[Sam]

The wife and I are not new to travel, however, we’ve been hearing sooooo many people taking advantage of points to travel and for hotel.

My good friend mentioned the American Express Gold card for a start, but in researching, I’ve read that the Platinum would benefit us more..

It’s extremely confusing so I’m asking if anyone knows which card is better???? The Platinum is $695.00 annually, the Gold is $325.00 annually..

Help us please…

[Jonathan]

You’re much better off starting with Chase due to the 5/24 rule if you’re really going to get into travel hacking.

And then as others have said you would do a gold before a platinum, but that’s not a move until you’re over 5/24.

Check out, Ten X travel insiders, like others have said, it’s a great starting point and the course is free.

[Jessica]

The AMEX Platinum can only get the card holder into the Centurion lounge. Your wife would have to pay to get in.

She would only be able to get into Priority Pass lounges for free as your guest.

The AMEX Gold is great if your primary spending category is groceries and restaurants.

I have both, but the AMEX Gold is my everyday card.

[Endri]

Gold card is only good for the first year sign up bonus. The benefits aren’t great, especially if you couple it with their 6% cashback grocery card, why do you need 4 points back when you can get 6.

And they have 4 points dining but other amex cards with 0 fees have 3 points dining, 3% transportation, airfaire etc and cheaper yearly fees.

[Katie]

You should get both cards, but you can no longer get the Gold card once you’ve got the Platinum so start with Gold and then Platinum.

[Megan]

It would be very, very unstrategic to start with either, especially the Plat due card family restriction rules Amex recently introduced on their personal charge card.

Getting a Plat immediately would shut you of SUB eligibility for the Green and Gold.

You also want to be mindful of Chase 5/24.
MRs are a great flexible points currency but they require the redeemer to have developed more intermediate redemption skills including.

They also aren’t great for hotels.

Start a Chase Sapphire product for each of you with the first person referring the second.

Play a SUB focused game
Build out strong redemption skills.

[Catherine]

Amex has a tier system where if you start with the platinum, you would not be eligible for the other card sign up bonuses.

I would also argue that the platinum might have a higher sign up bonus and gets you some credits and lounge access, unless you are spending thousands of dollars on airfare, it’s not the best to truly benefit you.

The goal is to get as many points as possible and minimize the annual fee by using the credits available on the credit card.
My wallet is:

Amex Platinum for airfare for 5x
Amex gold for restaurant and groceries (which a lot of our spending is on this)

Chase sapphire reserve for all other travel (parking, trains, buses, airfare that doesn’t accept Amex internationally, hotels) and restaurant that don’t accept Amex for 3x

Capital one venture for 2x on everything else
All of our traveling is international at this point for the last 3 years so having another card outside of Amex is important because there will be a place that won’t accept Amex even though we use it 85% of the time

Have over 275K points after just using ~350k last year
Make sure to look at transfer partners for each credit card. They are different for each card.

And don’t redeem points through travel portal or you just defeat the whole purpose of the point game.

[Scott]

“Which is better”
Depends on what YOU value more!

I love the Amex platinum, as I live in a city that has a Centurion lounge.

Amex gold has 4X points at grocery stores.
That is of no value to me, but can be of value to you.

[Grant]

Long time platty holder here. Love the lounges and have had great experiences with AMEX as a whole.

[Linda]

Before you get ANY cards in this hobby, take one of the free courses online to get the basics, like the offered by 10X travel.

There are others. The order you open your cards is important.

Most recommend the Chase Sapphire Preferred to begin with.

Ive been travel hacking for a few years now and its worth it to learn a little bit before you start down the road.

[Connie]

Check out travel freely app too. It will help you keep track of your cards, remind you when annual fees are due, makes recommendations on cards.

I think 10x actually has something similar too.

[Keith]

I have both the platinum and Hilton aspire. Love the perks on both but probably more on the Aspire.

[Tracy]

If you get the platinum first then you aren’t eligible to ever get the signup bonus for the gold. If you get the gold first, you would be eligible for the both.

With that said, the Chase Sapphire Preferred is the best card in the points and miles game (in my opinion.)

[Lois]

Another vote for 10x travel. There’s so many ins and outs. Card family you chooses (Chase vs Amex vs Capital One) determines what type of points you earn.

Not all points transfer to all airlines or all hotels. Chase is very popular because those points transfer to Hyatt (and other hotels like IHG, Marriott…) AND you can get fabulous Hyatt hotels for relatively few points compared to other hotel chains.

I also have Amex Platinum and love it for travel lounges, but even that pricy travel card doesn’t get you into all lounges in every airport. You can get all this info from 10x travel.

I’ve never spent a penny on them- not sure why a previous comment called them spammy-

We’ve taken several trips with essentially free air and hotel.
Golden rule: no store cards.

[Jeannette]

Better depends on your circumstances. What are you looking for? In general, the gold is better for turning out as you get four points and the platinum is good for booking flights.

[Lisa]

We personally carry a delta Amex reserved, a hotel cc, and a United card. Hubs flies both airlines and uses their longes- the card offers companion fare so I’m covered for two flights min.

Then expenses on the hotel card is 5xs for food, restaurants and gas so that pays for our stays

[Kessin]

Just a note…if you want points for hotels, Amex plat/gold is not where you want to go. Chase transfers to Hyatt, which is a pretty superior awards program.

There’s a whole lot more to it, but I’d definitely look into what your points would get you. Not all points are created equal, or used for the same things.

Travel hacking is amazing and has changed my life…but it takes time to learn.

There’s bank rules and a definite order of operations you should follow.

Happy learning and traveling!!!

[Alex]

Be careful with Amex if you think you’ll really play the sign up bonus cc game. They have language in their applications that if you start with the Platinum or gold, you will be ineligible to receive SUBs on the lower tier cards.

So, if you start with Plat, no SUBs on Gold or Green, ever. So, if you think you’ll try to maximize the SUBs, start with Green, then Gold, then Plat.

Plat has the most Travel benefits, but it is awful at earning points on every day spend. You only get bonuses on Airfare (5x), and Hotels (5x on hotels booked through their portal).

Gold is good for Groceries and dining. 4x points on both.
Green has the most bonus categories, but it’s kinda all over the place.

IMHO the best cards to start out with are Chase Sapphire Reserve (great travel credit and easy to use) or Chase Sapphire Preferred (lower annual fee, and no travel credit).

[Yoki]

What airline do you fly and is there an Amex lounge at your usual airport? The hotel perks with the platinum are great and the lounge is pretty great.

We fly frontier a lot and for our home airport the capital one lounge is better so I wish we got the venture x card instead.

Especially since we can bring our kids for free.

The frontier credit card is the best one in my opinion. We fly it often and genuinely save $400+ each flights in perks.

That’s before touching the miles we earn.

[Candace]

Also depends on where you want to travel…not everyplace worldwide will take the amex card, if you’re looking to accrue points and have benefits for lounges.

I love my chase sapphire reserve card.

It’s a visa, which is more widely accepted and chase has been opening up nice airport lounges as of late.

It’s $550 but you get $300 back with ‘travel expenses’, which include gas and food.

[Connie]

If you’re working on earning points you may want to consider the green, gold, then platinum. AMEX has new rules where you can only get SUB for each card per “lifetime” although might actually just be 7 years from what I’m reading.

But if you start with platinum, then you won’t be able to get the SUB for green or gold (basically can’t get a lower level card). But you can green, then the gold, then platinum and get SUB for all 3 cards.

For me, I skipped the green AMEX, got a good SUB for the gold and plan to open up the platinum next. Only mild regret from not getting those additional AMEX points.

Don’t add your spouse as authorized user. One person open up a card (example – Gold first), then refer your spouse for the same card so you both get the SUB and you’ll get a referral bonus.

Then spouse can refer Amex back to you and you get the platinum, then refer her to get the platinum.

You can always cancel after the first year if you don’t want to pay the annual fee again (but wait until after fee hits account in a year otherwise they may take points back!).

I hear 10x is good. I got started with travel mom squad group/podcast (some men are in group too)

I’d learn about about Chase points, 5/24 rule, opening up business cards.

Can be overwhelming to learn at first, but addictive when you get started!

[Author]

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