AmEx Platinum vs AmEx Gold: Which rewards credit card is better for you

The Platinum Card has one of the highest annual fees you'll find in a mainstream charge or credit card — $550. However, the various annual statement credits the card offers bring the effective fee down to just $50.

The first is up to a $200 airline fee credit each calendar year. Every January, you pick one airline for that credit to apply toward. While the credit doesn't cover tickets, it covers incidental fees like checked bags, seat assignments on basic economy tickets, change fees, and more. Sometimes you can even be reimbursed for airline gift cards that you can apply toward tickets, even though this is an unpublished benefit — do some Googling to see whether that works on your airline of choice.

Second, you can get up to $200 in Uber credits each cardmember year, which is broken down into monthly chunks. Each month, cardholders receive $15 of credits to use on Uber rides or for Uber Eats. In December, that's boosted to $35.

Finally, you can get up to $100 in shopping credits each year at Saks-brand stores, broken into two chunks: You'll get up to $50 during the first six months of the year, and another $50 during the second.

Since the airline fee credit is given each calendar year, you can actually collect it twice if you open your card mid-year and maximize the credit before and after January of that first cardmember year.

That would mean you're not just making up for the annual fee, you're actually getting more value than the fee in the first place. That's without even considering the other benefits and rewards.

The AmEx Gold Card's $250 annual fee puts it squarely in the mid-tier category, although one could make an argument that it's really a premium card with a lower-than-premium fee.

Thanks to two annual statement credits, the effective fee is just $30 — as long as you maximize them.

The first is up to $120 each year in dining credits, broken into monthly $10 portions. These credits only apply to a few participating chain restaurants — specifically Cheesecake Factory, Ruth's Chris Steak House, and some Shake Shack locations — but they also apply to popular food ordering services GrubHub and Seamless. The credits apply automatically to any qualifying purchase.

The AmEx Gold also offers up to $100 in airline fee credits each calendar year. This works just like the Platinum Card's credit, meaning it's possible to earn it more than once each cardmember year.

Since both cards are part of the AmEx Membership Rewards program, it's easy to compare the sign-up bonuses directly.

The Platinum Card has a welcome offer of 60,000 Amex Membership Rewards points when you spend $5,000 on purchases within the first three months.

Using The Points Guy's subjective valuations, that's worth about $1,200.

The Gold Card's welcome bonus is 35,000 Membership Rewards points after you spend $2,000 in the first three months. That's worth about $700, based on The Points Guy.

AmEx offers a few ways to use Membership Rewards points.

However, redeeming for anything aside from travel offers a poor value, usually 0.5-0.8¢ each, and is generally a poor use of points.

You can get a slightly better value by booking flights through AmEx Travel, either online or by phone. Points are worth 1¢ each towards flights, but if you book a hotel or anything else, you'll only get 0.7¢ per point.

Another option is to use points to bid for upgrades on a flight. You'll only get 1¢ per point, but it can be a decent redemption if you want to try for an upgrade but don't want to pay cash.

The best use and value — potentially — is to transfer points to airline frequent flyer partners and book flights that way. You might be able to get a dramatically higher value for points this way.

That's because booking frequent flyer "award tickets" is different than buying reservations outright — you can read more about how it works here. In most cases, the cash price and the miles price of a ticket aren't linked, so it's possible to get exponentially increased value from your points by transferring them and booking an award ticket instead.

That means potentially being able to fly long-haul in first or business class with points, among other things.

For example, my wife and I recently flew first class to Japan and back by transferring credit card points to Virgin Atlantic, then booking flights on Virgin's partner airline All Nippon Airways. You can read about exactly how we booked the flights here.

The only catch is that you may need to search for saver availability — which are lower-priced award tickets. This can be tricky, but there are a ton of helpful guides online. Once you have a flight in mind, if you're having trouble figuring out how best to use your points, just do a Google search for that specific trip.

AmEx's partners include: Aer Lingus, AeroMexico, Air Canada, Air France/KLM, Alitalia, ANA, Cathay Pacific, Avianca, British Airways, Delta, El Al, Emirates, Etihad, Iberia, Hawaiian Airlines, JetBlue, Singapore Airlines, and Virgin Atlantic, as well as Choice Hotels, Hilton, and Marriott.

Added benefits is where the Platinum Card really shines.

One of the flagship perks is access to more than 1,200 airport lounges around the world.

The Platinum Card's lounge access is more extensive than anything offered by any other card. When you have the card, you can use Delta Sky Clubs whenever you fly the airline, AmEx's own proprietary Centurion Lounges, and any lounge that participates in the Priority Pass network. You can also use any of 11 international AmEx-branded lounges, and a handful of other random lounges, including ones that fall under the Plaza Premium, Air Space, and Escapes brands — these number more than 50.

• Gold elite status at Marriott and Hilton hotels
• Access to exclusive events
• Benefits at more than 1,000 hotels around the world through the Fine Hotels and Resorts program
• Rental car elite status and benefits
• Secondary rental car insurance
• Roadside assistance
• Various purchase and shopping protections
• Concierge service
• Baggage loss and damage coverage
• Travel accident insurance
• A credit for TSA PreCheck or Global Entry

While the Gold Card doesn't have nearly as many flashy perks as the Platinum Card, it still has a few benefits worth keeping in mind.

• Secondary rental car insurance
• Roadside assistance
• Various purchase and shopping protections
• Baggage loss and damage coverage
• Complementary ShopRunner membership (it works like Amazon Prime in a lot of ways, at other retailers).

No matter which card you choose, both the American Express Platinum Card and the American Express Gold Card offer valuable rewards. Plus, both cards have benefits and rewards that significantly offset their annual fees, as long as you make the most of them.

However, if you're interested in a larger welcome bonus, or benefits on top of the rewards, the Platinum Card might be the best choice.