While The Platinum Card® from American Express offers many travel and lifestyle perks, it is also one of the most expensive cards on the market with an annual fee of $695 per year (see rates and fees).
Meanwhile, slotted below the Amex Platinum is the American Express® Gold Card, a product that carries fewer benefits but a more palatable $325 annual fee (see rates and fees). Both cards offer a variety of statement credits and perks to help offset their yearly fees.
Every cardholder has their own reasons for considering a downgrade, and the Amex Platinum is one card I consider downgrading from often. From Walmart+ memberships to Equinox credits, a laundry list of perks was introduced to lend the card even more potential value (enrollment required for select benefits). While there is no doubt that benefits are great, there is also a point at which quantity trumps quality, especially when considering an annual fee that is nearly $700.
If you’re thinking about a downgrade from the Amex Platinum Card, here are three reasons to migrate to the Amex Gold Card and how to do it to maximize your points potential.
Quick comparison of Amex Platinum vs. Amex Gold
Here’s how the Amex Platinum and Amex Gold cards stack up.
| Amex Platinum | Amex Gold | |
|---|---|---|
| Annual fee | $695 | $325 |
| Earning rates |
|
|
| Welcome offer | Earn 80,000 points after spending $8,000 on purchases within the first six months of cardmembership. | Earn 60,000 points after spending $6,000 on your new card in the first six months of cardmembership. |
| Built-in credits |
Enrollment is required for select benefits. |
Enrollment is required for select benefits. |
| Lounge access | Access to the American Express Global Lounge Collection, which includes Centurion Lounges, Priority Pass, Airspace and Escape lounges, along with Delta Sky Clubs on same-day flights. (Effective Feb, 1, 2025 cardmembers are limited to 10 visits to SkyClubs per year. Unlimited visits can be unlocked by spending $75,000 in a calendar year)
Enrollment is required for select benefits. |
None |
| Hotel status | Complimentary Gold status with the Hilton Honors and Marriott Bonvoy loyalty programs
Enrollment is required for select benefits. |
None |
| Cellphone protection** | Up to two claims; $800 per claim, up to $1,600 per 12-month period; $50 deductible | None |
| Trip interruption, cancellation and delay coverage** | Trip interruption/cancellation: $10,000 per trip, maximum of $20,000 per account per 12-month period
Trip delay: Up to $500 per trip when the delay is six or more hours; up to two claims per 12-month period |
Trip interruption/cancellation: None
Trip delay: Up to $300 per trip when the delay is 12 or more hours; up to two claims per 12-month period |
| Concierge | Dedicated Platinum concierge | Standard Amex concierge service |
*Your Amex Platinum or Amex Gold must be added to the Uber account and you can redeem with any Amex card; only valid on U.S. purchases.
**Eligibility and Benefit level varies by Card. Terms, Conditions and Limitations Apply. Please visit americanexpress.com/benefitsguide for more details. Underwritten by New Hampshire Insurance Company, an AIG Company.
Why you might downgrade to the Amex Gold
You don’t want to deal with so many credits
The Amex Platinum has a plethora of annual statement credits that span a variety of categories from shopping (Walmart+ subscription) to travel (up-to-$200 airline fee credit) and much, much more.
Casual Amex Platinum users should, therefore, take a closer look at what these credits are. It’s clear from the specific nature of several of these perks that many cardholders will not be able to fully utilize all of them. With an annual fee of $695, you’ll want to at least use several without having to go out of your way.
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There are at least 10 credits on the Amex Platinum: four are yearly, four are monthly, one is biannual and one is every 4 1/2 years. The annual credits are for Clear Plus, prepaid hotels, Equinox, SoulCycle and airline fees; the monthly credits are for digital entertainment, Walmart+ and Uber Cash; the biannual credit is for Saks Fifth Avenue; and the credit for a Global Entry/TSA PreCheck enrollment fee is every 4 1/2 years.
Meanwhile, the Amex Gold simply has two credits and is, therefore, much easier to manage. These include an up-to-$120 annual dining credit and up to $120 in annual Uber Cash.
It is also worth noting that a number of credits for both the Amex Platinum and the Amex Gold require enrollment before you can use them.
Related: Does it make sense to hold an Amex Platinum and Amex Gold Card?
You don’t need airport lounge access or hotel elite status
Several other Amex Platinum travel perks also provide significant value that can’t be pegged to specific dollar amounts. But for more casual travelers, these perks might not be of much use.
For example, you’ll get one of the most comprehensive airport lounge memberships with the Amex Platinum. Specifically, you’ll enjoy Priority Pass Select (enrollment required), access to Amex’s ever-growing collection of Centurion Lounges and access to Delta Sky Clubs when flying Delta Air Lines. (Effective Feb. 1, 2025, cardmembers will receive 10 visits per year to Delta Sky Clubs or to grab-and-go clubs when traveling on a same-day Delta-operated flight with the ability to unlock unlimited by spending $75,000 in a calendar year.)
That makes the Amex Platinum one of the best cards for airport lounge access. Platinum cardholders can also register for Gold elite status with both Marriott and Hilton and even enlist the help of premium concierge services.
However, the Amex Gold might be a better fit if all of these travel amenities seem superfluous.
You care more about earning points for everyday spending
The Amex Platinum excels in many ways, but earning on everyday spending is not one of them. Earning 1 point per dollar spent on all purchases aside from eligible airfare booked with American Express Travel or directly through the airlines for 5 points per dollar (up to $500,000 spent every calendar year, then 1 point per dollar) and hotels booked with American Express Travel, which earns 5 points per dollar and has no spending cap, doesn’t make it a winning card to carry every day.
Meanwhile, the Amex Gold earns 4 points per dollar spent at restaurants (on up to $50,000, then 1 per dollar point thereafter) worldwide and supermarkets in the U.S. (on up to $25,000, then 1 point per dollar thereafter), where a large portion of the typical household’s spending goes each month. Earning 3 points per dollar spent on airfare obviously isn’t 5 points per dollar, but it means you are not entirely missing out on potential rewards when carrying the Amex Gold.
Related: 8 ways to make the most of the Amex Gold Card
How to ‘downgrade’ to the Amex Gold
Let’s start by making one thing clear: If you decide to downgrade your Amex Platinum, you might want to close it outright and then open a new Amex Gold rather than directly requesting a downgrade to the Gold. Why? Well, because with Amex, a card product change will not qualify you for the welcome offer on the card, and you likely don’t want to miss out on that.
The strategy
Currently, the Amex Gold is offering a welcome bonus of 60,000 Membership Rewards points after you spend $6,000 on your new card in your first six months of card membership (although you may be targeted for an even higher bonus when you apply using the CardMatch Tool; offer is subject to change).
This publicly available bonus is worth another $1,200 based on TPG’s November 2024 valuations.
Note that you can usually only earn the welcome bonus on any Amex card once per lifetime, so if you’ve earned the bonus on the Amex Gold before, you’ll probably be out of luck. And while Amex doesn’t officially require you to hold a card for a certain period before downgrading it, you should likely wait at least one full year before canceling or downgrading the Amex Platinum.
Another alternative is to downgrade your Amex Platinum to the American Express® Green Card since Amex Platinum, Gold and Green cards are all considered to be within the same card family. Once you do that, you can apply for the Amex Gold outright (but of course, that means you still have two cards).
The information for the Amex Green Card Card has been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.
Retention offers
Before making a final decision on whether to cancel or downgrade your Platinum, it is definitely worthwhile to give Amex a call (or live chat) when your annual fee is due to see if you’re targeted for a retention offer. These offers are essentially Amex’s last-ditch effort to, well, retain you as a cardholder. Ask to be transferred to the Amex retention line when you call and to speak with someone from that department.
In the past, I’ve received 20,000 Membership Rewards points just for keeping my card open for another year.
Bottom line
Downgrading from the Amex Platinum to the Amex Gold may be a good option for some cardholders.
If you only want to pay one annual fee, you can frame the question as follows: Do you want higher everyday earning rates on a wider variety of categories? Or, do you want valuable travel and lifestyle perks that will add luxury to your upcoming travel? If the first option sounds like you, then the Amex Gold may be a better fit. But, if the second scenario aligns with your needs, you may want to keep the Amex Platinum.
However, know that there is room for both of these cards in your wallet. In fact, the Amex Gold and the Amex Platinum complement each other very well as part of the Amex Trifecta.
Apply here: Amex Gold
Apply here: Amex Platinum
For rates and fees of the Amex Platinum, click here.
For rates and fees of the Amex Gold, click here.
