplan Miles on all eligible purchases at Esso stations. More... Until May 25, 15
- 1,000 Bonus Aeroplan Miles when you design a kitchen with the Miele Kitchen Visualizer and receive a formal quote on the kitchen. More... Until Dec 31, 15

Air Miles (Canada)
- 100 Bonus AIR MILES Reward Miles  when you join HHonors and complete your first Hilton stay anywhere in the World. More... Until May 31, 15
- Earn up to 150 Bonus AIR MILES Reward Miles when you shop at Timbermart. More... Until Apr 30, 15

Amtrak Guest Rewards
- 3,000 Bonus Guest Rewards Points on your first Rocketmiles booking More... Book by Sep 30, 15

Best Western Rewards
- Receive a US$50 Best Western Travel Card when you complete two separate stays at any Best Western branded hotel Worldwide. More... Until May 25, 15 (Travel card expires Sep 7, 15)

IHG Rewards Club
- Earn up to 50% Bonus IHG Rewards Club points when you points online. More... Targeted Offer - May not work for everyone Until May 8, 15

La Quinta Returns
- Earn up to Triple Returns Points for stays at participating La Quinta locations in the U.S.. More... Until May 7, 15



Today's Daily Update has been brought to you by

Best Western: Receive a US$50 Best Western Travel Card when you complete 2 separate stays Worldwide

All right! Rewards Canada is back from vacation so its time to play catch up on delivering to you all the travel rewards news, bonus offers and more that transpired since our last update! We have lots of a great offers that were released this past week to get to and we start with Best Western's newest systemwide offer that we have seen before. The offer is for a US$50 Best Western Travel Card when you complete two separate stays Worldwide. This offer is OK if you have Best Western stays planned over the next month and a half and know that you'll have another Best Western stay to use the travel card on by September 7th! If not then the $50 will go to waste as that is when it expires.

Offer Details
Receive a US$50 Best Western Travel Card when you complete two separate stays at any Best Western branded hotel Worldwide. Full details, online registration and  booking (Registration is required) Until May 25, 15 (Travel card expires Sep 7, 15)

AIR MILES Refuel Rewards Bonus at Shell - Up to 25 Bonus Air Miles per calendar month

We welcome back Rewards Canada's contributor, Bill W with his next post! Bill is a true road warrior, his work has him driving and flying across Western and Central Canada every week while staying in a variety hotels from a variety of chains.  Bill has been reading, following and even giving Rewards Canada tips and updates for a very long time so it is only natural to have him share his insights into the world of Travel Rewards!

Bill's first post with us discussed the AIR MILES accumulation changes at Shell (read here) and now he brings us the latest offer from Shell that seems to try to appease the negativity around those accumulation changes.

Shell has launched another promotion called Refuel Rewards (Effective from January 1, 2015 to December 31, 2015) that offers 10 Bonus Miles with a purchase of 225 litres or 25 Bonus Miles with 500 litres in a calendar month.

Doing the quick math on that, it seems to be a way of slightly easing the pain on the change to 1 mile per transaction.  Assuming a price point of $1.00 litre, that’s $225 that you have to spend to get the 10 bonus miles. Using their previous formula ($20 for 1 Air Mile, and each $30 thereafter in the same transaction gets an additional 1 Air Mile), that would get you 6-8 Air Miles depending on your gas tank capacity and frequency of fill-up.  This means the new offer of 10 bonus points is actually better.  Same goes with the 500 litres.  Using the same formula, you would get 13-17 Air Miles on the old formula versus 25 on the new monthly promotion. In addition, you would get the 1 Air Mile for each fill-up.  But, it is dependent on using a lot of gas in a calendar month.  And if you only put in 495 litres, couldn’t get that last 5 litres, you’re only going to get 10 bonus Air Miles.  On the surface it seems fine, but for most people it may not be practical,  especially with the more fuel-efficient vehicles on the road. They appear to have dropped the model of using dollar values to determine miles awarded and gone on a per litre system instead. (Much like Air Canada, they award Aeroplan Miles based on distance flown, not dollars spent).

If you combine the 2 promotions (Refuel Rewards and the 5X bonus points with minimum 25 litre fill that is currently being offered) and use my previous suggestion of multiple transactions (read all about that here) to maximize miles awarded, you would be able to increase your miles. Assuming you did 9 transactions of 25 litres each, that’s 9 Air miles (5X) = 45 Air Miles.  Combine that with the 10 Bonus Air Miles for purchasing 225 litres and you end up with 55 Air Miles for the calendar month. If you could achieve 500 litres, that would be 20 transactions of 25 litres each, therefore 20 Air Miles (5X) = 100 Air Miles. Combine that with the 25 Bonus Air Miles and you would achieve 125 Air Miles for the calendar month.

It is a bit more work, but you can certainly increase your award miles by utilizing the suggestions above. It is up to you to decide if the effort is worth the rewards.
 

Rewards Canada's upcoming vacation travel - Painting a picture of loyalty programs in action

We're heading off on vacation so during the coming week there won't be much going on on Rewards Canada. We may put some posts up on the blog, Twitter, Facebook and Instagram if there is breaking news or some amazing offers so don't forget to check them regularly. The main Rewards Canada site however will not see any updates until the following week. We wish everyone a Happy Easter and safe travels if you are heading out during this time! May you earn and burn many miles and points!

Oh and yes this trip is being partially funded by points but is also a decent points earner. We are flying WestJet and paid for the tickets on my Diners Club Club Rewards MasterCard to which we applied a tailored travel credit. It wasn't for the full amount of the flights but nearly $1,700 of the flights were covered with this redemption which left us only about $800 out of pocket. This was our best bet for this trip as WestJet is the only airline that flies direct on the route and of course since we booked the tickets ourselves we got to pick the exact dates and times we wanted to travel!

The beauty of this type of redemption is that it is a full revenue booking with WestJet so all of our family members will earn 1% WestJet Dollars on the complete base fare not to mention the Diners Club Club Rewards points we already earned on the initial booking.

That's the redemption side. The earning side sees us taking advantage of two bonuses. I booked our rental car from Budget with this following Carlson Hotels Club Carlson offer found on our Club Carlson Bonus Points page:

8,250 Bonus Gold Points and save up to 20% when you rent a Budget vehicle for 3 or more consecutive days at participating locations in the U.S., Canada, Europe, the Middle East, Africa, Latin America, the Caribbean, Mexico, Australia and New Zealand. Simply use BCD #U106508 along with your Club Carlson member number to receive your discount and points when making your advance reservation online at Budget.com Until Dec 31, 15

That means with the base earn rate of 750 points and the 8,250 points bonus I'll earn 9,000 points on the rental. Guess what? 9,000 points is enough for a free night at a Category 1 Carlson Rezidor hotel. However I will more than likely just use those points to boost my account for a future redemption at a higher category hotel.

Just some of the 9,000 point hotels we could use the points on

Finally we're spending 5 nights at a Hyatt Hotel on points earning AAA rate that includes breakfast and waives the resort fee. Since I registered for the Stay More Play More offer taken off of our Hyatt Gold Passport Bonus Points page I'll earn 5,000 bonus Gold Passport Points on top of my regular earn rate as I was targeted for the up to 50k offer. Those 5,000 points are enough for a redemption at a Category 1 Hotel but once again using it to pad my account for a higher end redemption. Here are the offer details:

Earn up to 65,000 Bonus Points for stays at Hyatt Hotels and Resorts Worldwide. Full Details, Online Registration and booking (Registration is required)  Until Apr 30, 15

Known Offer Variations:
Up to 65,000 Point Offer
15 Nights + 30,000 Points = 30,000
20 Nights + 15,000 Points = 45,000
25 Nights + 20,000 Points = 65,000

Up to 50,000 Point Offer
5 Nights + 5,000 Points = 5,000
10 Nights + 10,000 Points = 15,000
15 Nights + 15,000 Points = 30,000
20 Nights + 20,000 Points = 50,000

2,000 Point Offer
1 nights + 2,000 Points = 2,000

5,000 Point Offer
2 nights + 5,000 Points = 5,000

5,000 Point Offer
5 nights + 5,000 Points = 5,000

20,000 Point Offer
10 nights + 20,000 Points = 20,000

There you have it, a great example of miles and points in action. This trip is a perfect picture of utilizing both earn and burn techniques from loyalty programs that I participate in.

How about you? Are you off for Easter Break? Let us know how you've put loyalty programs into action for those travels by commenting below!

Top 5 Credit Card Sign Up offers for April

Here are the Rewards Canada's  Top 5 Credit Card Sign Up offers for the month of April! This is not a 'best' credit card list like our Top Travel Rewards Credit Card rankings but instead a look at cards that have very good acquisition offers. As always when choosing a card you should always take other factors into account other than the sign up bonus, but when most of these cards are first year free, they can and do pay off even when not taking into account insurance packages and other non-reward benefits. In fact 4 of 5 cards on this list for April are first year free so you can try them out at no cost and decide later on if the card is right for you. All the while earning the sign up bonus which can be used to subsidize your travels! The only card that isn't first year free is the Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card from American Express. It has an annual of $120 but the new sign up bonus of 20,000 Starpoints is worth no less than $400 depending on what you value Starpoints at. This card was to have its 20,000 point bonus dropped to 10,000 at the end of March but Amex has decided to extend the offer.

The only change in this list from March was the replacement of the TD Aeroplan Visa Infinite Card with the new offer for the TD First Class Visa Infinite card as the latter makes more sense for the majority of Canadians due to it being an extremely flexible travel points card that allows you to book travel how you want and where you want!

So here are our top 5 credit card sign up offers for April (in alphabetical order)

American Express Gold Rewards Card - 25,000 Points (Apply here)
A mainstay offer here on Rewards Canada, the American Express Gold Rewards card has its first year fee of $150 waived and will award you 25,000 Membership Rewards points when you complete $500 in spending in the first three months. That 25,000 points is worth a $250 travel credit via Amex's TripFlex feature or can be converted to 25,000 Aeroplan Miles (1 Round trip Economy Award ticket within North America) or 25,000 British Airways Executive Club Avios (as much a 5 one way Economy Award tickets in North America, see this post for details.)

BMO Rewards World Elite MasterCard - 30,000 Points (Apply here)
Quite possibly the best Travel Points card now available in the market, the BMO Rewards World Elite MasterCard also has a $150 annual fee but that is waived in the first year too! The sign up bonus is 30,000 BMO Rewards Points which is worth $300 toward travel booked via BMO Rewards.  There is no minimum spend so as soon as you are approved you should have access to that travel credit!

Chase Marriott Rewards Premier Visa - 30,000 Points  (Apply here)
The best no foreign transaction fee card in Canada makes it to this list due to a very strong acquisition offer. I mean who can complain with 30,000 points awarded on approval and a certificate for a free night stay at a Category 1-4 hotel for a potential of 5 free nights, all at no cost as the card has the annual fee waived in the first year! They also give you  a 15 night credit into the mix which automatically provides you with Marriott Rewards Silver Elite status.

Starwood Preferred Guest Credit Card from American Express - 20,000 Starpoints (Apply here)
Recently the sign up bonus for this card was increased from 10,000 Starpoints to 20,000 Starpoints and this is the only card in this list that doesn't have the first year fee waived. That doesn't matter. This is by far the best hotel points card in Canada and Starpoints have huge value. The 20,000 Starpoint bonus when you spend $500 on the card is worth at least $400 when redeeming them for Starwood Hotel stays or you can convert them to airline miles in over 30+ programs and Starwood will kick in an additional 5,000 miles when you transfer 20,000 Starpoints at a time.

TD First Class Visa Infinite Card - 40,000 Points (Apply here)
Now seeing an increased sign up bonus and the first year fee waived, the TD First Class Visa Infinite Card has also been a good card with a simple 1.5% return on all your spending that can be redeemed for any travel that is booked on the card. The regular sign up of offer 20,000 TD Rewards Points has now been boosted to 40,000 (20,000 upon approval, 20,000 when you spend $1,000) and the first year $120  fee waived which means you essentially get $200 of travel for free.

Other than the Starwood card, you ultimately could end up with at least $750 in travel credits and hotel free nights with these cards but even if you only take on one or two you are helping your travel budget significantly at no cost other than regular credit card spend.

Apr 2 Update: IHG introduces IHG Business Rewards, Targeted Choice Hotels offer, 1,000 Free HHonors Points returns

Here is your Thursday update!

News, Tips & Tricks
We're asking you for your Aeroplan redemption stories whether they are good or bad! Find out how to submit your story here.

IHG has introduced a new corporate program called IHG Business Rewards. The program consolidates IHG's four separate corporate programs into one easy to use global program. Business Rewards members will earn 3 points per dollar spent on rooms, events and meetings and pool into the members regular IHG Rewards Club account and count towards Elite Status. Find

Devised for bookers - members who book accommodation, meetings and events for others – IHG Business Rewards will reward members with IHG Rewards Club points for their B2B business, in a single global program. This allows all IHG bookers to have a seamless experience when booking anywhere in the world at participating IHG hotels.

IHG Business Rewards members will now see all earned points from booking and staying appear in one account - so the same membership card for IHG Rewards Club and IHG Business Rewards will be used to book and stay at all participating IHG hotels. Managing multiple accounts is a thing of the past, making it easier to earn than ever before.

IHG Business Rewards members will earn reward points for every booking - whether reserving a guestroom or a large conference on behalf of someone else, there is no booking threshold and no minimum qualifying spend[2]. All IHG Business Rewards bookings will also count toward achieving IHG Rewards Club Gold or Platinum tier status, when the same member books and stays at an IHG hotel.

This appears to be a response to Starwood Preferred Guest's SPG Pro which launched last year and is a welcome change not only for corporate bookers but for small business owners as they should now be able to earn between 8 and 13 points per US$ spent on stays even if it is their own stay or at a minimum 3 points for the booking while their employees earn the points per dollar. Click here to find out more about IHG Business Rewards.

Choice Hotels has sent out a targeted offer so make sure you double check your email for this one! The subject line is "You've been selected" and offers 1,000 Bonus Choice Privileges points for every qualifying stay that includes a Sunday to Thursday night completed by April 26th.

FanXchange becomes the latest Aeroplan earning partner and to celebrate the new partnership members can earn 500 bonus Aeroplan miles on their first purchase of $250 or more while Distinction members will earn 1,500 bonus miles for that first purchase of over $250. Find out more here.


A few weeks ago we let you know about a free points offer from Hilton HHonors for updating your account with a new password but the programming behind it caused a security risk as almost anyone could access HHonors accounts with the update feature. That bonus was to run until March 25 but of course was pulled due to the security issue. It appears that Hilton has it fixed and has brought back the offer until April 10th. Find out more here.

Posts since our last update!

• Double LifeMiles on Avianca flights between Toronto and San Jose - possibly targeted
  We received this email from Avianca announcing Double LifeMiles for flying Avianca between  Toronto and San Jose: Now we're not…
• Redemption Stories: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly. Call for stories on Aeroplan
  In light of today's piece on CBC with Canadian's frustrations with the Aeroplan program we figured what better time to…

Don't forget to enter our first FFB10 contest!
FFB10 - The FrequentFlyerBonuses.com 10th Anniversary Celebration - Contest #1: Win a package of 50,000 Miles & points


Bonus Offers
airBaltic PINS
- Double PINS when you fly airBaltic to to Rhodes or Dubrovnik. More... Book by Apr 12 for travel until ?

Air Canada Aeroplan
- Earn up to 1,500 Bonus Aeroplan Miles when you make your first purchase of $250 or more with FanXchange. More... Until Sep 1, 15

Cathay Pacific Asia Miles
- 20% Asia Miles Discount when you redeem online for award tickets between Hong Kong and Vietnam. More... Book by Apr 13 for travel Apr 8 - Jun 30, 15

Hilton HHonors
- 1,000 Free HHonors Points when you update or create password for your Hilton HHonors account. More... Until Apr 10, 15


Oman Air Sindbad
- Double Sindbad Miles when you fly between Muscat and Goa or Singapore. More... Until Apr 30, 15

Voila Hotel Rewards
- 25% Bonus VHR Points for stays at participating Voila Hotel Rewards hotels Worldwide. More... Until Jun 30, 15



Today's Daily Update has been brought to you by

Double LifeMiles on Avianca flights between Toronto and San Jose - possibly targeted

We received this email from Avianca announcing Double LifeMiles for flying Avianca between  Toronto and San Jose:

Now we're not entirely sure if it is targeted or if any one may be able to jump on this bonus as the T&Cs (which follow) are a bit vague as they state LifeMiles members with a registered E-mail who subscribe to the offer. It doesn't state the recipient of the email but rather having a registered one. So to give it a shot for your account copy and paste this link: https://www.lifemiles.com/eng/mya/prt/myaprtone.aspx?id=1&action=oto&codpro=AVND02&ftnum=XXXXXXXXXXX and replace the 11 Xs with your LifeMiles #.  Then simply book online at Avianca.com by April 8th and complete your travel by May 31. YMMV.

Here are the terms of conditions of this offer:
This promotion is exclusive to LifeMiles members with a registered E-mail, who subscribed to the promotion between April 1th and April 8th of 2015.  Promotional Code: AVND02.  Dates to buy tickets: April 1th to April 8th, 2015.  First date to begin the trip: April 9th, 2015.  Last date to complete the trip: May 31th, 2015.  The miles bonus applies only to tickets purchased and flown during the promotional period.  The member must provide its LifeMiles number during the ticket purchase, at the time of check-in or at the Airport Counter.  The tickets can be bought through Avianca.com, Avianca´s points of sales, Avianca´s Call Center and travel agencies.  Bonus miles apply between: Toronto or Chicago to San Jose, in direct flights.  Bonus miles are valid for Avianca´s route network only.  It does not apply for codeshare flights.  The miles bonus will be reflected no later than one month after the completion of the trip. The miles bonus applies only to flown miles and do not include the Elite status bonus and the fare family bonus.  Also, it does not qualify for Elite status.  The miles bonus does not apply for retroactive accruals requested after the promotional period.  The miles bonus does not apply for redeemed tickets.  LifeMiles Terms and conditions apply, for more information go to LifeMiles.com.  LifeMiles is a trademark of LifeMiles Corp.

Redemption Stories: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly. Call for stories on Aeroplan

In light of today's piece on CBC with Canadian's frustrations with the Aeroplan program we figured what better time to run the Aeroplan Redemption Stories again! Our first Aeroplan Redemption stories summary ran in March of 2012 and can be read in full here.

So here we go:
Rewards Canada's Redemption Stories: The Good, The Bad & The Ugly is where we reach out to our subscriber and viewer base to tell us their stories of reward program redemption. We want to hear good stories, bad stories and of course plain old ugly ones! We will compile the stories together and post them right here on our blog as a summary in the near future. For our latest edition of this feature we are once again asking for stories about Aeroplan

If you want to share your Aeroplan Redemption story or lack of being able to redeem story with the rest of Canada whether it is good, bad or ugly,  leave a comment below or email us at info@rewardscanada.ca. You can send us a couple of sentences, a whole story or feel free to submit a video! Then watch for our summary edition of Redemption Stories to be posted within the next few weeks.

For guidance and/or examples here are links to the past Redemption Stories
Air Miles
Aeroplan 
Capital One Aspire


We look forward to hearing your stories!!

Apr 1 Update: Wyndham Rewards Revamp, CBC News Aeroplan piece, Join Marriott Rewards & get a free night after two stays

Wyndham Rewards is the big newsmaker over the past 24 hours!

News, Tips & Tricks
Wyndham Rewards reverses the course that we have seen in the industry and does what many loyalty programs should do. Simplify! Find out more here: Wyndham revamps the Wyndham Rewards program! Kudos to them for making the program nice and simple

Lots of discussion today about people's frustrations with Aeroplan as CBC Go Public covers the topic. Read more and see the related videos at http://www.cbc.ca/news/canada/aeroplan-membership-growing-faster-than-seats-available-say-members-1.3016815
This is the piece we talked about last week in our discussions on Instagram. We'd love to hear your thoughts! Is it time for us to do another Redemption Stories on Aeroplan piece? Talk to us!

Posts since our last update!

• Wyndham revamps the Wyndham Rewards program! Kudos to them for making the program nice and simple
  Yesterday Wyndham Hotels announced that changes are coming to their Wyndham Rewards program on May 11, 2015. The new Wyndham…
• Why Capital One was smart to change their card that was one of the best in Canada
  Earlier this year Capital One decided to discontinue their number one card, the Capital One® Aspire Travel™ World MasterCard® and…

 
Don't forget to enter our first FFB10 contest!
FFB10 - The FrequentFlyerBonuses.com 10th Anniversary Celebration - Contest #1: Win a package of 50,000 Miles & points



Bonus Offers
Avianca LifeMiles
- Earn up to 6,000 Bonus LifeMiles when you earn miles with various LifeMiles partners. More... Until Apr 30, 15

Le Club accorhotels
- Earn up to Triple Le Club Accorhotels Points for stays at participating Accor Hotels in Switzerland. More... Book by Apr 30 for stays Apr 6 - Dec 31, 15
- Triple Le Club Accorhotels Points for weekend stays at pariticpating Accor Hotels in in Poland, Lithuania or Latvia. More... Until May 31, 15

Marriott Rewards
- Earn a Free Night in a Category 1-5 hotel when you join Marriott Rewards and stay twice at participating hotels More... Ongoing

Oman Air Sindbad (on FrequentFlyerBonuses.com only)
- 3,000 Bonus Sindbad Miles on your first Rocketmiles booking More... Book by Aug 31, 15

Shangri-La Golden Circle
- Double GC Award Points for stays in a Horizon Club room or a suite at Shangri-La Hotel, Beihai. More... Apr 10 - Jun 30, 15
- Double GC Award Points for stays in a Grand Premier room or higher at the Jing An Shangri-La, West Shanghai. More... Until Jun 30, 15
- Double GC Award Points for stays at the Shangri-La Hotel, Chiang Mai. More... Until May 31, 15

Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
- Earn up to 10,000 Bonus KrisFlyer Miles when you book hotels via Kaligo. More... Book by May 31, 15



Today's Daily Update has been brought to you by

Wyndham revamps the Wyndham Rewards program! Kudos to them for making the program nice and simple

Yesterday Wyndham Hotels announced that changes are coming to their Wyndham Rewards program on May 11, 2015. The new Wyndham Rewards programs takes a step that is needed in the industry. It simplifies the program for the masses and makes it very easy to understand. Along with this simplification however there is some great news and some bad news.

In the press release the core changes to the program are as follows:

• The “Go FreeSM” award: With just 15,000 points, members can redeem a free night at any of the program’s more than 7,500 hotels globally with no blackout dates.
• The “Go FastSM” award: Members who want to redeem their points sooner or stay longer for less can book a night at available hotels for just 3,000 points plus cash.
• More points for faster rewards: For every qualified stay, members now earn 10 points for every dollar spent or a minimum of 1,000 points per stay, whichever is more.

In the first point, "Go Free" award is where we find the good and bad news. The first part of the good news is the simplicity, 15,000 points gets you a free night at any hotel at anytime as long as rooms are available. No categories to worry about and no low and high season point fluctuations to consider when redeeming. The second part of the good news is that the really high end properties are now achievable by many as you'll only have to redeem 15,000 points for them rather than upwards of 50,000 points! Granted it was only a few years ago when these high end properties only cost around 16,000 points per night but were devalued in the last program change. Essentially we see 6 categories get cheaper with this new redemption rate.




The bad news is that four categories get more expensive and these are typically hotels that you wouldn't want redeem 15,000 points for! Could you imagine paying for 15,000 points for a Super 8 that goes for $79 a night when you could use those same 15,000 points for an all inclusive Wyndham Resort that goes for 5 times that.

Here are the current Wyndham Rewards redemption rates for comparison:

Point two "Go Fast" has Wyndham introducing a Cash+Points feature that we see in many hotel programs. This could be good or may not be as we aren't aware of the cash requirements yet that will go along with the 3,000 points required.

The third point or change is that as a Wyndham Rewards member you will now earn a minimum of 1,000 points per stay. The earn rate hasn't actually changed, you'll continue to earn 10 points per dollar spent but if you are staying at that $79 a night Super 8, you'll earn a minimum of 1,000 points instead of 790. Of course if you stay at a location over $100 you'll earn the 10 points per dollar amount.

Overall this is great news from the Wyndham Rewards program. We love the simplicity they are promoting and make the program stand out in the big sea of confusion that loyalty programs tend to be! One thing you can bet however is that not many people will be redeeming for Super 8 stays anymore and will be saving those points for stays at higher end hotels!

Read more about all the changes here.

What do you think of the new Wyndham Rewards program? Will you switch your loyalty from another brand to Wyndham?