Bad news is supposed to come in 3s, right? So after we had IHG gutting their anniversary free night (or…. are they?), and Southwest devaluing the ratio of its Wanna Get Away fares, I started wondering what would be the 3rd shoe to drop. Then I remembered reading about Wyndham Rewards devaluing their copays on GoFast awards. Technically this happened a week or so ago (first reported by Loyalty Traveler), so perhaps it was the precursor to all this bad news 🙂
Background on Wyndham award nights
A few years ago, Wyndham changed their award chart by basically removing the “chart” part of it. Instead, all hotels cost a flat 15,000 points / night from the nicest hotels in their collection to the seediest hotel around)
(SEE ALSO: A tale of two Super 8s: true budget traveling)
So when the Wyndham credit card was offering 45,000 bonus points a few months ago, I signed up my wife and I – this would get us 6 nights at any Wyndham hotel, including resorts, all-inclusives and hotels in high priced locations. My son and I ended up using one of our free nights at the Wingate by Wyndham Manhattan Midtown – 15,000 points for a $289 hotel right in Midtown Manhattan (35th street)? Not bad!
Wyndham Go Fast
When Wyndham removed their award chart, in addition to the 15,000 point “Go Free” awards, they also introduced “Go Fast” awards, where you could spend 3000 Wyndham points in addition to a cash copay. My travel patterns were such that it was much better to use my Wyndham points on the 15,000 point “Go Free” stays, but if you travel more frequently, you could get a lot of value from using the “Go Fast” awards.
When they were first introduced, the cash copays were a flat amount (a few price points that varied by hotel). You could get a significant savings in many cases from the daily cash rate by paying 3000 Wyndham points.
Now, no more – the cash copay is tied to 65% of the daily room rate, so your 3000 Wyndham points only save you 35% of the rate – and there’s no way to get any type of outsized value. Here’s an example from The New Yorker
Cash rate is $299 (for the best available rate). 65% of that is $194.35, which conveniently is now the copay on the Go Fast award. This is pretty consistent across hotels now. Loyalty Traveler has more info
I think the 15,000 point Go Free award is the way to go now 🙂
I think this makes Go Fast awards essentially worthless at this point except in very limited circumstances. Still, the Wyndham card can be a good one to get for the signup bonus as 3 free nights is not bad at all
Had you used many Go Fast awards? What do you think of the new changes?
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
so you spend 20% of the normal points rate (3000 points) to save 35% of the cash rate? Still seems like a good deal in this case (as it values 15000 points at $375+taxes)
Yeah that’s the math in a vacuum – but to me, there are very few times when paying 3000 points and 65% of the cash rate at a Wyndham is going to be the “best” move, unless the Wyndham is the only hotel in town
Could you please explain your math. Are you not saving $104.65 for every 3,000 points?
Wingate by Wyndham Midtown is such a shitty property, the sole reason: The building is like entirely made of cement – I’ve stayed there about 10 different times, T-Mobile, Verizon, nothing works. And on top of this, you will be lucky to get 1 bar of WiFi in the guest rooms. I was there last week on a cash rate, was put on the 2nd floor (the floor with the televisions and sitting area) and only had WiFi in the “living room” area. Ugh !
Good location though, and sometimes I’m forced to stay there when using my Wyndham points. Recently used Wyndham points at the Wyndham Midtown 45.. the timeshare property. That’s another horror story in itself .. good if you’re trying to buy a timeshare ! Lol.
I still love Wyndham, their recent promotions have taken most of my stays from IHG!
Hmm I didn’t notice a problem with the wifi when we were there – but we were up on the top floor so maybe that’s why. Great location for sure
I know I sound like a broken record but…Wyndham is NOT a good program. Unless you are a captive construction worker assigned to spend weeks or months in their random properties against your will until you develop Helsinki or Howard Johnson syndrome look elsewhere for real value.
I’ll counter that there is some real opportunity here. I had to stay cheaply for work twice over the past months, and I chose Wyndham brand hotels two of the nights. It was nice to be compensated the 15,000 points plus the 2,500(ish) points from the stays for the trouble. There are some great, albeit specific, uses of their points that can provide killer value. If I can use my 15,000 points for $300 per night room, I consider it entirely worth the “trouble” of staying at a Microtel and a Super 8.
I just booked using the Go Fast program for a night at a Hawthorn Suites outside Orlando for my college presentation. I don’t do a lot of point chasing; perhaps I should. But I do wait and buy points when they go on sale and use them periodically during the year. In Florida, I also notice the savings are better outside of snowbird season. Accounting for the price of the points, I’m still saving money.
I didn’t understand how the Go Fast program worked. I had gotten a good deal in Monterey and San Diego where the normal price was about $130 a night, paying about $60 or so. When I booked at a cheap place, it actually was going to cost a couple of bucks more a night to use the points vs paying cash w/ AARP discount.