The American Express® Green Card is Amex’s answer to the Chase Sapphire Reserve. Both cards offer 3x for travel & dining. Both earn points transferable to many different loyalty programs. Both have no foreign transaction fees. Both offer a form of airport lounge access. Chase’s card, though, costs $550 per year while the Amex card is only $150 per year. So, is it a slam dunk? In my opinion, no.
Current Welcome Offer
| Card Offer |
|---|
40K points ⓘ Friend-Referral 40K after $3K spend in first 6 months. Terms apply. See Rates & Fees$150 Annual Fee Information about this card has been collected independently by Frequent Miler. The issuer did not provide the details, nor is it responsible for their accuracy. Recent better offer: 60K after $3K spend in first 6 months + 20% off travel and transit purchases for first 6 months. [Expired 8/21/23] |
Amex Green Card Review
For a travel card, the Amex Green card offers competitive points-earnings with 3x for travel & dining. Plus it includes some perks to make airport travel better (CLEAR and LoungeBuddy statement credits). Unfortunately, the card suffers from a fatal flaw: it’s an Amex card and as such it isn’t as widely accepted internationally as a Visa or Mastercard.
- Annual Fee: $150
- Foreign Transaction Fee: None
- Card Issuer: American Express
- What points are worth: This card earns Membership Rewards points. Our current Reasonable Redemption Values pegs them at 1.55 cents each.
- Best Use for Points: Membership Rewards can be transferred to travel partners, usually at a 1:1 ratio and this will almost always yield the most value. There are three hotel partners (Choice, Hilton, Marriott), but the transfer ratios make them unappealing most of the time. On the other hand, airline partners are excellent, and include Air Canada Aeroplan, Air France/KLM Flying Blue, ANA Mileage Club and Avianca LifeMiles.
- Earning Categories:
- Earn 3 miles per dollar on travel & transit (including flights, hotels, taxis, and rideshares)
- Earn 3 miles per dollar on dining
- Earn 1 miles per $1 on all other purchases
- Perks:
- $189 CLEAR® Plus Credit per calendar year: Simply pay for your CLEAR Plus membership with your Green card.
- $100 LoungeBuddy Credit per calendar year: Use your Green card to purchase lounge access through the LoungeBuddy app and you’ll be reimbursed up to $100 per year.
- Who’s this card for? Unclear. Those looking to earn points for dining would do better with the Amex Gold Card (4x dining). 3x for all travel is competitive. Ultimately the audience is limited due to the fact that Amex isn’t as widely accepted as other cards.
- Is this card a keeper? For most people I think that this card is only worth getting for the welcome bonus and then I’d recommend cancelling when the second year annual fee comes due..
Green Card Pros and Cons
Pros
- Reasonably priced for a card that earns 3x for all travel (although you can also get 3x travel with the $95 Ink Business Preferred card).
- CLEAR and LoungeBuddy rebates are very good if you can make use of them.
Cons
- It’s an Amex card and so it’s not accepted as widely as a Visa or Mastercard
- It doesn’t have any killer features to make it a must-have
- 3x dining is no longer noteworthy since many fee-free cards now offer the same
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Amex has several problems. Their bonuses categories are often limited to US spending. Amex doesn’t grandfather in card benefits and their travel insurance is weak.
The Wells Fargo Autograph has more comprehensive 3X categories for no annual fee. The Citi Premier has more comprehensive 3X categories and transferable points for $95.
Got the card in 2022 for the Resy 50k + $150 dining credit, and pinned a 10k retention bonus in year 2. However, I picked up the Bilt Mastercard and the Altitude Reserve within that time, so the Green card is now redundant.
1) Had the Chase Sapphire Preferred for 4 years now, and this is my go-to internationally, with broader travel categories, unlimited 3x on groceries (Publix), primary rental car coverage, and a net $45 annual fee.
2) Altitude Reserve offers Priority Pass, 3x everywhere (Apple Pay), 1.5cpp through RTR, primary rental car coverage, and a net $75 annual fee.
3) Bilt Mastercard has better transfer partners, insane transfer bonuses (125%…what?!), great international acceptance, primary rental car coverage, and no annual fee.
The effective annual fee on all three is less than the Green, yet the benefits far outweigh the cost. I hardly use CLEAR enough to justify the $30 I still have to pay out of pocket after the credit, LoungeBuddy was mid. I got the bonuses on the Platinum, then Gold, then Green, and IMO those cards are only good for the SUB. The Green’s strong point is the 3x on travel, but paying a fee for another 1x that I can easily MS elsewhere put the Green on the chopping block.
Taking into account each issuer’s transfer partners (which is key) and all-around earn rates, I’d say that the Amex Green and Citi Premier are good non-premier single-card plays. For those seeking simplicity.
3x travel and transit is good because the category is expansive. Only Chase and Wells Fargo offer such a broad travel category. As others mentioned, cruises are listed, but also campgrounds, transit, parking, etc. If you liked the Chase Sapphire Reserve for the spending categories and ability to use transfer partners, but cared less about lounge access, this makes sense. If you want lounges, the CSR is better. If you don’t care about lounges or transfer partners (at least for now), the WF Autograph is more of your card.
I’ve been intrigued by this card. If the credits were a little better, I might bite. I would not value Lounge buddy or Clear that highly. Both are nice perks, but I would not spend a dollar with either service absent the credits. But even with the CSP, you get a $50 hotel portal credit.
I got the sub and then an offer to change to another plat and 100k MR for $6k spend in 3 months. I thought this was great. I will probably change back to green again next renewal.
About how long after opening the Green until you were given the Plat upgrade offer?
For those spending a lot of money on cruises who want Membership Rewards I don’t think there is a better card. So whose is this card for? Cruisers.
Exactly! The CSR and this card are the only major travel cards I’m aware of that give 3x on cruises. I keep the Green Card just to have it if something changes on my CSR (Chase blackballs me for some reason, they change the 3x rewards to exclude cruises, etc….). Otherwise I’d agree there is no reason to keep the Green. Especially shocking since the current incarnation was a big improvement over the classic Green card that all my relatives had for so long.
Could be a gateway too (product change) to the Amex Gold (for those who are locked out of the Amex Gold SUB due to having received the Amex Plat SUB) and don’t want to waste a 5/24 slot