This might be the best Amex card combo: Amex Gold and Amex Business Platinum

Given how volatile points and miles programs can be, we often advise in favor of diversifying the types of travel rewards you earn. After all, you wouldn’t want to spend years saving up rewards points only to see that dream flight or night slip out of reach when a program suddenly devalues (or eliminates) its award chart. And that’s been happening a lot these days.

However, it’s sometimes a good idea double down with a specific rewards program – especially if it’s one where the points are transferable to a number of different airlines and hotels. And it can make even more sense when one or more of the cards that earns those points is posting a particularly high welcome bonus.

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One such program is American Express Membership Rewards. Not only do these points transfer to 18 airline and three hotel loyalty partners, but they are also redeemable in any number of other ways. Plus, the cards that participate in the program are also some of the best in the rewards space.

Among them, The Business Platinum Card® from American Express and the American Express® Gold Card are currently offering phenomenal, introductory welcome offers that might have you considering whether to apply for one, the other, or both. The Business Platinum Amex even just added some new perks with up to $1,000 in new annual statement credits to sweeten the deal.

In fact, pairing the Amex Business Platinum and Amex Gold cards might be the best Amex card duo possible, thanks to their highly complementary earning structures and benefits packages.

By carrying both and using them for different purposes, you can rake in even more points, even faster, while enjoying all the benefits the Amex Business Platinum confers and the Amex Gold’s stellar earning rates.

Here are the details on each card’s current terms and some of the reasons you might want to keep both in your wallet.

Related: The power of the Amex trifecta: Platinum, Gold and Blue Business Plus® Credit Card from American Express

Business Platinum Card from American Express details

This excellent small-business card is currently fielding one of its highest-ever introductory bonuses.

Current welcome offer

Earn up to 120,000 Membership Rewards points after spending $15,000 on eligible purchases within the first three months of card membership. That’s 20,000 more points than the previous public offer.

Apply here for The Business Platinum Card® from American Express with up to a 120,000-point bonus.

Annual fee

$595 ($695 if application is received on or after 1/13/2022) (see rates and fees)

Related: Is the Amex Business Platinum worth the annual fee?

Earning rates

The Amex Business Platinum earns points at the following rates:

• Earn 5 points per dollar spent on flights booked through Amex Travel.
• Earn 5 points per dollar on prepaid hotels booked through Amex Travel.
• Earn 1.5 points per dollar on up to $2 million in eligible U.S. purchases per calendar year at: electronic goods retailers, software, cloud service providers, construction materials and hardware supplies, shipping providers; and on purchases of $5,000+
• Earn 1 point per dollar on other eligible purchases.

Statement credits

Cardmembers can count on the following statement credits, including new ones that were added as part of the card’s recent revamp.

• Annual airline fee credit of up to $200 on charges by the airline you select per calendar year.*
• Improved: Annual credits of up to $400 with Dell on U.S. purchases per calendar year — $200 for purchases made from January-June, and another $200 for July-December.
• Up to $100 in statement credits for Global Entry or an $85 fee credit for TSA PreCheck every four years (4.5 years for PreCheck).*
• New: Up to $179 in statement credits toward an annual Clear membership for expedited airport security.*
• New: Up to $360 ($90 per quarter) in annual statement credits on Indeed hiring and recruiting projects and services.*
• New: Up to $150 in annual statement credits on select purchases from Adobe.*
• New: Up to $120 in annual statement credits ($10 per month) for purchases made directly from US wireless telephone providers.

*Enrollment required for select benefits, terms apply.

Related: Big benefits with a high price: Review of the Business Platinum Card from American Express with 125K welcome bonus

Other benefits

Where to even begin? Like the personal The Platinum Card® from American Express, the Amex Business Platinum comes with many value-added perks, including some new ones. Among the most significant are:

• Access to the American Express Global Lounge Collection, which includes Centurion Lounges, Priority Pass lounges, Delta Sky Clubs on same-day Delta flights, and an expanding network of Escape Lounges – The Centurion Studio Partner, among other options.*
• Register for complimentary Gold elite status with Hilton Honors and Marriott Bonvoy.*
• Complimentary memberships in Hertz Gold Plus Rewards, Avis Preferred and National Car Rental Emerald Club Executive.*
• Ability to book stays at luxury properties through Amex Fine Hotels & Resorts with elite-like benefits.
• International Airline Program airfare purchase discounts.
• No foreign transaction fees (see rates and fees).
• Cardholders receive a 35% rebate when they use Pay with Points for a first- or business-class ticket on any airline or an economy ticket on one airline of their choice (up to 500,000 points per calendar year).
• Various travel and purchase protections.
  
• Cell phone protection against theft, damage or loss of up to $800 per claim (with a $50 deductible) and two claims per 12-month period.
• New: Discounts of 20% on Wheels Up Connect and 40% on Wheels Up Core memberships, plus a credit of $500 or $2,000 added to your Wheels Up account for an initial flight taken within the first year, depending on your membership level.

*Enrollment required for select benefits, terms apply.

Related: Guide to lounge access with the Amex Platinum and Business Platinum

American Express Gold Card details

Plenty of bonus categories plus some valuable statement credits make this one of the most well-rounded rewards cards available.

Current welcome offer

The current best public offer is for the American Express Gold Card is 60,000 points after spending $4,000 on purchases within the first six months of card membership. However, via CardMatch, you may be able to earn up to 75,000 Membership Rewards points after spending $4,000 within the first six months (offer subject to change at any time) if you are a lucky targeted individual.

Apply here for the American Express® Gold Card with a 60,000-point welcome bonus.

Annual fee

$250 (see rates and fees)

Earning rates

This card is a spectacular all-around earner. It accrues points at the following rates:

• Earn 4 points per dollar on dining at restaurants (including takeout and delivery).
• Earn 4 points per dollar on up to $25,000 per calendar year in spending at U.S. supermarkets; then 1 point per dollar.
• Earn 3 points per dollar on flights booked directly with airlines or through Amex Travel.
• Earn 1 point per dollar on other eligible purchases.

Related: Impressive 60K welcome offer, great for foodies: American Express Gold card review

Statement credits

This card comes with two particularly attractive statement credits, too.

• Up to $120 in annual dining credits per calendar year: Earn up to $10 in statement credits monthly when you pay with the Gold Card at participating dining partners, including Grubhub, Seamless, The Cheesecake Factory, Ruth’s Chris Steak House, some Shake Shack locations and Boxed.*
• Up to $120 in annual Uber Cash per calendar year: Earn up to $10 in Uber Cash monthly for Uber Eats and Uber rides in the U.S. Must add the card to the Uber app to receive Uber Cash benefit.*
• Up to $100 in hotel credits: Cardmembers who use their card to book a stay of two nights or more through Amex’s The Hotel Collection get a $100 onsite credit for qualifying activities. Depending on the property, this could include dining, spa treatments, or other activities.

*Enrollment required for select benefits, terms apply.

All told, that’s $240 in potential value each year.

Related: 8 ways to make the most of the Amex Gold card

Other benefits

Like the Amex Business Platinum, this card waives foreign transaction fees (see rates and fees) and provides certain travel protections like trip delay coverage and baggage insurance.

Combining the Amex Business Platinum and Amex Gold cards

Let’s get the awkward part out of the way. Both cards charge pretty high annual fees – $695 for the Amex Business Platinum and $250 for the Amex Gold. That’s up to $945 in fees each year, which is pretty costly.

Despite that, there are numerous reasons to consider combining the Amex Business Platinum and Amex Gold cards. Here are the most important ones.

Two cards, two bonuses

These two cards are currently fielding some of their best-ever introductory offers.

The current Amex Business Platinum welcome offer lets you earn up to 120,000 bonus points by spending $15,000 on purchases in the first three months. Get the Amex Gold and spend $4,000 in the first six months, and you nab another 60,000 bonus points.

Without even taking their bonus spending categories into account, you’d be looking at an overall points haul of at least 180,000 Amex Membership Rewards points by hitting those requirements. TPG currently values Amex points at 2 cents apiece, so that’s around $3,600 in value – though potentially much more, depending on how you redeem them.

Related: Everything you need to know about Amex Membership Rewards

Sure, that’s a lot of money to lay out, but if you’re strategic and have some work and personal expenses coming up that you can leverage to meet a new card’s minimum spending requirement, this could be an excellent one-two option.

Another reason you might want to consider applying for these two cards, in particular, is if you already have, or even if you had in the past but have subsequently closed another Amex product. For instance, if you currently carry the Amex Platinum Card or the American Express® Business Gold Card, or had it in the past and closed it, you might be ineligible to earn its welcome offer again per Amex’s application eligibility rules. If you haven’t had the Amex Gold Card or the Amex Business Platinum, though, these two cards could be some of your best bets to keep on accruing Amex points at a healthy clip.

Related: Card showdown: Amex Business Gold vs. Amex Business Platinum

Keep things professional

Speaking of card combinations, there are many great reasons why you might want to get both a personal and business card. Doing so can help you separate your work and personal expenses. Putting higher, work-related spending on a business card can keep that activity off your personal credit report – which can, in turn, help raise your personal credit score by lowering your debt-to-credit utilization ratio.

The Amex Business Platinum’s business-related statement credits and special earning rates are two more great reasons to put your work-related spending on that card instead of a personal one. Then you can designate the Amex Gold Card for more everyday things like groceries and dining expenses.

Earning overdrive

One of the biggest selling points to getting both the Amex Business Platinum and the Amex Gold Card is how you can mix and match their bonus earning opportunities to maximize your everyday spending.

Use the Amex Gold Card to rack up 4 points per dollar on dining at restaurants and groceries at U.S. supermarkets (on up to $25,000 a year, then 1 point per dollar).

Hold the Amex Business Platinum in reserve for the up to $2 million in eligible U.S. purchases per year in those business-related categories that include things like electronics, shipping, and construction, as well as on transactions of $5,000 or more.

Related: Use these cards to maximize large purchases

To get a bit more granular, if you tend to book airline tickets directly with airlines, you can continue doing so with the Amex Gold Card since it earns 3 points per dollar whether you use it to pay through the airline or Amex Travel.

However, if you can shift more of your travel bookings to Amex Travel, you can leverage the Amex Business Platinum’s 5 points per dollar earning rate not just on airfare but also on prepaid hotels.

You can book hotels through Amex’s Hotel Collection with either card. The Amex Gold Card earns 2 points per dollar on those bookings, while the Amex Business Platinum earns 5 points per dollar. However, with the Amex Business Platinum, you also have access to even higher-end properties and more valuable perks through Amex Fine Hotels & Resorts.

Related: Everything you need to know about The Hotel Collection, an under-the-radar Amex Gold perk

Stretch your points further

Amex has a Pay with Points feature, where you can redeem Membership Rewards for reservations made directly through Amex Travel. You get 1 cent per point toward flights, and less than that for other types of bookings, such as hotel stays.

However, Amex Business Platinum cardmembers receive a 35% rebate using Pay with Points in two circumstances:

• For a first- or business-class ticket on any airline.
• For a ticket in any cabin on the same airline they designate for their annual up to $200 airline fee credit.

This benefit is capped at 500,000 rebated points per calendar year (so you’d have to redeem around 1.43 million points to max it out). By using points from your Amex Business Platinum account and receiving that 35% rebate, you automatically up your points from 1 cent apiece to 1.54 cents – a 54% premium.

While Pay with Points isn’t for everyone, there are a few great reasons to use it. First, you get a solid value of 1 cent per point redeemed this way (or more with the Amex Business Platinum). Second, you don’t have to worry about transfer partners or times or award availability with a particular airline. Finally, when you redeem via Pay with Points, it’s basically like paying cash for your ticket, so you still earn elite miles and credit for your travel.

Related: How to decide whether to use cash or miles for airline tickets

Statement credits galore

The final reason for carrying both the Amex Business Platinum and the Amex Gold Card is to stack their various statement credits.

The Amex Gold Card provides up to $10 per month in Uber credits toward either rides or Uber Eats orders in the U.S., plus a further $10 per month in dining credits as enumerated above for a potential total of $240 in statement credits each year. If you use the card to make a The Hotel Collection booking of two nights or more, you get a $100 onsite credit for qualifying activities.

Related: How to use Amex Gold’s new $10 monthly Uber credit

For its part, the Amex Business Platinum comes with a plethora of statement credits now, including some ongoing ones and recently added ones as well. Among those to look out for are up to $400 per year in statement credits toward Dell purchases — which was recently doubled from just $200 — up to $360 per year with Indeed, up to $150 per year with Adobe and up to $120 toward wireless phone bills. For business travelers, the card also comes with up to $200 in annual airline incidental fee credits, up to $179 annually for a Clear membership, and up to $100 toward Global Entry or TSA PreCheck periodically.

Maximize all these statement credits from both cards in the first year, and you’re looking at $1,849 in potential value. What’s more, none of these statement credits overlap from card to card, so you don’t sacrifice anything by carrying them both.

Other benefits

While the Amex Gold Card is short on other perks, the Amex Business Platinum includes a lot more benefits.

Related: The different flavors of Amex Platinum – which one is right for you?

Those include advantages like access to various airport lounges – Amex Centurion Lounges, Delta Sky Clubs, and Priority Pass lounges among them – plus the ability to register for Gold elite status with both Marriott and Hilton. Cardholders also get elite status with various rental car agencies, plus the International Airline Program discounts for folks who fly premium cabins. Enrollment required for select benefits.

Related: 8 things to do when you get the American Express Business Platinum Card

Earning aside, these benefits alone can make carrying the Amex Business Platinum worth it.

Bottom line

It’s usually a good idea to diversify the types of travel rewards points you earn. However, given how versatile they are, it can also make sense to double down with one program or another, including Amex Membership Rewards.

The right mix of Amex cards will depend on your needs and spending habits. But the Amex Business Platinum and Amex Gold Card make a winning combination thanks to their corresponding perks portfolios and bonus spending categories. You can get both to leverage not only lucrative introductory offers but also excellent everyday points accrual rates and other benefits to enhance your travel experience.

Apply here for The Business Platinum Card® from American Express with up to a 120,000-point bonus.
Apply here for the American Express® Gold Card with a 60,000-point welcome bonus.

For rates and fees of the Amex Gold card, click here.
For rates and fees of the Amex Business Platinum card, click here.

Featured photo by The Points Guy.