In March 2019, I took the Amtrak Lumet train from Portland, Oregon to Chicago. earned some money amtrak guest rewards I earned points on this trip, but I haven’t ridden Amtrak since. So I wasn’t surprised when I recently received a notification from AwardWallet that my Amtrak points were set to expire on April 6th.
I’m not sure if I’ll ever use these points, but I thought I’d look into Amtrak’s expiration policy and see if I could extend them. This is what I found.
Do Amtrak points have an expiration date?
Amtrak points expire after 24 months of inactivity.
According to Section D of Amtrak Terms of Use“Points earned under the Program will not expire as long as the Program continues and the Member’s Program Account is active. ‘Active’ means that the Member has changed his or her membership number within 24 months. means to earn and/or redeem Program Points using . If any qualifying activity initiated by a Member is not recorded or reported within 24 months, the Member’s Points will expire. ”
So the key to keeping your Amtrak points from expiring is your account activity.
Related: Best credit cards for Amtrak and rail travel
How to check the expiry date of your Amtrak points
When I log into my Amtrak Guest Rewards account and look around, I don’t see my points expiration date anywhere. This solution is a slightly more complicated workaround.
After logging into your account, click your name in the top right corner of the window,[マイ アカウント]Select. From here, in the left sidebar[マイ トランザクション]Click to see recent Amtrak Guest Rewards activity.
If you’re worried about your points expiring, recent activity won’t help you. So change the Start Date to 24 months before your current date and click Search.
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My most recent account activity was canceling an award reservation on April 5, 2023. Based on this, if you do nothing, your Amtrak points will expire on April 6th after 24 months of inactivity.
Related: Jet vs. Amtrak: What’s the best way to travel between New York City and Washington, DC?
How to keep your Amtrak account active
Amtrak’s terms and conditions state that points will not expire due to earning or redemption activity on my account.
Since your points don’t expire in nearly two months, you have a lot of options. If you’re an infrequent Amtrak user, the most logical options to consider are Earning points on Amtrak trips, Earning points by taking Survey Points Club surveys, Buying Amtrak points, and Earning points on Amtrak trips. Redeem points or earn points by shopping. We work with one of Amtrak’s retail partners.
Unfortunately, since you don’t plan on needing to travel on Amtrak in the future, earning or redeeming points for Amtrak travel is not an effective way to keep your account active. Amtrak no longer charges cancellation fees for awards, so it’s unclear whether they will reset the expiration date if you book and cancel an award.
You also don’t have to shop at Amtrak’s retail partners like 1-800-Fflowers.com, Teleflora, and Vnesse Wines.
Related: You can now search Amtrak routes on Google Flights
The minimum number of points you can purchase is 500 points, which costs $18.85 at a purchase rate of 3.77 cents per point. I may never redeem my Amtrak points, so I’m not willing to pay $18.85 for an additional 500 points to extend the expiration date of my existing points.
My best option is to take Survey Points Club surveys and earn some Amtrak points. Once you complete a survey, your points will often be credited immediately, but it may take up to a week. I signed up for Survey Points Club, answered a few demographic questions, and launched my first survey.
After starting the survey, I couldn’t get past the first few pages of questions. When I said I hadn’t been prescribed pain medication by my doctor in the past six months, the survey read a message saying I wasn’t fit. However, you still earned 5 points when you started the survey.
Now, my Amtrak points are supposed to expire on January 12, 2027. But I would feel more at ease if Amtrak put an expiration date on my account.
Related: How to prevent airline, hotel, and car rental points and miles from expiring
conclusion
It’s annoying that your Amtrak points expire if your account is inactive for 24 months. However, earning points through Survey Points Club was a relatively easy way to keep your Amtrak account active. Points are posted to your account almost instantly, so even if your points are set to expire within a few days, Survey Points Club may be an option for you.
Please note that you will need to manually track the expiration date of your Amtrak points or rely on an award travel tool that tracks the expiration date of your points and miles. As it turns out, the expiration date of your Amtrak points doesn’t show up in your Amtrak account, and Amtrak doesn’t notify you before your points expire.
