Purchasing Amtrak Points to Leverage Miles and Hotel Programs

This week Amtrak announced a 30% bonus on all points purchased in their Guest Rewards program. So I began to wonder how does this compares to other programs, and can we use it to our advantage. While writing this post, I remembered I already have a comprehensive list of available redemption options on my page Why You Should Create an Amtrak Guest Rewards Account, so I will try not to repeat any of the info already discussed.

Details of the 30% bonus program were received via email, and can be seen at the bottom of the Amtrak page to buy points.

Purchasing of points will receive a 30% bonus on all purchase through December 31, 2011.

After logging into your account, the maximum allowed purchase of points per year is 10,000, and factoring in the 3,000 bonus points, the total cost is $275 or $0.021/point. Now that we know the parlay of cash, lets see what 13,000 Amtrak points can get us.

Going through the Amtrak redemption options, we see there are various options to redeem into other reward programs outside of using them for rail travel.

10,000 Amtrak points can get you:
– $100 Hyatt gift card
– Level 1, Starwood Hotels One Night Stay
– $100 Hertz gift card
– $100 Celebrity Cruises Gift Certificate
– $100 in various other restaurants and stores

So on the surface, it makes no sense to spend $275 to get $100 gift card. Lets dig a little deeper though.

The same 10,000 Amtrak points can be exchanged for:
– 10,000 Continental OnePass miles (5,000 miles x 2)
– 30,000 Choice Privileges Points (15,000 points x 2)
– 20,000 Hilton Honors Points (10,000 points x2)

The downside, as I discussed in my previous post, is you need to be a Select or Select Plus Amtrak Guest Reward member in order to transfer points, or hold the Amtrak credit card.

I ran some quick comparisons to see what purchasing the miles/points directly through the various programs was to see if purchasing the Amtrak points for $275 was worth it or not.

– 10,000 Continental OnePass miles = $376.25
– 30,000 Choice Privileges Points = They only allow 20,000 points max/year at $220, so if they allowed a purchase of 30,000 points it would cost $330
– 20,000 Hilton Honors Points = $200

So what I have concluded is that really the best option is to exchange the Amtrak points into Continental miles before the end of the year when Continental may not be affiliated with Amtrak. It is far cheaper to buy the Amtrak points and then transfer them to Continental than it is to purchase them directly through Continental. This is all assuming you are a Select or Select Plus Amtrak member or carry the Amtrak card.