how do you convert amtrak to UA miles? thanks.

step 1: earn 5000 Guest Rewards points.
step 2: call up Amtrak (or do it online) and ask for a transfer to your account.

UA, CO, and YX are partners at present; 5000 points equals 5000 miles, 1:1. cool, huh?

(oh yeah. i got Select, too. apparently, 5 Acela Express trips was "enough" even without making 5000 actual points. heh.)

Is there a way of converting dollars charged on the MBNA Amtrak Great Rewards card to UA miles. I do a lot of international and would like to avoid the 2% conversion charge. But, of course, I would also like those foreign charges to rack up UA miles.

Is it possible?

Thanks,

willie--wonka

You can get 5000 United miles for 5000 Amrtak points.

Sorry, that's not the question I meant to ask.

Do you get Amtrak miles for dollars charged on the MBNA Great Rewards card or only for miles travelled?

Let me know, please.

willie--wonka

You get 1 Amtrak point/mile for every dollar charged on the MBNA Amtrak Mastercard. So, $5000 charged on the card gets you 5000 Amtrak points which gets you 5000 UA miles. It's a great alternative to the FirstUSA Mileage Plus Visa card. Same conversion rate, no annual fee, and you are dealing with MBNA instead of FirstUSA.

Thanks Jerryff,that's exactly what I'd hoped for. Already have the Amtrak Great Rewards Card and an application in to MBNA. Hope it comes in time for the next trip, as I really don't want to use the First USA Card with those added fees.

willie--wonka

Make Your Reservations Faster And Earn An Extra 250 Points!

Book your travel online between May 1 and May 31, 2002, and then
travel before June 30, 2002, and you will earn 250* Amtrak Guest Rewards
bonus points per segment. You'll enjoy our improved booking system that's
simple and fast, with easy-to-read icons to help you identify available
trains and accommodations and considerably fewer "clicks" when booking
business or pleasure travel. So give it a try! Go to www.amtrak.com today
and start saving time and earning additional points!

* Maximum of 500 bonus points per day, per member. Points will be
automatically applied approximately 30 days after completion of promotion
period. Offer applies to online booking only.
This is from the Amtrak Guest Rewards website under Special Offers.

I have done a search but havent come up with the answer to-
can I transfer UA miles to amtrack then to CO?
I do know you can do the reverse but I want them out of UA to CO.
if so where do i need to go on the amtrack website to do this?

No, that's not possible.

thanks Eugene!

Oh.-but let me get this right.
I can transfer 20.000 CO to Amtrak and it =20000 amtrack
then i can transfer to Hilton=40.000
is that how i read it?
sorry if it is a dumb question but i have been toying with this forum for only a short while.
Also can you transfer online or do you need to call a certain number.

[This message has been edited by tinkybelle (edited 12-28-2002).]

Been thinking about getting the Amtrak card to replace my HHonors Visa card.

Are there any catches I should watch out for?

I've heard about 25K annual xfer limit. This means I can only transfer out 25K Amtrak points per year. How do they demarcate that year? Calendar year? Can I do 25K in December then again in January? This limit shouldn't be a big issue for me, since I only expect to charge $10K a year or so.

I figure I can always transfer to HHonors at the same rate (HH Visa earns 2 pts. per $, Amtrak card earns HH by transfer at the same rate), but this card gives a heck of a lot of flexibility to fly.

Miles --> Works on
UA --> UA, US, DL
CO --> CO, NW, soon DL
YX --> YX, Frontier, soon AA

So you can earn towards travel on all the majors. Nice.

Clearly at $10K annual, I won't be earning quickly. But instead of automatically "sweeping" miles earned by flying from my FF accounts to my HH account, I can now conceivably leave some of those miles in the FF account then boost them with Amtrak transfers.

Any other considerations?

I just spoke to Guest Rewards and was told that miles can transfer out of both UA and CO and be redeemed for UA, CO and YX.

And this is from YX's website, so the transfer works both ways with YX, too:
"Add miles to your account by exchanging Amtrak Guest Rewards® points for Midwest Miles. Amtrak Reward points may be transferred into miles* in 5,000 point increments, with 5,000 points equaling 5,000 miles. Or, turn miles into Amtrak Guest Rewards points in the same increments."



[This message has been edited by Family flyer (edited 03-05-2003).]