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)
Jul 18, 2017, 2:27 pm
#766
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: Canada
Programs: *void
Posts: 2,408
http://www.marriott.com/rewards/usepoints/morepack.mi
And discussed here:
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/marri...-packages.html
So, correct me if I'm wrong, if you convert 90K into 270K Marriotts to book a 7-nite travel package, and opt for 120K as Aeroplan points, then with the current Aeroplan hotels conversion promotion for 35% extra this would mean another 42K in bonuses for a total of 162K Aeroplan points.
Versus if you directly convert those same 90K SPG to Aeroplan at 1:1, it would be 5K bonus for each 20K converted, so 90K + 4x5K = 110K Aeroplan + 35% more with the conversion promo, or 148K Aeroplan.
Does that sound right? It's actually WORSE to convert directly through SPG to Aeroplan? Better to use a Marriott Travel package to get more Aeroplan points PLUS a 7-nite e-certificate for Cat-5 hotel? Or did I use a broken calculator?
Jul 18, 2017, 3:04 pm
#767
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: YYZ, YUL, PEK
Posts: 429
Sounds about right to me. Another example is that if you convert 180K MR to Aeroplan, you'd get 180K Aeroplan. But if you converted it to 90K SPG (2:1 ratio), then to 270K Marriott Rewards points (1:3 ratio), that'd give you 162K Aeroplan points plus a 7-night e-cert. So effectively you can buy 7 hotel nights for 18K Aeroplan, if you were planning on transferring 180K MR -> Aeroplan anyway.
Jul 18, 2017, 3:20 pm
#768
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: Canada
Programs: *void
Posts: 2,408
Sounds about right to me. Another example is that if you convert 180K MR to Aeroplan, you'd get 180K Aeroplan. But if you converted it to 90K SPG (2:1 ratio), then to 270K Marriott Rewards points (1:3 ratio), that'd give you 162K Aeroplan points plus a 7-night e-cert. So effectively you can buy 7 hotel nights for 18K Aeroplan, if you were planning on transferring 180K MR -> Aeroplan anyway.
http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/marri...l#post27266970
Basically, without an Aeroplan hotels conversion bonus promo the 7-night e-cert would effectively cost 60K MR. But with the recent Spring 30% Aeroplan conversion promo yielding 150K Aeroplans it was reduced down to a cost of 30K. Now with the current 35% conversion promo, a cost of 18K for 7-nites is ridiculously good value!
Jul 18, 2017, 3:33 pm
#769
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: London / Los Angeles
Programs: Hilton Diamond, IHG Diamond Ambassador, Marriott Platinum, Hyatt Globalist, BA Silver
Posts: 1,631
I have personal platinum and gold charge cards and business platinum charge card. Can any of these earn a referral when referring to spg card? Thinking no but just double checking.
Jul 18, 2017, 3:36 pm
#770
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: Canada
Programs: *void
Posts: 2,408
Unfortunately NO. Amex ended that opportunity a while ago. But even when it was possible it was only seldom accomplished. Go through GCR to get $30 cash back to offset the $120 SPG Personal's annual fee, and then start using that to do your SPG referrals.
Jul 18, 2017, 4:14 pm
#771
Join Date: Apr 2012
Location: Canada
Programs: AC E50k, A3*G, UA*S, MR Titanium, HHonors Gold, Carlson Gold, NEXUS
Posts: 3,669
I read about the increase in the SPG's signup bonus on one of the blogs, and the author mentioned that Amex doesn't seem to be enforcing the once-per-lifetime language -- is that true? I canceled my personal SPG in either March/April and have never had a biz SPG; is it worth the application? Or should I just give the biz SPG a shot?
Jul 18, 2017, 5:11 pm
#772
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: YUL
Programs: Aeroplan
Posts: 107
I read about the increase in the SPG's signup bonus on one of the blogs, and the author mentioned that Amex doesn't seem to be enforcing the once-per-lifetime language -- is that true? I canceled my personal SPG in either March/April and have never had a biz SPG; is it worth the application? Or should I just give the biz SPG a shot?
Jul 18, 2017, 8:16 pm
#773
Join Date: Dec 2008
Location: PHL, NYC, DC
Posts: 9,708
Mrs GHT has been flagged for a conversation..... got a letter asking to call them for more information....wondering if she should do it, or will it just pull all her past records up 
The Don't Call Amex rule is more specifically for enquiring about missing points on repeated churns, but in general you just don't want to have to call Amex if possible in other situations such as self-referrals, opening a second Business card product for welcome points. But in the case of approvals, I would relax that rule, especially if I haven't seen an email within a week after applying. Most front line Amex reps will simply want you to provide ID info and then push the application along, but of course there could also be a manual review by a credit analyst who at that time 'might' notice if it's a repeated churn of a Personal card product and offer to abort the application citing the one-welcome rules. For Business products there aren't published ineligibility wording, but they might still cite it anyways, be it correct or not. I think after 2 weeks of silence I would have just called anyways, and taken the chance. She might as well call now, as it's unlikely still "in progress" after so many weeks after applying.
Jul 19, 2017, 6:11 am
#774
Join Date: Jun 2015
Posts: 77
So, correct me if I'm wrong, if you convert 90K into 270K Marriotts to book a 7-nite travel package, and opt for 120K as Aeroplan points, then with the current Aeroplan hotels conversion promotion for 35% extra this would mean another 42K in bonuses for a total of 162K Aeroplan points.
Versus if you directly convert those same 90K SPG to Aeroplan at 1:1, it would be 5K bonus for each 20K converted, so 90K + 4x5K = 110K Aeroplan + 35% more with the conversion promo, or 148K Aeroplan.
Does that sound right? It's actually WORSE to convert directly through SPG to Aeroplan? Better to use a Marriott Travel package to get more Aeroplan points PLUS a 7-nite e-certificate for Cat-5 hotel? Or did I use a broken calculator?
Versus if you directly convert those same 90K SPG to Aeroplan at 1:1, it would be 5K bonus for each 20K converted, so 90K + 4x5K = 110K Aeroplan + 35% more with the conversion promo, or 148K Aeroplan.
Does that sound right? It's actually WORSE to convert directly through SPG to Aeroplan? Better to use a Marriott Travel package to get more Aeroplan points PLUS a 7-nite e-certificate for Cat-5 hotel? Or did I use a broken calculator?
Jul 19, 2017, 7:00 am
#775
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: West
Posts: 3,357
Amex does that once in a while, asks for more information. This occurred many times in the past, before the verbiage on rules changed. Just call and it will be alright. If they decline, no need to contact you for more info.
Jul 19, 2017, 8:05 am
#776
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: Canada
Programs: *void
Posts: 2,408
I read about the increase in the SPG's signup bonus on one of the blogs, and the author mentioned that Amex doesn't seem to be enforcing the once-per-lifetime language -- is that true? I canceled my personal SPG in either March/April and have never had a biz SPG; is it worth the application? Or should I just give the biz SPG a shot?
- Have people been able to repeat churns AFTER this date? Yes.
- More than one time after this date? Yes.
- Are they NOT enforcing the terms? No, they are but not enforcing policy consistently nor with any sort of regularity, though if you've read some of the reports in the past few months the failure rate is growing.
- Is it enough to make people stop churning? No. But, YMMV on success, and chances are good that you will get the welcome bonus again.
So, definitely a good idea to try for the Biz SPG first and give the Personal SPG some time to simmer. Reapplying for the Personal SPG just 3 months after cancelling is definitely do-able, but why risk it. Better to do the 'norm' and wait 6 months. If it were a Business product I wouldn't be so concerned, and have had very short turnaround times (< month) but it's not a race. Look at the recent reports about Amex notifying people that they need to have a 'time-out' and informed them to NOT apply for another Amex for 6 months.
Jul 19, 2017, 8:12 am
#777
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: Canada
Programs: *void
Posts: 2,408
When people are new with Amex, or if they have been opening an abnormally high number of new cards with Amex this could get flagged for whatever reason (yet there are people who open a dozen new cards without ever being questioned, *ahem*) and Mrs.GHT probably just got the short straw this time. I'm guessing that they just want to verify with her that her identity hasn't been compromised, and they would like some proof that she is truly intending to request for another new Amex product. Hope that's the case, anyways. And that it's not the call to ask her to slow down with her applications. Good luck to her.
Jul 19, 2017, 8:16 am
#778
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: Canada
Programs: *void
Posts: 2,408
That's right. As long as you can get to 270k Marriott/90k SPG, it's better to go through the travel package, regardless of bonus, though you do get more extra with it. You get more aeroplan and a free 7 night certificate, so you're still good even if you have no use for it. It's valid for one year, but everyone says they'll extend it for another year if called in.
Jul 19, 2017, 8:51 am
#779
Join Date: Jun 2015
Posts: 77
Thanks for confirming. We are not eager to convert to Aeroplan, but it's hard to turn this down. Just have to be sure we can find a use for the 7-nite certiicate, and that we can use the Aeroplan points for a redemption while there is still value and availability in their systems.
