We are planning on taking one of our family train vacations on Amtrak this summer, so I thought that I would do a brief overview of how Amtrak works and why it might be a great option for family train vacations. This is the first of a series of posts on Amtrak and why they can make sense for unforgettable family train vacations.
Amtrak is a transfer partner of Chase Ultimate Rewards
The fact that Amtrak is a 1:1 transfer partner of Chase Ultimate Rewards is the first point to mention. Without it, we would not even be having this discussion. If you’re looking to book family train vacations on Amtrak and you’re paying out of pocket, you might as well just stop right now because it’s not worth it. We are talking several thousands of dollars, just for a train ride of a day or so, and I think that puts Amtrak family train vacations out of the reach of most people.
But with points, family train vacations become that much more affordable! This is one of the reasons Chase Ultimate Rewards are the best points out there!
(SEE ALSO: Chase Ultimate Rewards: 5 reasons I think they’re the best miles out there)
Amtrak blackout dates
There are a few blackout dates where you can’t use points for family train vacations, mostly around holidays. For 2015, those blackout dates are:
- Jan 2-4, 2015
- Feb 13, 2015, Feb 16, 2015 (President’s Day weekend)
- April 2, 3 and 6, 2015 (Easter weekend)
- May 22 and May 25, 2015 (Memorial Day weekend)
- July 2-3 and July 5, 2015
- Sep 4 and Sep 7, 2015 (Labor Day weekend)
- Oct 12, 2015 (Columbus Day)
- Nov 24-25 and Nov 28-29 (Thanksgiving)
- Dec 19-23 and Dec 26-30, 2015, as well as Jan 2-3, 2016 (Christmas and New Year’s)
This actually burned us. Our original planned routes and dates had us going from Toledo to Denver on Jun 23, and from Denver to Toledo on July 1st (NOT a blackout date). But because the Denver to Chicago route is an overnight route, and we have to switch trains in Chicago, that Chicago-Toledo train left on July 2nd, which meant that we could NOT book that with points 🙁
Maximizing the Amtrak Zone Map
Amtrak divides up the United States into zones. There are 3 zones (Western, Central and Eastern) as well as a mini-zone (Northeast) which is both part of the Eastern zone as well as its own zone.
Here are the redemption rates for family train vacation travel using Amtrak Guest Rewards
My $6500 train fare
The best part about the bedrooms is that on most trains (the Superliner trains) they have what they call a Family Bedroom, which sleeps 4 people. So for us (a family of 8), we were able to book just 2 bedrooms. For roundtrip travel within one zone (Toledo to Denver), that cost us 100,000 Amtrak Guest Rewards points (transferred from Chase Ultimate Rewards). Compare that to the 200,000 airline miles it would take to fly the 8 of us there (unless we used something like the Citi AAdvantage Reduced Mileage Awards) and you can see that train travel
Plus as Jason Steele said in his presentation at the Family Travel for Real Life conference, KIDS LOVE TRAINS!
Compare it also to the cash price for those tickets – $6,540.00 (!)
Yikes! That’s a redemption value of 6.54 cents per point, if you care about those kind of things (I don’t particularly)
The other awesome thing about booking a family bedroom is that because it’s considered a “premium” seat, all your meals are included. So we’ll have breakfast, then miss out on lunch (due to the layover in Chicago), but have dinner and then breakfast the next day. On the return trip, we’ll get dinner, breakfast, lunch and then dinner again.
So included in our ticket price are 56 meals (7 meals * 8 people) plus sleeping accommodations for 2 nights! Not bad for only 100,000 Chase points!
As I mentioned above, that picture does not depict our exact route since we got bit by the blackout dates, but we did end up booking something similar. We are going this summer and I’ll be sure to post again with a review!
Have you ever taken the train for family train vacations? Let me know in the comments
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Dan Miller travels with his wife and 6 (SIX!) children. He loves to help families travel for free / cheap, especially larger families. If you are looking for help, drop him an email at 
1. Trains are fantastic. Hoping to do an overnight train with a Roomette soon. Just 15,000 points for one zone with 3 meals!
2. I’m really glad you aren’t a “points per mile” overvaluer. I’m tired of other bloggers overinflating the value of credit card points and miles. If you wouldn’t pay for something, your personal market “has not cleared”, therefore, you can’t value it that highly.
Right. It’s totally unfair to say that my points are “worth” 6.5 cents, because there’s not a chance on this earth that I’d spend $6500 for this trip 😀
Does Amtrak rewards ticket allow stop over?
No. Basically it only allows what shows up on the website, which don’t really offer stopovers.
My little ones loved their overnight train ride! A big adventure for them for sure.
As an adult, I love not having to go through TSA, and also the easy booking policies. Go ahead and make a speculative booking. Need to cancel? Call before the train leaves the station and get all your points back.
Yup, I love Amtrak redemption. I am taking my wife and 2 little kids plus teenager niece and nephew to Florida on Amtrak in June. 55k points for 1 bedroom and 2 roommettes. All the kids are on their first long distance Amtrak train ride so they are very excited… although mom and dad are nervous about 22 hours in a confined space with a 2 yr old. But we’ll have plenty of space to stretch out, food and entertainment for the trip!
That’s awesome! You’ll have to let me know how it goes!
My wife and I did City of New Orleans from Chicago (actually MKE) to NOLA in a bedroom.
Check various days as the rates can be quite different.
The meals are fine, you just pay for alcohol.
It is a great way to start a vacation since you must slow down and do things on their schedule.
I was impressed with their security on checked bags.
I tipped the porters well, they made out trip easy.
I think I’d have a hard time paying cash for an Amtrak, especially in a bedroom. With points though I think they make great redemptions
Do they allow one way routing for half the points?
I wonder how many points I would need for family of 6 from Atlanta to Salt Lake for instance.
I am confused when I saw you being charged per passenger and also per sleeper room?
Family of 4 sleeps in a room for a 3 zone trip for 60k points only? 2 rooms then double this and all food included too?
Thad – yes they do allow one way routing for half the points (or technically it’s all one-way routing and just twice as much for a roundtrip). Being charged per passenger is just an issue when you’re paying cash – with points it’s just the number of points I list in the article.
There’s a couple of ways that a family of 6 could travel – the cheapest would be a family bedroom (sleeps 4) and a roomette (sleeps 2). Atlanta to Salt Lake goes across 2 zones, so that would be 40,000 + 20,000 = 60,000 one-way.
And yes, a family of 4 sleeps in a family room on a 3 zone trip for 60k points.
Look for some followup posts later this week on how to maximize the zone map as well as the difference between superliner and viewliner trips.
Each person’s ticket costs a certain amount of money. The $628 and $314 you see refers to the cost of eight people’s base fare. If they were traveling in coach, that would be the total fare – $942. Because they booked two rooms, they have to pay for the cost of each person traveling plus the cost of occupying those two rooms.
@pointswithacrew – We have never taken a train vacation. Thank you for sharing such a great idea! Look forward to reading your trip report.
I just created an Amtrak Guest Rewards account (0 points right now) and tried to see if I could find Roomette for Austin – Chicago within Central Zone. I tested with many dates as far as early Feb 2016, but it only showed Coach. No Roomette at all. I even tried your route (Chicago – Denver) for 2/11/16 and there was only Coach available. Hmm???? Is it really so hard to redeem for Roomette? Or is it because my account has 0 points? I sure hate to transfer my UR points and end up not redeeming.
This is the page I used : http://tickets.amtrak.com/itd/amtrak/redeem
Any advice is greatly appreciated!!
You don’t need to book there. Just go to amtrak.com and do a reservation on the main site (like you’d be paying cash). If there is availability (and you’re not during the blackout dates), then just call them and book it over the phone.
You can book some travel online but things that require a train change, or maybe the roomette / premium travel has to be booked over the phone
Thanks! One more question. Do you know how soon UR points can be transferred?
They transfer pretty much instantly (to Amtrak at least)
Thank you so much. It was instant when I transferred UR points to United as well.
Will any of your train travel be in New York State? I write for Amtrak’s New York By Rail magazine, and we’re always looking to profile riders with interesting travel stories.
If so, please email me at the email address I’ve provided above. Thanks.
Great article! Sadly, Amtrak and Chase Ultimate Rewards are no longer BFFs – the partnership is no longer (since Jan, 2016).
Correct – that does make it harder to get enough points to do something like this
Are you aware of any other cards that allow you to transfer points to Amtrak other than SPG with a 1:1 ratio?
Unfortunately now that Chase has ended its relationship with Amtrak there aren’t any points that can transfer to Amtrak. Your best bet to get Amtrak points is to sign up for the Bank of America Amtrak card
Thanks so much for the feedback. Wish it were different but will figure a way around…somehow 🙂
For the life of me, I cannot find a “Family” room, but only roomettes regardless of which train and which dates. Are they not allowing family rooms to be booked with points.
Woa, this is so cool! I don’t have a Chase card, but if it’s the only one that allows for the points purchase on Amtrak, I gotta get one! This is an amazing value. An overnight trip I’m considering is $160, so not as gigantic a scope of travel by any means, but the meals would be just icing on the cake.
Unfortunately Chase points no longer transfer to Amtrak 🙁