But the cents-per-point ratio is much higher doing it that way. 1,000 points costs $500, or 50 cents per point. To earn enough points to redeem for a round-trip two-zone roomette award, you'd need to spend $20,000.

You can get the same 1,000 AGR points on a $178 spend on Acela (a round-trip on an $89-each-way fare)--that's 17.8 cpp. Earning that way, you'd only need to spend $7,120 to get that cross-country sleeper award.

Of course, the best way to earn AGR points is to fly CO on some mileage-run-worthy fares of 2 cpm and transfer those miles to AGR. You can earn enough points to redeem a ticket with a value of $2,686 for a measley $800. Or, even better, redeem 60,000 points for a round-trip bedroom award (worth $4,748) for $1,200.

(Oh, and if you can hit CO Gold Elite, which you would by flying 60,000 miles on CO, you get a 100% point bonus (whereas AGR's top tier only gives you an additional 50% points). That makes next year's Amtrak trip cost half as much if you earn the miles on CO!)