Wyndham cancelled this deal before it started! Don’t do it!
The Wyndham deal page now shows the following:
Today’s Wyndham Rewards trade up was offered in the spirit of generosity. Before the offer even began, there were obvious and significant examples of fraud. Much to our dismay and disappointment, we have to cancel this promotion. We will, however, make a donation of 5 million Wyndham Rewards points to charity as the work they do on behalf of others is real magic.
We know some of you had the best intentions, and we want to reward you with what you’ve earned. If you believe you’ve met all of the terms & conditions below, and have already submitted via email, we will be in contact in response to your inquiry.
We’re sad to have to cancel this promotion, but remain dedicated to winning your loyalty.
My previous, no longer relevant post follows…
Earlier this morning I posted a Quick Deal about a new today-only offer from Wyndham: Gift all of your SPG points to charity and Wyndham will give you quadruple the number of points donated (they’ll match your SPG status to Wyndham too). This effectively does some good in the world plus gives you the ability to convert your SPG points to Wyndham at a generous 1 to 4 ratio.
Basics of the deal: convert SPG to Wyndham
- Gift all of your SPG points to charity (you must have no more than 499 points remaining after gifting)
- Your account must not reflect any other transactions within the preceding 24 hour period (i.e. you can’t move points to/from Marriott beforehand! In my first publication of this morning’s Quick Deal I erroneously stated that you can).
- Between noon and midnight ET* today (October 11), donate your SPG points to charity and then email the following information to wyndhamrewards.fulfillment@wyn.com:
- Your Wyndham Rewards member number; and
- A screenshot of your points donation receipt from SPG indicating the referenced transaction was completed during the Offer Period; and
- A screenshot of your final points balance with SPG upon completion of the transaction; and
- A screenshot or current SPG account statement indicating your status level and recent transaction history.
- According to Wyndham, “In most cases, Members will receive their Trade-In Bonus Points and Status Match within ten (10) days of a qualifying submission.”
All Wyndham properties charge 15,000 points per night for a free night. This means that you can stay at any Wyndham property in the world for the equivalent of 3,750 SPG points. Further, Wyndham offers “Go Fast” awards in which you pay 3,000 Wyndham points plus a variable cash component. Consider this a discount off of standard room rates. With this deal, you can effectively get that discount for 750 SPG points per night.
* Note that the terms state times as EST despite EDT being currently in effect. I’m waiting for a response from Wyndham regarding the real time requirements and will update this post if/when I know more.
Should you do it?
Whether this deal works for you depends on a few factors:
Do you have activity in your SPG account within the past 24 hours?
If so, according to the terms, you cannot participate.
What is your current SPG point balance?
If you have a very high SPG point balance, I would not recommend doing this deal. There are too many great opportunities for using SPG points to be worth putting all of your SPG eggs in the Wyndham basket. I have over 100,000 SPG points, so I will not participate. On the other hand, both my wife and son have under 20,000 points. I’ll consider having them do the deal.
What would you do with your SPG points if you didn’t do this deal?
There are many great uses for SPG points that may be better than transferring them to Wyndham. Keep in mind, for example, that you can transfer points to Marriott at a 1 to 3 ratio, so if you value Marriott points higher than Wyndham points, you won’t necessarily come out ahead with this offer.
Will you use the points for high end Wyndham properties or high-end rooms?
Most Wyndham properties are inexpensive to begin with. As a result, 15,000 points per night is usually not a good deal. See: Beware of Wyndhams Bearing Gifts.
That said, there are Wyndham properties where 15,000 points per night is a great deal. For example, check out Wyndham’s Dolce Hotels & Resorts. These are high end properties in areas that range from Napa Valley, California to Chantilly, France.
Also, many Wyndham properties will let you book any room for 15,000 points per night. In some cases you may be able to book a large suite rather than a standard room.
Will I do it?
As I indicated above, with over 100,000 SPG points in my account, there is no way I would consider converting them all to Wyndham. That said, some of Wyndham’s higher end properties do look pretty nice so I probably will enroll my wife in this deal. She already has just over 45,000 points in her Wyndham account thanks to the Wyndham credit card. With this deal, she’ll add approximately 75,000 more points to her Wyndham total. That will leave her with a total of about 120,000 Wyndham points. At 15,000 points per night, we’ll then be able to stay 8 nights in Wyndham properties.
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[…] And, people have been burned by previous Wyndham deals. One that stands out in my mind is when Wyndham offered to give you 4 times the number of Wyndham points as SPG points that you donate to ch…. They killed that deal very early (Fortunately, I believe that those who donated their SPG points […]
Wow. I was also thinking of having my wife do this deal. I’m glad I only thought about it! Honestly, I was worried about what recourse I would have if Wyndham didn’t pay up.
I do have some Wyndham points from the credit card promo, and the points certainly are useful — but only in limited circumstances (where they have nice hotels). I’m glad they weren’t more useful, because then I would have rushed to do the deal!
I assume they’re going to make this right for those who donated, but I sure wouldn’t want to be in that position. In the meantime, if you donated, could you call SPG to tell them to “stop” the transaction?
I also wonder what the fraud was. I assume it has something to do with photoshopping (or equivalent) your SPG statement. That would be hard to police, but Wyndham should have known of this risk before launching the promo (or demanded access to your account to check that the donation was actually made).
I don’t know what anti-fraud measures they could take. Lacking SPG giving confirmation (which they wouldn’t) they would have to rely on screenshots. And any program that relies in screenshots is doomed to be gamed.
Ugh. Donated all my points, and only have 59 remaining. Wanted to complete this right at noon and sent all required information to Wyndham. Twenty minutes later I received notice that this had been cancelled.
Now it appears I have no recourse, have no starpoints, and no promises from Wyndhm.
I am really hoping they make this right for those of us who abided by the terms, participated correctly, and sent in proper verification.
Wow. Not a way to build loyalty to their brand…
[…] As reported by others, including Frequent Miler and Doctor of Credit, Wyndham has cancelled this […]
This is nuts. They could have enacted anti-fraud measures rather than pull the deal for everyone. I’m doing what I can to get the word out that this deal has died, but I think it’s inevitable that some people (especially those who have email subscriptions to blogs like mine) will go ahead and donate their points without realizing that the deal is dead.
Wow, can’t believe they cancelled it before it even started!
This is why I didn’t even consider it. I saw a scenario where I have no miles in my account (valuable SPG points too), but I’ve no guaranteed way to get wyndham points. Scary.
If you just enroll in Wyndham today, would you be qualified for this promotion?
would canceling a reservation with spg to unlock some points to use in this promotion work?