[Expired] Chase Sapphire Preferred vs. Amex Gold: Which 100K Bonus Offer Should You Get Right Now?

Both the Chase Sapphire Preferred^® Card and the American Express^® Gold Card are excellent travel rewards cards, and both are offering welcome offer bonuses as high as 100,000 points at the moment. So, which welcome offer should you take up?

Read on for tips on deciding which card and welcome offer is right for your wallet.

Chase Sapphire Preferred Card and Amex Gold Card Welcome Offers

Currently, the Chase Sapphire Preferred card has an elevated welcome offer of: Earn 75,000 bonus points after you spend $5,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.

We officially know that the 100,000-point welcome offer on the Chase Sapphire Preferred card is ending on Thursday, July 30, at 3 p.m. Eastern.

Meanwhile, the Amex Gold card has a welcome offer of: Apply and find out if you're eligible for as high as 100,000 points after spending $8,000 in eligible purchases in the first 6 months. Welcome offers vary, and you may not be eligible for an offer.

Which Welcome Offer Should You Apply For?

We value Amex Membership Rewards points at 2.2 cents per point, and Chase Ultimate Rewards at 2 cents per point, making the welcome offer bonus for the Amex Gold card slightly more valuable than the welcome bonus offer for the Chase Sapphire Preferred card, at a value of up to $2,200 and $1,500, respectively.

That said, an important distinction between the two is that the welcome offer for the Chase Sapphire Preferred card is a set 100,000 points, while the welcome offer for the Amex Gold card is as high as 100,000 points based on your eligibility.

In which case, if you’re not targeted for the full 100,000-point offer on the Amex Gold card, then the math becomes much easier, with the 100,000-point Chase Sapphire Preferred card offer being far more lucrative.

Additionally, the Chase Sapphire Preferred card’s welcome offer was recently just 75,000 points, giving you 33.3% more points by applying for the 100,000-point welcome offer. It also makes it the more timely opportunity to take advantage of a limited-time bonus offer.

What Are 100,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards Points Worth?

The exact value of the 100,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points you receive from the welcome offer of the Chase Sapphire Preferred card comes down to how you redeem them.

At a minimum, your Chase Ultimate Rewards points can be redeemed at 1 cent per point as a statement credit or as a deposit into an eligible bank account, making your 100,000 points worth $1,000.

Alternatively, when you book travel through Chase Travel using your Ultimate Rewards points, you have access to Points Boost offers with your Chase Sapphire Preferred card. These Points Boosts can amount to a 50% bonus on some hotels and flights with certain airlines, and for premium cabin tickets on some airlines (e.g., business and first class), you can receive up to a 75% bonus. This means Points Boost can offer you 1.5 cents to 1.75 cents in value per point, making 100,000 points worth $1,500 to $1,750.

Lastly, we value Chase Ultimate Rewards points at 2 cents per point because of the value you can receive when transferring to Chase transfer partners to book business class flights and luxury hotel stays for a fraction of the usual cost, making 100,000 points worth $2,000 based on the Upgraded Points valuation.

For example, you can transfer your Chase Ultimate Rewards to the Air France-KLM Flying Blue program at a 1:1 rate, booking a one-way business class flight from many U.S. cities to Paris (CDG) or Amsterdam (AMS) for as low as 60,000 points. That same ticket would easily cost $3,000 (or more) if you were to pay cash, resulting in a redemption value of 5 cents per point.

What Are 100,000 Amex Membership Rewards Points Worth?

As with Chase Ultimate Rewards points, the value of 100,000 Amex Membership Rewards points depends largely on how you decide to redeem them.

If you were to decide to redeem your Amex points as a statement credit, you’d receive just 0.6 cents per point in value, making 100,000 points worth $600. This is not a redemption method we would recommend unless you really need the cash.

You can get much better value on travel by redeeming your points through AmexTravel.com for flights at a rate of 1 cent per point, where your 100,000 points would be worth $1,000 in flight purchases. Other travel purchases, don’t quite measure up, though, as hotels and rental cars booked through AmexTravel.com offer just 0.7 cents per point.

Since Amex Membership Rewards is another transferable rewards program, you won’t be surprised to hear that this is our recommended redemption method to maximize your point value, and this is why we value Amex points at 2.2 cents per point, making 100,000 points worth $2,200 by the Upgraded Points valuation.

Chase Sapphire Preferred Card vs. Amex Gold Card

Beyond the welcome bonus offers, here is how each travel reawrds card compares to the others to help you determine which is a better fit for you personally. Please note that some of the benefits below require prior enrollment.

Both the Chase Sapphire Preferred card and the Amex Gold card are excellent cards, and they both come with great welcome offers, so how should you choose which is the better fit for you?

The Chase Sapphire Preferred card offers more opportunities to earn bonus points by providing more bonus categories, many of which allow you to earn rewards on a variety of travel and everyday expenses. Plus, it offers far more comprehensive travel and purchase protections for a lower annual fee and an annual $100 hotel credit that easily offsets that fee.

The Amex Gold card, on the other hand, charges a much larger annual fee but comes with a few more statement credits to help offset that cost.

it doesn’t offer as many bonus categories as the Chase Sapphire Preferred card, but its ability to earn 4x points at restaurants worldwide (up to $50,000 per year, then 1x) and at U.S. supermarkets (up to $25,000 per year, then 1x) is a huge pro for many, since these are two of the largest expenses for many households.

Additionally, if you’re more invested in the American Express ecosystem via other cards like the Platinum Card^® from American Express, then pairing it with the Amex Gold card can make a lot of sense.

Final Thoughts

Both the Chase Sapphire Preferred card and the Amex Gold card have quite a lot to offer cardholders, and both come with excellent welcome offers of as high as 100,000 bonus points.

Though you can’t really go wrong either way, our recommendation would be that, if you aren’t targeted for the 100,000-point bonus offer on the Amex Gold card, you should take up the 100,000-point welcome offer on the Chase Sapphire Preferred card while it’s still around. But the best best is always to go with whichever card is the overall better fit for you and your spending habits.