I was recently talking with a friend of mine who had just opened the relatively new Amtrak Guest Rewards Credit Card, issued by Bank of America. This card was introduced last fall as a replacement for Amtrak’s old card which had been issued by Chase. Although I had seen advertisements for the card, I never really considered it as a “serious” rewards card that could be a great addition to a mileage addict’s portfolio. As a frequent Amtrak rider, I decided to investigate the benefits of the card and whether the sign up bonus was a good deal.

Amtrak Credit Card Options

Bank of America offers two versions of Amtrak branded credit cards, one with an annual fee and one without.

1. The Bank of America World MasterCard
2. The Bank of America Platinum MasterCard

The World MasterCard is the annual fee version and is currently offering a 20,000 point signup bonus after spending $1,000 within 90 days of account opening. The annual fee is not waived for the first year and is $79.

The Platinum MasterCard is offering a 12,000 point signup bonus after spending $1,000 within 90 days of account opening with no annual fee ever.

Differences between the Cards

There are significant differences between the two cards. The $79 annual fee gets you much more value in terms of point earnings and perks.

The Bank of America World MasterCard offers the following benefits:

• 3X Amtrak points per $1 spent on Amtrak
• 2X Amtrak points per $1 spent on other travel purchases
• 1X Amtrak points per $1 spent on other purchases
• 5% of your points back when you redeem for award travel on Amtrak
• Earn 1,000 Tier Qualifying Points toward Amtrak elite status per $5,000 spent on purchases (up to 4,000 Tier Qualifying Points per calendar year)
• 1-day Acela Club, Metropolitan Club, or First Class lounge pass upon account opening valid for yourself and a guest
• A 1-class upgrade certificate from Coach to Business class, or from Acela Business class to Acela First class, on a single travel segment or leg certificate upon account opening, and each year you renew your card
• A companion certificate for Amtrak travel with the purchase of a regular round-trip or 1-way full-fare ticket (not valid on Acela or long distance trains) upon account opening, and each year you renew your card.
  
• No foreign transaction fees

The Bank of America Platinum MasterCard offers the following benefits:

• 2X Amtrak points per $1 spent on Amtrak
• 1X Amtrak points per $1 spent on other purchases
• 5% of your points back when you redeem for award travel on Amtrak
• NO foreign transaction fees

The Amtrak Guest Rewards Program

Before we discuss these credit card options any further, we should take a look at the Amtrak Guest Rewards program itself to see what it offers and how you could redeem these points for maximum value.

Earning Points: For any Amtrak ticket purchase you normally earn 2 points per dollar spent (i.e. a $50 ticket will earn 100 Guest Reward points) plus a 25% point bonus for a business class ticket and a 50% bonus for an Acela First Class purchase. You also earn bonuses for Amtrak Tier Status.

Redeeming Points: Amtrak does not have an award chart, since their newly redesigned rewards program bases your reward redemption on the cost of the ticket–in most cases if a ticket is for sale you can redeem points for it. Put another way, Guest Reward points are worth a fixed value (about 2.9 cents for non-Acela award travel and about 2.56 cents for Acela redemptions). After doing several award searches, it looks like as though the points required are tied to the cost of a “Value” ticket in most cases. If a Value ticket is not available, then the points required will correspond to the next ticket tier, “Flexible.” It does not appear that the “Saver” fare column is ever tied to a reward redemption amount.

Value of Points: Since Amtrak points are a fixed value of 2.9 cents for non-Acela travel redemptions and 2.56 cents for Acela redemptions it is easy to calculate the value back that you get from the purchase of any ticket at 2 points per dollar spent. If you purchase a ticket for $50, you get 100 points, which are worth $2.90 (or $2.56) in redemption value. This does not factor in Status Tier bonuses or business/first class bonuses.

As an example, last week I traveled on the Acela from Philadelphia to Washington. My ticket cost $79.00 one-way. I earned 158 base points based on the cost of the ticket, plus a 40 point (25% bonus) for business class since Acela is considered all business class unless you have a first class ticket. I also earned another 40 points (25% bonus) since I am an Amtrak Select, which is the first loyalty tier at 5,000 tier qualifying points (TQPs) in a calendar year. I received a total of 238 points in my account for this trip, worth $6.90 on a non-Acela redemption, of which all were TQPs except for the Select bonus.

As you can see from the chart below, an Amtrak Select Plus would receive a 50% point bonus and a Select Executive would earn a 100% point bonus. These bonus miles do not count as TQPs.

How the Amtrak World MasterCard can maximize your value

If I had still paid $79 for the ticket, but had used the Amtrak World MasterCard I would have actually earned 5x points on the purchase (3x points for Amtrak purchases on their World MasterCard plus the normal 2 points per $1 in spend) + my status bonus + the Acela business bonus. In other words, 475 points [($79 x 5) + 40 + 40]. These 475 points are worth $13.78 in redemption value at 2.9 cents per point. For my $79 ticket I would be earning 17.4% value back! That is an outstanding deal!!!

On average, when I travel via Amtrak, I pay about $50 each way from Philly to DC and back. If I assume that I am not riding business class on Acela and had no Amtrak status, I would get an extra 150 points each time I purchased a $50 ticket. If you add those extra 150 points to the 100 points you would get anyway (2 points per $1 spend in the Rewards program), you get 250 points, a 250% increase with the Amtrak World MasterCard. Thats great gravy!

These extra bonus points give me great earning on Amtrak and essentially give me a very nice percentage in cash back since I know I can easily redeem the points for future Amtrak travel. Even if you are only an occasional Amtrak rider you can get a lot of value from this credit card.

I was wrong about the Amtrak MasterCard

When I first saw advertisements for this card, I dismissed it as not a serious travel rewards card. With “only” a 20,000 point bonus and only redeemable on Amtrak for the most part, why bother? Now that I have done some research, that 20,000 point bonus is worth at least $580 in Amtrak travel, which makes it a very lucrative sign up bonus. Furthermore, with the increased points per every $1 spent, you are getting over a 15% discount on every ticket–as long as you have use for Amtrak travel in your future.

Will I be applying for the Amtrak World MasterCard?

I am seriously considering it–and honestly anyone who rides Amtrak even occasionally should as well. With a sign up bonus worth about $580 in free Amtrak travel, increased earning on every ride, the companion certificate, plus the other benefits of this card it makes it hard to argue against the value here. I need another annual fee credit card like I need a hole in my head–but this one makes sense for all the right reasons.

I guess the only question now is which credit card I need to get rid of so I can make room in my wallet for the Amtrak World MasterCard?