Buy United Miles for 1.8 Cents Per Mile or 7,200 Southwest Companion Pass Points for $264

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Wyndham hotels has a 20% bonus for buying or gifting points up to November 30, 2013.

Wyndham Points 20 Bonus
20% More Wyndham Points up to November 30, 2013

20% Bonus When You Buy Or Gift Wyndham Points

Link:  Wyndham 20% Bonus

Usually buying airline miles or hotel points is a waste, unless the price is really low or you’re looking to top off your account to redeem for a flight or hotel.

But the 20% bonus on buying Wyndham hotel points up to November 30, 2013 could be useful to some.

You have to buy a minimum of 1,000 points and in increments of 1,000 Wyndham points.  And you can buy up to 40,000 points.

Wyndham hotels include the Baymont InnDays InnHawthorne SuitesHoward JohnsonKnights InnMicrotelRamadaSuper 8TravelodgeWingateWyndham Hotels & ResortsWyndham Garden, and Wyndham Grand Collection.

Not Usually a Good Deal

Let’s say that you buy 40,000 points and get an extra 8,000 point bonus (20% of 40,000 points = 8,000 points) for a total of 48,000 points.  So you’re paying 0.92 cents per point ($440 ÷ 48,000 Wyndham points).

The cost of buying points is the same (0.92 cents per point) regardless of how many points you buy.

However, because this purchase is through Points.com, it doesn’t count as hotel spending, so you can’t get double points for using, say, the Chase Sapphire Preferred or Ink Plus which gets you 2X points on hotels.

You can transfer Wyndham points to certain airlines such as American Airlines, US Air, etc. (the transfer ratio is different for transfer to Southwest):

  • 8,000 points = 3,200 miles
  • 17,500 points = 7,000 miles
  • 30,000 points = 12,000 miles

So 48,000 Wyndham points (the maximum you can purchase with the bonus) can be transferred to 19,200 airline miles if you redeem for 6 packages of 3,200 airline miles.

So you would be paying ~2.3 cents per airline mile ($440 / 19,200 airline miles).

2.3 cents per mile is expensive and not usually worth it, though it is cheaper than buying directly from American Airlines, US, Air etc.

But…

Southwest Companion Pass Points

You could buy Wyndham points and transfer them to Southwest and earn extra points towards the Southwest Companion Pass.

Wyndham Points 20 Bonus
Travel Free For Up To 2 Years With The Companion Pass!

The Southwest Companion Pass is one of the best ways to save money on airline tickets for travel within the US.

Why?  Because it lets a companion travel with you for free whenever you travel on Southwest.  It doesn’t matter if your flight is booked with points or paid for with cash – your companion flies free (~$10 in taxes and fees)!

You have to earn 110,000 Companion Pass qualifying points within 1 calendar year (January 1 to December 31st) year.

However, the 50,000 point bonus from the Southwest credit cards are currently counting towards the companion pass (though this could change at any time).

And all 4 versions of the Southwest credit cards currently offer 50,000 Southwest points after spending $2,000 within 3 months – up to October 30, 2013.  You can redeem 50,000 Southwest points for ~ $710 to $850 in Southwest flights or for ~$500 in gift cards.

But you’d need ~6,000 more Companion Pass points to get the Southwest Companion Pass once you complete the $2,000 minimum spending on 2 Southwest 50,000 point credit cards.

8,000 Wyndham hotel points convert to 2,400 Southwest points, so you’d need 24,000 Wyndham points to get 7,200 Southwest points, because points transfers can only be made in increments of 8,000 points.

You can buy 8,000 Wyndham points  + 1,600 bonus points (9,600 points total) for $88. 

So you’d spend $264 to buy 3 sets of 8,000 Wyndham points which will get you 28,800 points (24,000 Wyndham Points + 4,800 points bonus).

You can transfer 24,000 Wyndham points to 7,200 Southwest companion pass points.  And you’ll have 4,800 Wyndham points left over.

Note that you can buy 18,000 Choice hotel points which transfer to 5,400 Companion Pass points for $198, in case you don’t need the 7,200 Southwest points which you’d get by transferring Wyndham points.

Buy United Miles at 1.8 Cents Per Mile

Link:  United 25% Transfer Bonus

United has a 25% bonus for transferring hotel and car points into United air miles.

Wyndham Points 20 Bonus
United Is Offering A 25% Bonus On Transferring Points

You get 25% extra miles when you transfer hotel or car rental points to United by November 30, 2013.  So you’d get 1 United mile for 2 Wyndham points (instead of the 2.5 Wyndham points it would otherwise cost).

Remember that you can also buy 48,000 Wyndham points for $440.  And you’d get ~24,000 United miles if you transfer 48,000 Wyndham points to United miles.

This means that it costs ~1.8 cents per mile which is about half the cost (~3.7 cents per mile) if you bought them directly from United!

But this isn’t a great deal just because it is half the price of what United sells the miles for.  I wouldn’t buy miles unless you had a specific use for those miles.

Bottom Line

You get a 20% bonus for buying Wyndham hotel points by November 30, 2013.

Buying points usually isn’t a good idea, but it could be worth it if you combine it with the 25% bonus for transferring hotel points to United or if you transfer them to Southwest to help you get the Southwest Companion Pass.

Editorial Note: We're the Million Mile Secrets team. And we're proud of our content, opinions and analysis, and of our reader's comments. These haven’t been reviewed, approved or endorsed by any of the airlines, hotels, or credit card issuers which we often write about. And that’s just how we like it! :)

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