Two great ways to save or travel FREE on Amtrak.
We all look for travel bargains … especially so for those of us living in Hawaii, because traveling anywhere outside of the state means five-hours in a jet … at the very least. I’ve been into the frequent flyer programs of both American Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines from Day One and use mileage for many of my out-of-state travels. Of course, once I get to the U.S. mainland, I usually switch to Amtrak.
I’m always surprised to discover that many people are not aware that Amtrak, too, has their version of a frequent flyer program. It’s called Amtrak Guest Rewards and, compared to most of the airline programs, it’s generous and – even better – it’s simple!
As with the airline programs, you earn points for every Amtrak trip and those points can be exchanged for Amtrak travel. And, also like the airlines, Amtrak offers a credit card which earns still more points for every purchase.
But here’s what I like so much about Amtrak Guest Rewards: It takes 25,000 points to book a roomette on the Empire Builder from Chicago to Seattle no matter when you travel and no matter if there’s only one space left on the train for your travel date. Same thing for the two-night trip between Chicago and LA on the Southwest Chief: it’s 25,000 points any day there’s a vacant roomette. And that’s true for all other awards for all other Amtrak trips.
By contrast, the airlines limit the number of seats on any given flight that will be available for frequent flyer miles, and the closer those get to being used up, the more miles the airline will whack you for that seat.
And here’s another way to save on the cost of Amtrak travel: become a member of the National Association of Railroad Passengers. As a NARP member, you’ll get a 10% discount on your rail fare every time you travel. Just a few trips a year will more than pay for your membership and, of course, you’ll be helping to advance the cause of more and better trains, too. You can go here to join. Thanks!
Redeeming miles can really be frustrating. Example: American Airlines has two daily flights from Maui to Los Angeles – one arriving there at 9:30 p.m., the other is a red-eye arriving at 5:00 a.m. When I booked, American wanted 60,000 miles for an economy seat on the earlier flight (one way); but only 25,000 miles for the red eye. Six weeks earlier, the tab for the red-eye was 40,000 miles. Go figure! On the other hand, I have friends here in the United program who say it’s usually impossible to find ANY flights available for mileage.
Unfortunately my visits to the USA are so infrequent I cannot make use of the Amtrak guest scheme. I made the mistake many years ago of joining United Mileage Plus. it restricts me to Star Alliance but that is ok as Air New Zealand is also star alliance.
However any attempts to redeem points leave me tearing my hair out. From Australia/New Zealand I need to ring Malaysia where the person on the phone speaks in a mixed American/Malaysian accent, usually unintelligible. I tried to upgrade on a flight to Europe this year. The calls left me yelling down the phone line in complete exasperation. I then tried to obtain a flight across the Tasman from Dunedin to Sydney. After giving about 15 dates, all unavailable, I hung up. Then it hit me she was looking for direct flights which do not exist. A new call to a person whose pronunciation was clearer and understood airline timetables achieved a result on my first date choice. Thankfully I have finally used all my United points and have joined the Air New Zealand scheme. It seems like Amtrak. I book any flight and pay with my airpoint dollars which I can also earn (admittedly only a few) at my hardware and other stores.