How To Use the Wells Fargo Travel Portal to Book a Trip on Points

If you have Wells Fargo’s Autograph or Autograph Journey credit cards, you can redeem your rewards for flights, hotels, and other travel experiences within the Wells Fargo travel portal. 

But the portal is missing some popular travel providers, and you can get equal or better value for your points by redeeming them for a statement credit or transferring them to a partner loyalty program.

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How Does the Wells Fargo Travel Portal Work?

For Autograph cardholders, the Wells Fargo travel portal can be accessed after logging into your account from Wells Fargo’s website or mobile app. 

After logging in, click the link to the site’s Rewards section, which should be below the link to your credit card in your Account Summary.

Then hover over “Use Rewards” in the top right corner of your screen and select “Travel” from the dropdown menu.

Flights, hotels, rental cars, and tourist activities can be booked within the portal. 

Cruises can be booked by calling the Wells Fargo Rewards Service Center at 1-877-517-1358. 

You can also call that number to get vacation-planning assistance from a Wells Fargo Rewards representative. 

Using the portal is intuitive if you’ve used other travel aggregator sites like Expedia or Kayak.

After you input your travel dates, destinations, and number of travelers, the portal provides options that match.

Wells Fargo Rewards value 

All Wells Fargo travel portal redemptions get a value of one cent per point. 

But portal pricing may not match what you would pay when booking directly with the travel provider. 

The cash price listing for this United Airlines flight to Rome, for instance, is the same in the Wells Fargo portal (top screenshot) as it is on United’s site (bottom screenshot): 

But nights at this Shanghai Holiday Inn Express are pricier when booked in the Wells Fargo portal (top screenshot) than when booked directly from Holiday Inn’s parent company, IHG (bottom screenshot):

It’s also worth noting that some credit card travel sites, like Chase Travel℠, give you extra value for your points if you have annual-fee credit cards like the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card or the Chase Sapphire Reserve®. 

But Wells Fargo points have the same value in Wells Fargo’s travel portal regardless of which card they were earned with.

READ MORE: Your Complete Guide to Wells Fargo Rewards

Booking Flights Through Wells Fargo

Wells Fargo’s portal allows you to book flights with over 100 airlines, including major carriers like Delta and more obscure options, like Air Moldova. 

But it’s missing some popular low-cost airlines, like Southwest and Ryanair, which may prevent you from taking the most affordable and convenient route to your destination.

For example, when searching for a December flight from Barcelona to Budapest, the portal only returns results with layovers, and the cheapest option takes nearly 10,000 points (about a $100 value). 

Ryanair, however, offers a direct flight on its website for that same date at about 1/4 the price of the cheapest flight in the Wells Fargo portal.

Booking Hotels Through Wells Fargo

The portal has a reasonable selection of hotels, which you can filter by ratings and neighborhoods in your destination city.

But other hotel aggregator sites, like HotelsCombined, connect you to more properties and provide additional filters, like pricing and amenities.

Booking Rental Cars Through Wells Fargo

You can search for deals from 10 major car rental companies, including Enterprise, Avis, and Hertz. 

This limited selection can prevent the portal from providing any rental options for semi-complicated road trips like the one below, which has different pickup and return locations. 

Kayak, meanwhile, returns over a thousand rental options for that same trip:

Booking Activities Through Wells Fargo

If you need to plan some fun excursions but you’re short on inspiration, the portal’s “Activities” search can suggest a variety of guided tours, culinary courses, scavenger hunts, and more. 

A trip to Shanghai, for example, may feel incomplete unless you learn how to prepare dim sum in a class like this:

But the key word here is that the portal should serve as “inspiration” only. 

Many of its suggested activities, including this dumpling class, are bookable at cheaper rates on other travel experience marketplaces, like Viator.

Redeeming With Wells Fargo Travel Partners

Instead of redeeming rewards in the Wells Fargo travel portal, you can increase the value you get for your points by transferring them to one of Wells Fargo’s partner airline or hotel loyalty programs. 

These point transfers are the easiest way to travel for free with credit cards. 

Just keep the following in mind before transferring:

• Wells Fargo points won’t expire if you keep at least one Wells Fargo Rewards credit card open. Other loyalty programs’ points may expire due to account inactivity. 
• Not all award redemptions give better value than the $0.01 per point offered in Wells Fargo’s portal. Always calculate the value you’ll get per point for an award redemption before transferring points to another loyalty program.
• Transfers are irreversible, so keep points in your Wells Fargo account until you find a worthy redemption with a transfer partner. We generally advise against redemptions worth less than $0.015 per point.

These are your options if you ultimately decide to transfer points outside the Wells Fargo program:

Wells Fargo airline partners

Wells Fargo points transfer to six airline loyalty programs at a 1:1 ratio:

• Aer Lingus AerClub
• Avianca LifeMiles
• British Airways Executive Club
• Air France and KLM Flying Blue 
• Iberia Plus
• Virgin Atlantic Flying Club

That’s more limited than many competitor rewards programs. But redemption options are broader than they appear, as all three major airline alliances are represented, and some partners’ rewards currencies are used by multiple airlines. 

For instance, if you’re in a Middle East mood, you can convert 35,000 Wells Fargo points into the Avios used by British Airways Executive Club and then redeem those Avios for a Los Angeles-Doha flight with Qatar Airways.

That same flight costs $781 before taxes and fees when paid for with cash, giving you a value of more than two cents per point.

Wells Fargo hotel partners

Wells Fargo’s lone hotel transfer partner — Choice Hotels — isn’t as popular as megabrands like Marriott or Hilton. 

But a special 1:2 conversion rate from Wells Fargo points into Choice points means you can find valuable award nights among Choice’s global network of about 7,500 properties. 

Take the below deal at the Radisson Resort in Miami Beach. For only 17,500 Wells Fargo points (35,000 Choice Privileges points after the transfer), you can stay in an oceanfront king room that normally costs $484 per night. That works out to nearly three cents per point.  

How to transfer Wells Fargo points

The transfer process is pretty easy once you’ve found a good deal.

After logging into Wells Fargo Rewards, hover over “Use Rewards” in the top right corner of your screen and click “Rewards Points Transfer.”

Choose the loyalty program you’re interested in from the dropdown menu. 

Before linking your accounts, ensure your name registered with the partner loyalty program matches your name in your Wells Fargo Rewards account — your accounts can’t be linked if they’re not an exact match. 

Then enter your partner loyalty program account number to link the accounts.

Finally, input the number of points you’d like to transfer from your Wells Fargo account and submit the request. 

Transfers can take up to 72 hours to complete, but they’re often instantaneous.

FAQs

What is Wells Fargo Rewards? 

Wells Fargo Rewards is a credit card loyalty program administered by Wells Fargo. 

Rewards earned from using Wells Fargo Rewards credit cards can be redeemed for cash, exchanged for travel in Wells Fargo’s portal, or transferred to partner loyalty programs, depending on which card you have.

When do Wells Fargo Rewards post?

Wells Fargo Rewards usually post to your account within 2-3 business days of a credit card purchase. But you can’t redeem them until the day after your card’s billing cycle ends. 

TL;DR: Is the Wells Fargo Travel Portal Worthwhile?

No. Booking travel in the Wells Fargo portal usually isn’t a good use of your rewards for a few reasons:

1. The portal doesn’t offer all the deals you can get on the open market.
2. It gives a relatively low value of one cent per point. You can get better value for your points by redeeming them for award travel with a partner loyalty program.

If Wells Fargo’s transfer partners don’t suit you, you can use your Wells Fargo credit card to buy travel directly from an airline or hotel and then redeem points against the purchase afterward. 

That way you’ll get the same value for your points as you would in the travel portal, but you’ll earn rewards for the purchase. 

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Disclosure: Opinions expressed here are the author's alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, hotel, airline, or other entity. This content has not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of the entities included within the post.