Amtrak Rewards Guide (2019)
If you frequently travel on Amtrak, one of the best credit card strategies is to focus on earning Amtrak Rewards. Each Amtrak point is typically worth 2.9 cents when used to purchase Amtrak tickets—making them the most valuable points you can earn from any card.
The catch is that you need to travel on Amtrak frequently enough to be able to use all the points you earn, as you typically can’t get good value on other types of redemptions. If you fall into this category, the Amtrak World credit card is probably your best general-purpose award card.
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Using your Amtrak points for travel
The number of points you need for an Amtrak ticket is based on the fare, with points worth a fixed-value of 2.9 cents per point, and with no blackouts dates. However, there are many types of redemptions where you will get less value from your points.
- You can’t use your points to book “saver” fares. Because the number of points you are need is based on more expensive value, flexible, or premium tickets, you are getting less value per point, compared to paying cash for the saver fare. In addition, when booking award tickets, you won’t be able to pay fewer points by taking advantage of special discounted fares, like Senior fares (Amtrak no longer offers AAA and student discounts).
- They aren’t good value for very cheap tickets. The minimum redemption is 800 points. So, if tickets are less than $23, you won’t get full value from your points.
- You’ll get a slightly lower rate on the Acela Express. Your points are worth 2.56 cents each, instead of 2.9 cents, when used on the Acela. The minimum redemption for the Acela is 4,000 points; so, you’ll get even less value for tickets below $100.
Extra benefits of Amtrak World Mastercard
The base Amtrak credit card is the no-annual-fee “Platinum” Mastercard. However, for $79/year, you can get the improved benefits of the “World” Mastercard.
- Companion Certificate.
- One-class upgrade certificate.
- 3x Amtrak Points, instead of 2x points, for Amtrak purchases.
- 2x Amtrak Points on travel. You’ll be earning close to 6% on travel purchases (other than at Amtrak). While there might be higher upside from the points you can earn from the Sapphire Reserve, this is an incredible rate for such easy-to-use points.
- 1,000 elite status qualifying points for every $5,000 you spend (up to 4,000 points per year). If you are traveling Amtrak regularly, this can get you to elite status more quickly. If you max out the benefit, you’re only 1,000 qualifying points away from Select status, and 6,000 qualifying points from the very valuable Select Plus status.
The signup bonus for the premium Amtrak card is also more generous. You’ll get 20,000 points and a single-day ClubAcela pass, instead of 12,000 points.
Transfer Amtrak points to Choice Hotel points
Amtrak points can be transferred to Choice (1000:3000) and to Hilton (1000:2000). That’s not a very good transfer rate for Hilton points, but may be interesting if you can find a particularly good Choice hotel redemption. At a normal value of .75 cents per Choice point, you'd be getting 2.25 cents for your Amtrak points. But the value can be significantly higher for any given award night opportunity.
There are some limitations associated with your ability to transfer points. Amtrak Select and Select Plus members are limited to transferring 50,000 Amtrak (150,000 Choice) points per year. Amtrak Select Executive members can transfer unlimited number of points. And people who don’t have elite status with Amtrak, but spend at least $20,000 per year on the Amtrak World credit card, can transfer up to 25,000 Amtrak points. Casual Amtrak Rewards members are not able to transfer points.
