My experience with my first transfer last month was somewhat different. It took about 10 days for the points to show up in my Amtrak account but when I made the transfer to UA the miles were posted in 4 days. From past experience with these types of things I have come to the conclusion that there is not way to predict how long these transfers will take-sometimes very quickly and sometimes not. By the way, I have experienced that First USA is no longer posting your miles immediately but is now always one statement behind. All in all I think that the free Amtrak card is the better alternative of the two. Of course, the Amex Starwoods is the best of them all. IMHO.