Make no mistake, The Amex Gold Card has been one of my favorite cards. In fact, I’ve carried it for many years in my wallet, ever since the time it had the $95 annual fee. However, Amex has made many changes over the years. They’ve increased the annual fee to $250 and added new benefits. One of the those benefits is the airline fee credit on the Amex Gold card, which offers a $100 airline fee credit each calendar year.
Amex Gold Card – $100 Airline Fee Credit
According to Doctor of Credit, Amex is set to drop this benefit completely starting January 1, 2022. This post by Doctor of Credit cites a TPG article quoting a spokesperson from American Express confirming the same.
As we are always looking to evolve our Card benefits and services to best support our Card Members’ needs, the Airline Fee Credit on the American Express Gold Card will no longer be available at the end of 2021. Current Gold Card Members will be able to continue to use the Airline Fee Credit through December 31, 2021. We will continue to evolve and enhance our Card benefits and services to provide relevant and rich value to our Card Members in the areas they care about most, so stay tuned!
60,000 Points Bonus
The Amex Gold card is currently offering a 60,000 Membership Rewards points welcome bonus. You’ll earn a welcome bonus of 60,000 Membership Rewards points after you spend $4,000 in the first 6 months of card membership. This should be easy to attain for many folks as Amex is extending an additional three months to meet the minimum spend instead of the standard three months. Similarly, you can find many other elevated welcome bonuses for other American Express cards as well.
60k points for 4k spend in 6 months!
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The Pundit’s Mantra
At the moment, the Gold Card also offers a $120 dining/Boxed.com credit which is split into monthly installments of $10. I doubt we’ll see any changes to that. However, I’ll be glad if the airline fee credit is replaced with something more simple and straightforward to use. However, we don’t know if Amex’s contractual obligations would limit them from offering a simple travel credit like the $300 credit on the Sapphire Reserve.
Overall, I’m happy that this benefit is going away. I’ve always had trouble jumping through hoops while trying to use my airline fee credit, especially when travel has come to a virtual standstill. I just hope that the panacea is not worse than the problem!
Which benefit would you like to see replace the airline fee credit on the Amex Gold Card ? Tell us in the comments section.
Hat Tip to Doctor of Credit
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The Points Pundit loves these newly relaunched Chase credit cards!
Firstly, they offer you a 0% APR for the first 15 months.
Secondly, they have no annual fee and have a lucrative welcome bonus of $200 or 20,000 Ultimate Rewards points after you spend $500 in the first 3 months.
Moreover, you can earn up to 60,000 Ultimate Rewards bonus points in the first year if you maximize the bonus points categories.
They’re packed with brand new benefits and bonus points categories.
Overall, a great option to carry in your wallet for everyday spend!
(Chase’s 5/24 rule may apply to these cards)
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Disclosure: The Points Pundit receives NO compensation from credit card affiliate partnerships. Support the blog by applying for a card through my personal referral links. This article is meant for information purposes only and doesn’t constitute personal finance, health or investment advice. Please consult a licensed professional for advice pertaining to your situation.
The author is pleased to lose the airline credit with no suitable replacement perk? That’s a bit counter intuitive…
Hi Marc,
Thanks for reading. I’d request you to refer to the previous paragraph. I was glad that the airline fee credit was going away hoping that it would be replaced with something better.
“However, I’ll be glad if the airline fee credit is replaced with something more simple and straightforward to use.”.
Amex has now replaced it with a $10 Uber credit each month starting in 2021.
I don’t disagree that a simpler credit would be better, however the Uber credit is not a suitable replacement in the current environment. The average traveler is more likely to spend $100 in incidentals on one flight, rather than consistently spend $10/mo the on Ubers mid-pandemic.
Hoops? What hoops did you have to jump through. It’s pretty straight forward. Pick your airline, generate some fees (or buy a gift card from their WEB site) and get the credit. If that credit isn’t replaced by something equal to or better, I’ll be shutting mine down at the end of ’21. My Chase cards provide to many benefits for me to be paying $250 for not much of anything.