Now 40K or 20K points with Amtrak credit cards

By
Nick Reyes
-
12

The Amtrak Credit Cards are once again featuring increased bonuses. While these cards don’t get a ton of attention since there aren’t really any great uses of Amtrak points beyond Amtrak trains, the bottom line is that these offers can be great if you like traveling via Amtrak thanks to high value for points.

The Offers & Key Card Benefits

Card Offer and Details
Amtrak Guest Rewards® Preferred Mastercard®
 
 
 
40K points
40K points after $1K spend in the first 3 billing cycles

$99 Annual Fee

 
 

Card Type: Mastercard World

Base
Travel
Dine
Brand

Earning rate: ⚬ 3X Amtrak ⚬ 2X qualifying travel, dining, transit, and rideshare ⚬ 1X elsewhere

Big spend bonus: Earn 1,000 Tier Qualifying Points towards elite status for each $5K spent in a calendar year. Limit 4,000 TQPs per year. Ability to transfer up to 25,000 points to hotel partners after $20K calendar year spend.

Noteworthy perks: ⚬ 5% Amtrak Guest Rewards point rebate on redemptions ⚬ Complimentary companion coupon ⚬ One-Class Upgrade and a single-day ClubAcela pass each year. ⚬ 20% rebate for onboard food & beverage purchases as a statement credit

See also: Amtrak Guest Rewards credit card review
Card Offer and Details
Amtrak Guest Rewards Platinum Mastercard

Card Type: Mastercard Platinum

Base
Dine
Brand

Earning rate: ⚬ 2X Amtrak ⚬ 2X dining ⚬ 1X elsewhere

Noteworthy perks: ⚬ 5% Amtrak Guest Rewards point rebate on redemptions. ⚬ 10% rebate for onboard food & beverage purchases as a statement credit

See also: Amtrak Guest Rewards credit card review

Quick Thoughts

The Amtrak cards went offline for a bit last year, but both of these cards came back in the fall and are are now issued by FNBO.

Amtrak points are worth more than most other reward currencies, with each point worth about 2.9c toward most train fares (or 2.56 on Acela fares). That means that the 40K offer on the Amtrak Rewards Preferred card will buy you well over $1,000 in train tickets (nearly $1200 on non-Acela service!). That’s a fantastic return on $1,000 spend.

The no-annual-fee Amtrak Guest Rewards Mastercard also offers an excellent bonus for a consumer card with no annual fee when you consider that you could buy well over $500 worth of train tickets with 20K points.

While these points have a very limited scope of use, they can nonetheless be highly useful to those who value train travel. I’ve taken Amtrak a handful of times over the past few years and while the trains in some cases have been quite old and a sometimes show their wear, the seats are wide and spacious and you can sometimes get a good WiFi signal on board. Furthermore, they can be a sightseeing tool in parts of the country that can make the journey part of the trip.

We took the train from Los Angeles through Santa Barbara and up to San Luis Obispo a few years ago and it was very scenic.
There was even a sightseeing car on that train from Los Angeles with a guide who explained the history and sights along the way.
I find business class on Amtrak to be much, much more spacious and comfortable than an airplane, so I can see why this is popular in the Northeast.
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12 Comments
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Rachel

Is it possible to get the card with the 40 K SUB and then downgrade after a year to avoid the annual fee?

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Jeremy

good content but selfies are a bad idea

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Nate

Even though I doubt I’d ever get the card because I’m not a super domestic train guy, it is nice to see FNBO make a good offer. Haven’t seen much from that bank to make me excited about their SUBs.

Looking at DoC, however, I see that BOA did 50k, but unsure if RRV for Amtrak were as high?

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Nick Reyes

Value of Amtrak points has been the same ever since they got rid of the zone-based chart. I’d guess that was around 2015?

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CericRushmore

The 2.9 cent fare is generally over valuing it IMHO since the lowest revenue fares aren’t actually eligible for point redemptions. I’m a fan of the card at 40K, but wouldn’t put it that high. There was a detailed thread in DoC on value in different scenarios.

Greg, it’s time for you to do a detailed analysis! 🙂

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Nick Reyes

Oh yeah? I’ve never noticed a revenue fare that wasn’t eligible for point redemption.

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CericRushmore

It’s eligible against any ticket, but you can’t use it against the lowest fare tier. So, for a super cheap fare tier, you might only get a bit more than 1 cent.

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CericRushmore

Check out April 29 WAS to NYP one way. The 315 AM flight Coash Saver fare is $20. But, the Coash Points Purchase is 4,083 points, so you would actually only get about .5 CPP in this scenario.

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Nick Reyes

Interesting. I haven’t seen that before.

Certainly sounds like you know what you’re talking about on this, so this isn’t to doubt that you’re right, but regarding that specific example, I saw that TPG posted today that Amtrak released a promotion today for “new ultra-low Night Owl Fares” that are between $5 and $20 for trains departing between 7pm and 5am on Northeast Corridor routes (basically WAS/DEL/BWI/BAL/PHL/NWK/EWR/NYP routes. Post doesn’t say how long they will be available.

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CericRushmore

The $20 fare and .5 CPP is an extreme case. The key thing is that the point tickets are not saver fares. They are more like value fares in that you can cancel them (but you lose 10%). Saver fares you can’t cancel. In reality is means that when the saver fare is a very low price, you are better off paying cash and saving your points for when saver is closer to value or you are using the Acela or a cross country room. I hate paying cash for anything, but it would seem silly to take a ticket at .5 CPP.

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CericRushmore

Sorry, I wish I could edit, here are the exact refund/cancel explanations.

Saver FaresClasses of Service: Coach on Reserved Services, Acela Business Class

  • Refunds: Non-refundable 24 hours or more after booking but may receive a 75% non-refundable eVoucher.
  • Changes: 25% fee if changed more than 24 hours after purchase.
  • Change fee waived for Select Executive members.
  • Upgrade coupons not allowed.

Value FaresClasses of Service: Coach on Reserved and Unreserved Services, Acela Business Class

  • Refunds: Full refund to original form of payment with no fees if canceled 15 days or more before departure. 25% fee charged if canceled less than 14 days before departure. Tickets on unreserved services incur 25% fee if canceled an hour or more after purchase.
  • No change fee

Reward Ticket Cancellations & ModificationsThe following applies to tickets redeemed using Amtrak Guest Rewards points:
One-Way, Round-Trip, or Multi-Segment Reward Travel

  • Cancellations: A 10% points penalty is assessed for any refund (redeposit) to the Member account. If canceling a non-room ticket within 24 hours prior to departure, or a private room ticket within 14 days prior to departure, an additional “close-in” penalty of 10% of the points redeemed will be collected (waived for Select Executive and Select Plus members).
  • Modifications: A points difference (to new, prevailing fare) will apply in all cases with a 10% points penalty withheld on any fare difference returned to member. If modifying a non-room ticket within 24 hours prior to departure, or a private room ticket within 14 days prior to departure, an additional “close-in” penalty of 10% of the points redeemed will be collected (waived for Select Executive and Select Plus members).
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Mangofarmer

The points are a great value, its just difficult to justify burning a 5/24 on Amtrak.

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