Yesterday we posted a new credit card offer for 30,000 Amtrak points. I’m not that familiar with the new (really not so new now) Amtrak program so I thought I’d familiarize myself with it. To understand the best uses and value of these points it’s important to look at all of the different redeeming options, let’s start with that and then move to best uses and finally a valuation (or just skip to the relevant sections).
Contents
Redeeming Points
Amtrak Travel
Rules
The most common and likely most popular use of Amtrak points is to use them for Amtrak train travel. Some things to note about redeeming points:
- You can book tickets in other people’s names. Once the tickets have been issued you cannot change the name.
- Children:
- Under 2 ride free as long as additional seat is not required (if it is follow rules for children 2-12)
- Up to two children (aged 2-12) may have tickets booked at half the rail fare of each adult in the reservation. E.g if your ticket costs 10,000 points you could add two children for another 10,000 points.
- Cancellations:
- 10% redeposit fee charged for all cancellations (e.g if ticket is 10,000 points they will redeposit only 9,000 points)
- In addition another 10% ‘close in’ fee is charged if cancelled (Select Executive are excluded):
- Within 24 hours of depature for non sleeping ticket
- Within 14 days of depature for sleeping ticket
- Points cannot be used for Saver fares.Â
- Minimum points required:
- 800 points for non Acela tickets
- 4,000 for Acela tickets
- Blackout dates (50%/100% increase). Amtrak doesn’t have true blackout dates as you can still book, but during some undisclosed peak times they charge an additional 50% or 100% than you’d expect.
- Points expire if you’ve not had any earning or redeeming activity within the past 36 months (holding a co-branded credit card also prevents them from expiring)
- Not possible to pay using a mixture of points & cash. This was slated to be added but never was.
Redemption Options
Amtrak does not have an award chart and that’s because they use a dynamic pricing model. This basically just means that the price you’ll pay in points is tied to the cash price of your Amtrak fare (similar to Southwest & Jetblue). The value you get per point isn’t fixed (e.g points aren’t always worth 2¢ towards fares) but you should find the following to be roughly true:
- Non-Acela tickets points are worth 2.9¢ each
- Acela tickets points are worth 2.56¢ cent
- Monthly passes (2.9¢) must be booked via phone. Others report a rate of 1.7¢.
Amtrak Misc
- Five pack of single visit ClubAcela Passes, expire within 12 months of redemption date: 5,000 points. I believe these normally cost $20 for business class passengers, free for some people with status. If you were paying the cash rate of $20 then you’re getting 2¢ per point in value.
- Four pack of one class upgrades (12 hour): 10,000 points. Cash value for this would vary a lot based on the route your traveling.
Transferring Points To Choice, Hilton, Audience Rewards
You can transfer Amtrak points to Choice at a rate of 1:3, Hilton at a 1:2 rate and . Things to keep in mind:
- Amtrak Guest Rewards Select or Select Plus members can transfer a maximum of 50,000 points to Choice, Hilton, Audience Rewards combined.
- Amtrak Guest Rewards Select Executive Members can transfer an unlimited amount
- Bank of America Amtrak cardholders that spend $20,000 or more per calendar year can transfer 20,000 points.
- Must transfer in increments of 5,000 points.
How valuable this is will really depend on if you have the status required and how much you value the points in the other program. Keep in mind you need Select membership to be able to transfer and that requires 5,000 Tier Qualifying Points (you earn 2x points per $1 spent so it would require $2,500 in spend without any other promotions). Spending $20,000 on the Bank of America card isn’t likely or advisable for most people due to the low earning rates, but that really depends on how much you value Amtrak points. I think Choice can make sense given the 1:3 transfer ratio, Travel is Free has a good but slightly out dated post on the best use of Choice points.
Giftcards
You can redeem points for a small selection of gift cards at the following rates:
- 6,000 points for $50 gift card (0.833¢ per point)
- 10,000 points for $100 gift card (1¢ per point).
They have the following brands:
- 1800-Flowers
- AMC ($50 only)
- Applebee’s ($50 only)
- AutoZone ($100 only)
- Barnes and Noble
- Bath and Body Works ($50 only)
- Bed Bath & Beyond
- Bloomingdale’s ($100 only)
- Brinker ($50 only)
- Budget ($100 only)
- Burlington Coat Factory ($100 only)
- Celebrity Cruises
- CVS ($50 only)
- Disney ($10o only)
- GameStop
- GAP
- iTunes
- Kohl’s ($100 only)
- L.L. Bean
- Lowe’s
- Macy’s ($50 only)
- Nike
- Nordstrom
- Outback Steakhouse
- Panera Bread ($50 only)
- PetSmart
- Pottery Barn
- Regal Entertainment ($50 only)
- REI ($50 only)
- Ruth’s Chris ($50 only)
- Saks Fifth Avenue ($100 only)
- Sears ($100 only)
- Spa & Wellness
- Starbucks
- TJMaxx
- Top Golf
- Williams-Sonoma
- Wine Country Gift Baskets
Best Options
I think there is really only two options that are worth considering when it comes to Amtrak:
- Train travel
- Choice transfers
As I mentioned previous Choice transfers won’t be available to most people because of the status it required, if it didn’t require that status it would be an easy way to get a bulk amount of Choice points and they can be very useful (mostly for international hotel stays). This really only leaves us with train travel as the best option. It’s important to remember that train travel is really more about the journey than the destination. If you’re the type of person that just wants to get from A to B then a lot of these routes aren’t for you (although sometimes the Acela trains can still make sense).
Best Train Routes
- California Zephyr. Supposed to be one of the best train journeys in the world, section through the Rockies looks amazing.
- Coast Starlight.
- Seat61 is a very useful site for learning about routes.
- Reader Peter points out that it might be best used for medium/short trips as sleeper cabins are so expensive now.
- Trip reports:
- California Zephyr Amtrak Trip Summary & Thoughts on Amtrak Guest Rewards Devaluation (AGR 2.0) (Travel With Grant)
- Amtrak Pacific Surfliner Day Trip and my Confusion with Orange County Metrolink and San Diego Coaster (Travel With Grant)
- Amtrak Coast Starlight Trip Summary and my Train Traveling Thoughts (Travel With Grant)
- Let me know what routes you’ve taken in the comments, also feel free to link to other sites trip reports and I’ll add them here.
How Much Are Points Worth?
At worst case scenario you can redeem points for gift cards, I never value gift cards at face value but I think 90% of face value is a fair valuation. That means if you have 10,000 points they would be worth 0.9¢ and if you had 6,000 points they would be worth 0.75¢ each. I think that gives us a base level of points being worth at a minimum 0.75¢ (obviously you still have issues with orphan points if you can’t hit those thresholds). On the other end of the scale the points are worth 2.56-2.9¢ towards train travel. Given that status is required for the Choice transfers I don’t really consider them an option when it comes to valuation, but for your our purposes just multiply how much you value Choice points by 3 to get an Amtrak valuation.
Realistically if you’re stockpiling Amtrak points or signing up for an Amtrak credit card then you’re going to be using the points for train travel. That means realistically these points are worth 2.56-2.9¢ each (assuming you’d pay the normal cash prices anyway). As always remember to work out your own valuations and be honest with yourselves!
Final Thoughts
I’m trying to improve my knowledge when it comes to redeeming points & miles as I think it’s something that’s really lacking from this site and in the travel hacking community in general. I am absolutely positive that this post has a lot of mistakes in it, I fully admit that I am not very good at this sort of thing but it’s something I want to improve on. That means I’m relying on readers feedback to point out errors I’ve made and any sweet spots I might have missed. As always try to keep your feedback constructive (e.g Will, you are dumb isn’t very useful. But Will, you missed out on the best redemption blah blah blah is very useful).
I’d also love to hear readers feedback on what they’ve used Amtrak points on and how they value them. Everybody will have their own valuation and these points might be an amazing deal for some people and a terrible deal for others.
There’s a few changes that should be updated in the post:
1. Expiration of points is 24 months from last activity, not 36 months. Holding the credit card waives this requirement.
2. Choice and other transfer partners (except for Audience Rewards) are no longer available, even with status.
3. It appears as though, at least on long-distance trains, that points are now worth approximately 2.817 cents per point compared to the undiscounted value coach or sleeper fare, a devaluation from the old 2.89 cents per point.
How long does it typically take for the 20,000 points to post to your account? I know their web site says “8-12 weeks from qualifying for the bonus points,” but what does this really mean in real world?
I do think that with the new program, the best use is on corridor trains for single riders. In California at least, most corridor trains have regular promos with friends ride half off, four ride for two, etc. because they’ve found that travel costs for families are high and they want them to ride the train. Of course, those cannot be stacked with AGR points. Also, most corridor trains don’t go on sale like the long distance trains do. They generally have the same fares year round. I believe this is true in other states as well, where corridor trains are not just the Northeast Corridor but the Cascades, Wolverine, Carolinian, Surfliner, San Joaquin, Capitol Corridor, Illini/Saluki, River Runner, etc.
FWIW, I love Amtrak and travel it whenever I can (including for business), but there are things to understand to get the most out of it. And the most important thing to understand is that it isn’t built for speed or convenience (whether or not it should be), even when you pay a premium for sleeping accommodations.
Amtrak runs mostly on rails owned by freight companies and is somewhat at their mercy regarding right-of-way: freights are likely to have priority.
In addition, because we have a congress that is quite content for the U.S. to be the only developed nation in the world without a fully functioning passenger rail system, Amtrak is forever playing catch-up on car and track updates, services, etc.
All that said, if you can be flexible and if you can afford the time, Amtrak is a delight. The scenery is interesting, the food ranges from just okay (generally, the cafe cars) to pretty good (dining cars), comfort is light-years ahead of airlines, you can get up and move around and you’re generally not treated like cattle.
Under the right conditions, Amtrak is highly recommended.
I use Amtrak for the Autotrain to and from Florida. Since they changed their program, the number of points for one person plus auto has actually gone down. In the past, I’ve transferred in points from Starwood if Iwas short. I’ll have to lookito the Jet Blue that was mentioned.
Amtrak is really best if you seriously dislike flying (like me). If you’re fine with flying… well, Amtrak is a lot slower. And except on a couple of routes where Amtrak owns the track (Northeast Corridor, Keystone, and Springfield Shuttle), Amtrak is prone to arriving very late. This is the fault of the freight railroads who own the track — they delay Amtrak.
If the delays on the train bother you less than airport security bothers you, then Amtrak’s a great choice.
I wouldn’t redeem points for Acela, or on the “blackout dates”, or on trips where you can get “saver” fares for cash, because it’s not worth it to get the worse redemption rate; save the points for travel on dates when you will get roughly a 2.9 cent return. You can check this each time you book. If you take enough trains, you’ll travel on the “good deal” dates eventually. If you don’t, the points end up being worth less than they would be.
If you stick to this rule for redemptions, AGR, which gives you 2 points for every dollar you spend on Amtrak, effectively gives you 5.8% back on your Amtrak expenditures (provided you spend that on more Amtrak). It ends up being a bit less because you’ll end up using them on Acela, or blackout dates or dates with saver fares occasionally.
If you *do* take Amtrak regularly (so you’d be paying cash otherwise), the credit card is an good deal: assume that you’ll get the 2.9 cent redemption rate, and it amounts to 2.9% back, which is better than the typical 1% cash back.
The card is much better if you’re spending money on hotels (effectively 5.8% back) or on Amtrak itself (effectively 8.7% back plus the roughly 5.8% back you get for being an AGR member in the first place).
But it all only makes sense if you already spend money on Amtrak frequently, so it really is a “frequent rider” program. Not for the person who takes Amtrak less than once a year.
If you’re going to take your first Amtrak trip, you probably should sign up for AGR in advance, since there’s no reason not to. But just assume that the points aren’t going to be worth anything. If you turn out to *like* Amtrak trips, however, then the points will become worth something, and you should get the credit card.
Personally, I take Amtrak so much, throughout the year, that I’m “Select Executive” this year. So the effective 20.3% back on Amtrak purchases (8.7% from credit card + 5.8% from AGR + 5.8% from Select Executive) is pretty valuable to me.
If I took Amtrak infrequently — specifically, if I only took Amtrak on holidays (blackout dates), or only took Amtrak in coach on days when cheap saver fares were available — then it would be worth much, much, much less. So be realistic about how much train travel you’re actually going to do. It works out for me because I don’t fly and I don’t drive long distances.
Really liked the Adirondack trail from NY to Montreal goes right up along the Hudson River to Montreal. Super convenient route and soooo scenic. Last time I took it there was a hot air balloon expo as the sun was setting for the day!
Hudson to Albany looking west. Lake Champlain looking east north of Albany part way.
Hubby was just approved for the card. We plan to use the points for a family trip to NYC and back. We can get 4 roundtrip business class tickets for approx. 22k points, that would have cost $600. We will be happy with that redemption. We’ve traveled by train before but are not regular train travelers.
If you want to book something that costs say 40k points, can you use your 30k points and pay the rest in cash?
Don’t think so, but I’m not 100% sure.
Cash and points was supposed to be part of the new program, but never materialized.
I think the pros and cons of Amtrak have been covered here, but I will add a vote for the California Zepher, the six hours or so of following the Colorado River are incredible, and not something you can do by road (ditto for the San Luis Obispo-Santa Barbara stretch of the Coast Starlight). I ride the Pacific Surfliner between LA and San Diego a lot, this is an inexpensive train (second busiest route in the country, behind the Northeast Corridor) that services a lot of tourist destinations.
I think Tom Zoellner said it best in his book Train, when he compared Amtrak to Disney (I’m going by memory here on the quote): “They’re both charming, they’re both expensive, and they both require a certain amount of good humor.”
I like that quote, thanks for sharing it, Mike!
I’m interested to find out when Amtrak points expire
Points expire if you’ve not had any earning or redeeming activity within the past 36 months (holding a co-branded credit card also prevents them from expiring)