@Anonymous wrote:
My question is, how often will you use the Amtrak card in the future? The problem with cards like this is that they earn points very slowly, if a person has other daily drivers and are in different points systems etc.
If it were me, I'd look into a differnt travel card that's more universal. Or that has a future beyond this one trip.
I looked into this card once when i was planning a trip, and the points don't go as far as one would think.
Yeah I would actually use the Amtrak card seeing as how I live just outside of Harrisburg PA which is at the end of the Philadelphia to Harrisburg mainline which has daily trains to Penn Station in NY so I could and would use it for weekend getaways to NYC a few times a year. Or even some kind of special event in Philadelphia I might take the train to instead of driving if it makes sense for me to do so.
Unfortunately the tracks between Harrisburg and Baltimore were torn up before I was even born with a lot of it being converted from rails to trails and some of it being used for the light rail system in Baltimore. So you can't hop on a train in Harrisburg to take to Baltimore and DC directly. Instead you would have to go to Philadelphia and then take the Acela down to DC and by the time you did all that it just makes vastly more logistically sense to just drive to Union Station in DC.
As far as the point earning goes Amtrak points are worth 2.5 cents if I use them for the Keystone Service however for sleeper cars and long distance trains the points are actually worth $.03 a point. Also Amtrak does have it's own shopping portal which gives you more points then the airline portals tend to give for shopping at the same stores online...although ymmv on which store in which day gives better rewards on what site. Also they have a hotel booking service as well which gives out a lot of points as well and the prices weren't outrageous on the site from what I've seen. So you can actually earn a lot of Amtrak rewards relatively easy.
