It does have extra airfare, it earns 3x.

But not on hotels.

I think it is pretty clear the Gold is meant to an everyday use card, not a travel card. The 3x airfare is about the only thing travel related on the card, excluding the airline fee credit that's going away. Amex is positioning the Gold as the foodie, everyday kind of spend card. And that's fine. It doesn't need to be a travel card. The Green gives 3x on far broader travel and the Platinum 5x on airfare. If anything the 3x airfare on Gold is redundant for anyone who has a Green and/or Platinum and would be nice if the 3x airfare were replaced with 3x online shopping or something else "everyday" use. Just my opinion

It's too expensive at $250 to be an everyday use card. IMO Amex needs to offer more meaningful perks for it to be worth the price.

This is my oldest Amex card - any idea whether my "member since" date will remain the same for credit rating purposes if I cancel?

I agree, it doesn't mean it's the best everyday choice for everyone with the fee. I'm just saying it is clear who the market for the card is, IMO - not a travel card audience, more of the everyday crowd.

I thought the "AMEX Everyday Preferred" was for the "Everyday" crowds. Can't have it both ways.

EDIT TO ADD: Information in my post likely outdated, see link in following post.

When I canceled my oldest AMEX card a few years ago, I noticed in credit reports that the next-oldest AMEX card I had at the time suddenly had its account age changed to the date of the card I'd canceled. My "member since" also hasn't changed.

:confused: Please explain why American Express cannot market multiple cards for everyday use.



The internal Member Since date remains the same, but is now disconnected from the date reported to credit bureaus, see this thread from 2015:

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/amer...t-bureaus.html

Oh, this is very interesting. Since the lost of the backdating feature, I've been reticent to cancel my oldest Amex account. Has anyone had a similar experience when cancelling his/her oldest Amex tradeline?

It was several years ago so it likely fell under the old timeline referenced in the linked thread above, which fits since it's my Plat which I would have applied for when the Centurion Lounges became available to Plat holders in 2014ish.

What's odd is I just checked my Chase Credit Journey (not sure which bureau that is) and my PRG (which I canceled last year) shows the backdate. I'm certain it did not show the backdate when I first received it. So there seems to be something fishy about the way AMEX is reporting to bureaus, or how the bureaus are showing the information. (My canceled HH Aspire also shows the backdate and that product wasn't introduced until well after 2015, but I may have converted it.)

Even more interesting. So, in your case, it would appear an Amex during the post backdating era once cancelled reverts to your original member date on the closed tradeline?

It seems that way but difficult to know for sure, plus there's always the chance I'm remembering incorrectly. It'd be interesting to get more data points on this. As I mentioned before, a big question is how AMEX is reporting the information or even how the credit bureaus are presenting the information. For example, I've always found it curious that the AMEX backdating isn't even to the same date (at least in my case). All my AMEX that are backdated show the same year, but none of them have the exact same date.

DP - The Aspire is my most recent personal Amex, and it doesn't report my original membership year, as it shouldn't since I app'ed during the post backdating era. However, checking on a closed Amex TL back in 2017, the status shows closed and not backdated.

Regarding dates during the backdating era, Amex used whatever date you had app'ed or were approved with your original membership year. So, I'd imagine many of us would app for our new bonus Amex cards during Jan, to maximize the backdating and use as a ballast for account average age during our bonus sprees.

Correct, reports were backdated to the YEAR that the original account was opened, but they used the MONTH that subsequent cards were actually opened.

I guess that's a good thing? I've kept my original SPG card which I've had since college mostly because I didn't want to cause a huge drop in the length of my credit history. If Amex backdates the second oldest Amex card, doesn't that mean we can cancel the oldest card without much impact on credit score?