Wyndham Rewards Earner Premier Card Review | 120K Bonus, 25% Award Discount, $400 Credits & $395 Fee
Justin Vacula of the Hurdy Gurdy Travel Podcast is joined by James from the Churn and Burn Podcast to discuss the newly released Wyndham Rewards Earner Premier Card.
This new premium Wyndham credit card has a $395 annual fee and offers up to a 120,000-point welcome bonus, with 90,000 Wyndham Rewards points after $6,000 in spend and another 30,000 points after $750 in Wyndham purchases. Justin and James explain how the bonus works, who may be eligible, and whether the card makes sense for travelers who like Wyndham Rewards, casino status matches, and high-value hotel redemptions.
They also discuss the card’s biggest ongoing benefits, including a 25% discount or rebate on Wyndham award bookings, 30,000 anniversary points, a possible 30,000-point free night certificate after five Wyndham nights, and the potential for Wyndham points to avoid expiration while holding the card. The episode also covers the card’s earning rates, including 8X points at Wyndham, 4X on grocery stores, 4X on dining, and 4X on travel, with special attention to the uncapped grocery category.
Justin and James evaluate the card’s benefits, including a $100 Wyndham hotel credit, up to $120 in monthly meal delivery credits including Grubhub, a $100 streaming credit including Netflix, a $65 wholesale club membership credit, and a Global Entry or TSA PreCheck credit.
They also discuss Wyndham redemption opportunities in places like Las Vegas, Aruba, and Wyndham Grand Rio Mar in Puerto Rico, plus approval considerations with Barclays, pairing the card with the Wyndham Rewards Earner Business Card, and whether the card is a keeper, a one-year play, or a pass.
Timestamps
00:00 Podcast Intro Theme
00:32 Wyndham Premier Card Overview
01:26 First Impressions And Barclays
02:54 Welcome Bonus Breakdown
04:32 Core Perks And Rebates
06:51 Earning Rates And Value
07:54 Statement Credits Deep Dive
13:07 Apply Or Pass Decision
16:46 Sponsor Break And Links
19:09 Best Wyndham Redemptions
23:08 Comparisons And Who It Fits
25:43 Listener Question And Business Card
27:27 Status And Caesars Angle
30:03 Wrap Up And Guest Plugs
34:40 Outro And Support The Show
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Rough Transcript:
Travel at low cost with points and miles. Credit card rewards bring the smiles. Many adventures, tales to be told. Make and save money, the world will unfold
Fight the war on happiness, pick up the gold. Hurdy Gurdy Travel Podcast breaks the mold
You’re listening to the Hurdy Gurdy Travel Podcast. I’m your host, Justin Vacula, here to help you make money, save money, and travel the world at low cost with credit card points, miles, benefits, and loyalty programs. Today’s episode focuses on the newly released Wyndham Rewards Earner Premier Card, a premium personal credit card offering up to 120,000 point welcome bonus, a 25% rebate or discount on Wyndham bookings, [00:01:00] 4X grocery earnings uncapped, and many useful statement credits or benefits.
Will I be applying for this card in July of 2026? Will this card be a good fit for your wallet? James from the Churn and Burn podcast joins me for today’s episode, recording June 18th, 2026. Welcome back to the show, James, and thanks for coming on in short notice. Yeah, appreciate it, Justin. The Wyndham Rewards Earner Premier Card. Quite a mouthful and an unexpected release. I did not anticipate a new credit card with Wyndham.
This is a premium card, a $395 annual fee, but lots of good things, as I mentioned in the intro. On first impressions, I’m really liking it. We’ll go into the details a little bit later. I’m liking this especially for the first year, as is usually the case with these higher annual fee credit cards. Barclays has been improving.
I give them lots of credit. Had an episode [00:02:00] about the new or the newly refreshed JetBlue premium card, and this one is looking good. It might even be a keeper card with these many benefits we’ll get into. So let’s have an America loves math moment together and figure it out. I’ve never had a Wyndham credit card, and even though I’ve applied for the business card a couple of times I was denied. The official reason was they pulled my credit and saw that it was a hot mess. Or you didn’t fax enough documents and hang up, call again enough with Barclays?
Yeah, it’s weird ’cause I’ve had Barclay approvals in the past, and they will just never give me that Wyndham business card which may actually come up here as an adjacent topic, but we’ll leave that for the discussion. We don’t want this to be three hours. We’ll aim for about 45 minutes with a focus on this card, but we can bring that up a little bit.
Let’s talk about the highlights. The welcome bonus is up to 120,000 bonus [00:03:00] points. This might be worth $1,200 if you would value the cents at one cent per point, which I think is reasonable, and the points are a little bit more valuable if you’re getting a 25% rebate on your points bookings. This welcome bonus is a different one.
You get 90,000 points, or maybe about $900 in value, for spending $6,000 another 30,000 for spending 750 or more on Wyndham Hotels in the first 180 days with the card. I imagine most listeners would skip the second part. They wouldn’t spend $750 with Wyndham.
But even if you do the 90k points for the first part, I think that’s a big win in year one and on the sign-up bonus. Maybe some listeners will have some work-reimbursed travel, and they could do that with Wyndham, or they’d be willing to just pay the cash, the 750 in cash, to get the bonus 30k. Maybe that’s somewhere around a 35% discount.
But even if we just do [00:04:00] the 90,000 points for spending 6,000 in 120 days, I think that’s a pretty good welcome bonus. Yeah, it’s a great bonus. I think a lot of the success of this card is gonna be in the actual benefits we’ll get to the earn rates in a second. It gets a little dicey. It’s a coupon book card, right?
Or is that what we’re gonna call it? Oh, statement credits, benefits. Yeah. But the couponification is indeed real, but this one, I think these benefits are actually useful, and we will get into that indeed. We have the 25% off Wyndham bookings benefit. They say earn free night faster when you use points.
I think this is really good for Wyndham loyalists, better than a 10% rebate, for example, that you might have seen on other cards, 25% off. If you’re staying maybe seven to 10 nights per year, I think that can be a dramatic number, but if you were only to stay with Wyndham a handful of times per year or one or two times a year, then [00:05:00] not as much of a big deal.
We have another benefit, book one free night every year. Enjoy a free night worth up to 30,000 Wyndham Rewards points after you stay five or more nights in a calendar year. Not bad, but you do have to make those five stays, but I would assume if you were going to sign up for this card, you would be staying with Wyndham anyway.
This is clearly Wyndham taking a shot at the Hilton Aspire card from Amex and the Bonvoy Brilliant card. This is their version of the premium high annual fee loyalty card, and they’re coming out swinging.
We have an anniversary bonus. Receive 30,000 bonus points each anniversary year after payment of your annual fee. We have the 25% off, the welcome bonus in year one, of course, 30,000 Wyndham points for making five stays or more in a year, and another 30,000 points. So we’re talking 60,000 points now, and the 25% off for year two for that 395 annual [00:06:00] fee.
I think pretty good. Anniversary bonus common on hotel credit cards. And we have a hidden benefit. Frequent Miler posted about this, saying that if you hold this card, is my understanding on the interpretation of the fine print that they posted and they talked about, your Wyndham points don’t expire, otherwise there would be an expiration.
I wonder, though, about points earned prior to holding the new card, because I have a lot of Wyndham points right now. If I get this card, will it delete the expiration on the existing points? I don’t know that, but going forward, that’s a cool benefit of points never expiring. Yeah, Wyndham taking the Apple company philosophy of giving you a problem and then selling you a solution to it.
What, you mean you don’t like having three different cords what? Yeah. We can solve that for you. We have 8X on Wyndham spending. Not amazing, but it’s there. 4X travel, that’s okay. [00:07:00] 4X dining and 4X grocery, excluding Target and Walmart.
I think this sounds pretty good for those spending creatively at grocery stores a 4X uncapped card. And even the travel is okay at 4X, but no to cruises. War on happiness. Yeah I struggled a lot here, and I have a lot of thoughts later on this card at a macro level, but I actually think it’s the earn rates where maybe this card suffers because 4X sounds really good until you compare it to something like a Citi Strata 3X grocery dining, and then it’s a little less lucrative.
Even if you didn’t use the card for everyday spending or common spending, whatever you might wanna call it, the benefits, I think, are good even if you have it as a sock drawer card, so maybe this can be an added benefit. They claim, here it is, everyone, we’ve been waiting, $400 in [00:08:00] annual benefits.
More couponification, perhaps, as others have called it, but these aren’t bad. A $100 statement credit after making eligible hotel purchases. You are eligible to receive a single statement credit of $100 back after spending $100 or more in the aggregate, that’s an interesting one, cumulative, at Wyndham Hotels, Wyndham Grand Hotels, Dolce Hotels and Resorts by Wyndham, Trademark Collection by Wyndham, and Registry Collection Hotels each calendar year.
You might be able to find hotels around $100 a night or even maybe 150, and you’re getting a deep discount. Not bad. They put a lot of thought into this, and they’re trying to make a big splash and say, “Hey, all you guys who are Hilton loyal or Marriott loyal, look at us.”
We have up to $120, a statement credit after making what they call eligible meal delivery purchases. I was thinking they were talking about meal kits, but that [00:09:00] doesn’t appear to be the case or it’s not exclusively the case.
Earn up to $10 in statement credits every month, everyone’s favorite, up to $120 each calendar year after making qualifying what they call meal delivery purchases with your card. And Grubhub is on the list. Another $10 a month Grubhub credit. I’ve gotten good value from these. I’ve found food around 10 to $15.
I’d use this during travel. I’m usually traveling every month. It might get a little bit hectic with lots of different Grubhub credits, but I’m sure I can make it work. And even if I don’t every month, I still think there’s good value from this card. Yeah the credit thing, it’s kinda funny. There’s two types of people who get this card.
There’s the casual person who probably only has one of these premium cards in their wallet, and then there’s people like you and me. We’re going to spreadsheet all these credits. We’re gonna suck ’em up like a vacuum over every month.
It doesn’t have to be a Resy location. It doesn’t have to be on the Bilt [00:10:00] dining list. Grubhub, I think, is a wider footprint compared to those. How about this one? I think this one will be good. $100 statement credit after eligible streaming service purchases.
Keep your favorite shows streaming and enjoy up to $100 in statement credits back each calendar year, note, not month, after making qualifying streaming service purchases with your card. This seems to be good for Netflix. Many other cards don’t cover Netflix. We have Paramount Plus, I believe, with Walmart.
We have Hulu with the Amex personal Platinum. But Netflix, I think this can be a winner. $100 off Netflix every year. Yeah, it’s nice to see one of these cards that’s not playing this game where… Look, let’s say the quiet part out loud, Justin. The game they play with these credits is they get you to hook into Apple TV or Paramount or whatever, Peacock, and then they pay for it for a year or two, and then suddenly it really just quietly falls off their [00:11:00] benefits list, right?
But you’re still subscribed, and they’re hoping that you’re just gonna forget to cancel it after their benefit stops paying for it.
100 a year, so I think you can count that- Yeah … as very close to cash. And even on Netflix, I don’t see many discounts on Netflix gift cards.
We have a $65 statement credit after making eligible wholesale membership club purchases.
It’s my understanding that this is a membership and not a purchase at a membership club. You can see the text is ambiguous on that. My grammar teacher would not approve the wording of this, but it’s my understanding that it would be a membership, so you could put your Costco membership or one of your Costco memberships on this card and you’re just getting the $65.
I think that’s another winner, too. If you’re already a Costco member, 65. If you’re already a Netflix member, $165 there from the streaming service and the wholesale. And we count the GrubHub maybe at [00:12:00] $10 in value a month, the other $100. I think pretty good. And then we have the TSA PreCheck Global Entry that everybody listening probably has 10 of, that they can’t even give them away at this point.
Complimentary Wyndham Insider membership. I was not very enthusiastic upon hearing about this when it launched months or a year ago, but it’s just an extra perk. I wouldn’t call it a $95 value personally. They’re really tooting their own horn on that one. But I think the other benefits are pretty good overall.
I think this is a pretty good launch. It’s definitely reminding me of the Hilton Aspire launch. For people who don’t remember, that card came out swinging pretty heavy. I wouldn’t say it’s a shell of its former self, Justin, but I think you would agree that card has really stretched its benefits in terms of how generous they were at launch, and I suspect that Wyndham probably has a similar five to 10-year plan for this card, but no, I [00:13:00] agree.
It’s very impressive, specifically the statement credits and then the 25% discount on the award redemptions. It seems like you’re a fan, right? Yes, I’m strongly considering applying for this card. I was strongly considering applying for the JetBlue card that they released.
Now I think I have a tough decision because I probably won’t get approved for two Barclays cards in the same day or the same short period. I have a decision as I’m planning on applying for cards at the end of June, early July. I’m usually waiting between opened accounts because I get declined if I go too fast, and I’ll have to think about this one.
So this is a brainstorming session for me and many of the listeners. I don’t really see somebody getting involved with this card unless they’re already into the Wyndham ecosystem or they’re really interested in getting into it.
Like the elite benefit, the 25% discount on award, they’ve almost made a situation here, [00:14:00] Justin, where if you don’t have this card, you’re basically kneecapping yourself in the program. And that’s really genius. I think it’s interesting, and I promised I would only barely mention the business card Famously, the business card used to get 8X on gas.
Is that correct? I think it still does unless you’re forcefully changed into the new model. Yeah. And I am really skeptical about how long that’s gonna last because- That’s a lot, 8X … yeah, now you’re giving the 25% on redemption. It’s kinda cheating at this point if you combo pack these, Combo pack, listeners. Combo pack … yeah. I don’t imagine they’re gonna be able to retain that for more than a few months. It’s just not sustainable. Don’t tell them that, but they’re gonna-
They’re gonna see their quarterly and have a panic attack. Yeah you guys put out those terms. You guys made the credit card right here. Yeah, this reeks of Citi 6X [00:15:00] night, like Citi nights, right? Yes, the 666 Citi, They, yeah, 6X is right. They made a deal with the devil with that.
Dave Ramsey loves that. It’s a portal to hell, right? Yeah, it was a portal to their quarterly earnings going to hell, and I feel like the same is gonna be true for Barclays if they see this 8X gas with the 25% redemption. But yeah, like by all means that is an insane deal. Hit it hard while it’s good, guys.
I- ’cause it’s- That’s a good point. That’s a good combo pack, as you said, yeah. It’s probably not gonna last, so let’s talk about the card, m- maybe not as it is- … but as it’s going to be. Obviously this card’s gonna be great for a few years. They’ll probably nerf it, but that’s no reason not to get it, right?
Come on, Barclays. First you guys get rid of my AA card, you wanna talk about the war on happiness, Justin.
Yeah. Yeah. Barclays has declared a war on my happiness. Aw. But yeah, [00:16:00] it’s a very compelling card. I think they’re actually targeting casual consumers who are captured by Hilton and Marriott, and they’re just offering a better product which I think they have to, and it really makes me curious about the rumored Hyatt premium card and how they’re gonna try to top this. They beat Hyatt to the punch, right?
Now everybody wants these premium cards. Everybody’s putting out these products. It’s an interesting competition. Good for us. Yeah, if you have Wyndham points or you have already a business card, this is a major apply right now. Like, why are you listening to me? Go apply right now.
Oh, no. Listen to the show first. Sorry. Sorry. Then apply. Then apply. Come on. Yes. Yes. And more about this, we’ll definitely get into some Wyndham properties and using these points, getting away from the theoretical and the benefits after the short break.
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Simply cancel existing flights and rebook when Autopilot emails you about lower fares. Find my link in the show notes. We’re back to today’s show talking about the newly released Wyndham Rewards Earner Premier card. Up to 120,000-point welcome bonus, 25% rebate on Wyndham bookings, 4X grocery, useful statement credits.
I think there’s a lot to offer, but what about Wyndham properties? You have not been in the Wyndham program, and most people hear about a reputation for lower, perhaps budget hotels like Days Inn, La Quinta, and more. But there are some nicer properties, some more boutiquey hotels. I’ve stayed at the Abercorn Inn before a cruise.
That was out of the Vancouver area, and I found good value in Las Vegas. I’ve stayed at both Desert Rose and Desert Blue in Las Vegas. I think [00:20:00] these are, like, extended stays. They don’t charge resort fees. There’s good value on weekends, and both have large living spaces, the kitchen area, the fridge, and more.
Friends recently stayed at TRYP by Wyndham in Aruba. An adults-only boutique hotel right on the beach and close to the airport. This goes for about 30k points, cash rates ranging from $300 to $400 a night with a 25% rebate or discount or however they process it. Maybe Aruba’s in the future, maybe Las Vegas on the weekends, avoiding those resort fees.
I think there’s potential with this Wyndham program, even a one-night quick stay before a cruise, as I’m frequent to do. What do you think about Wyndham? You kinda beat me to the punch, Justin. I was gonna ask you, as a Wyndham skeptic talk me into the program because, like you said, I’ve always heard that the portfolio is [00:21:00] kinda like a IHG but worse where you have a few luxury properties and then just a smattering of Candlewood Suites.
I was talking to somebody about this earlier today. They mentioned properties like the Rio Mar really beautiful. I look at photos of it, and I can’t believe that it’s a Wyndham
Where is that exactly? It’s in Puerto Rico I think it’s one of the most underrated destinations, and it’s also a challenging destination because as awesome as Puerto Rico is and as big as it is relative to some other island destinations in the Caribbean, there’s not there’s really one Hyatt.
There’s a St. Regis Resort, but outside of that, there’s not a lot of really great luxury options outside of the sorta cheaper stuff with some other brands that aren’t even on the beach. And this Rio Mar is on the beach. One of the nicer properties in Puerto Rico.
So yeah, clearly there’s some good stuff to be had, and I’m just being a little [00:22:00] bit of a hater. We wanna have some objections against it, not just be rah-rah, everything is great. And one objection is that you’re probably not going to get the nicest of rooms. When I have stayed that one night in La Quinta, the room was pretty old.
The AC unit wasn’t so great, but it wasn’t bad. I’ve never been in a Wyndham where I said, “Oh, this is terrible, and I have to leave, and this room is infested,” or it’s really broken down. It’s certainly not a fancy location in most cases. If you were to choose a Wyndham Hotel, I’m not expecting all-inclusive, I’m not expecting some luxury hotel, and I’m also more of a solo traveler, so I don’t need a huge room.
If I’m just staying at a place for one night, I’m probably arriving later in the night, I’m leaving in the morning, and I’m done. I’m just going onto the cruise ship. I’m going onto my next destination. I’m going onto the airport. If I can get good value, then I’m happy to stay for that one night. If I were to stay longer, maybe I would choose [00:23:00] some nicer Hiltons, nicer Hyatts.
But for this, I think it can be good to fill in those gaps of that short stay before another destination. And, I’m th- I’m looking at this and I’m thinking about the Hilton card. 6x at restaurants and gas and supermarkets. It’s the Surpass, right? The Surpass, yes. That’s the mid-annual fee one. I wouldn’t say that’s better than this Wyndham card at 4x, because once you figure in the 25% discount they’re probably pretty equal.
It’s hard to argue against the portfolio with Hilton, but then of course you’ve gotta pair it with their elite card so you can get the diamond status and I don’t know. This is apples to oranges, right? I don’t think there’s a clear winner here ’cause a lot of people who are looking at this card are familiar with the Hilton portfolio, right?
That’s just reality Obviously, you could just have both. Yep, all the above. That’s usually the good thing. And e- again, even if you don’t use this at [00:24:00] grocery stores or gas stations for the 4X, you’re paying the 395 annual fee. In year one, I think it’s a clear winner with the big sign-up bonus. Oh, yeah.
You’re getting that 25% off or back or rebate. You’re getting the free night every year up to 30k points if you stay for five nights. You’re getting the 30k bonus points, and then you’re getting these statement credits. They say $400 in value, but if we were to take out the Global Entry, TSA Pre, and the Wyndham Insider,
I think even as a sock drawer card, it’s pretty good even if you don’t actively use it. Yeah, as long as you’re staying at a couple of Wyndhams a year I really don’t have a problem with keeping it. This isn’t like a Platinum card where you’re kinda struggling to string together that annual fee every year to an extent, and it becomes a downgrade victim.
I’m just scrolling through some of the properties here. Internationally, it’s really nice. There’s a nice resort in Orlando, though, if you wanna [00:25:00] do domestic. There’s a really nice Wyndham in Colorado but the international stuff’s even better, right?
Hotel Arcadio in Switzerland. In Turkey, Istanbul, you got the Wyndham Grand. I’m sure that’s super nice. Super grand. Yes. Imperial Deluxe Resort in Greece. I could be talked into this, and I’m already against this card by default, so that should tell you how good it is.
Maybe you haven’t had too many open accounts recently or too many inquiries that they might lament. And usually the business approval is stricter than the personal approval.
And since it’s a new card, maybe they’ll be more generous with approvals. They want people to get their new card, right? We’ll move on to a listener question.
This was a last-minute episode today, but thank you Pablo for getting back with me. If you subscribe to my subscribestar.com page, you’ll have your questions answered in podcast episodes, also enjoy many other benefits. Pablo asks, [00:26:00] “I’ve had a Wyndham Business card before. Can I get a Wyndham or a Wyndham Business card again?”
I don’t think there’s any lifetime rules. We don’t have the complicated matrix of Marriott- Yeah … or the Bonvoy program. I think that you will be eligible to get this card because it’s a new card. And as far as the Wyndham Business, I don’t think there’s any rules where you have to wait years before or after getting the Wyndham Business card again.
But I could see having both the Wyndham Business and this as a good combo, as you mentioned, getting that 8X on gas. But they did recently refresh that business card, as James said, and I don’t think that 8X is coming again. Maybe this would be even stronger. The big appeal of the Wyndham Business when it launched was being able to match Wyndham status that came from the business card over to Caesars Rewards to get the Caesars Rewards diamond status and then match that to other statuses.
The Wyndham Business value has gone down over time, and now I think there’s really good value with this [00:27:00] card. Yeah. Go get it, folks. Get … Time to apply. Do it now after the show. Very good. You went from being skeptical or against this to probably maybe like a six or a seven out of 10 that you would apply for this card. It’s very dependent on the person. There’s absolutely a target individual for this card, and if you’re even remotely into the Wyndham ecosystem, it’s like a must-get. Oh, nice. And I believe there’s also something where if you stay a certain amount of nights with Wyndham that you can actually get that Caesars Diamond status, but it’s a high requirement.
Justin: I think something like 40 nights a year.
But this would be an interesting way to get that 25% points rebate and get your way back to Caesars Diamond status without gambling, unless you’re gambling on Wyndham properties, of course.
Plus, with some of the cheaper places that Wyndham has there’s probably some pretty cheap nights you could mattress run in the program, so it’s a good point.
And you also do get Wyndham [00:28:00] Diamond status with this, but this doesn’t automatically get you that Caesars status. You have to stay a certain amount of nights to be able to get that Caesars status is my understanding, unless they changed that again.
Another benefit of the card, I don’t think the status does much though, but it might get you a later checkout, maybe you get a welcome amenity. Maybe there’s something extra for breakfast, but most Wyndham locations I’ve been at didn’t have restaurants. It’s not like you go into Hyatt as a Globalist and here’s your $60 breakfast, or here’s your dining credit and order from a restaurant in the hotel.
Any other thoughts on this card or Wyndham? It’s a great card launch, and it shows me that Barclays is paying attention to all the issuers in the industry, and it really makes me wonder how the Chase Hyatt premium card’s gonna look, and I think actually that card and the benefits are gonna tell us a lot about how Chase sees themselves as an [00:29:00] issuer compared to Barclays, who is trying to make a big splash.
I think this can be pretty good for someone that doesn’t care too much about those luxury hotels. You’re looking for value. You’re looking for these budget hotels, although we’re using points.
Your Wyndham points will go pretty far, especially with the high welcome bonus, and maybe you choose to do some 4X earning for even more Wyndham stays. Probably if you’re new to the space, you’re probably not going to go for this. You’re probably going to prioritize Chase, Capital One Venture, some harder-to-get cards.
But for someone later in the game, maybe you’ve been in the hobby for two, three years or more, I think this can be a post-Chase card. You’ve already gotten the bigger cards out there. You maybe already have that Citi Strata Premier as well, as you mentioned earlier. I think this can fit in for those later in the game or for people new to the space and they’re a super Wyndham loyalist.
I don’t think that’s gonna be a common thing, but maybe there’s a [00:30:00] market for that. Yeah. I guess we’ll see. Some questions for you at the end. Any upcoming travels? It’s been a while since you were last on the show. It’s true. I’ll be in New York next week, so you know may try to attend a meetup or two if it fits into my schedule.
I will be in Canada, in Quebec next month Quebec City specifically. I am planning a pretty big trip to Paris in the fall. Have a British Airways business class booked, an Air France business class as well, and I got my suite upgrade award applied at the Park Hyatt Paris in before the deval, Justin.
All right, very good. And how can listeners find you, your podcast? For those of you who love to churn them and burn them My points podcast, of course, is called Churn and Burn. You can find me on Instagram, Churn and Burn Podcast. It’s me and [00:31:00] a collection of guests. Sometimes we do trip reports, sometimes we just talk shop. Just like Justin’s pod, it’s a little more kind of the inside baseball sort of stuff.
I’ve been on a few times. Yes. And many different guests. I appreciate hearing different perspectives. You had Riley on. Can you talk a little bit about that? Yeah. If anybody reads a lot of blogs, I actually would highly recommend his blog. It’s called Chasing Cetaceans. Like cetaceans as in whales, wink, wink, right?
Very clever name. He came on my pod about a month ago really to just talk about the state of points and miles. It’s been a crazy year or two, Justin. I sometimes will frequent the Facebook groups that have more of the people who maybe haven’t been doing this as long, and I saw a post yesterday of somebody who…
The, basically the spirit of the post was, [00:32:00] “Is this dead now? I thought that was kinda funny. To someone who was here, maybe they started two years ago, and now they got here, this would probably look like the heat death of the entire hobby, right?
Yeah, we couldn’t get that $10 gift card from Paze anymore- … so therefore points and miles is dead, right? It’s all terrible. I can’t believe they came for Paze. I have been getting Dunkin’ Donuts in person, so we’ve been reduced to avocado toast and English muffin sandwiches with eggs, an extra egg, by the way, to get it over that $10.
Don’t be like past podcast guest Beth, whose order came- … slightly below $10 and didn’t qualify, so she got Pazeed. While others might get Bonvoyed, she got Pazeed. I know somebody who was using a card, this was a while ago, and it had a $10 Starbucks credit.
They had the exact same situation where they had to get to [00:33:00] $10 so they could, burn the whole credit. Caramel Frappuccino. Okay. And, so it comes out to 7.35 or whatever it is, and they need to get to 10. So they can’t find anything that they wanna add in to the drink, so they just are like, “Oh, I can get some egg bites for five bucks.”
So they just do a egg bite add-on. I guess the way that they loaded it into the app, the person who made the drink they thought that they wanted the egg bites blended into the Frappuccino. What? No. Yeah, man. So they got a Frappuccino with egg bi- An egg Frappuccino. Inside the- Wow, that’s a-
Frappuccino. That’s a war on happiness there. That might even be worse than losing the credits. It’s a war on, oh, diabetics- War on health there … everywhere, right? It’s just anyone with a heart condition. And this Dunkin’ thing is interesting because the prices vary from location to location. I placed the [00:34:00] first order, it was slightly over 10, and then another order brought it over 11, so I made sure to modify and take off the extra piece of cheese.
Oh, that’s good. But you get to see all the decisions in the app before you place the order, so that’s a nice thing. In person it can get more complicated, for sure. But that’s enough of Paze for today. Thanks again for coming on- Yeah … the show. Yeah. Thanks for having me, Justin. I hope I wasn’t too hateful of Wyndham, but I, it’s a- Oh, no.
No … it’s a winner. And again, it’s The Churn and Burn podcast, Spotify- Yeah … and other major streaming services. Yeah, appreciate it. Appreciate the call-out, Justin. Thanks for having me again. Thanks everyone for listening and stay tuned for future episodes. For more content between shows, follow Hurdy Gurdy Travel Podcast on Facebook and X.
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