And you'll want those Wyndham points as soon as you can get them. On April 3, Wyndham is moving to a three-tier award structure. That likely mean the end of all-inclusive resorts and luxury properties for just 15,000 points per night, though we're still waiting on the final list of award chart changes.
When you think of La Quinta, you might think of a budget, pet-friendly hotel with free breakfast and minimal amenities. You probably don't think about all-inclusive resorts, Times Square suites and vacation homes. And while La Quinta doesn't have any of these properties itself, each La Quinta point that you earn (or buy) gets you closer to scoring an awesome redemption.
Why's that? Well, Wyndham purchased La Quinta last year for a cool $1.95 billion. Now that the merger is complete, you can transfer between the La Quinta Returns program and Wyndham Rewards at a 1:1 ratio.
Starting in May 2015 — and ending on April 3 — Wyndham offers a flat 15,000-point redemption rate for all properties. While a vast majority of these properties are budget hotels, there are quite a few luxury properties, a handful of all-inclusive resorts and more than 17,000 condos and vacation homes. Between this flat redemption rate and Wyndham's massive geographical footprint, Wyndham Rewards landed #2 on TPG's Best Hotel Loyalty Programs in the World and it also lands #2 on the list of most undervalued hotel loyalty programs.
This means that your La Quinta Returns points can be redeemed for a lot more than before, but you'll have to transfer them to Wyndham Rewards to do so. Let's walk you through how to do so.
Transferring Points From La Quinta to Wyndham
First, sign into your La Quinta account. Here's a link that'll redirect you to the transfer page after logging in. Once you do, your name and email address should auto-fill from your La Quinta Returns account. These are going to need to match what's in your Wyndham Rewards account for the transfer to go through. Enter your Wyndham Rewards number. Then enter the number of points you want to transfer (in 1,000-point increments).
Click "submit" to initiate the points transfer. You should receive a confirmation that you "transferred your La Quinta Returns points to the corresponding Wyndham Rewards account." In my experience, the points instantly hit my Wyndham Rewards account.
Transferring Points From Wyndham to La Quinta
If you're looking for awesome redemptions, you'll want to pool your points at Wyndham Rewards. However, if you're looking to book La Quinta properties for just 6,000 points per night, you'll want to transfer points the other direction. To do so, first sign into your Wyndham Rewards account. Here's a deep link that'll redirect you to the transfer page after logging in.
If you aren't already there, browse to the Transfer Your Points page. Your name and email address should auto-fill from your Wyndham Rewards account. Again, these need to match what's in your La Quinta Returns account for the transfer to go through.
Enter your La Quinta Returns number, then enter how many points you want to transfer (in 1,000-point increments). There's a limit of 24,000 points per transaction, but there's no limit to the number transfers that you can make.
When you click "transfer points now," you'll receive a confirmation page. Wyndham Rewards notes that "you should see the points reflected in your account within 24 hours," but the point transfer went through immediately for me.
Matching Status
If you have elite status in La Quinta Returns or Wyndham Rewards, you'll also want to go ahead and match your status.
To match from Wyndham to La Quinta, head to La Quinta's status match page. Then enter your Wyndham Rewards number and select "match my status." If the match is successful, you'll get a banner at the top of that page saying "Congratulations, you have successfully matched your La Quinta Returns member level with the corresponding Wyndham Rewards member level."
When I went through the process to match my Wyndham Platinum to La Quinta Elite, my new status immediately showed up on my La Quinta account page.
If you've got La Quinta elite status and want to match to Wyndham, start by logging in here. Enter your La Quinta Returns account number and then click "match your status" to complete the process. I only have La Quinta Returns Elite status from matching from Wyndham, so it's unclear how long this status match will take.
Bottom Line
With the March 31 deadline looming, you'll want to transfer your La Quinta points to Wyndham as soon as possible so that you can get a 1:1 transfer ratio if you're currently a La Quinta Silver member. And then you'll want to use those Wyndham points for awesome redemptions before the program changes on April 3. However, existing Gold or Elite members of the La Quinta Returns program will have existing point balances automatically transferred at a 1:1 rate.
If you have La Quinta elite status, you might as well complete the status match to ensure that your elite status matches over to Wyndham at the right level — although this should be automatically done during the program merger.
