American Express Gold Card Losing One Benefit But Gaining Another
The American Express Gold Card is losing one benefit – the $100 airline fee credit – and gaining another in a $10 per month Uber Cash benefit.
The airline fee credit will remain for 2021, but will be removed from the Gold card in 2022.
The Uber Cash benefit is slated to begin sometime in early 2021.
So, for at least a portion of 2021, Gold Card holders will have both the airline fee credit and the monthly Uber Cash benefits of which to take advantage to offset the Gold Card’s $250 annual fee.
Uber Cash Benefit
The addition of Uber Cash to the Gold Card’s benefit offerings is nice in that it can be used to save on Uber rides in the U.S. or Uber Eats food deliveries.
Just use your American Express Gold Card to pay for either and you’ll see a $10 statement credit a few days after the Uber Eats/Uber charge posts to your Amex account.
The downside – it’s only $10 per month. But, that’s a $10 savings you otherwise would not have received.
Uber Eats Pass Membership
Additionally, a few American Express cards are receiving a complimentary 12-month Uber Eats Pass Membership, the Gold Card being one.
The Eats Pass membership provides a $0 delivery fee and 5% off restaurant orders over $15 as well as a $0 delivery fee on grocery deliveries over $30 in select markets (regularly priced at $9.99/month).
Eligible cardholders must enroll by December 31, 2021.
To take advantage of this promo, make sure an eligible American Express card (Gold, Platinum and Green cards) is added as a payment method to your Uber Eats wallet. The free Eats Pass membership application should show in the app once an eligible card is added as a payment option.
The best way to take advantage of the complimentary Eats Pass membership is to wait until your first/next Uber Eats order…that will maximize the time you have the free membership available.
After the 12-month free membership ends, you’ll be automatically billed at the then-current monthly rate. So cancel prior to the end of your membership if you no longer want Eats Pass.
American Express Gold Card
The American Express Gold Card is a decent rewards card providing nice benefits and Membership Rewards points earning at a mid-range annual fee level.
The card earns 4 Membership Rewards points per dollar spent on supermarket and restaurant purchases.
And 3 Membership Rewards points for flights booked directly with an airline or on amextravel.com.
In addition to the soon-to-be-added Uber Cash benefit, the card also offers a $10 per month dining credit good at Grubhub, Seamless, The Cheesecake Factory, Ruth’s Chris Steak House, Boxed, and participating Shake Shack locations.
As you can see, this is a great card for earning and saving on a variety of food purchases.
You can read our review of the American Express Gold Card here.
Wrap Up
Adding the Uber Cash benefit makes the American Express Gold Card more attractive to those who use Uber or Uber Eats regularly.
And, if you also use Grubhub/Seamless for food delivery, you could effectively offset $240 of the $250 annual fee each year through the monthly credits alone.
And that’s not even considering all the savings that could come from using Amex Offers.
If you’re not already a cardholder, or are on the fence about keeping the Gold Card and are being swayed by the Uber Cash addition, be realistic about exactly how much you’ll use these benefits.
For many, what sounds like a great $10 per month benefit, turns out to actually be used 50% or less each year.
If you’re fine with the annual fee and only using the benefits partially, then it’s no big deal.
But if you’re counting on those credits to justify a higher annual fee card, you might be surprised at how little those credit actually get used.
