by Tom Bastek
Last updated: 1:00 PM ET, Mon May 11, 2015
Photo courtesy of Wyndham
This past April 1, Wyndham announced changes to their loyalty program, Wyndham Rewards, which the industry had never seen before. And while it is not the best change for everyone, it is certainly different. Starting today, there is literally only one tier of Wyndham hotels in terms of redemption. So you could basically go out and earn all of your points staying at the Super 8 and turn around and cash them in at Wyndham Grand.
The other ways that the program is changing is how members will have the opportunity to use points plus dollars to book rooms using as few as 3,000 points. And while members will still earn 10 points per dollar, Wyndham has set a minimum earnings of 1,000 points per night. Which means if you get lucky enough to book a room rate for less than $100, you are still going to earn 1,000 points. So essentially, 15 nights gets you a night free in any of the more than 7,500 participating Wyndham hotels.
The company is also launching today a new marketing campaign to help spread the news with the debut of "The Wyndham Rewards Wyzard." Kristofer Hivju of "Game of Thrones" fame has been cast in the part.
The only downside to the new program is for the members who were constantly redeeming at the lowest tier level hotels for 5,500 points per night as those hotels are now going to also run at 15,000. Even with that one caveat, the program still ends up being simpler, faster and overall better and comes with a new crazy wizard guy to boot.
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