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The American Express® Gold Card and the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card and Chase Sapphire Reserve® are popular credit cards for travelers because they offer a flexible points currency. Amex Gold rewards cardmembers with Membership Rewards points and Chase has the Ultimate Rewards program.

Both programs are similar in that they offer cardholders the ability to transfer points to travel partners, book travel through an online portal or cash points in for experiences, statement credits or gift cards. Points don’t expire in either program as long as you hold a card that earns them.

These cards have very different annual fees. The mid-tier Chase Sapphire Preferred is the most affordable at $95 a year, Amex Gold is also considered a mid-tier card but it costs $250 a year to hold, and the premium Sapphire Reserve is $550 annually.

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• Best Travel Rewards Credit Cards
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As you can see, if you’re considering signing up for one of these cards, the annual fee is a big consideration.

The fee can be offset by travel credits and the card’s earning potential, but only if you use the benefits and maximize the rewards earning potential. It’s important to evaluate the earning opportunities of each card to see if it fits your lifestyle, spending patterns and travel goals.

Sign-up Bonuses, Credits and Bonus Categories

Another big consideration for many is the sign-up or welcome bonus, which is pretty similar for these three cards. The Sapphire Preferred offers 80k points and the Amex Gold offers 60k points after spending $4,000, but the key difference is that American Express gives you 6 months to meet that minimum spending requirement while Chase gives you just 3.

Surprisingly, the card with the most expensive annual fee of the three cards has the smallest bonus. The premium Chase Sapphire Reserve only offers a 50,000 point sign-up bonus after spending $4,000 in the first three months.

If the sign-up bonus is your main motivation for signing up for one of these cards, then the Chase Sapphire Preferred is your best bet.

Travel and Other Credits 

In addition to the value of the sign-up bonus, you can easily offset about half of the annual fee on any of these cards if you take advantage of the travel credits offered. The Chase Sapphire Preferred offers a $50 credit on a hotel booking through its Chase Ultimate Rewards portal. The Chase Sapphire Preferred gives you up to $300 in statement credits on travel purchases through its portal every year. 

The American Express Gold card offers $10 a month in Uber credits for rides or Uber Eats. You just need to add your card to your Uber account to get the Uber Cash each month. You also get another $10 a month in dining credits that can be used for Boxed, GrubHub, Seamless, Ruth’s Chris Steak House, The Cheesecake Factory and participating Shake Shack locations, for a total of $240 a year in credits.

Bonus Points Categories 

The next thing to consider if you are trying to figure out which of these three cards is the best one for you, is how many points you can earn each year. Bonus points earning categories can really boost your balance and help you achieve enough points to book an airline award ticket or free hotel stay sooner.

The Preferred card offers 5x bonus points per dollar spent on any travel booked through the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal with the exception of the hotel booking that qualifies for the $50 credit. You’ll earn 2x on all other travel including airfare, hotels, taxis and trains.

Other bonus categories for the Chase Sapphire Preferred include 3x for online grocery purchases, dining and select streaming services. All other purchases earn one point per dollar spent.

The Reserve card offers 5x on airlines booked through the bank’s portal after you receive the $300 annual credit for those bookings, and 10x on hotel stays and car rentals booked through its portal. You’ll also earn 10x with Chase dining partners, 3x on all other dining, and one point per dollar spent on everything else.

The Amex Gold card offers Earn 4x Membership Rewards® Points at Restaurants, plus takeout and delivery in the U.S., and 4x Membership Rewards® Points at U.S. supermarkets (on up to $25,000 per calendar year in purchases, then 1x) so these points can really add up whether you are dining out or eating at home. The Gold card also offers 3x on airfare purchases through the airline or amextravel.com, and one point per dollar on everything else.

You should review your spending habits to determine the best card for earning points. Clearly the Sapphire Reserve offers bigger bonus categories, but the 10x ones are tied to purchases made through its Ultimate Rewards site, so if you don’t intend to use the portal for travel or prepaid dining, takeout or cooking events, then this may not be the best card for you especially considering the high annual fee.

The 4x bonus on food purchases and 3x on any travel purchased with the Amex Gold is also very tempting, but that card also carries a substantial annual fee so it’s a good idea to crunch the numbers on how much you expect to spend on the card to figure out if the bonus points and other perks are worth it.

Membership Rewards vs Ultimate Rewards

One of the best ways to get the most value out of the points you earn in each of these programs is to transfer points to a travel partner to get an award flight or free hotel stay. While there is some overlap of partners, you should review the list of travel suppliers each card issuer partners with to see if they are ones that you hope to use for your reward travel if you plan to transfer points to a loyalty program.

Travel Partners

Points can be used to top off a balance in an airline or hotel loyalty program or you can transfer the full amount for a redemption. All three cards have airline partners that cover the three major alliances so you can probably fly to any destination you like, but booking a partner airline can be even more complicated than just finding award space on the carrier’s program that you transferred points to, so this is another consideration.

American Express Membership Rewards Partners

American Express partners with 12 airline programs and three hotel chains for its Membership Rewards program. Airline partners include Asia Miles, British Airways Executive Club, Delta SkyMiles, Emirates Skywards, Etihad Guest, Finnair Plus, Air France/KLM Flying Blue, Iberia Plus, Qantas Frequent Flyer, SAS EuroBonus, Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer and Virgin Atlantic Flying Club. 

Most transfer at a 1:1 ratio, but there are some exceptions, and transfers can take up to five days. Check here for more details. 

Amex hotel partners include Hilton Honors, Marriott Bonvoy and Radisson Rewards. Transfer rates vary and can take up to 10 days. Check the website for more details. Other travel transfer partners include Club Eurostar and Nectar.

Chase Ultimate Rewards Partners

Chase partners with 11 airlines and three hotel chains. Airline partners include AerLingus AerClub, Air Canada Aeroplan, British Airways Executive Club, Emirates Skywards, Flying Blue (Air France/KLM), Iberia Plus, JetBlue TrueBlue, Singapore Airline KrisFlyer, Southwest Airlines Rapid Rewards, United MileagePlus and Virgin Atlantic Flying Club.

Chase hotel partners include IHG Rewards Club, Marriott Bonvoy and World of Hyatt. Ultimate Reward Points transfer to all travel partners at a 1:1 ratio in 1,000 point increments. Most points transfer by the next business day, but it can take up to a week.

Chase transfers are generally quicker and the points transfer ratio is simpler for many frequent traveler programs, so this is a plus, especially if there is limited award availability. You take a chance on transferring points and losing your desired airline seat if there is limited availability and a delay in transfer.

When it comes to domestic airline programs, If you’re loyal to Delta then the Amex Gold is a good choice. But if you prefer to fly on United, JetBlue or Southwest then one of the Chase cards is your best bet if you plan to transfer points to an airline loyalty program. 

As far as hotel programs, both the Sapphire cards and the Amex Gold partner with Marriott, but if you are loyal to Hyatt, the Chase cards are a better option. If Hilton is your preferred hotel program, then Amex is the best fit.

If you’re not familiar with airline and hotel loyalty programs, or you don’t like searching for space or being limited by award availability, there are other options to redeem your points for travel.

Travel Booking Portals

You can use your reward points in either program to book your travel through the American Express Membership Rewards or Chase Ultimate Rewards booking portals. They both work like traditional travel booking sites so they are easy to use. The Chase portal is powered by Expedia and Amex uses its own online booking portal for redemptions. 

Booking through the portal is a good option if there are limited award seats available as both of these sites will show all flights and hotel rooms available so you don’t have to worry about finding award space. It’s also a good approach if you want to keep your travel booking experience simple.

Because award redemption is tied to the price of airline fares and hotel accommodations though, this can cost more than using your points in an airline frequent flyer program or hotel frequent guest program.

The standout card for booking through the issuer’s portal is the Chase Sapphire Reserve. That’s because it offers a 50% bonus on points used. The Sapphire Preferred comes in second in this category with a 25% point bonus when booking through the portal. Amex offers points rebates to its business card holders, but not on the personal Gold card so those points are worth a penny each when booking travel through amextravel.com.

The sign-up bonus alone on each of the Sapphire cards is equal to $750 in free travel when booked through the Chase portal. Even though the Reserve bonus is 10,000 points lower, it is still worth the same amount because of the 50% point bonus when booking through the portal.

Chase also has a Pay Yourself Back feature that lets you redeem your Ultimate Rewards points for statement credits in select rotating categories. If you hold the Chase Sapphire Preferred card, you’ll get a 25% bonus, and Chase Sapphire Reserve cardholders get a 50% bonus for these redemptions.

Benefits of Each Card 

All three of these cards come with great travel benefits including no foreign transaction fees when making purchases overseas. 

The Chase Sapphire cards come with car rental insurance coverage, trip cancellation and interruption insurance, emergency assistance, as well as extended warranty protection and purchase protection when you use your card to make purchases.

The Amex Gold gives you access to the Hotel Collection, personalized travel service, car rental loss and damage insurance, baggage insurance and the Global Assist Hotline. The card also comes with purchase protection, extended warranties and dispute resolution, as well as access to American Express Experiences and American Express Preferred Seating, which gives you access to premium seats for select cultural and sporting events.

The Chase Sapphire Reserve also includes Priority Pass Select membership which gives you access to 1,300 airport lounges worldwide, and it comes with a statement credit of up to $100 every four years as reimbursement for Global Entry, TSA PreCheck or NEXUS expedited security screening programs.

Both the Sapphire cards also come with a complimentary DashPass subscription from DoorDash, which gets you unlimited deliveries with no fee and reduced service fees. This benefit needs to be activated by March 31, 2022.

Also, through March 2022 if you have the Chase Sapphire Preferred card you can earn 5x on Lyft rides, which is 3x points in addition to the 2x you earn on travel. If you have the Chase Sapphire Reserve, the bonus for Lyft rides is 10x through March. There are similar bonuses for Peloton bikes and equipment purchased using one of the Chase Sapphire cards if that is on your radar in the new year.

Issuer Rules 

You may have made up your mind about which of these three cards you are interested in, but one big consideration is whether the bank will approve you. They all require a good or excellent credit score to have a successful application, but there are also some other things you should be aware of.

Chase has a 5/24 rule, which means if you have applied for more than five cards from any issuer in the past two years, then you will be denied. Also, you can only hold either the Sapphire Preferred or the Sapphire Reserve, so if you already have one of these Sapphire cards you would have to upgrade or downgrade to get the other.

Lastly, you can only receive the sign-up bonus once every 48 months for either card in the Chase Sapphire family, so make sure it’s been at least four years since you last got a bonus on a Sapphire card or you’ll miss out on those bonus points.

American Express on the other hand, will only give you a bonus on any of its cards once in a lifetime. So if you’ve previously signed up for the Amex Gold card and gotten a bonus, then you should go for one of the Sapphire cards if you meet their criteria to get a sign-up bonus. 

Amex also has a rule that only allows you to hold five personal credit cards at any time, but you can have up to 10 charge cards and the Amex Gold card is considered a charge card with no pre-set spending limit so this should not be an issue unless you already have nine other Amex cards. 

Final Thoughts 

All three of these credit cards are great for travelers as they offer bonus earning opportunities, credits for travel and other benefits. They all offer elevated welcome bonuses occasionally, and that is a great time to apply for one of these three cards so watch for that.

But if you want to add one to your wallet right now, the Chase Sapphire Preferred is your best bet if you want to keep the annual fee low and if you’re not sure how much of the travel credits you can use in the year ahead. It’s also the only one of the three that offers a 10% anniversary bonus on points earned, so this card is actually worth keeping in your wallet at least for the next four years. 

If you apply now that will let the clock start ticking on when you can upgrade to the Sapphire Reserve and still get a sign-up bonus. It’s also a good idea to apply for Chase cards if you’re under the 5/24 rule, so many people apply for those cards sooner rather than later as you never know when the next attractive sign-up offer will catch your eye and that may push you over the limit of card applications that Chase allows.

✈️ Looking for a new travel credit card this year? See today’s top offers below:

• Best Travel Rewards Credit Cards
• Best Airlines Credit Cards
• Best Hotel Credit Cards
• Best Business Credit Cards
• Best Cash Back Credit Cards
• Best Overall in 2022