Chase adds Wyndham as 14th travel partner, but do the math before transferring your points

Many of the best Chase credit cards are a bit more useful with the addition of Wyndham Rewards as a transfer partner. The question is, how much more useful?

Having more options is always better. But Wyndham Rewards redemptions are often less valuable than cashing out your Chase Ultimate Rewards® Points for 1 cent each and booking the same Wyndham hotel. In other words, transferring Chase points to Wyndham doesn’t always make sense.

Let’s take a brief look at what you can do with the Wyndham Rewards program and how to earn Wyndham points.

Wyndham is the fourth Chase Ultimate Rewards® hotel partner and 14th overall. It has a simple redemption structure: Award nights cost 7,500, 15,000 or 30,000 points. You can also pay with points and cash, but be sure to do the math; it may not be a better value per point than paying entirely with points.

There’s a lot of potential value in the simplicity of this program. At 7,500 points per night, it’s possible to turn the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card’s (see rates and fees) 75,000-point welcome bonus (earned after spending $5,000 in the first three months) into a 10-night stay.

When comparing Wyndham to other Chase hotel partners, World of Hyatt is more lucrative — but its program is more complicated (and growing more complex soon). Wyndham, on the other hand, has more than 5X the number of locations, and there are situations where Wyndham redemptions are worth more than 1 cent each.

Wyndham hotels include budget options, like Days Inn and AmericInn, as well as luxury resorts, such as Wyndham Grand and Dolce Hotels and Resorts. Wyndham also has a partnership with Caesars Rewards that allows you to use Wyndham points to book stays at Caesars’ properties.

Whenever you’re considering booking a Wyndham hotel, compare the points and cash price to ensure you’re getting 1 cent per point or more in value. Since Chase Ultimate Rewards® Points can be redeemed at a fixed 1 cent per point for statement credits or through Chase Travel℠, transferring to Wyndham only makes sense if you’re getting 1 cent (or more) per point.

There are three co-branded Wyndham cards worth applying for if you like staying at Wyndham properties, as you’ll get perks like automatic elite status and a 10% discount on award stays:

In addition to Chase Ultimate Rewards®, you can also transfer Capital One miles and Citi ThankYou® Points to Wyndham Rewards.

Cards like the Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card and the Citi Strata Premier^® Card both transfer to Wyndham at a 1:1 ratio. But transferring to Wyndham can be a low-value option, as noted, and both of these cards offer other ways to book Wyndham hotels for 1 cent per point/mile. Do the math to ensure you’re not losing value by taking advantage of Wyndham transfers.

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