I reeled in a great deal on a round-trip train ticket from Vermont to Washington, DC for the Thanksgiving holiday.
For just 4,000 points, you can travel the entire length of the Northeast corridor on Amtrak — over 500 miles.
I transferred 8,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points to my Amtrak Guest Rewards account to purchase a round-trip ticket for my daughter.
The points transferred instantaneously!
The retail price of the round-trip ticket on her travel dates is $239.
Points redeemed in this fashion are worth 3 cents apiece. This is a value proposition!
I earned these points through routine spending on my Chase Freedom credit card.
Amtrak Guest Rewards has a number of blackout dates around popular holidays when award tickets are not offered. Fortunately, there was no problem with our preferred travel dates.
Amtrak used to run a train to Montreal — “The Montrealer” — but dropped the line when Congress cut back funding.
Back in the day, I took the Montrealer from DC to White River Junction, Vermont and had a cute little “roomette” with a lie flat seat.
I met my friend who was hiking the Appalachian Trail and we hiked together across the Connecticut River to Hanover, New Hampshire. We had a refreshing swim in the Connecticut River.
Fortunately, when Amtrak was hit with budget cuts, the state of Vermont picked up the slack to keep the train running.
Now we have “The Vermonter” train line which runs from Washington, DC to St. Albans, Vermont.
You get a lot of train travel for just 4,000 points!
I enjoy using my points to enable family visits. In my book, transfers to Amtrak are one of the most valuable uses out there for domestic travel.