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Welcome to the family, American Express® Gold Card.
The card’s welcome bonus is no longer available to members who hold or have held other Amex “family” products such as:
- The Platinum Card® from American Express
- Premier Rewards Gold Card
- The Platinum Card® from American Express Exclusively for Charles Schwab
- The Platinum Card® from American Express Exclusively for Morgan Stanley
- previous versions of these cards
The Platinum Card family “merged” a while ago — their welcome bonuses were no longer available to cardholders who held a different Platinum Card brand (i.e., Morgan Stanley Platinum Card members are no longer eligible for The Platinum Card®‘s welcome offer.)
Then we saw it recently with the Delta Amexes.
I did not see the “family” limitation on the American Express® Green Card.
I understand that Amex doesn’t want people signing up for cards just for welcome bonuses — only to cancel the cards less than a year later.
I’ve heard of plenty of people canceling their Delta Amex cards since SkyMiles 2025 was announced. Several folks still like Amex, Membership Rewards, and their Platinum Cards — even if Sky Club access is being drastically reduced — because of the premium lifestyle features and benefits. They asked me what a good course of action might be.
I told them that I use my Amex Gold Card for most restaurant and supermarket spending — because those categories earn 4X points. That’s a heck of a lot more than the 1X on their Platinum Cards. (And the Business Platinum’s 35% Pay With Points rebate I always talk about can be quite valuable.)
But just after Delta kicked in their teeth, now Amex apparently doesn’t want to reward them for staying a customer and spending money on a new card?
Don’t get me wrong: you can still apply for the cards. But you won’t be eligible for the welcome bonus, as per the terms.
Final Approach
American Express made a very un-friendly move by adding the Amex Gold Card to its family of un-welcome bonuses. For a company that apparently lost a bunch of Delta Amex cardholders, this is a dumb move.
H/T: Frequent Miler
Advertiser Disclosure: Eye of the Flyer, a division of Chatterbox Entertainment, Inc., is part of an affiliate sales network and receives compensation for sending traffic to partner sites, such as CreditCards.com. Some or all of the card offers that appear on the website are from advertisers. Compensation may impact how and where card products appear on the site. This site does not include all card companies or all available card offers. Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed, or approved by any of these entities. Some of the links on this page are affiliate or referral links. We may receive a commission or referral bonus for purchases or successful applications made during shopping sessions or signups initiated from clicking those links.
Responses are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser. Responses have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by the bank advertiser. It is not the bank advertiser's responsibility to ensure all posts and/or questions are answered.
Coupon books, pop-up jail, jacked-up fees, and now this.
If loads of cardholders start canceling their cards, that should show Amex the error of its ways.