phant0m

I would keep this card if the airline fee wasn't so hard to use now. I'm going to have trouble even using my Plat $200 credit.

Happy

Yet another reason we will cancel the card next year.

We are traveling in Southern Italy now.on day 5 Specifically in the Puglia region, “the heel of the boot”. Not a single restaurant takes AMEX - some immediately told me no AMEX, some tried both the chip and the wireless, of course it is rejected because they only have Visa processors. Over 500 euro dining spend has gone to CSR. I can see the same thing happens in West Australia and Hong Kong - the next portions of this trip.

Pat Venice we ate both lunch and dinner at a waterfront restaurant just diagonal across water from Hilton Stucky. The young waiter said AMEX was so expensive they usually told the customers no but “for you, we would take it.” when I joked that no AMEX no eating there.

Out of 4.grocery stores we bought veggies and fruits, SPAR took AMEX, another one tried the wireless and his POS took it. Lidl told me no AMEX. Last one the girl tried both wireless and chip and failed so TD Visa was used.

The card does not worth the $250 AF nor even the $195 grandfathered when the airline credit is so difficult to use, and most international places we go,where we spend the bulk of our dining $, the card is not accepted.

christianj

Happy It's a generally know fact for years that AMEX acceptance in Europe is not as wide as it is in the US so this should come as no big surprise. I never leave the US without a Visa as a backup and even though loosing 500 points is not great when you have to use the CSR over the AMEX Gold for me it is not the end of the world.

Happy

I do not say it is end of the world. How do you get such idea?

I say the AMEX is quite useless outside US, not just in Europe but also in Pacific region.

Last year when we were in Sydney and Brisbane, most restaurants did not take AMEX but Visa only. In fact a top Tripadvisor ranked Japanese sushi restaurant near Westin Brisbane, has a sign only Visa but if you pay with Cash, you get 3% discount. Since it is a wash to me and CSR is more convenient to me, I paid with CSR.

It is to a point that the AMEX might as well to stay home - because if 85% of the time the card is not accepted, then why bother to bring it on a trip?

Oh, AMEX site also does not show pending charges when such are made outside US. All our Visa/ MC issuers show pending regarding where the cards are used. That is also an additional reason the AMEX should stay home.

One more thing on CC surcharges by hotels in Australia - All Marriott family's brands charge 1% if paid by Visa, 1.5 or 1'.75 with MC, and a whopping 2.75% when paid with AMEX - that is what they are charged by AMEX. I am hoping the Westin and 4P at Perth would finally know how to process Marriott gift cards so I can void the CC surcharges.

Fwiw when we travel there are always Visa, MC and AMEX, often 2 in each genre due to hotel cards, as well as cards earn 2x on gas. I cannot imagine some people travel with only 1 or 2 cards.

Magna

Many places only take VISA? I thought if they take VISA they also take MasterCard.

I saw an article that Discover is as widely accepted these days as VISA and MasterCard!

mia

This is generally true in the USA, although there are exceptions including Costco. Outside the United States it is different, and the networks do not always have similar coverage.

sdsearch

I'm wondering why, though? It's called a dining credit, but Boxed seems more akin to grocery than restaurant dining.

It's almost like giving airline credit for a train trip, or travel credit for buying shoes!

And, btw, Amex seems to want to hide it. At this site:

https://global.americanexpress.com/c...ng-credit/gold

they have logos for every other dining credit service, but no logo for Boxed (you have to read the text to know that it's there).

Dream of Flying

May I ask how much was the AF back in 93? Did it used to have a no AF version?

christianj

Maybe "end of the world" was a strong term but your post stated that the acceptance was another reason to cancel the card so that it why I said it.

jags86

Just an FYI, I signed up for PRG card just a few days prior to the refresh to Gold. My AF just came through at $195.

Diplomatico

That happened to me the first renewal; the second renewal AMEX bumped it up to $250 and I said adios to the gold card.

Gig103

Okay, so not helpful for the gold card, my friend has found the stores attached to gas station Wawas will code as gas, so he reloads the app at those locations (4% Costco Citi card) and spends it at the other locations.

Happy

Here are the statistics - 36 days RTW trip, covered Venice, then Puglia region of Southern Italy (the "heel" part of the "boot"), West Australia (Perth and the coastal area south of Perth all the way to Margaret River), Hong Kong.

97% of the meals were restaurant meals. I managed to use the Gold card exactly 5 times. 2 in the same restaurant at Venice, 1 time in Perth and 2 times in Hong Kong. That is all despite I tried every single time. The restaurant at Venice very reluctantly used AMEX (it also required a different handheld device to process). What truly surprised me is, the restaurant at Perth that took the AMEX, as well as one restaurant in Hong Kong that took the AMEX, are low price range restaurants. (both meals were less than $30). The one in Perth displayed the AMEX for Small Business logo - remember this, the good ole days when there were Small Business Day deals in US, like move than 3 years ago? The rest of the restaurants most have avg price tag of $80 t0 $100 a meal with a couple beers. So they are mid-priced but not low-priced. Yet, none takes AMEX.

The retention offer keeps me for its 2nd year when the 1st year was a fee waived targeted offer. The card will go come next renewal.

jags86

I think the question is for the other 329 days when you live in the United States do you get enough value out of the card vs. 4% cashback, especially if you are able to take advantage and max out the $220 in credits the Gold card offers. It is easy enough to grab an Uber Visa for your foreign meals. It matters if that 4% all year long is worth it vs 4x MR. I buy $500 VGC from the grocery store to make payments for things I would normally only earn 1x (or 2x with BBP). For example, home and auto insurance premiums get paid this way. I figure I net out at 3x after the $5.95 per $500 fee to purchase.

Happy

Good question but unfortunately the answer is No. Because we dont dine out everyday when we are at home. Once to twice a week is aplenty because home-cooked meals are far healthier and often tastier.

For the dining, CSR earns 3x which when used to book travel thru UR portal, albeit not always possible, you get 1.5x of the 3x, translates it to a 4.5x return. The CSR net AF is $150 due to the $300 travel credit is extremely easy to use up. We definitely get more than $150 worth of airport lounge access / restaurant meals in a 12 months period.

On top of that, the Zero AF TD Cash Reward Card earns the same 3x on dining, worldwide, with no forex fee.

Here is another rub - in South Florida, NO grocery store carries any cash equivalent card above $200 value which also still carries $6.95 fee. As you can see the math does not compute. The "transfer spend" method does not work, especially with the hefty fee. (off topic, Ink Cards work very well in such method whenever Office / Staples have promotions such as past week.)

The hard to use $100 airline credit and $120 dining credit in the form of a very restrictive mechanism also do not work well in our situation.

I do not count on such as an offsetting to the AF because, even when the airline GCs were working, we have not had any occasion needed to use the airline GCs bought - they just sit there as dead money. With status on airlines, checked bag or standby fees generally are waived even flying domestic basic economy which we hardly do, may be once every 18 months. Also most our trips are international business class award - the operating airline of the first segment governs the checked bag policy for the WHOLE trip. We just returned from an Aeroplan business class award, flying TAP, TK, SQ, BR and UA. All segments except the last one on UA from IAH, were in business class. On the UA receipt which I was surprised it has such because the tickets were issued by Air Canada, it specifically said the checked bags are governed by TAP, 2 free checked bags per person, incl the coach segment on UA. (We only had 1 carryon each to check). We even got Priority tags on the UA segment despite only 2P, due to the previous segment on BR was business class I suppose.
So the airline incidental charges to us are very hard to use.

The meal delivery service is useless in our area as none of the restaurants participating is to our liking. Right now we are going out of our way to use Cheesecake Factory but it gets tiresome to drive out there every month just for the $10 credit.

mia has suggested to use Boxed. After taking a look of their merchandises, I decide the sizes are way too big for our household, plus they charge delivery fee. So that alternative is not working.

The hard calculation is, in order to offset the AF on the Gold card, how much extra earning on the category bonus spend put on the Gold card is needed versus the alternatives (in our case, CSR and TD), to first become breakeven, i.e. cover the $250 AF. This is the true tester. That is a whopping $25K spend on Gold Card's category bonus to just make it breakeven before it starts earning more than CSR...

Another peculiar thing I notice, may not be true for others - the useful AMEX offers hardly show up on the Gold card. It has all sorts of junk offers and no matter how many you removed (by adding to the card), in 2 to 3 days it goes back up to 100 again, with more junk offers.