Churning Amex in Canada (2014)
 

I have asked a related question before and not received an answer, very little enthusiasm for the Choice Cards here (understandably), but they could have a niche use such as the one asked here or to earn 2MRs/$ at vendors you frequent regularly which are not grocery/gas/pharmacy/travel. My query is whether the Choice MRs can be transferred to airlines since the T&Cs only refer to hotel transfers?

Of course if the Choice cards started having referral bonuses, their value would be lauded much more greatly in these parts.

Sorry I could not answer the initial question but I suspect that my question is a necessary corollary to yours, it would be a downer to save your MR balance with a Choice card and then find out you are stuck making HH transfers or buying gift cards.

I have a Choice card sitting in a drawer. You can transfer MR Choice points to Aeroplan (1000:1000) and Etihad (1000:750). I never use the card (it used to be a Platinum Credit Card whcih was discontinued and then forcibly changed on me to the Choice card) but it shows up as a separate MR account (as MR Choice) from my Platinum Card's (MR First.)

Can't speak to the query about whether the MRs are equivalent or not, and whether or not you can use them while in the Choice MR for converting to airline points. But, that aside, based on my (horrible) experiences in dealing with AMEX with merging my Gold MR and BizGold MR accounts together, it would surely be a major task and undertaking to request AMEX to marry the MR of a true Rewards card, with the Choice MR account. I think it would be even harder than pulling teeth from a T-Rex!

Thankfully I've only had to beg on the phone with AMEX once, to deal with this. Now, it's a dream to see them merged automatically, and dramatically reduces my personal expenses allocated towards cushiony knee-pads. ;)

I applied for an Amex Biz, and then cancelled the Gold, and it worked wonderfully (except for the fact that it's going to take 10 weeks to get my Biz sign-up bonus...sigh). It was a good churn, but when I get my Gold card back and cancel my Biz, I won't be churning the biz again. I'll likely clean out my MRs when I churn the Gold card again, or simply keep the Gold card and pay the annual fee. I actually really miss my Gold card (miss getting 2 MRs at grocery, gas and drugstores!). We'll see what the sign up bonuses are like then - but I have a few more months to wait before I apply for it again, and I am getting antsy!

I'm cancelling all my Amex cards. The bonuses even if they reinstate the fee are worth more than spending and keeping the card. I paid .008 for the Aeroplat card, my most recent bookings are .024 and .035 per mile. A lot of points recently I didn't pay much of anything! Spending $500 to get 40,000 Aeroplan miles?

I'm holding off a bit on the Aeroplat, to see if I can secure a Visa Infinite Privilege by the end of the week.

If I do get the Visa Infinite Privilege, I'm going to wait until March to get the Amex Platinum. I want to see if the 50% Avios is happening, and I've moved MR into Avios, before I commit to the American Express Platinum.

I am also thinking to get one of these two cards because of the current promotion that the welcome bonus miles qualify for Aeroplan Distinction.

Welcome miles qualify you for Aeroplan Distinction???? Not on my account they didn't! Is this an exception limited to these two cards, because according to T&C for Distinction:

Eligible miles are miles earned in the Aeroplan Program directly at participating partners and include base and certain bonus mile offers. Unless otherwise indicated at the time of offer, the following miles are not eligible for Distinction status: financial card sign-up; bonus miles received as a benefit of the Air Canada Altitude program or Aeroplan Distinction status; miles accumulated through conversion from other programs or transfers between member accounts, top-up miles, contest prizes, and reinstated miles. Aeroplan reserves the right, at their sole discretion, to change the miles eligible for Distinction status from time to time by either adding to or deleting from this list. Eligible miles are considered to be earned on the activity date, meaning the date upon which the member performed the qualifying activity. In the case of financial card partners, the activity date is the statement date.

Edit:

Ahhhh....I see the wording on the Amex website about the bonus points being eligible. But WEIRD wording! Notice how they write 'can be' eligible and not 'are' eligible? Interesting....

Earn 30,000 Bonus Aeroplan®*Miles after you spend $1,000 in your first three months of Cardmembership.1 Apply by April 1st, 2014 and your welcome bonus can be eligible towards earning DistinctionTM‡ status in the Aeroplan Program23.

Anyone confirm that the points ARE eligible for status? If so, this is a GREAT feature!!!

I noticed the weird wording too. I think they are trying to leave some leverage for dealing with loopholes that they do not know yet.

This is new since the TD cards came out.

Check the TD card T&C at:

http://www4.aeroplan.com/promotions/...EBUP1000043_TD

For the Amex, it is sloppily drafted, unintentionally I expect. They are eligible, any ambiguity has to be ready in the consumer's favor. Note 35k/50k are Distinction eligible through the AP website application. Terms are not provided for referred cards.

That being said, and I repeat as a Diamond by default not by design, I see almost zero value to Distinction, the extra e-store points and possibly once a year use the Fairmont benefits are the only perks I can conceive using, I already have call priority through AC*G so that could be a minor benefit to someone else.

Between up to 15k for a financial card on 3/31; possibly a star challenge, 35k for Aeroplat and 25k for a Visa Privilege, Distinction status is hardly going to be exclusive, heck last year every successful Star Challenger ipso facto became silver.

When self-referring (doing this for the Amex Gold Business), do you apply by saying you're an "existing cardmember" (currently Plat)? Will the MR points go into one account?

Yes, just refer to the instructions here, as delivered by this Yahoo-Fancy-Boy. :p

It's for the reverse of what you're doing, using Gold to refer to Plat, but you'll get the general idea.

No guarantees, but it's the best you can do to increase your chances to automatically merge/marry your MR accounts together.

JJJ, who should've been a Marriage Counsellor

I did that in Oct 2013 (Plat referred to Business Gold) and provided existing card # and logged in, and still AMEX didn't link them automatically, nor when I requested them to be merged later (citing that BUSINESS account cannot merge with PERSONAL account, which is BS really, but it wasn't a big deal as I transferred it out to SPG & Aeroplan anyway)


FYI - my names differ slightly on the Platinum and Business Gold, but I don't think that's why

You do not have to say existing cardmember in my experience. In 2012, I applied for the Business card without saying I am existing cardmember but the two MR accounts were linked automatically.

I thought only the Infinite Privilege bonus qualified as Distinction points?
Does Infinite qualify as well?

My and my wife's AE gold Amex signup bonus did not qualify as Distinction Points. Probably a recent change.

Amex feeling the heat yet, over AE Visa wars? Cancelled my Biz Plat today, and explained to the rep I had to choose between Infinite Privilege and the Biz Plat.. I chose Infinite Privilege for the Visa coverage. I was torn though, seriously considering the regular Amex Plat signup. Still might do it, but not now. No reason to as no travel until the summer now.