Jan 7, 2017, 4:18 pm
Last edit by: mia
Referrals and self-referrals are an important part of maximizing rewards from Canadian-issued American Express cards. It is appropriate to discuss how the referral process works in this thread. However, please do not offer or request referrals here. Use only this thread, and do read the Wikipost carefully before posting: Referral Offers (post only in this thread, no referral links, read Wiki post first).
This thread is a continuation of: Churning Amex in Canada (2016). All the listed offers below are still valid as of January 2017.
Jerry: Aug 2017 latest update, all-in-one summary
New as of Mar 23, 2017, minimum spend up to $3000 now
AMEX Platinum Rewards - $699/year, 60K MR (via referral) after $3000 spending in 3 months vs. 50K non-referral
New as of March 23 2016.
AMEX Business Platinum Rewards - $399/year, 75K MR (via referral) after $5000 spending in 3 months vs. 40K non-referral
Updated as of July 21, 2017
AMEX Gold Rewards - $150/year, FYF, 25K MR after $1500 spending + $50/$60 cashback from GCR. New as of Jan 15, 2017, on a referred signup: and an additional 5,000 Membership Rewards points for one approved Supplementary Card added to your account at time of online application. That’s a total of 30,000 Membership Rewards points.
AMEX Business Gold Rewards - $250/year, FYF, 30K MR after $5000 spending (or 40K via referral)
AMEX Air Miles Platinum - $65/year, 2000 Air Miles after $1500 spending + $30 GCR cashback
July 18-Oct 18, 2017 - welcome offer increased 5K to 25K.
Sep 28, 2017 - Personal and Business SPG bonus drops from 10K to 5K per approved referral.
AMEX SPG - $120/year, 25K SPG after $1500 spending + $30 GCR cashback
- if you applied recently for the SPG card at the 20K welcome level, try contacting Amex by Secured Message to ask if they can match the current 25K offer. Several successful datapoints have surfaced with manual addition of 5K at next statement. YMMV.
New as of July 2016
AMEX Aeroplan Plus Platinum - $499/year, 50K Aeroplans after $1000 spending in 3 months (or 51K via referral). The 50K/51K, extra 10K promo expired on April 01, 2016, but started up again July - Sep 30th, 2016.
New card as of Sep 25 2017
AMEX Cobalt CREDIT card - $10/month ($120 annually)
Apply through GCR for $50 Rebate https://www.greatcanadianrebates.ca/...s/Amex-Cobalt/
This is not an all-inclusive list, only the "good" offers, so feel free to add new offers.
AMEX Platinum Rewards
- Earn 15K MR for each referral you make
(Note: from Mar 23 - Jun 29 the bonuses were 75K welcome and 25K referral points)
AMEX Business Platinum Rewards
- Earn 25K MR for each referral you make
AMEX Gold Rewards
- Earn 10k MR for each referal you make.
This thread is a continuation of: Churning Amex in Canada (2016). All the listed offers below are still valid as of January 2017.
Jerry: Aug 2017 latest update, all-in-one summary
New as of Mar 23, 2017, minimum spend up to $3000 now
AMEX Platinum Rewards - $699/year, 60K MR (via referral) after $3000 spending in 3 months vs. 50K non-referral
New as of March 23 2016.
AMEX Business Platinum Rewards - $399/year, 75K MR (via referral) after $5000 spending in 3 months vs. 40K non-referral
Updated as of July 21, 2017
AMEX Gold Rewards - $150/year, FYF, 25K MR after $1500 spending + $50/$60 cashback from GCR. New as of Jan 15, 2017, on a referred signup: and an additional 5,000 Membership Rewards points for one approved Supplementary Card added to your account at time of online application. That’s a total of 30,000 Membership Rewards points.
- July 11, 2017, Amex Gold MR will no longer earn referral points.
- July 21, 2017, no other Amex MR card can refer to Gold MR
AMEX Business Gold Rewards - $250/year, FYF, 30K MR after $5000 spending (or 40K via referral)
AMEX Air Miles Platinum - $65/year, 2000 Air Miles after $1500 spending + $30 GCR cashback
July 18-Oct 18, 2017 - welcome offer increased 5K to 25K.
Sep 28, 2017 - Personal and Business SPG bonus drops from 10K to 5K per approved referral.
AMEX SPG - $120/year, 25K SPG after $1500 spending + $30 GCR cashback
- if you applied recently for the SPG card at the 20K welcome level, try contacting Amex by Secured Message to ask if they can match the current 25K offer. Several successful datapoints have surfaced with manual addition of 5K at next statement. YMMV.
New as of July 2016
AMEX Aeroplan Plus Platinum - $499/year, 50K Aeroplans after $1000 spending in 3 months (or 51K via referral). The 50K/51K, extra 10K promo expired on April 01, 2016, but started up again July - Sep 30th, 2016.
New card as of Sep 25 2017
AMEX Cobalt CREDIT card - $10/month ($120 annually)
Apply through GCR for $50 Rebate https://www.greatcanadianrebates.ca/...s/Amex-Cobalt/
- Earn 2,500 Membership Tiered Rewards points for each month where you spend $500 (up to 30,000/year).
- Limited Time Offer: Apply by Jan 30, 2018 and you can earn a Welcome Bonus of 10,000 Membership Rewards® points after spending $3K in 3 months.
- See discussion thread for more details: 2017 American Express Cobalt (Canada)
This is not an all-inclusive list, only the "good" offers, so feel free to add new offers.
Referral Difference Between Cards:
Please note there is a maximum annual referral bonus you can make per card.
AMEX Platinum Rewards
- Earn 15K MR for each referral you make
(Note: from Mar 23 - Jun 29 the bonuses were 75K welcome and 25K referral points)
AMEX Business Platinum Rewards
- Earn 25K MR for each referral you make
AMEX Gold Rewards
- July 11, 2017, Amex Gold MR will no longer earn referral points.
- July 21, 2017, no other Amex MR card can refer to Gold MR
- mid-May 2016, increased from $500 to $1500 required spending.
- Jan 11 to mid-May 2016, the Gold card earned 0 referral points.
- Earn 10k MR for each referal you make.
American Express Canada application and reward strategies (2017)
May 11, 2017, 10:09 am
#601
Suspended
Join Date: Mar 2017
Programs: AC
Posts: 2,167
Re: AMEX Gold/Platinum charge card.
If I buy a refundable airfare ticket and hit the minimum spend in month 1 and get the signup bonus of membership reward points, and say in month 2 I get a full refund of the airfare ticket.
What happens to the signup bonus?
If I buy a refundable airfare ticket and hit the minimum spend in month 1 and get the signup bonus of membership reward points, and say in month 2 I get a full refund of the airfare ticket.
What happens to the signup bonus?
May 11, 2017, 11:19 am
#602
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: May 2015
Location: BOS, YVR, ZRH
Programs: *G
Posts: 17,410
You keep the rewards. I cancelled my refundable booking at kept them. I made it back above 5k anyway for the Biz Plat so if there's a delay in the claw-back I wouldn't have noticed, but I went above - got points - went back below and the points stayed.
I got an e-mail congratulating me for my welcome 40k points.
... the welcome bonus for the Biz Plat was 75k though...
May 11, 2017, 6:26 pm
#603
Suspended
Join Date: Mar 2017
Programs: AC
Posts: 2,167
ha, I literally asked the same thing last page.
You keep the rewards. I cancelled my refundable booking at kept them. I made it back above 5k anyway for the Biz Plat so if there's a delay in the claw-back I wouldn't have noticed, but I went above - got points - went back below and the points stayed.
I got an e-mail congratulating me for my welcome 40k points.
... the welcome bonus for the Biz Plat was 75k though...
You keep the rewards. I cancelled my refundable booking at kept them. I made it back above 5k anyway for the Biz Plat so if there's a delay in the claw-back I wouldn't have noticed, but I went above - got points - went back below and the points stayed.
I got an e-mail congratulating me for my welcome 40k points.
... the welcome bonus for the Biz Plat was 75k though...
What if you have a corporate linked membership rewards account. I wonder if they'll claw back the bonus miles since you technically still have a MR account which they can clawback....
May 11, 2017, 6:31 pm
#604
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: May 2015
Location: BOS, YVR, ZRH
Programs: *G
Posts: 17,410
I can see them not clawing back the bonus MR miles b/c they won't prorate the annual fee for refunds in year 1, however, I assume they would claw back the # of miles they awarded you for the transaction made for the refundable booking (which is fair)
What if you have a corporate linked membership rewards account. I wonder if they'll claw back the bonus miles since you technically still have a MR account which they can clawback....
What if you have a corporate linked membership rewards account. I wonder if they'll claw back the bonus miles since you technically still have a MR account which they can clawback....
and they COULD have easily clawed back my signup bonus once I went below 5k spend. But they didn't.
May 13, 2017, 6:59 am
#606
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: Canada
Programs: *void
Posts: 2,408
It may have worked for you this time, but I would say that this is not a guarantee. Twice I've done this and both times the welcome bonus was removed. I had to spend to re-exceed the minimum spend requirement and then the welcome bonus re-appeared. These all happened within the initial 3 month period.
May 13, 2017, 11:04 am
#607
Join Date: May 2015
Location: Vancouver
Programs: Aeroplan, Mileage Plus, WestJet Gold, AMEX Plat
Posts: 2,026
I was asking about this previously but nobody seems to really know much about it. There IS a website of Servisair lounges, found here:
http://www.executivelounges.com/
but... they also include "non-Servisair third party" lounges in their program so it's REALLY confusing.
Aspire lounges are definitely Servisair (/Swissport, since Servisair isn't actually a thing anymore) lounges so I'd count on those being included, but... the others, nobody seems to know. Here's a specific list of Aspire lounges:
http://www.executivelounges.com/aspire
http://www.executivelounges.com/
but... they also include "non-Servisair third party" lounges in their program so it's REALLY confusing.
Aspire lounges are definitely Servisair (/Swissport, since Servisair isn't actually a thing anymore) lounges so I'd count on those being included, but... the others, nobody seems to know. Here's a specific list of Aspire lounges:
http://www.executivelounges.com/aspire
One other item to note, you have access into the Delta lounges (no guest) but only if flying on Delta.
May 13, 2017, 12:59 pm
#608
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: May 2015
Location: BOS, YVR, ZRH
Programs: *G
Posts: 17,410
I've used my regular platinum in an Aspire lounge in Europe before FWIW. If they accepted that because with a regular plat I SHOULD have Priority Pass access and they knew that and didn't bother asking or because the regular Plat gives the same Aspire access as the Business plat.... I don't know.
May 13, 2017, 1:37 pm
#609
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: May 2015
Location: BOS, YVR, ZRH
Programs: *G
Posts: 17,410
Can anyone quickly tell me what the referral signup bonus on the Aeroplan Reserve is? Regular signup is 50k and I can't seem to find anyone actually referring the Reserve in the signup-referral thread lol. Just curious if referral is any more than regular.
May 13, 2017, 3:19 pm
#610
Suspended
Join Date: Mar 2017
Programs: AC
Posts: 2,167
It may have worked for you this time, but I would say that this is not a guarantee. Twice I've done this and both times the welcome bonus was removed. I had to spend to re-exceed the minimum spend requirement and then the welcome bonus re-appeared. These all happened within the initial 3 month period.
I guess I could just convert all my MR miles to another mileage program so if they do claw back the Welcome bonus and my MR account goes negative I'll cancel all of my MR related AMEX cards.
May 15, 2017, 12:16 am
#611
Join Date: Mar 2017
Posts: 73
In case anyone was wondering....
AMEX BANK OF CANADA
On October 25, 2016, Aimia and Amex Bank of Canada ("AMEX") extended the term of their existing agreements by one year to December 31, 2018
https://www.aimia.com/content/dam/ai...t_Final_EN.pdf
AMEX BANK OF CANADA
On October 25, 2016, Aimia and Amex Bank of Canada ("AMEX") extended the term of their existing agreements by one year to December 31, 2018
https://www.aimia.com/content/dam/ai...t_Final_EN.pdf
May 15, 2017, 7:51 am
#612
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: YYZ (YUL/LHR)
Programs: AC - E50, CX - G, Accor Plat, SPG Gold
Posts: 903
AmEx hedged wisely; I expect the agreement will be extended further but AmEx will likely want much better terms and I'm not sure AP could take another loss so will concede.
May 15, 2017, 10:14 am
#613
Join Date: Nov 2012
Programs: SPG Gold, Aeroplan, Hilton Honors, Le Club Accor Platinum
Posts: 268
Mrs. 1011tristar applied for a couple cards online and after submitting the applications, just got a message that said only "Thank you" with a reference number. No pending or instant approvals messages just "Thank you". She has excellent credit and is normally approved instantly. I found this to be odd.
May 15, 2017, 1:45 pm
#614
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: Canada
Programs: *void
Posts: 2,408
Mrs. 1011tristar applied for a couple cards online and after submitting the applications, just got a message that said only "Thank you" with a reference number. No pending or instant approvals messages just "Thank you". She has excellent credit and is normally approved instantly. I found this to be odd.
We've seen two types of "pending" messages in our recent applications (Feb/Mar).
- Thank you for choosing American Express. We are unable to give you an instant decision at this time. Your application will be processed within 10 days. Questions? Call 1-800-565-0288 and quote reference number: XXXXXXX
- Thank you for applying for SimplyCash Card from American Express. Your application is currently under review and will be completed within 10 days. If you have additional questions regarding the status of your application, please call the New Accounts Department at 1-800-575-2273, quoting application reference number: XXXXXXX
If she has excellent credit and is in a rush for the card then I'd suggest her to call Amex to push the application through. No need to wait. Should be easy for approval.
May 15, 2017, 4:15 pm
#615
Join Date: Mar 2017
Posts: 73
That does seem odd.
We've seen two types of "pending" messages in our recent applications (Feb/Mar).
If she has excellent credit and is in a rush for the card then I'd suggest her to call Amex to push the application through. No need to wait. Should be easy for approval.
We've seen two types of "pending" messages in our recent applications (Feb/Mar).
- Thank you for choosing American Express. We are unable to give you an instant decision at this time. Your application will be processed within 10 days. Questions? Call 1-800-565-0288 and quote reference number: XXXXXXX
- Thank you for applying for SimplyCash Card from American Express. Your application is currently under review and will be completed within 10 days. If you have additional questions regarding the status of your application, please call the New Accounts Department at 1-800-575-2273, quoting application reference number: XXXXXXX
If she has excellent credit and is in a rush for the card then I'd suggest her to call Amex to push the application through. No need to wait. Should be easy for approval.
All called the new accounts line, no issues with application approved over phone. On my 3rd app AMEX called me at home AND at work... fraud prevention department, making sure it was me signing up.