American Express® Gold Card

American Express just refreshed their Premier Rewards Gold Card and renamed it “American Express Gold Card.” It is now a metal card.

Most importantly the card raises the bar for points-earning at restaurants worldwide and US grocery stores, while retaining strong points-earning on airline spend. And they’ve added a new monthly credit for dining.

This was already the most underappreciated card. It was just refreshed 3 years ago but that’s an eternity in the rewards card space.

Today’s changes to the product – for me – make it the most rewarding card for ongoing spend, although it’s still important to use another card for spending outside of bonus categories because you never want to earn just one point per dollar on anything.

American Express Gold Card: Best Points-Earning Card for Ongoing Spend?

There’s a standard (boring) formula for cards these days, commonly referred to in the industry as “3, 2, 1” — triple points on spend with a card’s own brand, double points on some other category, and one point per dollar one everything else.

That’s not the case here. They’ve gone to four points per dollar in two different categories. Here’s the bonus earn structure:

• 4X Membership Rewards points at restaurants
  
• 4X Membership Rewards points at U.S. Supermarkets (on up to $25,000 in purchases each calendar year, then 1 point per dollar spent)
  
• 3X Membership Rewards points on flights booked directly with airlines and amextravel.com

The card will no longer offer 2 points per dollar on gas, though current Premier Rewards Gold Card Members will continue to receive that bonus until October 4, 2019.

American Express Gold Card Earns One of the Most Valuable Currencies

American Express Membership Rewards points transfer to,

• Star Alliance: Aeroplan, ANA, Singapore
  
• oneworld: AsiaMiles, British Airways, Iberia
  
• SkyTeam: Aeromexico, Alitalia, Air France KLM, Delta
  
• Non-alliance: Etihad, Emirates, El Al, Hawaiian, JetBlue, Aer Lingus, Virgin Atlantic
  
• Hotels: Choice, Hilton, Starwood (soon to be Marriott)

The real winner here is ANA for its really great Star Alliance award chart — sure they require roundtrip bookings, but nothing wrong with a throwaway Tokyo – Honolulu coach return segment when booking first class US-Asia.

Etihad, Singapore, and Air France KLM have really useful spots though all participate with other transferable currencies. Etihad lets you book American Airlines awards at American’s pre-devaluation miles pricing. Singapore and Air France offer lots more award space to people using their miles instead of partner points.

Hawaiian is useful for booking their own metal flights to Hawaii, especially now that you can no longer use American miles to fly between the mainland and Hawaii on Hawaiian.

Ongoing Dining Credit

The new American Express Gold Card has an up to $10 in statement credits monthly you can earn when you pay with the American Express® Gold Card at Grubhub, The Cheesecake Factory, Goldbelly, Wine.com, Milk Bar and select Shake Shack locations. Enrollment required.

As you can see from 4 points per dollar on restaurant spend, and a monthly dining credit, American Express really wants to capture cardmember dining spend. That’s the new battleground card issuers are fighting over.

I hosted a panel at Cardcon last month which included the Capital One executive who runs the Capital One® Savor® Cash Rewards Credit Card which offers $0 annual fee the first year (then $95); 4% back on dining (and entertainment), 2% at grocery stores, and 1% everywhere else.

We talked about capturing business from new affluent consumers through their dining spend, an approach based on the oft-repeated insight that millennials prefer experiences over things, and the social aspect to paying for a meal with friends (and so the extent to which card design on a good dining card matters, and becomes a talking point, to socially sell the product to others).

Worth It

The new American Express Gold Card has $120 in potential dining credits. And the increased points-earning alone should be worthwhile for anyone spending $128 a month in dining and groceries [$1536 in annual spend produces an extra 2 points per dollar worth 1.8 cents apiece in my estimation or $55.30 in value]. If you spend more than that you come out ahead even without the dining credit.

Is This the New Best Rewards Card?

Earning Chase points and American Express points are similar in value. Chase has United, which trumps Delta, and Hyatt which offers better value for transfers than American Express’ Marriott relationship (and far more than Amex’s Hilton relationship). But American Express has more transfer partners. Both have Air France and Singapore. American Express has Etihad, ANA, and Aeroplan.

The question, for me, then is whose card earns the most points? This is a more valuable card for restaurant spend than Sapphire Reserve and basically matches on airfare. It also gives 4 points per dollar on US grocery store spend. (Sapphire Reserve can also be tough to get approved for, my expectation is that approvals for this card will be easier.)

What is lacks is bonus spend on travel that isn’t airfare. However if you have a card with your preferred hotel chain you’re well-covered there already.

Three points per dollar on airfare is trumped by The Platinum Card® from American Express which offers five. It’s the single best return on grocery store spend, and most people don’t put out more than $2000 a month to grocery stores. It’s the single best return on restaurant spend as well, and that’s uncapped. This is a real home run for ongoing earn for spend.

Of course you should still put unbonused spend on a card that offers more than one point per dollar. For instance The Blue Business® Plus Credit Card from American Express earns 2 Membership Rewards points per dollar spent on your first $50,000 in charges each year and the Amex EveryDay® Preferred Credit Card will earn at least 1.5 points per dollar spent each billing cycle you use the card at least 30 times.

I’m Going to Start Using This Card

I used to have a Premier Rewards Gold card, so I do not expect to be eligible for a new cardmember bonus signing up. My wife is a current cardmember, I’m thrilled for the new benefits on the American Express Gold Card, and so I expect that I’ll become an authorized user on her account. Then I’ll put all of my US restaurant and grocery store spend on the card — and she can pay the bill.

American Express® Gold Card