Many will probably poke fun at me for mentioning this, but yes, I do have the Amtrak Guest Rewards Credit Card and yes, I think it is worthwhile to keep and not cancel.
I say this for several reasons, some of which you may not agree with depending on where you live or how much you frequent Amtrak.
First off, it’s worth noting that the public offer for this card comes with a 12,000 point bonus and no annual fee. 12,000 points is enough for 3 one-way trips in the Northeast Corridor, or 12 one-way trips in select services in the mid-west and New England.
This card earns 1 point for every dollar spent, and 2 points for every dollar spent on Amtrak. Want to earn more points faster? Consider using a Chase Ultimate Rewards earning card, since those points transfer to Amtrak at a 1:1 ration.
There’s No Annual Fee
With a no annual fee card, you can keep this card in your sock drawer without fear of having to call the retention department at Chase every year to waive any fees. That said, it’s worthwhile to spend on this card once in awhile to keep the card itself from going inactive, however, I do not use this card as any primary card in my wallet, nor do I put any substantial spend on it.
5% Rebate on Amtrak Guest Rewards Redemptions
When you redeem your points for Amtrak travel, you’ll get 5% of those points back in your account. Combined with no annual fee, this essentially acts as a free rebate so long as you hold the card. Granted, 5% isn’t much, but if you were to redeem 100,000 Amtrak Guest Rewards points in a year, you’d have an additional one-way trip in the Northeast Corridor thanks to the 5,000 points you’d be credit.
No Amtrak Points Expiration
Normally, Amtrak Guest Rewards points expire 36 months after your last paid Amtrak travel. So, once every three years, you need to travel Amtrak to keep your points alive – except if you have this card, which keeps those points alive so long as you’re a cardholder.
Who is this card not for?
- If you don’t ever travel Amtrak, consider this card useless.
- If you leave outside of an Amtrak heavy area, such as in the Northeast, you may not find this card as useful.
- If you pay for your Amtrak tickets outright, and don’t ever make redemptions on their trains, you may find this card not worthwhile.
Jamie Larounis is an avid traveler, blogger and miles/points educator. Traveling well over 100,000 miles a year and staying in hotels for over 100 nights, he leverages miles, points and other deals to fly in first class cabins, and stay in 5-star hotels. The Forward Cabin shares his experiences, musings, reviews, tips, tricks, resources and industry news with you, the fellow traveler.
or if you travel so much on Amtrak that you have the highest status…you don’t need this card…5% is not very useful. Its better to use the Sapphire card, redeem points to United and save a Chase slot for better cards! Now if only it was issued by someone else…
There is a 18k point offer.
Public? If you have a link for it, I’m happy to toss it in. I thought the 18K went away.
It’s better than a cruise line card but not as good as an Ultimate reward card. I do like the feature that keeps your points from expiring but if you have the Ultimate reward type card then it wouldn’t matter much I guess. Good post though.
I have it and use it for a free auto train trip to/from Florida each year.