To the point
Best Western Rewards has quietly added several rate tiers to its awards to get a free night: this is a devaluation.
New rates in effect
Without notifying its members, the Best Western Rewards program has made significant changes to its rate structure for earning free nights with points.
Previously, there were 8 rate levels, ranging from 8,000 to 36,000 points per night. This rate varied according to the season: a hotel could cost 8,000 or 20,000 points.
Now, it seems that to these 8 tariff levels, 3 new tariffs have been added in the upper bracket:
- 40,000 points
- 56,000 points
- 70,000 points
We have seen rates as high as 70,000 points per night!
If you have an existing reservation with points, it should not have moved. Please feel free to contact Best Western Rewards to ensure that the hotel will honor the reserved rate.
Best Western Rewards credit card
Fortunately, the Best Western Rewards® Mastercard credit card has no annual fee and offers a welcome bonus of 20,000 points after the first purchase.
Now it would be hard for us to say what these points are really worth! They can get you a free night if it’s worth less than 20,000 points: but how many hotels are still available at that rate?
It will be on a case-by-case basis: we recommend that you do some research on the Best Western Rewards website before signing up for the card.
Bottom Line
The life of loyalty programs is full of changes, including devaluations. However, loyalty programs typically give their members several weeks or months’ notice. This was the case, for example, with Marriott Bonvoy during the successive announcements relating to its price list.
Here, Best Western Rewards acted in total silence, letting its members discover, for themselves, these new rates. Doing so certainly does not encourage current – or prospective – members to be loyal to this loyalty program.
This devaluation comes at an even worse time as Best Western Rewards has just launched its winter promotion (for which we are struggling to find rates starting at 5,000 or 10,000 points!)
If you’re interested in moving to another loyalty program, we invite you to check out our travel hacking guide on Marriott Bonvoy.
Come to discuss that topic in our Facebook Group!
