Whether you take Amtrak for a quick trip along the Northeast Corridor or a cross-country train journey, it’s worth joining Amtrak Guest Rewards. This free loyalty program lets you earn points on paid train tickets and redeem them for future travel, upgrades, lounge access and more.

But there’s more to Amtrak Guest Rewards than earning points on train tickets. You can also earn points through cobranded credit cards and partners, while frequent riders can unlock additional perks through elite status.

Here’s what you need to know about earning and redeeming Amtrak points and getting the most from the Guest Rewards program.

How to earn Amtrak Guest Rewards points

You can earn Amtrak Guest Rewards points in many different ways, ranging from traveling on Amtrak to spending on Amtrak credit cards and even completing online surveys.

Earn Amtrak points by taking the train

Members earn 2 points per dollar spent on Amtrak travel. Plus, you’ll get a 25% point bonus when traveling in business class and a 50% point bonus when traveling in Acela first class.

That means you’ll earn 2.5 points per dollar spent on business-class tickets and 3 points per dollar spent on Acela first-class tickets.

Related: Amtrak enters a ‘whole new era’ with Airo trains for the Cascades, Northeast Regional

Earn points with Amtrak credit cards

U.S. residents can earn Amtrak points with two cobranded credit cards as follows:

Both cards offer a 5% rebate on points when you redeem them for Amtrak travel and have no foreign transaction fees. Plus, your points won’t expire as long as your card account remains open.

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You may want to get the Amtrak Guest Rewards Mastercard if you ride frequently enough to benefit from the onboard food-and-beverage rebate but don’t want to pay an annual fee. Meanwhile, the Amtrak Guest Rewards Preferred Mastercard is a better option for frequent Amtrak riders who want extra perks and the ability to earn tier qualifying points with their card.

The information for the Amtrak Guest Rewards Mastercard and the Amtrak Guest Rewards Preferred Mastercard has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.

Transfer points to Amtrak

You can transfer Bilt Points to Amtrak Guest Rewards at a 2:1 ratio in increments of 1,000. This means that for every 2,000 Bilt points that you transfer to Amtrak, you’ll get 1,000 Amtrak points.

Bilt Blue members must transfer at least 2,000 points, while other Bilt members can transfer as few as 1,000 points. However, you’ll want to consider whether the value you’d get when transferring Bilt points to Amtrak is better than what you’d otherwise get when redeeming Bilt points.

Other ways to earn Amtrak points

• Buy Amtrak points: Amtrak members can buy or receive up to 50,000 points per calendar year, while elite members can buy points without an annual cap.
• NRG Home: Earn Amtrak points when you choose NRG Home as your energy provider and enroll in an eligible plan; earn 10,000 bonus points after two months as an active NRG customer on an eligible plan, and then continue earning 2 points per dollar spent on the supply portion of your bill.
• Rail Passengers Association membership: Earn 100 to 10,000 points each time you enroll in or renew.
• Survey Points Club: You can earn Amtrak points by completing online surveys, including a special bonus of 250 points after you complete your first survey.
• Teleflora: Earn 750 Amtrak points on every bouquet you order.

How to redeem Amtrak points

Once you earn Amtrak points, you have several options for redeeming them.

Redeem points for Amtrak tickets

Amtrak doesn’t have a fixed award chart, and redemption rates generally vary with paid fares. Amtrak says redemptions start at just 400 points, but I found this ticket for the 16-minute ride from New York to Newark for just 188 points.

In general, the number of Amtrak points you’ll need to redeem scales directly with the ticket’s current cash price. So, you can generally expect to get around 2.6 cents per Amtrak point when redeeming for train travel. For example, I found a train from New York to Washington, D.C., for 750 points or $20 per ticket.

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As such, you’d get 2.67 cents per point on this redemption.

You can also book Points & Cash rates. You’ll see this option on the final payment screen when booking a train ticket with points. For example, here are the Points & Cash options Amtrak gave me for a ticket that would otherwise cost 2,175 points or $58.

I could use my entire Amtrak balance (1,568 points) on a Points & Cash booking, which is appealing since I don’t travel on Amtrak all that frequently. However, I’d only get 1.54 cents per point while doing so, which is much less than the 2.66 cents per point you’d get when redeeming the full 2,175 points for the $58 ticket. As such, you’ll usually want to avoid Points & Cash tickets unless you can get close to 2.6 cents per point or have no other way to use the points.

Redeem points for upgrades on Amtrak

You can redeem 2,500 Amtrak points for a one-class space-available upgrade on a one-way paid ticket. This means you could upgrade from coach to business, or business to first class on Acela, using an upgrade coupon.

You can redeem for an upgrade coupon on the Amtrak website or in the Amtrak app. Then, you can apply the coupon to an eligible one-way ticket within 12 hours of departure, subject to availability. Each upgrade coupon can only be used once and expires 12 months after you redeem points for it.

Redeem Amtrak points for lounge access

You can also redeem 1,500 Amtrak points on the website or in the app for a single-visit lounge pass valid at participating Amtrak lounges at eligible stations.

Lounge passes are generally accepted at Metropolitan Lounges in New York (Moynihan Train Hall), Boston, Chicago, Los Angeles, Philadelphia, Portland and Washington, D.C.

You can buy a single-visit lounge pass for $35 ($50 in New York), so you’d get 2.33 cents per point (3.33 cents per point in New York). You can only use a lounge pass at your departure station or scheduled layover station up to three hours prior to your scheduled departure time. Lounge passes expire 12 months after you redeem points for them.

Redeem Amtrak points for gift cards

You can also redeem Amtrak points for various gift cards, including Amazon, Chipotle and Grubhub. Redemptions are usually 2,500 points for a $25 gift card or 5,000 points for a $50 gift card.

Unfortunately, you’ll only get 1 cent per point when redeeming Amtrak points for gift cards.

Related: What credit cards should you use to purchase gift cards?

Transfer points to other members

You can pay $10 per 1,000 points to transfer your points to another member’s account. This is a poor-value way to redeem your points, especially since you can skip the sharing fees and book awards for other travelers directly from your account.

Related: 14 of the most scenic train rides on Earth

Amtrak Guest Rewards elite status

Amtrak Guest Rewards has its entry-level member tier as well as three elite tiers that you can reach based on the tier qualifying points you earn each calendar year. Here’s an overview of the four tiers and some of the perks members at these tiers get each membership year:

Once you earn a status, you’ll keep that status for the remainder of the calendar year you earned it in, all of the next calendar year and through the end of February of the following year.

How to earn tier qualifying points

If you want to secure Amtrak elite status, you’ll need to earn tier qualifying points each calendar year. Elite points-earning bonuses don’t affect the amount of tier qualifying points you’ll earn on train tickets. But here’s how you can earn tier qualifying points:

• 2 tier qualifying points per dollar spent on Amtrak travel
• 25% bonus for business class, so 2.5 tier qualifying points per dollar spent on Amtrak business-class fares
• 50% bonus for first class, so 3 tier qualifying points per dollar spent on Acela first-class fares
• 1,000 tier qualifying points each time your Amtrak Guest Rewards Preferred Mastercard purchases reach $5,000 (up to 4,000 tier qualifying points per year)

So, you could earn Select status by spending $2,500 on nonpremium Amtrak travel, $2,000 on business-class fares or $1,667 on Acela first-class fares. You can also earn up to 4,000 tier qualifying points per year through spending on the Amtrak Guest Rewards Preferred Mastercard at a rate of 1,000 tier qualifying points per $5,000 in qualifying purchases.

Bottom line

Amtrak Guest Rewards is worth joining, even if you only travel by train occasionally. You can earn points on paid Amtrak tickets and redeem them for future travel, often getting about 2.6 cents per point.

Frequent Amtrak travelers may also find value in one of the cobranded credit cards or through elite status. But regardless of how often you ride, you’ll generally get the most value from your Amtrak points by redeeming them for train tickets rather than gift cards or Points & Cash bookings.