Buy Airline Miles for .7 Cents a Piece or 33% off Gift Cards Today at Noon (Via Wyndham Points)
I've completely updated this post, because this is actually a spectacular deal if you want to buy airline miles for .7 cents a piece!
Today's installment of Daily Getaways are packages of Wyndham points, which are marketed as free nights, but like other packages they are actually packages of points which get deposited into your account. Per the redemption T&C "Within 10 business days of purchase, XX,XXX Wyndham Rewards® points will be posted to your Wyndham Rewards account. (You must provide your account number at time of purchase.)" To get an account, sign up here.
Even better- you get 10% off these prices if you use an Amex card. You may purchase a max of 6 sets of points across all Wyndham offers, which would be 2 of the 15,000 points and one of the other 4.
15,000 points for $50, .3 cents a point, maximum purchase of 2
28,000 points for $69, .25 cents a point, maximum purchase of 1
32,000 points for $100, .32 cents a point, maximum purchase of 1
50,000 points for $130, .26 cents a point, maximum purchase of 1
48,000 points for $150 (yes, you read that correctly, you pay more for less points), .32 cents a point, maximum purchase of 1
Free nights start at 6,000 points a night and go up to 16,000, but if you have no plans to stay at a Wyndham, Ramada, Howard Johnson, Travelodge, Microtel, Hawthorn, Knights Inn or Super 8, you can redeem them for airline miles or gift cards.
Per Loyalty Traveler's expert analysis,,
"Buy 48,000 points for $135 (AmEx) or even $150 and convert to 19,200 miles in American, Air Canada Aeroplan, Continental, Delta, Frontier, United and US Airways and a few others."
Click here to see airline transfer ratios- this may be a good time to stock up and transfer to American while they still count all miles towards lifetime elite status qualification. In general it is 12,000 airline miles for 30,000 Wyndham points. If you bought one of every package using an Amex card (and 2 of the $50 package), you'd spend $494.10 for 190,000 Wyndham points, which would convert to 76,000 airline miles, which equates to about .7 cents a point, which is a huge, huge, huge discount from the normal 2.7+ cents per point the airlines sell mile purchases. US Airways is even running a transfer bonus of up to 75% on hotel transfers, so you could get a trans-Atlantic business class ticket for less than $500. The biggest issue I see is that these will most likely sell out quickly, so have your browser loaded and ready at 12pm EST SHARP.
Gift cards might also be a smart play. For example, you can buy 50,000 points for $117 with your American Express card and then redeem those points for$200 in gift cards, (split into two $100 cards that cost 25,000 points each). Gift cards include popular brands like Amazon.com, Brooks Brothers, Best Buy, Bloomingdales, Williams Sonoma, Home Depot, Target, Saks, etc. Per TPG reader Ramalama- standard shipping is included, making these even more valuable (as long as you use them!)
I don't actively participate in the Wyndham program, so feel free to share your experiences in the comment box below. I'm almost tempted to buy some points for the miles - even the 33% off Saks gift cards has the wheels turning!
