Originally Posted by
pauq
Or restaurants in hotels, even here in Canada.
If the restaurant uses the hotel's merchant account you dined at a hotel, not at a restaurant. All card issuers who offer category bonuses use the merchant account category to classify expenses.
Originally Posted by
Vasco
....a free supplementary card like every other market gets;....
There are no free supplementary Platinum cards in the USA market, but the choice isn't between American Express (Canada) and American Express (Elsewhere), nor between American Express (2019) versus American Express (2018), it's American Express versus HSBC or other issuers.