Amex Gold Card Review: My 2018 Comparison, Updated for 2026

Update, October 2026: what’s changed since 2018

The numbers in this comparison are from 2018, and most of the card has changed since. In October 2026 I folded my launch-day post and my “five things to do” post into this page, so all three of my 2018 Amex Gold posts now live here.

• Annual fee: $325 since July 25, 2024, up from the $250 I compared below (Doctor of Credit).
• Earning today: 4x at restaurants (up to $50k a year), 4x at U.S. supermarkets (up to $25k a year), 3x on flights booked with the airline or through Amex Travel, and, under changes announced April 30, 2026, 5x on prepaid hotels booked through Amex Travel (Doctor of Credit).
• The $100 airline fee credit is gone. Amex stopped offering it to new cardmembers in January 2022, and existing cardmembers could use it only through December 31, 2021 (Doctor of Credit).
• Credits now: up to $10 a month in dining credits (Grubhub, The Cheesecake Factory, Five Guys, Buffalo Wild Wings and Wonder; Goldbelly and Wine.com dropped off July 1, 2026), $10 a month in Uber Cash, $7 a month at Dunkin’ and $50 twice a year at Resy (TPG, April 2026). Enrollment is still required for the dining credit.
• The other cards: the Chase Sapphire Reserve has cost $795 a year for new cardmembers since June 23, 2025 (Doctor of Credit); Citi replaced the ThankYou Premier with the Strata Premier in May 2024 (Doctor of Credit) and ended Price Rewind on September 22, 2019 (Doctor of Credit); and Capital One closed the $95 Savor to new applicants in July 2024 and renamed the no-fee SavorOne as Savor (One Mile at a Time).
• The 50,000-point offer and the referral talk below were about 2018 offers. Welcome offers vary, and this site doesn’t use referral or affiliate links.

The method below (value your spending, then add the bonus and only the credits you’ll really use) still works if you swap in today’s numbers.

What’s on this page

• My detailed comparison: Amex Gold vs Sapphire Reserve, Savor and Citi Premier (October 17, 2018)
• Launch day: the new Amex Gold card, your new go-to card? (October 4, 2018)
• Five things to do when you get the card (October 10, 2018)

Is the New Amex Gold Card Really That Great? A Detailed Comparison with Other Cards

Originally published October 17, 2018. This was the main post; the two sections after it were separate posts until October 2026.

Last week American Express released the new Amex Gold Card that offers some compelling new benefits. Quite a few people, and some bloggers, got excited and immediately announced that it would be the demise of the Chase Sapphire Reserve card. I did a quick analysis of the two as well, but frankly it’s hard to compare the two since the “extra” benefits (those beyond the bonus points in spending categories) are so vastly different. In this post I will attempt to quantitatively value the benefits of the Amex Gold Card to the Chase Sapphire Reserve, Capital One Savor, and Citi ThankYou Premier cards to determine which is best for you.

And before I go on, you should be earning a bonus of 50,000 points on the Amex Gold Card. Any blogger (or person) that tells you it’s 25,000 is either interested in making money off of you OR not informed enough to know that there’s a better offer. In either case, that blogger/person is someone you should look to avoid going forward since they’re not truly interested in helping you.

With that being said, I will be comparing the following four credit cards (with links to bonus offers that I’ll discuss below):

• New American Express Gold Card (Referral link with 50K bonus points)
• Chase Sapphire Reserve (50K bonus points)
• Capital One Savor ($500 cash back)
• Citi ThankYou Premier (60K bonus points)

Why did I pick these cards? I wanted to pick one card from the major banks and also cards that offer similar points-earning structures. I had a long list that included the Chase Sapphire Preferred and other cards, but whittled it down to these four offerings.

Most people that read this blog and others are probably familiar with three of the four, with the Capital One Savor card being the exception. That card is of interest here because it is a cash back card that offers the following benefits:

• $95 annual fee, waived the first year
• 4% back on dining
• 4% back on entertainment
• 2% back on grocery stores
• 1% on everything else

Here’s what’s included in the “Entertainment” category “a movie, play, concert, sporting event, tourist attraction, theme park, aquarium, zoo, dance club, pool hall or bowling alley. Also, making purchases at record store and video rental locations.” Reports are that this does not include web streaming services like Netflix. The Citi ThankYou Premier also offers bonus points for the Entertainment category.

When you throw in a $500 sign-up bonus for the Savor card, you can see why it might be worth looking into. So without further delay, let’s compare.

Bonus Categories for Each Card

First let’s go over the bonus categories that each card offers, along with the annual fee that they charge.

 

At this point it’s best to mention the most confusing aspect to people that are new to credit card and other loyalty rewards programs: not all points are created equally. You’ll earn the following with each card:

• Amex Gold Card: you’ll earn Amex Membership Rewards Points
• Chase Sapphire Reserve: you’ll earn Chase Ultimate Rewards Points
• Capital One Savor Card: you’ll earn cash back (statement credits or checks)
• Citi ThankYou Premier: you’ll earn Citi ThankYou Points

The Capital One Savor is easy enough to understand – it’s straight cash back. But the other cards earn points that are difficult to value because each program allows you to use them differently. The difference in transfer partners alone can make them difficult to value. For the purposes of this post, I’m going to use what I consider to be fair market value for each of these points currencies:

• Amex Membership Rewards Points: 1.25 cents per point
• Chase Ultimate Rewards Points: 1.5 cents per point
• Citi ThankYou Points: 1.25 cents per point

These are not how much value you can get out of these points. As experts in loyalty programs know, you can sometimes get 10 times more (or better) than the value listed above, especially when you book first class flights. The values above are instead how much people are generally willing to pay for these points on the open market. If you prefer to use different values, you can adjust my calculations to see what your outcome would be. But in general, if you were able to cash out your points, these are values that would be considered “fair” to do so.

Average Spending in Bonus Categories

Using online news articles about the average spending of Americans, I made assumptions on how much a person/household would spend on their credit card in the categories listed above. This is not scientific in any way, and again you’ll have to adjust for your own spending, but this is meant to be a general guide of how much someone who gets these cards would spend per month/year. I settled on the following averages/totals:

• Dining: $400 month/ $4,800 year
• Groceries: $450 month/ $5,400 year
• Airline Tickets: $200 month/ $2,400 year
• Other Travel: $150 month/ $1,800 year
• Entertainment: $200 month/ $2,400 year
• All Other Purchases: $600 month/ $7,200 year

Note, I also made the assumption that you’ll put all spend on one card. Using combinations of cards to maximize points on all spend is always a good idea, but maximizing value that way is a topic for a different time. This post is intended to clarify which card would earn the most rewards if used exclusively.

And again, I understand if you take issue with the amounts I’m using. If you’re getting a travel rewards credit card with bonus categories, you’re presumably spending a fair amount of money in those categories. Adjust if you feel the need to.

Now we know how many bonus points/cash back each card earns, how much those points are valued, and we’ve estimated monthly/annual spend in the various categories. With that information we can determine how much value we’ll get out of each card for spending:

Monthly Spending/Earning

Annual Spending/Earning

 

As you can see, the new Amex Gold card beats out the other cards in value quite handily, with the Sapphire Reserve trailing by over $100. The big difference between the two can be attributed entirely to the grocery earning – you’ll earn 21,600 points with the Amex versus just 5,400 with the Sapphire Reserve. If you took out this grocery spend entirely, the Sapphire Reserve would win this comparison.

This, however, is not the entire picture. There are at least a few other factors to consider that determine a card’s value. The first we’ll compare is the sign-up bonus.

Sign-up Bonus Comparison

The sign-up bonus is usually the single greatest source of value that you’ll get with a credit card, at least in it’s first year. Typically you’ll see offers of 50,000 bonus points or more (if not you should reconsider getting the card) and those points are valuable as you can see from the charts above.

The Amex Gold, however, has added an extra sign-up bonus at its launch: you’ll earn 20% back in restaurant purchases on the first $500 spent in the first 3 months. Put more simply, if you spend $500 on restaurant purchases in the first 3 months, you’ll get $100 back. It’s a somewhat unique bonus that adds significant value to a card that has a high annual fee that isn’t waived the first year. Here are the current bonuses to each credit card we’re comparing, along with the value of those bonuses.

Using the same point values as earlier in the post, you’ll see that the extra $100 restaurant bonus (again, I’m assuming if you’re getting this card that you’ll be able to achieve this extra bonus) makes it very competitive compared to the others. It’s also where the Capital One Savor card starts to trail off compared to the others. Unless you’re a staunch believer of “cash is king,” you should be swayed away by the value of the other sign-up bonuses.

But, of course, there are also other benefits that some of these cards offer. Let’s see how to quantify those.

Comparison of Other Benefits and Rebates

This section is really devoted to just the Amex Gold and Sapphire Reserve, as the other two don’t really offer any benefits that can be used annually/reliably. The Amex Gold card offers a $100 annual airline fee credit and a $10/month use-it-or-lose-it credit to a limited number of food delivery services and restaurants. The Sapphire Reserve offers a straight $300 travel credit on most travel-related purchases.

As I mentioned in my earlier reviews of the Amex Gold card, Amex is being customer-unfriendly with how they give bonuses. By that I mean they make it intentionally difficult to use these benefits by restricting them. For the airline fee credit, you have to first select the airline from a limited list, and it doesn’t apply to airfare (at least it’s not supposed to). The $10/month credit is for a limited number of restaurants and isn’t as easy to use as a straight annual credit would be. Amex is hoping and expecting breakage, which is the term used for benefits/credits that go unused.

Still, you can purchase gift cards for some airlines using the airline fee credit, so I think it’s fair to assume we can get the full $100 value out of that if you’re a frequent traveler. I’m not so sure about the $10/month credit to a limited number of restaurants. I think it’s more than fair to assume that half of these credits would go unused, so I’m going to value that benefit at only $60.

At the same time, the Sapphire Reserve offers Priority Pass Select lounge membership included with the card. If you’ve used these lounges in the past, you’ll know that it can be a lifesaver. On international trips it allows you to have a hot meal, free wifi, and a shower in many instances. More recently, Priority Pass has been adding restaurants at various airports around the country to its list of lounges. My brother used his recently at DEN with his wife and two kids to get nearly $100 off his bill:

So it’s hard to value this benefit. I can easily see how it could be worth $1,000 to some people or $0 to others that already have lounge access through other means. I’m going to take a conservative approach and use a value of $150 for this benefit.

Here’s where we end up for these extra benefits:

 

There’s no doubt the Sapphire Reserve wins this category, as one would expect for such a large annual fee. And again, these numbers could go up or down depending on how you travel, so adjust accordingly.

Final Valuations By Card

Now that we’ve covered the essential costs, bonuses, and benefits, we can compare the actual value of these cards. I would propose everyone look at these two different ways. First as a “first year value” that includes things like the sign-up bonus and any waived annual fees, and second as a “second year value” that does not include those. This will help you decide if the card is one to keep or not.

First Year Value

Here’s the calculation broken down:

• Year 1 Value = Annual value of points from spending + sign-up bonus points + Other Benefits
• Year 1 Cost = Annual Fee, if any
• Net Value = Year 1 Value minus Year 1 Cost

As you can see, the difference between the Amex Gold and Sapphire Reserve is negligible, and the ThankYou Premier was able to keep close because of its larger 60,000 point bonus. The Capital One Savor card, while offering compelling cash back categories, simply falls behind because the value of points is generally greater.

Again, this is a general guideline using my assumptions above. Your numbers could vary significantly if your spend/travel patterns are very different than what I detailed above.

Let’s see how the cards compare after the first year.

Second Year Value

Every card’s Net Value gets cut by more than half in subsequent years due to the lack of the sign-up bonus. The Amex Gold and Sapphire Reserve remain close, while the Citi ThankYou Premier drops off a cliff and the Capital One Savor remains noncompetitive.

 

Summary

So what did we learn, and what’s the “right” answer? I think we learned that it’s not black and white as to which card you should choose. It’s fair to rule out the Capital One Savor card, as its return simply doesn’t match up to the others. The Citi ThankYou Premier performed better than I expected, due almost entirely to the fact that it’s sign-up bonus is at 60,000 points right now. If you don’t have that card already, I think it’s worth getting at this higher bonus. You might also find additional value in the Citi Price Rewind benefit.

Then it comes down to the Amex Gold card and the Sapphire Reserve. If you’re deciding between the two, I think the answer comes down to how much you’ll use and value Priority Pass lounges. If you’ll be a heavy user of those lounges, the Sapphire Reserve is likely the right card for you.

On the other hand, if you’re in my situation and already had the Sapphire Reserve card, I think the decision is actually easier after this analysis. The first year value of the Amex Gold card is over $1300 – that’s something you want to take advantage of regardless of anything else. At that point your decision comes to whether or not to cancel the Sapphire Reserve. Let’s put it this way – if you’re reading this post you’re probably a traveler, and will get the entire $300 annual travel credit back. That leaves an effective annual fee of $150 for the Sapphire Reserve. If you value Priority Pass membership more than that, you keep the card. If you value it less, you can cancel it.

But at least in my wallet, I’m deciding to keep both cards. Yes the annual fees of $250 + $450 are starting to get extremely high, but keep in mind they’re offset by many benefits and, for new cards, sign-up bonuses. These more than compensate for the annual fees as you can see above.

I say go ahead and sign-up for the new American Express Gold card, and make sure you earn 50,000 bonus points to do so by using someone’s (even your own) referral link. Then make sure you read my last post on the Five Things to Do When You Get Your New American Express (Rose) Gold Card.

The Just Released American Express Gold Card: Your New Go-To Credit Card?

Originally published October 4, 2018 as a separate post.

Today American Express has officially launched the rumored American Express Gold Card. If that sounds like a card you’ve heard of before, I don’t blame you. They’ve long had variations of gold-colored cards under different names, and most notably for personal users was the “Premier Rewards Gold” card. This new “American Express Gold Card” will take the place of the Premier Rewards Gold card, and it offers a very compelling set of benefits.

Right now most miles/points/travel aficionados’ go-to credit card is the Chase Sapphire Reserve card, and for good reason. It’s a card that offers 3x points on travel and dining, and while it has a massive $450 annual fee, it also gives you back $300 on travel purchases every year. The effective annual fee (assuming you’d spend that $300 anyway) is “just” $150. So basically, if the points you think you’ll earn will be worth more than $150, you’re coming out ahead with the Chase Sapphire Reserve card. That card also offers Priorty Pass Lounge benefits as well.

But now there’s a new entrant in the competition for space in your wallet. The new American Express Gold Card offers the following major benefits:

• $250 annual fee, not waived the first year
• 4x points on dining
• 4x points on grocery shopping (up to $25k/year)
• 3x points on flights booked directly with the airline
• $100 airline fee credit, intended for baggage fees and in-flight food (in the past this has worked for gift cards with some airlines)
• A $10 per month dining credit that can be used at Grubhub, Seamless, The Cheesecake Factory, Ruth’s Chris Steak House and participating Shake Shack locations (Excludes Shake Shack locations in ballparks, stadiums, airports and racetracks.)

If you ask me, this is a very compelling credit card. The optimist would say that the $250 annual fee is offset almost entirely by the $100 airline fee credit and the dining credits. The pessimistic view, of course, is that the airline fee credit isn’t a true “travel credit” like the Chase Sapphire Reserve card, which applies to all travel purchases. And the dining credits are very limited and I would think most people would have to go out of their way to make use them. Amex needs to get their act together and get rid of these customer-unfriendly “gotcha” terms & conditions. There is also no bonus for hotel, car rental, or other travel spend.

But on the flip side, 4x on dining and grocery shopping is significant and 3x on airline purchases are very strong benefits (remember, the personal Amex Platinum offers 5x for flights booked with the airline).

Many of these decisions, of course, come down to the sign-up bonus. Much of the success of the Chase Sapphire Reserve is attributed to not just the benefits of the card, but also to the huge 100K point sign-up bonus it offered when it debuted. This new Amex Gold Card is offering a two-part sign-up bonus:

• 50,000 points after spending $2k in the first 3 months (click here for the offer)
• A statement credit of 20% (up to $100) on restaurant purchases in the first 3 months. Or put more simply: spend $500 on restaurants, get $100 back in the first 3 months.

American Express is not waiving the $250 annual fee the first year and is offering a rather small amount of bonus points for a card that is at the very least a mid-range premium card. Just yesterday the offer on the old version of this card was 50,000 bonus points and the fee was waived the first year. Those that signed up before today are winners, as they got the points, annual fee waived, and the new benefits since their cards will be converted. There are also reports that they’ll get grandfathered in with some of their old benefits, like 2x on gas.

Quick Analysis

This is a coin flip for me, and I think many others will also be on the fence on whether to get this and ditch the Sapphire Reserve card. If Amex came out and offered a big bonus and waived the fee it would be a no-brainer to make the switch. But they didn’t, and the airline fee credit and food credits are not as easy to use as they could/should be.

If you’re on the fence, here’s a few quick scenarios that might help you decide which card to get. Of course there are other considerations like where the points transfer to and whatnot, but I think you’ll get the gist of how you should decide.

Who should cancel the Chase Sapphire Reserve for the Amex Gold Card?

If you got this card and ditched the Chase Sapphire Reserve, you’re probably the kind of person that spends most of their credit card spend on eating out, groceries, and airfare. You also probably have Priority Pass Lounge access with another premium card (Amex Platinum or a premium hotel card, to name a few options). You should have another credit card that earns multiple points for other travel purchases, especially for hotel spending (a hotel credit card would be ideal here if you’re loyal to one brand). You should also be confident that you can make use of the airline fee credit and at least a portion of the monthly food credits.

If that describes you, it’s probably a good idea for you to make the switch.

Who should keep the Chase Sapphire Reserve and avoid the Amex Gold Card?

If, however, your spending habits include spending significant amounts of money on non-airfare related travel (hotels, car rentals, ride sharing, etc.) and the card is the only one you have that offers Priority Pass membership, then you’ll want to stick with the Chase Sapphire Reserve. If you value the ease of the $300 travel credit and don’t want to worry about using Amex’s airline fee credit, the CSR is a good card to keep.

Conclusion

I really want to like this card, and no doubt many others will try to sell you on the 4x points.  At 25,000 bonus points I would sit this out, but now that the 50,000 point offer is available I’m a bit more inclined, especially given the other first-year bonus of $100 on restaurants in the first three months (I’ll hit that cap with no problem). But frankly, it really is a coin flip. I will probably keep my CSR also and could possibly get rid of this card after the first year.

If Amex were to make the airline fee credit a true travel credit, and make the $10 monthly credits available to all restaurant spend, I would drop the CSR and get this in a heartbeat.

Update: See my updated analysis on the American Express Gold Card and why I decided to get it! Then check out the 5 things you should do as soon as you get the card!

Five Things to Do When You Get Your New American Express (Rose) Gold Card

Originally published October 10, 2018 as a separate post.

If you’re like me, you probably got a little bit excited over the news of the new American Express (rose) Gold card. Mine just came in the mail (I signed up the first day it became available) and I’ve already contacted Amex to confirm my sign-up bonus of 50,000 points after $2k spend and 20% back in food on the first $500 (both within the first 3 months). If you haven’t yet, read what I wrote about the card in this post first, and then see how Sriram suggests maximizing the grocery benefit.

If you are thinking about the card, make sure you apply for the 50,000 point bonus and not the inferior 25,000 point offer that other websites are pitching. Those websites are only interested in making themselves money.

If you just got the Amex Gold Card, or in my case the Rose Gold card (totally worth it), then there’s a few things you should remember to do as soon as you get the card.

1. Add the Card to Your Online Amex Account

American Express knows that you have other Amex cards, but they still don’t add the card to your online account by default. Make sure you first activate your card (you can do so online at americanexpress.com/confirmcard). Then, log-in to your existing Amex account. In the top right corner under the “Log Out” button you’ll see a small rectangle showing the default card on your account. Click on that, and it will open up all cards you have on your account. Then you’ll see an option to “Add Another Card.” Simply follow the prompts to add it to your account.

 

2. Register for Your Monthly Dining Credit

As I mentioned in my original post about this card, Amex is being customer-unfriendly by making you first register for benefits and, in the case of this dining credit, only giving it to you in $10 monthly increments. It’s our job to make sure we make the most of these credits, and you have to start by registering.

When you’re logged in to your Amex account, make sure you’re on the page for your new Amex (Rose) Gold card and then click on “Benefits” in the top menu. The various benefits will be listed in boxes (or cards), and the first one should read “New! $120 Dining Credit.” At the bottom of that should be an option to Enroll. Once you click on that it will ask you to agree to some terms and conditions, but that’ll be it. You’ll be enrolled. Now…make sure to use those monthly credits!

Note that in my screen shot below, the “Enroll” button isn’t showing since I’ve already enrolled.

 

3. Register for Your Annual $100 Airline Fee Credit

The other major perk of this card is the annual $100 Airline Fee Credit. You’re probably already familiar with this if you have an Amex Platinum card, but if you’re not, this is another benefit you have to register for. You have to select from a list of airlines, but all the major US carriers are on it. You enroll the same way you do the dining credit. You’ll see that I picked American Airlines in the image below, and inexplicably it still lists US Airways along with it.

Frequent Miler has a pretty good running list of “what works” for the airline fee credit. With some airlines you can get gift cards, others work for award fees, and others work on actual flights (with some price restrictions). Check out his post on how to make use of this benefit in a way that works best for you before selecting your airline. Remember, once you select an airline for this benefit you cannot change it again until January. It’s just another customer-unfriendly policy that Amex has.

Luckily this is a calendar year benefit, so make sure you use it twice before your annual fee comes due next year (assuming you plan on canceling this card).

 

 

4. Confirm Your Sign-Up Bonus via Chat

Confirming the sign-up bonus is something you should do with every credit card you sign up for. You’re fortunate if it hasn’t happened to you yet, but you’d be surprised how often a credit card company can somehow miss your sign-up bonus offer. With this card I used the “incognito” browser trick to display the 50,000 point option (I signed up before it was known that referrals get the same offer), AND I also had the Premier Rewards Gold card in the past, so it was especially important for me to confirm this. The fastest and best way to do so is by online chat, which Milenomics recommended to me (by the way, I participated in an in-depth analysis on this card with Milenomics and Bob Dwyer – check it out here). You can access the online chat by logging in to your online account, and pretty much any page will have a “Chat” button in the bottom right corner of the screen. Simply click it and say you want to confirm your sign-up bonus on the card.

In a conversation that took less than 3 minutes, I was able to confirm not just the 50,000 point bonus, but also the extra 20% off restaurant purchases up to $100. Here were the answers I got (note that he kind of talks like Yoda):

Two bonus you have

50,000 Membership Rewards points after $2,000 or more in qualifying purchases are made on the Card within the first 3 months (92 days) of Card Membership. 

20% Cash back (up to $100) as a statement credit at U.S. Restaurants within the first 3 months (92 days) of Card Membership.

Again, this is good practice with any card. Chat is the best option because you can get it in writing and, if you’re as cynical as me, take screen shots to record the conversation.

5. Add Authorized Users

If you have family/friends/pets that you’d like to give free cards to, you can sign them up easily online. Sign in to your account and make sure you’re on the correct card’s page. There’s a “Useful Links” menu on the right side near the account activity section, and the first option is usually to add additional card members. Just click “Add Someone New” and follow the prompts.

Remember, if you’re considering getting an additional card for a spouse or someone else, just consider having them sign up for their own account. That way they’ll get the bonus points and other bonuses, and they can cancel the card after the first year. If you’re inclined to keep the card beyond the first year, you can get them additional cards on your account at that time.

 

Summary

There’s a lot to like about the new Amex (Rose) Gold card, and ultimately it was the bonuses that pushed me over the edge and made me sign up for the card. Still, I can see why some people may be hesitant to get this card at all. Many have deemed the Sapphire Reserve to be useless now, but I don’t quite see it that way.

I’ll be doing a very in-depth comparison of this new card versus many other cards to see what makes the most sense (edit: here’s a link to the in-depth comparison!). The benefits, bonuses, and point values are so different that it makes it difficult to compare, but I’m going to take a stab at it so you can make an informed decision if you’re on the fence. Look out for that post in the coming days. In the meantime, I’ll be looking for opportunities to show off my rose gold card before everyone else gets theirs in the mail.