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Yes, Wyndham Rewards points will expire if you have no activity on your account for a period of 18 months. In addition, all Wyndham Rewards points expire 4 years after being earned — regardless of account activity.
Per the Wyndham Rewards terms and conditions page:
“All accrued points in a Member's Wyndham Rewards account may be cancelled or forfeited if the Member has no Account Activity (as defined below) for a period of approximately, but never less than, eighteen (18) consecutive months.“
However, it's actually more complicated than this. Not only does Wyndham Rewards have a general points expiry policy, but individual points also have a lifespan that cannot be extended. Points expire 4 years after the checkout date of the stay for which the points were earned. Even if you have activity on your account that keeps your points alive, Wyndham points do expire once their lifespan of 4 years (after the checkout date) has been reached:
“Wyndham Rewards points expire four (4) years after the checkout date of the stay for which the applicable points are posted to the Member's account (the “Four Year Rule”), unless the points are forfeited or cancelled earlier due to membership inactivity (as more particularly described below), or otherwise in accordance with these Terms and Conditions.”
That's a lot to keep track of, but you're not on your own. Add your Wyndham Rewards account to your AwardWallet account to keep track of all expiration dates. And we'll let you know if you have expiring points well in advance of that expiration. You can even get calendar reminders of points expirations in your digital calendar of choice.
What qualifies as “Account Activity” for Wyndham Rewards
Per the Wyndham rewards terms and conditions, “Account Activity” means any point earning, redemption, or transfer activity involving a change in the Member's Wyndham Rewards point balance.
With such a wide range of options, it is effortless to keep your points alive. Let's show you how.
Earning Wyndham Rewards Points
You have multiple options to earn Wyndham Rewards points, and not all involve stays at a property. You can earn points in all of the following ways and keep your points balance alive:
- Earn points for stays at Wyndham properties.
- Earn points for everyday or business spending with one of the following credit cards:
- Buy Wyndham Rewards points. You can purchase a maximum of 60,000 points per year.
- Earn points when you rent cars with Avis.
- Earn points by connecting your Wyndham Rewards account to Bakkt.
- Earn points when you shop online through the Wyndham Rewards shopping portal.
- Earn 10 points per dollar when you book Viator tours and activities.
- Earn points when you purchase food with Home Chef.
- Earn points for sharing your views through the Opinion Rewards Panel.
Redeeming & Transferring Wyndham Rewards Points
There are multiple options to redeem your Wyndham Rewards points. You can redeem your Wyndham Rewards points for any of the following activities:
- Redeem your points for stays at Wyndham or Wyndham Vacation Clubs properties.
- Redeem your points for stays at Vacasa vacation rental properties.
- Transfer your points to Caesars Rewards to redeem for stays, free play, or more.
- Redeem your points for Viator tours and activities.
- Transfer your points to a host of airline partners, including American Airlines, United, Turkish, and Air Canada.
- Redeem your points for gift cards.
- You can redeem your points for merchandise when shopping through the Wyndham portal.
- Donate your point to a good cause.
- Pay for everyday purchases through Bakkt.
Reinstating Wyndham Rewards Points
Publicly Wyndham Rewards does not say whether you can reinstate your points, and most indicators are that they won't. However, there are multiple data points online that if some of your points expire, a contrite call to Wyndham Rewards often results in getting your points reinstated as a gesture of goodwill.
Our Take
Keeping your Wyndham Rewards account active is simple thanks to a large number of options available. While points expire 4 years after being earned, you have plenty of options to use them before they expire.
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I understand that points are a “debt” for companies; but in this context, shouldn’t the expires be longer?
Yes yes yes
This solid post needs a section on the Wydham / Caesars partnership, as other posters have suggested.
You can transfer up to 30,000 points from one to the other each calander year. So one tactic is to transfer Wyndham points about to expire to Caesars. They should be able to get transferred the other way later, effectively extending the life of the points.
I can envision other ways this could be used as well, but have not tested them.
I had a situation last year when my points expired due to inactivity for 18 months but I sent an email requesting to be reinstated and they did it once, I was given a warning that this is a “one time thing”. After that I would just buy some points and that has kept them from expiring. Of course, I don’t know if they will reinstate points if they expire due to the 4 year time limit. That might be a tougher ordeal.
I miss the good old days where no shows officially counted as qualifying on Wyndham.
This is the most complicated of all expiration policies. Hopefully they will change this in the coming year. I have no problem keeping the account active every 18 months, but to expire points after 4 years of earning them is not a good long term customer friendly policy.
Yes, in fact, I am unaware of any loyalty program – hotel, car or air – that has such a hard individual point expiration, regardless of activity.
Wow – I never knew about the 4 year expiry! Thanks for highlighting
Is it still possible to status match from Hilton to Wyndham to Caesars?
I am about 400 points short of having the 6,000 points needed to transfer to an airline, so this extension is useful. Thanks for pointing this out. Now I think I can make it using their shopping portal before expiration without having to buy points.
Agree that the 4-year expiration policy is really annoying. I believe Asiana Airlines has something similar but at least the miles are good for 10 years after they are earned.
This is a program with one of the most complicated expiration policy. They really should just simplify it .
Another useful partner of Wyndham’s, for earning/redeeming/transferring points, is Caesars Entertainment. See: https://www.wyndhamhotels.com/caesars-entertainment
This is definitely one of the real annoyances of this program. Along with the lack of abundance of aspirational properties. That being said, when you want to spend the night at a hotel before an early morning flight and you don’t want to increase the price of your vacation, these points can help solve that problem.
Oh-so-thank-U for the tip on the partnership of Marathon & Wyndham!
I always thought the Wyndham Rewards policies weird concerning this conflict of the period within 18 months of activity to renew the points versus the 4 year validity of the accrued points. It is not easy enough to manage the account.
Wow . Great the points expire 4 years after they are earned.
You think so? Please elaborate your views.
I disagree