How I Use The Amex Gold To Travel The World For (Mostly!) Free
By Jon Nickel-D'Andrea,
13 days ago
When I first started learning about points and miles, I was mostly interested in how to travel for free. There were a lot of cards out there, but finding the best option for travel was a challenge.
Some cards offered points, some offered miles and others gave cash back. But it wasn’t until I started using the American Express® Gold Card (Terms apply, see rates & fees) that I earned a lot of points and began redeeming them to travel the world.
The points I earn from switching to the American Express® Gold Card net me a couple hundred thousand points a year. In turn, I can transfer those points to a range of airlines and hotels to travel all over the world at little to no out-of-pocket cost. This makes the card’s $325 annual fee well worth it to me, as I get far more value than I would with a no annual fee travel credit card.
The American Express® Gold Card has one of the best points-earning structures for everyday spend categories. Since you get a bonus for spending at supermarkets, restaurants and even airline tickets, earning a chunk of points is a breeze.
The card earns 4 Membership Rewards® points per dollar at restaurants (on up to $50,000 in purchases per calendar year, then 1 point per dollar beginning on 1/1/2025), 4 Membership Rewards® points per dollar at US supermarkets (on up to $25,000 in purchases per calendar year, then 1 point per dollar), 3 Membership Rewards® points per dollar on flights booked directly with airlines or on American Express Travel, 2 Membership Rewards® points per dollar on prepaid hotels and other eligible purchases booked on American Express Travel and 1 point per dollar on all other eligible purchases.
Supermarkets
I use the card’s rewards for travel, but at the end of the day I spend the most time at home. Earning 4 Membership Rewards points per dollar on all my supermarket purchases is a huge win. There is a $25,000 cap each calendar year, but if your family spends around $500/week at grocery stores, you’ll easily max it out.
Another good practice is to verify which shops in your area qualify as supermarkets since many eligible stores sell nongrocery items, including household goods—and some even have garden centers. You can call the store’s customer service and ask them or look at your most recent billing statement to see how Amex categorized your purchase. There might be some places you’re already shopping where you’re able to use your Amex Gold and get bonus points.
Restaurants
The same 4 points per dollar bonus at supermarkets also applies for restaurants worldwide (capped at $50,000 per calendar year). So no matter if you’re eating at home or on the road, you’ll get one of the best points earnings at restaurants you’ll find on any card.
Airline Tickets
Most ticket purchases I use my miles and points so the only part that I charge to my credit card is the taxes and fees. However, if I am going to pay cash for an airline ticket purchase, I use my Amex Gold as the default card—that way when I buy my tickets directly with the airline, I’m earning 3 Membership Rewards points per dollar.
Amex Travel
American Express has a robust travel portal where you can book flights, hotels, rental cars and more. If you use your American Express® Gold Card via Amex’s travel portal, you’ll snag an extra point per dollar for a total of 2 points.
Rakuten Shopping Portal
One of the best parts of buying things online is the convenience of never having to step foot in a store. The second best is being able to score extra Membership Rewards for all those purchases.
Via a partnership with Rakuten—an online shopping portal—you can link your American Express account and instead of earning cash back, you’ll be paid in Membership Rewards points. When a website says you’ll earn 3% cash back, you’ll instead earn 3 Membership Rewards per dollar spent.
This has been a huge source of Membership Rewards for me. So far this year I’ve received over 52,000 Membership Rewards points just from doing my normal shopping.
Referrals
Once you open an Amex card, you’re able to refer your friends and family to sign up and earn Membership Rewards for the referral. The cap on earning referral rewards is typically 100,000 per year, and the amount you’ll earn from a referral varies every couple of months.
At certain times, Amex might run promotions where you can earn bonus points attached to the referral as well. Earlier this year I was able to refer my best friend and get 20,000 Membership Rewards and 10 bonus points per dollar on all restaurant purchases for three months. So instead of 4 points per dollar I earned 14 points per dollar at all restaurants for three months.
Best Ways To Redeem Points With the Amex Gold Card
American Express has a partnership with more than a dozen airlines—18 in fact. You can link your frequent flyer or hotel loyalty accounts and move points from your Membership Rewards balance to one of the partners, often at a 1:1 ratio. From there, you can redeem for flights or hotels directly with the programs.
Redeeming points for flights and hotels is great, but so is saving cash directly on your purchases.
Statement Credits
The Amex Gold has several credits that help offset the cost of the card’s annual fee and can be used almost anywhere in the U.S.
Each month you’ll get:
Up to a $10 Uber Cash credit
An up to a $7 credit for Dunkin’
Up to $10 in statement credits to be used at places like GrubHub and Five Guys
A twice a year $50 credit at participating Resy restaurants
Terms apply, enrollment is required for select benefits.
I like using the Uber Cash credits to do a store pickup at my local ramen restaurant, that way I avoid the pesky delivery fees and all the Uber surcharges. While there aren’t any Dunkin’ locations near my house, they’re all over the place when I travel, so I’m able to take advantage when I’m on vacation.
No Foreign Transaction Fees
I keep this card handy when I’m overseas as there are no foreign transaction fees charged for purchases outside of the U.S. Considering that bonus points for restaurants also apply to restaurants worldwide, this is an awesome opportunity to score extra points eating wherever I go.
A $100 Hotel Credit for a Two-Night Stay
American Express has a network of over 1,000 hotels where, when booking a two-night minimum stay, you’ll get an automatic $100 credit good for most things you can charge to the room. Note that eligible purchases for the credit vary by property.
On a recent visit, I was able to snag a room for my mom at the Thompson Seattle and use the $100 credit for dinner at the hotel restaurant. Since I booked through Amex’s travel portal, all she had to do was charge the food to the room and the $100 was automatically adjusted at the time of checkout.
Maximizing The Business Platinum Card® from American Express Combo
If you’ve been considering getting an additional travel card, or you’ve got a business and want a business credit card, you can take advantage of a lucrative card pairing—the American Express® Gold Card and The Business Platinum Card® from American Express (Terms apply, see rates & fees) combo.
I love my Business Platinum Card for its 35% points rebate. I’ve used this benefit to travel in business class and first class all over the world for nearly free.
When you redeem your points for flights via Amex’s travel portal, you’ll get 35% of the points redeemed back as a credit—about four to six weeks after you redeemed them. The credit kicks in for all flights in business and first class. Plus, for one selected airline you can have the points rebated for economy purchases. I use Alaska Airlines as my selected airline since I fly it so often from my Seattle homebase.
For example, I recently booked a flight from Seattle to Frankfurt on Condor Airlines, and since the flight was in business class, I was eligible for the rebate. I redeemed 135,630 points for the flight (since the cash price for the ticket was $1,356) and got a rebate of 47,470 points back.
The total cost in points for the $1,356 flight was effectively 88,160 points, which gives me a just over 1.5 cents per point value from redeeming my Membership Rewards.
How You Can Travel for Nearly Free With the Amex Gold Card
Traveling for close to free means so much more than simply redeeming points, but that certainly is a part of it. Because the Amex Gold offers so many ways to earn tens of thousands of points, earning a huge cache of rewards is a cinch. Add in the hundreds of dollars worth of credits to offset common travel costs like dining at restaurants or taking an Uber ride, and you can also stack these savings to travel for nearly free.
To view rates and fees for American Express® Gold Card please visitthis page.
To view rates and fees for The Business Platinum Card® from American Express please visitthis page.
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