Wyndham Rewards is touted as one of the simplest hotel reward programs to use. Its award chart is incredibly straightforward. And because Wyndham hotels are absolutely everywhere — even in small towns where most other hotel chains aren’t — there are plenty of opportunities to redeem their points.
For these reasons, point.me considers Wyndham’s points value to be above average in the world of hotel rewards currencies.
However, Wyndham’s points expiration policy could be better. In short, if you don’t use your Wyndham points within four years, you’ll lose them — and there’s nothing you can do to prevent it. This is uncompetitive when compared to most other hotel loyalty programs.
Here’s everything you need to know about the Wyndham Rewards expiration policy.
Table of contents
Do Wyndham points expire?
Wyndham points will expire after 18 months of account inactivity. But even if your account is active, Wyndham enforces a hard expiration after four years that will vanquish your points to the shadow realm if you don’t use them.
In other words, each point has a maximum four-year lifespan from the earn date.
How to know when your Wyndham points are expiring
Determining when your Wyndham points expire is slightly trickier compared to competing programs like Marriott Bonvoy or World of Hyatt. You’ve got two expiration dates to watch for.
First, make sure your account has at least one qualifying activity every 18 months. To view this, sign in to your Wyndham account and find the “My Activity” tab in the drop-down menu under your name. You’ll be taken to a page where you can view the previous 18 months of activity. If your last activity was, say, 17 months ago, you know you’ve got to do something — your points are about to disappear.
Additionally, Wyndham will tell you when your points are reaching the four-year mark. You can check that by going to this page. You won’t be able to see the expiration date for all of your points (remember, they’ll differ based on when you earned them), but you can view the ones that are set to expire.
How to keep your Wyndham points from expiring
The only thing you can do to keep your points from disappearing after four years is to redeem them. But when it comes to the 18-month rule, there are plenty of things you can do to keep your account from becoming inactive.
Earn points
Earn at least one Wyndham point per 18 months to keep your points alive. Activities such as swiping your Wyndham credit card, booking a paid Wyndham stay, and crediting your rewards from partners (like car rental agencies) all count. Even buying Wyndham points through Points.com is a qualifying activity.
Interestingly, transferring points from programs like Capital One miles and Citi ThankYou rewards will also reset this 18-month clock.
Redeem points
Redeeming a single Wyndham point will keep your points from expiring after 18 months. You can book an award stay, trade points for merchandise or gift cards, donate them to charity, and much more. You can also book travel, including airfare and car rentals, with Wyndham points. It’s not a good deal, but it could be worth redeeming a few thousand points just so you don’t lose your whole stash.
Reactivating expired Wyndham points
You cannot “officially” reactivate your expired Wyndham points. Once they’re gone, you can reach out to Wyndham to see if they’ll revive your points as a courtesy, but you’ve got no recourse if they refuse.
Summary
Wyndham points are a bad long-term investment — but a great tool in the travel hacking arsenal for those who redeem them regularly. If you’re the kind of traveler who hoards points for a rainy day, Wyndham points probably aren’t for you. The four-year lifespan of each point is a very customer-unfriendly policy.
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