Compare the Features and Benefits of American Express® Gold Card and
Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite MasterCard

💳 This card earns American Express Membership Rewards points. American Express often runs transfer bonuses where you can get even more points when you transfer to airline or hotel partners at designated times. Transfer bonuses are awesome. Get 20%, 30%, 40% or more bonus miles when you transfer points at the right times. But they are easy to miss!

You can see all past Transfer Bonuses from American Express Membership Rewards here.

Even better? Get notified when a new transfer bonus comes out and again before it ends (either or both, your choice). Sign up for free alerts right here. 🔔

The American Express Gold Card (and the Rose Gold version of the Amex Gold Card) is one of my favorite credit cards on the market.

While many cards have more bonus categories or more features, the simplicity of a card that earns 4X American Express Membership Rewards points on both dining (up to $50,000 annually; 1X thereafter) and at U.S. supermarkets (up to $25,000 annually; 1X thereafter), given how much of my monthly spend is in one of these two categories, makes it an easy top-of-wallet choice. 3X on airfare is also nice.

It helps that I have no problem at all using the included credits, living in a major metropolitan area. In fact, I’ve generally used both of the included credits at GrubHub and Uber Eats by the fifth of each month! The Resy credits are also easy to use if you live in a major metro area (although admittedly not as easy if you don’t!). And the $7 Dunkin’ credits come in handy if you live in a Dunkin’ heavy area (which we do).

While I wouldn’t make it my only credit card, it definitely complements other cards nicely. If you already have the American Express Platinum Card, for example, you’d be better off using the Platinum card for its many benefits and 5X on airfare (up to $500,000 on these purchases per calendar year), but using your Amex Gold Card for your groceries and restaurant expenses.

Keep in mind that all of your American Express Membership Rewards points accrue to one master account. As long as you have at least one card open that earns Membership Rewards points, your points will never expire.

This includes no-annual fee cards like the Blue Business Plus.

Rates and Fees for the American Express® Gold Card

Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Select® World Elite MasterCard is the perfect card for travelers that even periodically fly American. For a $99 annual fee (waived the first year), cardholders and travelers on the same reservation enjoy preferred boarding, a free checked bag on American Airlines flights, and 25% savings on inflight food and beverage purchases.

Cardholders earn 2x American Airlines AAdvantage® bonus miles at restaurants and gas stations and on eligible American Airlines purchases. All other eligible purchases earn 1x AAdvantage® miles per eligible dollar spent.

Each dollar spent on an American Airlines credit card earns 1 Loyalty Point. That means cardholders can earn elite status in the AAdvantage program just by spending on the AAdvantage® Platinum Select card. For example, you can earn AAdvantage® Gold elite status with just $40,000 in purchases on the card in a year.

Note that the sign up bonus and spending category bonuses count as American Airlines AAdvantage® bonus miles. That means you won’t earn Loyalty Points on these AAdvantage® bonus miles. As an example, if you spend $5,000 at gas stations in a year, although you’ll earn 10,000 AAdvantage® miles on these purchases, it will only count as 5,000 Loyalty Points.

American Airlines currently charges $40 for a first checked bag on domestic itineraries. Considering you and up to four travel companions can check a bag for free, this one credit card perk can save you up to $400 per round-trip flight. The catch is that this perk only is offered on domestic flights. Unfortunately, cardholders can’t check a bag for free on American Airlines international flights.