I Love Amtrak. I Don’t Have Their Credit Card. Here’s Why.

I ride Amtrak more than almost anyone I know, except for maybe my friend who works for Amtrak and rides for free.

I’ve slept on overnight trains in coach, ridden in the private rooms, taken just about every train that leaves from NYC except for a few of the long-distance ones, and written more about riding the rails than is probably healthy.

Every time I check out, Amtrak dangles its credit card at me, often with a fat welcome points bonus. And every time, I reject it.

In this article, I’ll share the details of the card, from a consumer perspective, and why I’ve opted against it.

Now I have even less reason to sign up.

In late September 2026, Bilt started letting its members move points into Amtrak Guest Rewards. On October 1, I moved 48,000 Bilt points over for 36,000 Amtrak points (they were running a transfer bonus that day).

I’ll get into exactly how that worked, and then I’ll run the numbers on which card makes more sense for earning Amtrak points, the Amtrak cards or the Bilt cards.

This is the article the affiliate sites won’t write, because they get paid when you apply and I don’t. I’m not selling you a card or telling you to avoid one. This is me walking you through the math I ran on myself. I’m a rider and a nerd about this stuff, not a financial advisor, so run your own numbers before you do anything. Also this is not financial advice I’m just a guy with a blog this is for informational purposes only.

Amtrak has two credit cards, and I don’t think either is bad if you ride Amtrak a lot

They’re better than most airline cards, which I’ll get to. Here’s the honest rundown.

The Preferred card carries a $99 annual fee. You earn 3 points per dollar on Amtrak, 2 points per dollar on dining, travel, transit, and rideshare, and 1 point everywhere else. It comes with a yearly companion coupon, a station lounge pass, a one-class upgrade, 20% back on onboard food and drinks, and a 5% points rebate every time you redeem for a trip. If you spend $5,000 you pick up 1,000 Tier Qualifying Points toward elite status.

The no-fee card keeps it simple. You get 2 points per dollar on Amtrak and dining, 1 point everywhere else, 10% back on onboard food and drinks, and the same 5% redemption rebate. No annual fee to justify.

As long as your card stays open, your Amtrak points never expire.

As I write this, the welcome offer on the Preferred is 25,000 points after $1,500 in spending, plus 5,000 more for adding an authorized user. The no-fee card offers 15,000 after $1,000, plus the same 5,000 authorized-user kicker. These rotate, so don’t take my word for it as you read this.

At roughly 2.67 cents a point, that full 30,000-point Preferred bonus is worth about $800 in train travel.

The points are worth a lot

If you ride Amtrak regularly, the Preferred card makes a lot of sense. The companion coupon alone can cover most of the annual fee in one trip. The lounge pass, the upgrade, the 20% back on the cafe car, the 5% rebate on every redemption, none of it is life-changing on its own, but for a heavy rider it adds up past $99 without much effort. And the status acceleration matters if you’re chasing Select. Every $5,000 of spend nudges you toward the 25%-more-points tier I wrote about in my Amtrak points guide.

Compared to airline co-branded cards, Amtrak’s version I think is the better deal. Airline cards make you stockpile 12,500 to 25,000 miles before a mile becomes a seat. Amtrak fares redeem in the low thousands of points, sometimes for hundreds of points, so the bonus turns into free trips almost immediately.

So why do I still pass?

The reason I don’t have Amtrak’s credit card

Every credit card you open costs you something you can’t see. It uses a slot on your report, a chunk of your attention, and, most of all, it decides where your everyday spending earns rewards.

The Amtrak card has the same issue that airline cards do. Off the train, both cards earn 1 point per dollar on most purchases, and those points can only ever become Amtrak travel. My groceries and my random Tuesday spending would all funnel into a currency I can spend in exactly one place. And my rent, the biggest check I write every month, wouldn’t earn a thing.

Compare that to how I’ve set things up. My everyday card is the Bilt Blue, a no-annual-fee card that earns points on rent, and those points transfer to a long list of airline and hotel programs. I pair it with a Wells Fargo Autograph (a carryover from the original Bilt card), which earns 3x on dining and transit.

My spending isn’t locked to one brand. If I want a flight or a hotel, the points go there. And as of this fall, if I want a train, they go there too.

The thing I wished for happened: Bilt x Amtrak

When I first drafted this article, I wrote that I wished Amtrak would do what airlines and hotels already do and join a transferable points program, so I could earn everywhere on a flexible card and cash out on Amtrak whenever I wanted. I wrote that if Amtrak ever opened that door, you’d see me edit this article.

Well, here’s the edit.

On September 23, 2026, Bilt added Amtrak Guest Rewards as a transfer partner. It’s the first and, so far, only transferable points currency that moves into Amtrak. The ratio is 2 Bilt points for 1 Amtrak point, the transfer lands almost instantly, and the minimum is small.

I’ll admit my first reaction to 2:1 was a groan. Most Bilt partners transfer 1:1. But Amtrak points are worth a lot per point, about 2.67 cents each when you redeem them for a fare. So a Bilt point sent to Amtrak still comes out around 1.3 cents of train travel. That’s not amazing. It’s also not bad, and Bilt has a habit of running transfer bonuses that change the math.

Which is exactly what happened on Rent Day. Bilt runs a promotion on the first of every month, and in October 2026 it was a bonus on Amtrak transfers that scaled with your Bilt status. Blue members got 25% extra, Silver got 50%, Gold got 75%, and Platinum got 100% (or 125% if they spent some Bilt Cash on it). I’m Silver. So I moved 48,000 Bilt points and got 36,000 Amtrak points, which works out to 1.5 Bilt points per Amtrak point instead of 2.

36,000 Amtrak points is roughly $960 in train travel, and I earned extra for paying rent.

My fares between Vermont (where my family lives) and New York (where I live) are usually between 2,000 and 3,000 points. That’s going to be several years of free trains around the east coast for me.

So does this mean the Amtrak card is dead to me? Not quite. It means the question changed. It used to be Amtrak card or no Amtrak card. Now it’s Amtrak card or Bilt card, because both can fill your Amtrak account. So I ran the numbers.

How I ran the math of the Amtrak Credit Cards vs Bilt Credit Cards

Okay, so I got lucky with the Bilt transfer bonus on October 1st. On a normal day, you need 2 Bilt points to earn 1 Amtrak Guest Rewards point. So let’s run the math, at least for me, purely for Amtrak.

Spending. I put about $1,500 a month on my Bilt Blue card, so $18,000 a year. That’s my everyday spending. My dining, transit, and Amtrak tickets go on the Autograph at 3x, and my groceries go on a different card, so none of that is in this number. I’ll come back to the Autograph spending.

How Bilt pays you on rent. My rent is high (I won’t share because I’m embarrassed), but trust me, it’s NYC high. Since the Bilt 2.0 relaunch, rent points aren’t free anymore. How many you earn depends on how much you spend on the card, and you pick one of two setups. I cover that in-depth in my Bilt article, but here’s how it shakes out for my option, the Bilt Cash option.

You earn 4% back in Bilt Cash on everything you buy, and every $30 of Bilt Cash unlocks 1,000 points on your rent. So on $1,500 a month, I earn $60 in Bilt Cash, which unlocks 2,000 points on my rent. Add the 1,500 points from the spending itself and that’s 3,500 Bilt points a month, or 42,000 a year. (The other setup would only get me about 20,700 rent points a year instead of 24,000, so Bilt Cash wins for me.)

Put another way, every dollar I put on Bilt Blue earns about 2.33 points once I count the rent points it unlocks. That’s why my dining and transit go on the Autograph, where I get 3x, and not on Bilt.

I get into all of this in my Bilt 2.0 review.

This is the same catch I wrote about in that review. With high rent and normal spending, I don’t come close to unlocking full points on my rent. Keep that in mind, because if your spending is closer to your rent, Bilt looks even better than what follows.

Point values. I’m valuing Amtrak points at 2.67 cents each. For Bilt, I show the standard 2:1 transfer and the Rent Day bonus I just used. Rent Day bonuses on Amtrak aren’t guaranteed to come back, so treat the 2:1 row as the honest floor.

All right, here’s the math.

The free cards, Amtrak Guest Rewards Mastercard vs. Bilt Blue

	Amtrak Guest Rewards Mastercard	Bilt Blue
Annual fee	$0	$0
Earning	1x on this spending (its 2x categories are Amtrak and dining)	1x everything, plus 4% Bilt Cash that unlocks rent points
Points on $18,000 of spending	18,000 Amtrak	18,000 Bilt
Rent points unlocked with Bilt Cash	0	24,000 Bilt
Amtrak points per year, standard 2:1	18,000	21,000
With a 25% Rent Day bonus (Blue status)	n/a	26,250
With a 50% Rent Day bonus (Silver status)	n/a	31,500
Value in train travel	about $481	about $561 to $841
Welcome offer	up to 20,000 Amtrak points	$100 in Bilt Cash

On my everyday spending, Bilt Blue comes out ahead even at the standard rate. The free Amtrak card would earn 18,000 Amtrak points a year on that spending. Bilt Blue earns me 42,000 Bilt points, which is 21,000 Amtrak points at 2:1 and 31,500 with the bonus I got as a Silver member.

Look at where Bilt’s points come from, though. Without rent, Bilt Blue loses badly.

Take rent out of the picture and Bilt Blue earns 18,000 Bilt points on that spending, which is only 9,000 Amtrak points at 2:1. The free Amtrak card earns 18,000 on the exact same purchases.

The Amtrak card also does better than this table shows on the spending I left out. It earns 2x on Amtrak tickets and dining. That’s the spending I put on the Autograph for 3x, and Autograph points can’t move to Amtrak. So for every $1,000 of train tickets, the free Amtrak card would earn 2,000 Amtrak points (about $53 of travel), where I earn 3,000 Wells Fargo points and zero Amtrak points. I’m fine with that trade, because I value Autograph points close to Bilt points and I have enough airline partners to send them to. If Amtrak points are all you want, that’s a point in the Amtrak card’s favor.

The welcome offer gives the Amtrak card a head start in year one, up to 20,000 points against $100 in Bilt Cash. Cardholders also get 5% of their points back when they redeem, which nudges the Amtrak card’s yearly number to about 18,900. If you only care about year one, the Amtrak card wins. At 2:1, it would take Bilt Blue most of a decade to make up that head start. With a transfer bonus like the one I caught, it passes the Amtrak card in year two.

The fee cards, Amtrak Preferred vs. Bilt Obsidian

These two cost almost the same, $99 for the Amtrak Guest Rewards Preferred Mastercard and $95 for the Bilt Obsidian. The Obsidian earns 3x on either dining or groceries (you pick once a year, and groceries cap at $25,000), 2x on travel, and 1x on everything else.

This one is a hypothetical, because it isn’t my situation. My dining goes on the Autograph and my groceries go on a different card (lol), so on my real Bilt spending the Obsidian would earn exactly what my Blue earns and cost $95 more. So let’s pretend. Say $400 of that $1,500 a month were groceries, and I picked groceries as my 3x category.

	Amtrak Preferred	Bilt Obsidian
Annual fee	$99	$95
Earning	1x on this spending (its 3x and 2x categories are Amtrak, dining, travel, transit and rideshare)	3x groceries, 1x everything else, plus 4% Bilt Cash that unlocks rent points
Points on $18,000 of spending	18,000 Amtrak	27,600 Bilt
Rent points unlocked with Bilt Cash	0	24,000 Bilt
Amtrak points per year, standard 2:1	18,000	25,800
With a 25% Rent Day bonus (Blue status)	n/a	32,250
With a 50% Rent Day bonus (Silver status)	n/a	38,700
Value in train travel	about $481	about $689 to $1,033
Yearly perks	Companion coupon, one-class upgrade, lounge pass, 20% back on onboard food and drinks, 1,000 status points per $5,000 spent	$100 in hotel credits (two $50 credits, two-night minimum)
Welcome offer	up to 30,000 Amtrak points	$200 in Bilt Cash

Now, Bilt’s $95 annual fee card, Obsidian, pulls further ahead in this hypothetical, 25,800 Amtrak points versus 18,000.

More than half of that gap is 3x on groceries, a category the Amtrak card doesn’t reward at all. With a Silver-level Rent Day bonus it’s 38,700 versus 18,000. Not close.

But points aren’t the whole story with the Preferred. The perks are where it earns its fee. The companion coupon alone can be worth more than $99 if you use it on a real trip.

The upgrade, the lounge pass, and the 20% back in the cafe car add up for a heavy rider. And the 1,000 Tier Qualifying Points per $5,000 spent (3,000 a year at my spending) push you toward Select status, which earns 25% more points on every ride. The Obsidian’s hotel credit is worth $100 if you book two qualifying stays through Bilt, and nothing if you don’t.

And like the free card, the Preferred does its best work on spending that isn’t in this table. It earns 3x on Amtrak tickets, so every $1,000 of train fares is 3,000 Amtrak points, about $80 of travel.

Without rent, the Obsidian earns 27,600 Bilt points, or 13,800 Amtrak points. The Preferred earns 18,000 plus its perks. So obviously don’t get a rent card if you don’t have a high-ish rent. And in year one, the Preferred’s welcome offer of up to 30,000 points dwarfs the Obsidian’s $200 in Bilt Cash.

Bilt points have a lot more flexibility

Everything above treats Bilt points as Amtrak points in waiting. But they don’t have to be. Bilt points transfer to a long list of airline and hotel programs, most at 1:1, including World of Hyatt, United, Air France-KLM Flying Blue, and Air Canada Aeroplan.

For me, pre-Amtrak, it was Hyatt or Avianca. Amtrak points can only ever be Amtrak points.

• You decide later. With an Amtrak card, the choice is made the moment you swipe. With Bilt, the points sit in a flexible account until you need them, and you can wait for a transfer bonus like the one I caught.
• The rest of Bilt. If you choose the Bilt Cash setup, that 4% back can go toward Lyft rides, dining, and hotel bookings, not only rent points. And for bigger spenders there’s the Bilt Palladium ($495 a year), which earns 2x on everything. It’s not a train card, so I left it out of the matchups.
• To be fair to the Amtrak card. The 5% points rebate, the onboard food rebate, the companion coupon, and the status points only come with the Amtrak card. Transferring Bilt points into Amtrak gets you the points but none of the perks.

So for me, I’ll stick with Bilt

If I didn’t already have the Bilt card, it might be a tougher decision. But it doesn’t make sense in my eyes to open up another line of credit for a card that’s marginally, if at all, better than a card I already have.

Credit cards are not supposed to create complexity in your life.

Even putting that aside, the addition of Amtrak to Bilt’s transfer partners means I get a lot of the upside of the Amtrak credit cards, with a lot more flexibility.

More on Amtrak points and riding the rails

Want to understand the points behind all this first? Start with how Amtrak Guest Rewards points work, and see my full Bilt 2.0 review for everything Bilt beyond trains.

Then check out how I find cheap Amtrak tickets, my Amtrak BidUp tips for upgrading your seat, and Amtrak for first-timers if you’re new to the rails.