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Home » amtrak » My Incredible Amtrak Guest Rewards Redemption
amtrak

My Incredible Amtrak Guest Rewards Redemption

Matthew Klint Posted onJanuary 24, 2016December 5, 2016 4 Comments

amtrak-glacier-national-park

Amtrak is devaluing its Guest Rewards program tomorrow, so if you are sitting on any sizable quantity of Amtrak points and thinking about a long-distance journey in the next year, you need to call Guest Rewards at 1-800-307-5000 before midnight ET this evening to book.

Wanting to experience long-distance train travel in first class, I phoned Amtrak earlier this week to book a journey from Los Angeles to Glacier National Park later this year for my wife and me. We usually go to cities when we travel, so this will be a nice change of pace. 

Why Glacier National Park? Because it looks beautiful but also because I wanted to travel on both the Coast Starlight and Empire Builder and Amtrak’s soon-extinct zone-based routing rules allowed it.

Here’s the Amtrak redemption map–

amtrak_zonemap

The country is divided into three zones and as long as your travel stays within one zone, you are charged one flat fee:

1 Zone:

  • Coach Class – 5,500 points
  • Business Class – 6,500 points
  • Roomette – 15,000 points
  • Bedroom – 25,000 points

You cannot travel from LA to Glacier National Park in a straight line, so we will first take the Coast Starlight to Portland and then connect on the Empire Builder to Glacier National Park. I purchased a very cheap one-way plane ticket back.

The booking process could not have been smoother. After a short hold I reached a great agent in California named Charles who quickly found the routing I wanted and within minutes I was booked…an e-ticket arrived via e-mail five minutes later. There were no taxes or fees on the ticket!

amtrak-redemption

Spending 48 hours on a train isn’t for everyone (and if there wasn’t wifi on the Coast Starlight, it wouldn’t be for me either), but I am really looking forward the journey. The bedroom I booked will have a private bathroom/shower and all meals are included. Starting tomorrow, Amtrak’s award pricing will be revenue-based and my identical trip will now cost 66,000 miles, nearly three times as much!

This ticket retails for $1438, so consider that had I valued my ticket at retail price, my 25,000 points secured me over five cents each in value, a truly amazing deal.

Note that if you make changes to your pre-devaluation journey, you will be charged the new rate. Learn more about the new Amtrak program here.

*top photo courtesy of Amtrak

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About Author

Matthew Klint

Matthew is an avid traveler who calls Los Angeles home. Each year he travels more than 200,000 miles by air and has visited more than 135 countries. Working both in the aviation industry and as a travel consultant, Matthew has been featured in major media outlets around the world and uses his Live and Let's Fly blog to share the latest news in the airline industry, commentary on frequent flyer programs, and detailed reports of his worldwide travel.

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4 Comments

  1. MeanMeosh Reply
    January 24, 2016 at 1:14 am

    You’ll love Glacier. If you can, grab a rental car, and if you’re going late enough in the summer, travel the whole way down Going to the Sun Road through Logan Pass. Unfortunately, the time my wife and I drove up there, we were about a week and a half too early and the road was still closed because the snow hadn’t been cleared yet.

  2. Jana Reply
    January 24, 2016 at 6:09 pm

    Just thought you should be aware that the wifi is hit or miss for the train. Signals tend to be stronger in metro areas, not so much for rural areas.

  3. Andrew Breza Reply
    January 25, 2016 at 6:27 pm

    I wouldn’t say it’s a devaluation per se. As someone who exclusively takes short trips up and down the Northeast Corridor with plenty of advanced notice, I generally come out ahead under the new system. With that said, this sounds like an amazing trip you’re planning.

  4. James Dozer Reply
    January 31, 2016 at 8:08 am

    Dude, I was planning this exact same trip! But ended up deciding against it because I couldn’t make the dates work. I can’t wait to read all about this!

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