The New Amex Gold Benefits Are Live!

A few days ago American Express launched its refreshed Amex Gold offering with new benefits and an updated annual fee. We briefly covered this when the new benefits were announced but now they are live we thought we’d take another look at the new Amex Gold Benefits and whether the value stacks up…

The Gold Amex has a representative APR of 69.2% variable and a purchase rate of 26.6% variable with an assumed credit limit of £1,200 and an annual fee of £160 (after the first year.)

What changes are there to the Amex Gold Benefits?

There are FIVE new changes that have taken place to the Amex Gold card…

1. The annual fee has increased from £140 to £160 (that’s the bad news out of the way!)
   
2. Cardholders will receive an extra two Priority Pass airport lounge passes, so now FOUR passes per year. If you can use the passes you can easily justify the £20 increase in the annual fee as access tends to be £20+ per person. The drawback, particularly since COVID & the closure of many lounges, is that it’s becoming increasingly difficult to get access with many lounges ‘full’ in UK Airports (or at least not willing to take a priority pass when they can have a customer who pays cash.)
   
   If you are flying from Gatwick, Heathrow Terminal 3 or Birmingham No1 Lounges offer a way around this by giving the chance to reserve a space a space in advance. It costs £6 and also gives you access to priority security if flying from Gatwick.
   
3. You will receive Avis Preferred Plus status. This isn’t worth much in our opinion (unless you rent cars a lot!) It offers complimentary upgrades and a dedicated customer service/reservations phone number.
   
4. You can now download and access the Amex Experiences app for the first time. It will feature “exclusive Gold Cardmember events, offers, competitions.” Only time will tell the value of these…
   
5. The annual bonus is changing. Currently, cardholders receive a 10,000 Membership reward points bonus when they spend £15,000 in a card membership year. (you don’t receive the bonus until 30 days after your renewal date.) The latest updates change this to a tiered system where different amounts of spend trigger different bonus points (and the bonuses are posted as soon as you hit each tier threshold.) The new tiers are…
   
   £5,000 annual spend
   2,500 points
   
   £10,000 annual spend
   2,500 points (5,000 points cumulative)
   
   £15,000 annual spend
   2,500 points (7,500 points cumulative)
   
   £20,000 annual spend
   2,500 points (10,000 points cumulative)
   
   £25,000 annual spend
   2,500 points (£12,500 points cumulative)
   
   This is a GOOD change in our opinion as you no longer need to wait until after renewal to get your bonus points. If you spend over £15,000 but under £20,000 you will be slightly worse off only receiving 7,500 bonus points rather than 10,000 previously. In this circumstance, you’d be best putting more spending on to hit the higher targets or to switch some spending away.

Are the changes any good?

I think for the most part cardholders & potential cardholders will do a lot better with these latest changes. The first year is still FREE so new cardholders get all the extra benefits for no extra cost so it’s a win-win. for newbies.

Regardless if you are a new/existing/renewing customer the extra spending milestones (once you hit each one) in effect turn the earning rate of the card to 1.5 membership reward points on spend up to £25,000. This is equal to the 1.5 Avios that the BA Premium Plus Earns with a lower annual fee and more flexibility (but no 2-4-1 voucher at 10k spend!) The fact that these bonuses are paid once you hit each target rather than waiting until renewal is another big win for both current cardholders & potential cardholders.

The two extra Airport passes are the icing on the cake and would allow a family of four to visit a lounge or a couple two visits (if you can get in!)