Amex Gold / Platinum combo

I don't have gold but am considering it. I have a platinum, and so far this year I have gotten: $200 travel credit, $300 Equinox credit, $200 hotel credit (that's the annual free right there). Will get $180 for Clear, $100 for Saks, $200 for Uber, and $240 for WSJ monthly credits. I'll also get $100 - 200 back on random offers throughout the year - MrPorter, etc. 

So if you can get good rewards on either, I think it's justifiable. 

Yeah I’ve had the gold platinum combo for two years now and I think it’s worth it. Almost all my credit card spend is on food or personal travel. If those aren’t your top two categories and you only fly like once a year I don’t think it would be worth it. Also really convenient that they are charge cards with no hard limit. Have paid for 5 figure items just by calling in advance and they just say yes or no. I’m doing the whole ecosystem so checking and savings too. Very convenient aside from anything physical / hard money like ATMs and cashier’s checks.

Gold card is great if you dine out a lot, honestly I got rid of my Plat card because after the pandemic and during I stopped travelling for work and not a ton for personal, unless locally. It wasn't worth it to me. My prior firm would let me charge my Plat card get the points and then reimburse me. The Gold is great if you aren't a traveler like dinning out, but honestly I have other cards I get great rewards. I have the Amex Blue Cash Preferred and I use it for groceries, meal plan, get big rewards on both Hulu and Xfinity, and Gas stations. Then I have a Citi Cash card you can set what you get the best rewards on. 

Plat is only great if you uber a lot, aka don't have a car or travel a lot either work allows you to put it on your card and reimburses you or you go a lot of places. Internationally Plat is fantastic though, so if you plan on 1-3 trips a year only and they are all internationally it's worth it just for those trips let alone the other benefits. 

You should check the credits you get with both, but you usually should be able to cover the annual fee with the credits (if not, then the sign up bonuses cover the fees for ~2.5 years).

Gold gets $120 Uber cash and $120 DoorDash for $250 annual fee.

Plat gets $200 Uber cash, $200 airline credit (use on United vouchers), $240 streaming credit, $200 hotel credit, + nice travel benefits (Marriott/Hyatt gold, priority pass, Resy global dining) for $695 annual fee.

Lounge value is pretty weak these days.  I see people lined up outside the Centurion Lounge waiting to get in, which seems utterly pathetic considering they got the lounge access to be more exclusive than the everyday person at the airport bar, and now they're waiting in line like a leper colony while Average Joe enjoys the relative exclusivity of getting food & drink when he wants it (albeit paid).  And it's often a zoo once you get inside the lounge.  Tables have turned.

And then United created an upper class of lounge to exclude the losers from the everyday United lounge LOL.  

Go after value, not prestige.  You'll always get taken advantage of when chasing the latter.  In fact I'd say that's most of why prestige was invented as a concept, to shake down wannabes who will overpay for it.

For me at least, while the Gold is definitely worth it, the Platinum never seemed to come close. The perks were always a bit too obtuse to use. I dropped it and switched to the Delta Reserve and was much happier as a result. 

Would say the amex is a great card for benefits, but I personally don't travel as much these days, so I may not be able to utilize them as much as people who work in consulting for example

Never found AMEX to be very useful, unless I'm regularly flying Delta, tbqh. I personally get way better value from Chase transfer partners on average and will keep the lounge card of whatever airline I'm flying for work (not Delta these days) to take care of that piece. Airline lounge access is still somewhat useful, but these CC companies' lounges are whack since everyone has a premium credit card and can get in nowadays (looking at you, Priority Pass). Between the not so useful partners, the silly monthly coupon nature of their credits, and the fact that it's not even accepted everywhere, I'm pretty much done with AMEX at this point. 

I use the capital one and the united explorer credit card 

Platinum, is the only one worth having in my view.

Platinum is definitely worth it if you know you have upcoming travel plans. With the typical 100k/150k bonus, it practically covers itself for the first 2 years. 

As others have mentioned though, it’s really not that great for an everyday card. Have had my CSR for 5+ years now as it’s a great everyday card and have had my Platinum on top for the last 2 due to more planned travel (i.e., events, weddings, etc.). Will probably move away from the Platinum next year unless more planned travel happens since that’s all it’s good for. 

I gotta sign up for the plat, currently using a Citi card 

What about the delta sky lounge? Was that also one you could use with Amex?

Most people seen to either use csr or plat for the most part