Wyndham Rewards Earner Card – Full Review [2024]

Great Card If

• You occasionally stay at Wyndham properties and want to earn more points on those stays
• You want Wyndham Gold elite status
• You want a travel rewards card with no annual fee

Don’t Get If

• You don’t stay at Wyndham hotels
• You want a card that is more rewarding for Wyndham stays

The Ideal Cardholder

The Wyndham Rewards Earner card is a compelling option for any traveler who visits Wyndham hotels a few times a year, wants to earn additional points on these stays, and benefits from Gold elite status, but does not want to pay an annual fee.

Wyndham Rewards Earner Card Travel Benefits

Let’s take a closer look at each of the top perks offered to Wyndham Rewards Earner cardholders:

• Wyndham Rewards Gold Status — Earn 10% bonus points on Wyndham stays, preferred room upgrades, and late checkout.
• 10% Award Night Discount — Cardholders can book award nights for 10% fewer points than other Wyndham members.
• Nightly Rate Discount — Get a discount on paid nights for being a Wyndham cardholder.
• No Annual Fee — The Wyndham Rewards Earner card offers all of these great benefits and costs nothing out of pocket for you to use it each year.
• No Foreign Transaction Fees — Staying at a Wyndham overseas? Pay with your Wyndham Rewards Earner card without worrying about foreign transaction fees.
• Annual Bonus Points (With Spend) — Each year you’ll receive 7,500 bonus points, enough for a free night at select Wyndham hotels, but only if you spend $15,000 on the card.

How To Use Wyndham Points For Max Value

Now that you’re earning Wyndham Rewards points for a variety of different purchases, how should you go about redeeming those points for maximum value?

Wyndham Go Free Nights

Your best option when it comes to redeeming your Wyndham Rewards points probably comes at no surprise — redeeming for award night redemptions at Wyndham hotels.

Wyndham breaks down its properties into 3 categories with award prices at 7,500, 15,000, and 30,000 points per night. Fortunately for Wyndham Rewards Earner cardholders, you’ll receive a 10% discount off of these rates, bringing the number of points needed for a free night down to 6,750, 13,500, and 27,000 points for each category.

Not only does redeeming your points give you the highest return, but in our view, it is also the most fun! After all, what better excuse is there to travel than a free hotel stay?

Wyndham Go Fast Nights

Don’t have enough points for a full award stay? Wyndham also offers Go Fast rates, allowing you to redeem a small number of points in order to reduce the cash rate for your stay.

With this, instead of the standard award prices, you can redeem 1,500, 3,000, and 6,000 points per night, along with a reduced cash rate. This gives travelers more flexibility when it comes to stretching their points out for future stays, or for those who prefer to lower the amount of cash needed for their stay.

Airline Transfer Partners

Similar to Marriott Bonvoy points, Wyndham allows members to transfer their points to about 10 airline partners. But unlike the 3:1 rate you receive for Marriott transfers, Wyndham transfers give you a rate of just 5:1.

Because of this, we generally advise against transferring your Wyndham points to airline partners unless you have no other option or have no use for Wyndham points.

Merchandise

Members can redeem their points through the Wyndham merchandise portal towards a variety of products, but doing so gives you a value of just 0.3 cents per point — which is just one-third of our 0.9 cents per point valuation of Wyndham points.

Gift Cards

You can also redeem your Wyndham points for gift cards with dozens of different merchants, but we strongly advise against this as you’ll get just 0.3 cents per point in value.

Marathon Gas Stations

Through Wyndham’s partnership with Marathon’s Makeitcount rewards, members can redeem their points for fuel discounts at Marathon gas stations. But you should think twice before redeeming points this way because, not only will you only get 0.3 cents per point in value, but you’ll also miss out on some of the 5x earnings you could have received for just paying for your gas with your Wyndham Rewards Earners card.

Tours and Activities

Finally, Wyndham members can redeem their points for unique activities like dining experiences, live entertainment, and more. But like many of the other redemption methods, your points will be worth 0.3 cents per point when you redeem them this way. So you’ll likely want to opt for a higher value option.

Bottom Line:Truthfully, when it comes to redeeming your Wyndham Rewards points, your best option is redeeming them for free nights at Wyndham hotels, and we strongly advise against any redemption option that will give you less than 0.9 cents per point in value.

How To Earn More Wyndham Points

Wyndham Stays

Adding the Wyndham Rewards Earner card is a great way to help earn more Wyndham points on each stay, as the card earns you 5x points per $1 on your Wyndham stays.

Further, since you’ll have Wyndham Gold status, you’ll earn 11x points per $1 thanks to the 10% elite bonus on stays, and when you pay for your stay with the Wyndham Rewards Earner card, you’ll earn a total of 16x points per $1 on stays — a 14.4% return on your spend based on our valuation of Wyndham points.

Gas Stations

Those who have long work commutes or who take a lot of road trips can rack up Wyndham Rewards points by earning 5x points per $1 on all of that gas spend with the Wyndham Rewards Earner card.

Dining and Grocery Stores

The Wyndham Rewards Earner card offers 2 more bonus categories to help reward you on your everyday spending on both dining and at grocery stores, allowing you to earn 2x points per $1 on all of these purchases.

All Other Purchases

Cardholders also earn 1x point per $1 on all other purchases outside of the card bonus categories. But unless you’re trying to earn as many Wyndham points as possible, you might want to choose to use a card that is more rewarding for non-bonus spending.

Wyndham Shopping Portal

Fortunately for online shoppers, Wyndham offers the Wyndham Rewards Shopping site to help you earn more Wyndham points when you buy products online. Just like any other shopping portal, all you have to do is click through to the select merchant you want to purchase an item with, and then you’ll earn Wyndham Rewards points after you complete the purchase.

Depending on the merchant, this can earn you anywhere from 1x to 30x points per $1 on your purchases through the Wyndham Rewards Shopping site.

Adding Capital One Miles Cards

The Capital One Miles program is a flexible rewards currency, and miles earned from select Captial One credit cards can then be transferred to the Wyndham Rewards program at a 1:1 rate. This gives you the opportunity to use cards from each program, and pool your rewards together.

For instance, you could use the Capital One^® Venture^® Rewards card to earn 2x miles per $1 on all purchases made with the card, and your Wyndham Rewards Earner card to earn 5x points per $1 on purchases at Wyndham hotels and gas stations.

Alternative Cards to the Wyndham Rewards Earner Card

Hilton Honors American Express Card

If you’re looking for a no-annual-fee hotel card and prefer Hilton hotels, the Hilton Honors card is a superb option (see rates & fees). Cardholders earn 7x points per $1 on Hilton stays, 5x points per $1 on dining, groceries, and gas, plus 3x points per $1 on all other purchases (terms apply). You’ll also receive complimentary Hilton Silver status as a free perk for holding the card.

Marriott Bonvoy Bold™ Credit Card

Those who have Marriott as their hotel chain of choice and want a no-annual-fee card should consider adding the Marriott Bold card to their wallet. Cardholders earn 3x points per $1 on Marriott stays, 2x points per $1 on travel, and 1x point per $1 on all other purchases. Plus you’ll automatically receive 15 elite night credits for having the card, which is enough for Marriott Silver Elite status and puts you just 10 nights away from Gold Elite status. Wyndham Rewards^® Earner℠ Card