Bilt members can now put their rent toward a seat on the Acela. The housing-payments rewards program announced this month that Amtrak Guest Rewards has joined its roster of transfer partners, making the national railroad the 26th travel brand to accept Bilt Points and the first outside the airline and hotel categories.

The exchange rate is 2:1, so 2,000 Bilt Points become 1,000 Amtrak Guest Rewards points. Transfers happen in the Bilt app or on Bilt.com in 1,000-point increments, with a 1,000-point floor that rises to 2,000 for members at Blue Status, the program’s entry tier. Members have to link an Amtrak Guest Rewards account before their first transfer.

The two programs overlap in ways that make the math attractive. Amtrak’s Northeast Corridor connects Washington, D.C., Philadelphia, New York, and Boston, and all four rank among Bilt’s busiest markets, which means a meaningful slice of the membership already rides the rails between its own apartments. Amtrak points out that award travel starts at 400 Guest Rewards points, or 100 points plus cash, a low bar that lets even modest balances turn into a ticket. Beyond the corridor, Amtrak runs more than 40 routes across 46 states and into Canada, and the railroad has been posting record ridership and revenue.

“For a lot of our members, the train is how they see their family, get to work, and get away for a weekend,” Ankur Jain, founder and CEO of Bilt, said in prepared remarks. “Amtrak is our first rail partner because it’s one way people actually move between where they live, their neighborhood, and where they’re headed. The housing payments they’re already making should be what gets them on board.”

“Bilt and Amtrak Guest Rewards are focused on delivering meaningful value to our members,” added Dev Koushik, Amtrak’s interim chief commercial officer. “This partnership gives customers another way to turn everyday rewards into travel, making it easier to enjoy the benefits of Amtrak Guest Rewards while staying connected to the people and places that matter most.”

Amtrak Guest Rewards is free to join and pays out points on every dollar of Amtrak travel, with bonuses for Business Class and Acela First Class fares. Elite-tier members collect additional earning bonuses along with upgrades, lounge access, and companion coupons.

The Amtrak deal lands on the consumer side of a business that has spent much of this year building a presence on the advisor side, too. Bilt paid $30 million in March for Sion, the commission-reconciliation platform used by more than 8,000 advisors and tracking upwards of $7 billion in bookings. In August, it opened Bilt OS for Hospitality to advisors, a booking and back-office platform keyed to an agency’s IATA number that folds in Sion’s commission tracking, an itinerary builder, an AI concierge, and a client self-booking tool, priced on a monthly subscription plus a per-PNR fee. 

Put together, Bilt is building both ends of the same pipeline: a member base with points to spend on travel and the software advisors use to book it and get paid, and the Amtrak deal just gave those members one more place to spend.

For more information, visit www.bilt.com/p/amtrak.

Air France Stopover Program Turns Paris Layovers Into Trips

United Airlines to Screen NFL, College Football Games In-Flight

Expedia Group, Redion Announce Travel Protection Partnership

Fora: 78% of Families Would Pay More for Accessible Travel