I’m relatively new here and I’d appreciate some advice and comments. Although I’ve redeemed my share of international premium seat awards I’ve also saved lots of miles, more than a few hundred thousand on each of United/Continetal, American, US Air and Delta. I’m not a business traveler yet I’ve managed to maintain Premier Executive on United for several years by doing a couple of MRs each year and taking advantage of credit card EQM promotions. I’ve got lifetime Gold on American mainly through BD and Credit Cards bonuses (THANK YOU FT!). My plan is to achieve lifetime Platinum and then not worry about maintaining status with United.

I just signed up for the Amtrak and Choice Hotels programs, I don’t have any plans to actually travel or stay with either of them. I’m thinking about transferring 300,000 or 400,000 or 500,000 United/Continetal miles to Amtrak then to Choice then to American. As far as I can tell I’ll lose 40% of the initial miles in the process but it might be worth it to me. (A quick search for Amtrak and Choice credit cards didn’t reveal any major (>50,000) sign-up bonuses so I’m not certain getting either of their credit cards would be helpful and worth the hit to my ability to get other credit cards.)

I’m wondering if there’s a flaw in my understanding of the transfer process that I’m not aware of. Do the Amtrak or Choice programs require any “real” participation (a train ride or a hotel stay)? Is there a limit to the number of miles or points that can be transferred? Is the process highly time consuming? Is there a significant $ cost? Anything else?

Thank you very much.

Is the transfer important enough to you to basically lose an international first award ticket? ... or two?

The Amtrak to Choice transfer has restrictions and a fairly small cap:

https://amtrakguestrewards.com/redeem/hotelPoints/4013

You either need Amtrak status, or the credit card and Amtrak spend. Even then, it's limited and it would take you several years to make that transfer. It doesn't make a lot of sense.

This may see obvious, but have you gotten all of the AA cards? Both personals and then churning of the business? Also, signing up for a couple of Hilton cards then transferring can get you another 60k or so.

At 25,000 points per year it would take decades to transfer 500,000.

One thing to wonder about is whether Amtrak would change their program significantly without any notice.

But you don't have to wonder-they've did it twice in he past. The first time they limited the number of miles that you can transfer in a year to 25k, which restriction may still be in effect. The second time was to eliminate certain partners to which miles could be transferred.

I don't know when Amtrak will again change its program without advance notice, but I plan my activities on the assumption that, based on the past, they may well do so.

I’m not 100% certain but the answer may well be yes. I have many more airline miles than I could use for several years, even with an international first class award or 2 each year.

I think so. Currently have all 3 personals and 1 business, applying for another business tomorrow. SPG in 2009 and again this year with points transferred to AA each time. 3 or 4 different Hilton cards in the past 2 years. Tomorrow’s “apply-o-rama” will include second (different) AA business, SPG business (have already exchanged referrals) and maybe a Priority Club card (no minimum, quick point transfer). I’m also thinking about transferring Hilton points but that transfer ratio is pretty lame and my Hilton balance isn’t as lofty as the airline programs.


I suspected that might be the situation, I did not see the fine print previously. Even at 50,000 per year the time involved is too much. I suspected there were some flaws with the plan. Thanks very much everyone.

?? asked and answered so we'll close 'er down.