How do I choose between Amex cards based on my spending mix?

Start with your last three months of statements

Do not choose from the benefit list. Pull three months of statements, total your spending on dining, groceries, flights, hotels, and everything else, and multiply by four for a yearly picture. The right Amex is the one whose bonus categories sit on top of your biggest real numbers.

All three cards earn the same Membership Rewards points, which transfer to the same airline and hotel partners. Your spending mix and the credits decide the card; the points themselves are identical.

What each card actually pays on your categories

Flights direct vs hotels through travel sites

A common point of confusion: the Platinum's 5 points per dollar applies to flights booked directly with the airline or through Amex Travel, but its 5 points on hotels applies only to prepaid bookings made through Amex Travel. Book a hotel directly with the chain on a Platinum and you earn 1 point per dollar.

So if you are a book direct hotel loyalist chasing hotel elite status, the Platinum's hotel earning mostly will not apply to you, and the Gold's dining and supermarket rates may return more points on your real life. If you are happy to prepay hotels through Amex's portal, the Platinum's rate and its hotel credit both come into play.

Credits are the tiebreaker, but audit yourself honestly

The Platinum's 895 dollar fee is only rational if you use its credit package: up to 600 dollars a year in hotel credits for Amex Travel bookings, 200 dollars in airline fee credits, 200 dollars in Uber Cash, 400 dollars with Resy restaurants, 300 dollars in digital entertainment, and more, each with enrollment steps and timing rules. The Gold's package is smaller and simpler: monthly dining and Uber credits worth up to 240 dollars a year plus Resy and Dunkin credits.

The test for every credit is the same: would you have spent that money anyway? Credits that push you into new spending are a discount on things you did not want, not a fee offset.

How you redeem should confirm the choice

If you redeem by transferring points to airlines for international flights, any of the three works, since they share partners; pick purely on earning and credits. If you mostly redeem through the Amex Travel portal at fixed value, high fee cards get harder to justify, because portal redemptions return less per point than good transfers, so lean toward the Green or Gold.

And if honesty says you will redeem rarely and mostly want lounge comfort and status style perks, the Platinum is really a perks membership with a card attached. Price it that way.

Quick profiles

• check_circleFoodie household, two or three trips a year: Gold. The 4x on dining and supermarkets compounds all year.
• check_circleWeekly flyer or lounge regular: Platinum. Flight earning plus lounges plus credits fit your life.
• check_circleCommuter who travels on a budget: Green. Transit plus travel plus dining at 3x for 150 dollars.
• check_circleBook direct hotel loyalist: Gold or Green, since Platinum hotel earning requires the portal.
• check_circleBig spender past the Gold caps: split spending, or add a second Amex rather than switching.

Common questions

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