The American Express® Gold Card is one of the most popular credit cards issued by American Express. Keep reading for everything you need to know about the American Express Gold Card!

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Things to know about the American Express Gold Card:

Welcome Offer

The standard offer on this card is 60,000 Membership Rewards points when you spend $6,000 in 3 months.

Annual Fee

This card has a $325 annual fee, which is steep, but keep reading to see all of the benefits that can help offset the higher annual fee!

Bonus Categories

Earn 4x on dining purchases worldwide, on up to $50k in purchases each year
Earn 4x on groceries at U.S. supermarkets, on up to $25k in purchases each year
Earn 3x on flights booked directly with airlines or on AmexTravel.com
Earn 2x on prepaid hotels and other eligible travel purchases booked through AmexTravel.com
All other eligible purchases will earn 1x

Extra Points Earning Opportunity

Connect your credit card to your Rakuten account and earn Membership Rewards instead of cash back on purchases through Rakuten. For more information on how to do this, read here!

Benefits From the American Express Gold Card

$120 Uber Cash - Add your Gold Card to your Uber account and get $10 in Uber Cash each month to use on orders and rides in the U.S. when you select an American Express Card for your transaction. That’s up to $120 Uber Cash annually. Plus, after using your Uber Cash, use your Card to earn 4X Membership Rewards® points for Uber Eats purchases made at restaurants or U.S. supermarkets. Point caps and terms apply.

$84 Dunkin’ Credit - With the $84 Dunkin' Credit, you can earn up to $7 in monthly statement credits after you enroll and pay with the American Express® Gold Card at U.S. Dunkin' locations.

$100 Resy Credit - Get up to $100 in statement credits each calendar year after you pay with the American Express® Gold Card to dine at U.S. Resy restaurants or make other eligible Resy purchases. That's up to $50 in statement credits semi-annually. Enrollment required.
Up to $120 Dining Credit - When you dine at Grubhub, The Cheesecake Factory, Goldbelly, Wine.com, and Five Guys. Enrollment required.

Redeeming Your Points + Redemption “Sweet Spots”

You can cash out your points, redeem travel in the travel portal, or transfer to travel partners. Cashing out points is a horrible value with American Express. It’s only a 1:0.6 ratio meaning that 10,000 points would get you $60 dollars. I highly recommend transferring your points as it allows you to get more value out of your points! (You can often get 200-300% more value when you transfer to partners like Hilton Honors and Flying Blue/Air France/KLM.

1:1 Transfer Partners

I’ll say it again and I’ll say it again, TRANSFERRING YOUR POINTS is the KEY to unlocking SO MUCH MORE VALUE out of your points. There is a reason why people are OBSESSED about their travel reward credit cards and not their cash back credit cards.

You can transfer your Amex Membership Rewards points to 16 airline partners and 2 hotel partners at a 1:1 ratio. For example, if I transfer 20,000 American Express Membership Rewards points to Delta, my points will turn into 20,000 Delta SkyMiles. Then I can book a Delta flight with Delta SkyMiles directly on Delta’s website. You can also transfer to a few additional airlines and hotels at a different ratio, which are noted below.

*Note: if you are transferring your American Express Membership Rewards to a domestic US airline, you will have to pay a airline tax offset fee to do this.

Not all transfer partners are a good value and sometimes it’s a better deal to book through the American Express Travel Portal than to transfer your points. However, transferring to certain transfer partners like Flying Blue is a “sweet spot” where you can get a lot more value out of your points.

Airline Transfer Partners:

Aer Lingus, AerClub
Aeromexico Rewards: 1,000 American Express Membership Rewards = 1,600 AeroMexico Rewards Points
Air Canada Aeroplan
Air France-KLM Flying Blue
ANA Mileage Club
Avianca Lifemiles
British Airways Executive Club
Cathay Pacific
Delta Skymiles®
Emirates Skywards®
Ethiad Guest
Hawaiian Miles®
Iberia Plus
JetBlue TrueBlue®: 250 American Express Membership Rewards = 200 JetBlue TrueBlue® Points
Qantas Frequent Flyer
Qatar Airways Privilege Club
Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club

Hotel Transfer Partners:

Choice Privileges®
Hilton Honors: 1,000 American Express Membership Rewards = 2,000 Hilton Honors Points
Marriott Bonvoy®

Ideas for Redeeming American Express Membership Rewards®

Delta Airlines flights: These can be booked in several different ways with American Express Membership Rewards® points:

You can transfer your American Express Membership Rewards® points directly to Delta Airlines. These points transfer at a 1:1 ratio, although you have to pay a small excise tax for this transfer. This is not always the best redemption, as Delta often charges a higher number of Delta Skymiles for a Delta flight than another Sky Team Alliance member would charge for the same flight. In the example below, you could transfer 50,000 American Express Membership Rewards® points directly to Delta to book this flight from Phoenix to Paris on January 12, 2026 for 50,000 Delta points plus about $6 in taxes and fees.

You may also be able to transfer your American Express Membership Rewards® points to Air France / KLM Flying Blue to book those exact same Delta flights. This will often cost fewer points and you will not be charged the small excise tax to transfer. (However you will likely pay a little more in taxes to book this Delta operated flight with Air France/KLM Flying Blue miles). In the example below, the same flight can be booked just transferring 25,000 American Express Membership Rewards® to Air France Flying Blue, so you are paying HALF the points, and $98 in taxes and fees. We love to utilize this option for our flights to Europe! Air France is a very family friendly brand, and you will save 25% on points bookings for children ages of 2-11.

If two options aren’t enough for you for Delta, you may also be able to transfer your American Express Membership Rewards® points to Virgin Atlantic Flying Club to book those exact same Delta flights! This first option shows you would just transfer 15,000 American Express Membership Rewards® to Virgin Atlantic Flying Club to book the same flight for 15,000 points plus $158 in taxes and fees. There is also the option to pay a lot more points (41,000 Virgin Atlantic Flying Club points) plus $6 in taxes and fees for a different flight that is not direct and contains a layover.

Other Airline Sweet Spots:

Transfer your American Express Membership Rewards® to British Airways Avios in order to book domestic US American Airlines flights.
Transfer your American Express Membership Rewards® to Air Canada Aeroplan to book domestic US flights on United Airlines.
If you’re looking to fly to Europe in style, you can transfer you American Express Membership Rewards® to ANA for bookings with Star Alliance. These flights must be round-trip bookings, but you could potentially transfer just 100,000 points to fly round-trip to Europe in business class.

Hotel Sweet Spots:

You can transfer your American Express Membership Rewards® to a Choice Privileges®, Hilton Honors, and Marriott Bonvoy®. For more info on Hilton sweet spots, check out this post here.

Referral Bonus

The standard referral bonus for the American Express Gold Card is 15,000 referral bonus points for each friend who uses your referral link to apply for any American Express credit card. You can earn up to 100,000 referral points per calendar year. If you have a spouse or travel partner, I recommend REFERRING them to their own card instead of adding them as an authorized user. That way, you can both earn the welcome offer plus you will earn referral points as well!

Combining Points in Your Household

Generally, you cannot combine American Express Membership Rewards® points with someone in your household. The only way around this is if you are an authorized user on a spouse’s American Express credit card that earns Membership Rewards® (like this Amex Gold card). You have to be an authorized user on the card for at least 90 days before you’re able to combine your points between both accounts. However, I usually recommend NOT adding your spouse as an authorized user on your credit cards, as it will count towards their 5/24 status. Read more about the 5/24 rule here.

Combining Points From Other Cards

American Express will automatically combine the points that you earn from your American Express Gold Card with the points that you earn from other American Express cards that earn Membership Rewards® points. These include cards such as the American Express® Green Card, the Platinum Card® from American Express, the American Express Blue Business Cash™ Card, the Business Green Rewards Card, the American Express® Business Gold Card, and the Business Platinum Card® from American Express.

American Express Rules

American Express has a “one bonus per lifetime rule”. You can only earn the welcome offer on each card once. (Date points suggest that a “lifetime” is actually seven years.)

There is also a personal card “family rule” that can limit the welcome offers you are eligible to earn on some credit cards if you don’t open the credit cards in the right order. These rules apply to the Amex Green Card (the card in this family with the least expensive annual fee), the Amex Gold Card, and the Amex Platinum Card (the card in this family with the most expensive annual fee). If you start with a higher annual fee card, you are no longer eligible to receive a welcome offer for the cards with a lower annual fee. What does this mean for you? In order to be eligible to receive all three welcome offers, you need to apply for the American Express personal cards in order of lowest annual fee to highest. The Green, the Gold, and finally the Platinum Card, in that specific order.

Bottom Line

While the American Express® Gold Card comes with a higher annual fee, the value it offers can easily outweigh the cost. With elevated points on dining and groceries, generous monthly food credits, and a strong lineup of transfer partners, you have the potential to unlock incredible travel rewards—whether you're booking flights or hotel stays. For those who maximize its benefits, this card can be a true game-changer.

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Ultimate Guide to the American Express® Gold Card