Amex's best travel card for novice globetrotters: An in-depth look at the Amex Green Card

There exist a number of different travel cards, each one with their own unique traits but today I am going to focus on one of the best cards for travel aficionados on the market, the Green Card from American Express. Aside from being the most iconic Amex card, it also makes for a great travel partner and a card that you'll want to have present in your wallet every time you take flight. Late last year the card was given a redesign and a boost in perks and benefits and for good reason, the green card had gotten stale and wasn't getting the attention that it's more expensive kin (Amex Platinum & Amex Gold) were getting, this led to a big change (in a good way) to the iconic design of the original and some extra additions to make it not only compete but also give a run for it's counterparts money (The Chase Sapphire Preferred). So without further ado, let's get into what makes the green card such a great pick for those of you that want to get rewards and benefits on travel without the high annual fee.

Now, let's start with the biggest change to the green card (at least in my eyes), and that is the 3x back on restaurants WORLDWIDE, notice how the word is in all caps and highlighted in bold? that's how big of a deal this was when the updates were made, the reason for it being such a big deal is because this category along with every other one on most amex cards were specifically made for US consumption, this was due to amex cards not being accepted in a lot of places around the world until things started to pick up for them a few years back, now they feel confident in the amount of places worldwide that do accept their cards, enough to get them to earn points anywhere around the globe. Aside from the 3x back on restaurants it also got an upgrade by adding a very important category and revamping its original 3x back on travel category, which only let you earn points on travel booked through the Amex travel portal or purchases made directly with select airlines and hotels. Now the card gets you 3x back on EVERYTHING travel (which is a very broad category that includes hotels, airlines, airbnb, luggage fees, in-flight purchases and many other travel related purchases) and the new category which is also 3x back on transit (this includes subways, trains, taxis, ride sharing services, tolls and the sort) these changes were necessary and were also due a long time ago in order to be able to compete against the Sapphire Preferred, which it does, the only drawback is the $150 annual fee and that's if you can call it a drawback, especially with the other perks that follow.

Getting to the other two perks that make this card so competitive and flat out great, let's start with the $100 statement credit that you get every year for your CLEAR subscription, now, if you don't know or aren't very familiar with what CLEAR is, it is basically a type of TSA pre-check, the difference between the two being that TSA pre-check expedites the physical screening process and CLEAR speeds up your travel document check process, it's a very convenient perk to have especially if you already have TSA pre-check because they complement each other nicely, the only knock on this is that CLEAR is only available (as of today) on certain international airports. Now, the second perk that we're going to tackle is a even more appealing one which is another $100 statement credit each year for when you purchase a lounge pass through the Lounge Buddy app with your green card, one of the best things in a airport is the variety of lounges it has, if you need to wait for your flight and need somewhere to relax and get away from the hubbub of the airport then this perk comes quite in handy, with a $100 statement credit for purchasing lounge passes you can enjoy quality food, drinks and peace and quiet while you wait for your flight, a lot of these lounges have really nice amenities and are on the cheap side, enough so that your $100 can nab you 3 to 4 lounge passes a year. Between this and the CLEAR credit if you take advantage of both then your overall annual fee on the amex comes down to -$50, it's like I always say, no annual fee is a bad annual fee if you can get your moneys worth from all the different perks and benefits. All of these assets that come with the Green Card are what makes it such an attractive travel card for globetrotters and travel novices alike, it is a card that can basically fit on any card strategy and help you really get rewards on the things a lot of people love or want to do, eat and travel.