Amex Platinum vs Amex Gold: Is the Upgrade Worth It?

Transcript

What Julia says in this video.

Amex Platinum costs $895 a year. But if you already carry Amex Gold, that's not your real price, and the real one isn't what you'd guess. I'm Julia, and this is Julia's Wallet. By the end, you'll know whether the upgrade is worth it, and which trip decides it.

$895 is the annual fee for the main Platinum card. The first thing that shrinks what it really costs you is a fee you already pay.

Gold's annual fee is $325, and Gold's whole pitch is food. That matters, because an upgrade doesn't put Platinum next to Gold in your wallet. It takes Gold's place.

So upgrading costs $570 more a year. That's the starting bar: what Platinum has to hand back in things you'd buy anyway. Every chapter from here moves it, and not always the way you'd expect.

Say a family already uses Gold's Uber Cash and Resy credit. My rules: one normal year, bills paid in full, and welcome offers kept out of the yearly math.

Short version: Gold keeps this job, unless your year includes hotel stays that Platinum's credit pays for, booked prepaid through Amex Travel. Exactly how many of them is the big question. Everything else moves the gap, starting with the credits.

Amex Platinum's Uber Cash is $15 a month, plus a $20 bonus in December. Before I add it up, take a guess: if you already carry Gold, how much of that is new money?

Gold already gives you $10 in Uber Cash every month, and an upgrade doesn't let you collect both: you hand one in to get the other.

Over a year, Platinum's Uber Cash comes to $200, and Gold's to $120. So the upgrade only adds $80. The card page shows the whole credit; your wallet only feels the difference.

The same swap happens at dinner. Platinum pays statement credits of up to $100 quarterly at qualifying U.S. Resy restaurants, on dinners this family already buys.

Gold's Resy credit is up to $100 each calendar year, not each quarter. So on the same dinners, Platinum's covers four times as much.

Over four quarters that's $400 on Platinum, so Resy adds $300. Put it together with Uber, and the bar drops to $190. Two credits in, and the upgrade's price has fallen by two-thirds.

If you like seeing what an upgrade really adds, subscribe; that's what we do here, one card decision at a time. But before you call it almost paid for, we haven't counted the food points yet, and that's where Gold earns its keep.

Here's what an upgrade takes away. Without Gold, this family's food needs a new home, and the honest one is a no-fee 2% card like Citi Double Cash: 2% on every purchase, with nothing to track.

Amex Gold earns 4 points per dollar at restaurants worldwide. That's the rate people love it for, and it's exactly what an upgrade gives up.

U.S. supermarkets earn 4 points per dollar too, and this family's U.S. supermarket bill sits well under the yearly limit. So every food dollar earns Gold's 4 points.

What's a point actually worth in dollars? Say this family spends its points on flights through Amex Travel, at 1 cent per point. That's Amex's published rate for Platinum; for Gold, it's my assumption.

On this family's $12,000 of food, Gold's points are worth $480 at a cent each, twice what Double Cash pays. So Gold beats Double Cash by $240 a year. Upgrade, and that money walks out the door with Gold.

Here's where Platinum fights back: 5 points per dollar on flights bought directly from airlines. It's Platinum's answer to Gold's food rate, aimed at the airport instead of the dinner table.

Gold isn't weak here either. It earns 3 points per dollar on flights purchased directly from airlines, so on this family's airfare, the two cards are only 2 points per dollar apart.

On $4,000 of flights, Platinum's extra 2 points win back $80, so Gold's earning edge shrinks from $240 to $160. Add that to the $190 left after the credits, and the bar climbs to $350. That's the real price for this family, the one I promised. To close it, Platinum's other credits count only if they replace bills you already pay, and for this family, the one big enough to matter is the hotel credit.

Platinum's hotel credit gives you up to $300 back in statement credits every half of the year, on prepaid Fine Hotels + Resorts or The Hotel Collection bookings through Amex Travel. Book any other way, and that credit never shows up.

But the portal isn't always cheapest. Say the Amex Travel price runs $60 more than booking the same stay direct. Then one stay saves $240, not the full credit. And that only counts for a trip you'd take anyway.

So with one getaway a year against that $350 bar, Platinum still ends up $110 short. For a one-trip family like this one, Gold keeps the job, as long as the points go to flights. A second trip changes that, but first, what that shortfall buys you.

What does Platinum's extra cost get you at hotels? Gold already gets The Hotel Collection's $100 credit when you book two nights or more through Amex Travel, so the upgrade's hotel value starts with the half-year credits and Fine Hotels + Resorts itself.

And Gold doesn't currently come with lounge access. So if one getaway still leaves Platinum short for you, the leftover cost pays for the lounges and any other Platinum credit you'd truly use. Whether that's worth it is your call.

Platinum is still $110 short, so change just one thing: a second prepaid stay this family would take anyway, booked through Amex Travel in the other half of the year.

The credit resets each half of the year, so two stays save $480, and Platinum ends $130 ahead. The winner changes, and nothing else had to move to get there.

But all of this assumed points at a cent. If you're the one-getaway family, one habit can still change this. Some people use their points to cover charges on the bill, which Amex values at 0.6 cents per point on Platinum; for Gold, I'm assuming the same. Second guess: does that help the pricier card, or hurt it?

It helps Platinum. At 0.6 cents, Gold's food points still beat Double Cash, but only by $48 a year. On flights, Gold's 3 points now lose to Double Cash's 2%, so those flights move to Double Cash. Platinum's 5 points still beat Double Cash, by $40 a year. Take that off Gold's food edge, and Gold's whole earning edge shrinks to just $8. At a cent a point, it was $160.

Now the bar is just $190 plus that edge, so $198, and one $240 stay is enough: Platinum ends $42 ahead. Notice why, though. Both cards earn less this way; Gold just loses more. That's no reason to buy a pricier card, but if covering the bill is already your habit, it shrinks what Gold is protecting.

Or why choose at all? You could keep Gold for food and add Platinum for travel. Gold's dining credit, up to $120 a year at partners like Grubhub, has no Platinum twin. This family doesn't use it, so the upgrade math never counted it, but it's why keeping both can work.

Keep Gold beside Platinum, and its food points still beat putting that food on Double Cash by the same $240 a year, at a cent a point. Against its $325 fee, that leaves Gold $85 short. But if that dining credit replaces takeout you already order, Gold comes out $35 ahead. Gold's own Uber Cash and Resy credit might add more, but I can't confirm both cards' versions stack, so I haven't counted them.

Upgrading for a bonus? Know this: Amex says that when you upgrade, you may not be eligible for welcome offers, since you're not technically a new applicant. That was one family. Across three household budgets, which card scores higher? And why doesn't the score alone settle it for a family like this?

On our everyday card test, the Wallet Scores are Amex Platinum 45 and Amex Gold 67, both out of 100. They mostly measure value after costs across the same 3 household budgets; the rest is reward flexibility, the work involved and 2 specific protection checks. They're a shortlist, not your answer.

Gold's biggest strength: it fits more of the food spending in our standard budgets. Platinum's biggest tradeoff: a much larger fee that needs more particular travel benefits to work. Both scores use a fixed 1 cent a point on flights, like our example; partner transfers need real bookings to compare. I'd choose between their jobs, not their prestige. Paying for both needs enough separate value for both fees, without counting a saving twice.

Is the upgrade worth it? Yes, with two prepaid Fine Hotels + Resorts or Hotel Collection stays, one per half, for a family like this using Uber and Resy credits. One stay is enough only if you cover charges with points. No stays, or one with flight redemptions? Then Gold keeps the job. Beside Platinum, Gold pays, by our count, only if its dining credit replaces takeout you already order and points go to flights.

If it's the lounge you're after, your next decision is whether a different lounge card beside Gold could do that job. So look at your calendar and tell me: one getaway or two in your year, and do your points go to flights or to the bill? See you next time.