Credit Card Shopping via Amtrak Rewards

[BronzeTrader]

There are various portals for online shopping.  Chase shopping, airline (United, AA, Delta etc.) portal. And we get the AmEx offers.  But the most extensive one is through the Amtrak Guest Rewards portal.  I wished I've found it sooner.  Not only you get the credit card bonus, you accumulate the Amtrak points.  If you take the train, the points are quite valuable, even higher than the SPG points.

[wasCB14]

Cashbackmonitor is a good way to quickly compare portal choices for any particular merchant. It's not always up-to-date about portal promotions, though.

[iced]

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@BronzeTrader wrote:

There are various portals for online shopping.  Chase shopping, airline (United, AA, Delta etc.) portal. And we get the AmEx offers.  But the most extensive one is through the Amtrak Guest Rewards portal.  I wished I've found it sooner.  Not only you get the credit card bonus, you accumulate the Amtrak points.  If you take the train, the points are quite valuable, even higher than the SPG points.

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Can you elaborate a bit on what you saw that set it apart? I just glanced at it and don't see any distinction between it and say MileagePlus Shopping.

[BronzeTrader]

It has Sears, and a lot more places.  And Amtrak points are worth as much as SPG points, up to 3 cents each point.  It is much better than the hotel and even the airline points.

[wasCB14]

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@BronzeTrader wrote:

It has Sears, and a lot more places.  And Amtrak points are worth as much as SPG points, up to 3 cents each point.  It is much better than the hotel and even the airline points.

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No one portal site is always the best, for my purposes. It's good to compare alternatives.

Looking at places I've recently shopped:

Neiman Marcus: 4x Amtrak vs. 6x URs or AAdvantage or Avios. I recently got just under 3.3 cpp for some Avios, ~3 cpp for Hyatt, and 2.9 cpp for AA earlier this year.

Walmart and LL Bean: 2x Amtrak vs. 2x URs or 4x Avios

Brooks Brothers: 4x Amtrak vs. 4x URs or 6x Avios

eBags: 7x Amtrak vs. 8x United (with United CC, 4x without) or 7x URs or AAdvantage or 10x Avios

Best Buy: Nerfed

Staples: 2x Amtrak vs. 6x AAdvantage or 4x URs

I know you mentioned using Amex offers, so many the UR options aren't good for comparison. I usually use a Citi card for price rewinds.

Even if you don't put a very high value on hotel or airline points, sometimes quantity beats quality.

[BronzeTrader]

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@wasCB14 wrote:

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@BronzeTrader wrote:

It has Sears, and a lot more places.  And Amtrak points are worth as much as SPG points, up to 3 cents each point.  It is much better than the hotel and even the airline points.

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No one portal site is always the best, for my purposes. It's good to compare alternatives.

Looking at places I've recently shopped:

Neiman Marcus: 4x Amtrak vs. 6x URs or AAdvantage or Avios. I recently got just under 3.3 cpp for some Avios, ~3 cpp for Hyatt, and 2.9 cpp for AA earlier this year.

Walmart and LL Bean: 2x Amtrak vs. 2x URs or 4x Avios

Brooks Brothers: 4x Amtrak vs. 4x URs or 6x Avios

eBags: 7x Amtrak vs. 8x United (with United CC, 4x without) or 7x URs or AAdvantage or 10x Avios

Best Buy: Nerfed

Staples: 2x Amtrak vs. 6x AAdvantage or 4x URs

I know you mentioned using Amex offers, so many the UR options aren't good for comparison. I usually use a Citi card for price rewinds.

Even if you don't put a very high value on hotel or airline points, sometimes quantity beats quality.

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YMMV is always true.  You don't have to agree.....