The Gold provides clearer points earning near term, lower SUB spend, and an entre to how charge cards work.
The Platinum provides more travel perks, but the SUB usually requires $5,000 spend, so one must be prepared for that. Perhaps the 100k bonus would appear, but I never saw it offered in four years of checking.
Building a relationship with AMEX does take a bit of time. Eventually both Gold and Platinum probably make sense, but over the course of months.
