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 23, 2017, 6:17 am
#796
Join Date: Jun 2016
Location: Prince Edward Island
Programs: Air Canada P25K, Hilton Honors Gold, Marriott Gold, MGM Gold
Posts: 1,582
). I've managed to get enough referrals in the past year to cover the annual fee, but without gold card referral, I doubt if I'll be able to do that this year. However, I don't think this card has once-per-lifetime restrictions, so you could cancel and reapply later for the 75,000 sign-up bonus.
Jul 23, 2017, 7:44 am
#797
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Toronto
Programs: UA 1K, AC MM E75, Marriott LT Ti, IHG Dia Amb, Hyatt Glob
Posts: 15,521
I see a lot of people are having issues with their sign up bonus. I am too. I self referred the SPG Biz Amex from my SPG Personal Amex and got the referral points. I've never had the Biz Amex before, and I cancelled the personal Amex shortly after getting the referral points.
I lost an entire month because Amex took so long to send me the card (see above), but I still managed to hit my $1500 spend in the first 2 months after I received the card (post date of May 19). No sign up bonus on the first statement (May 20) after spending $1500, and nothing on the next one (June 20) either. I don't expect this will auto-post. Based on all the other posts, guess I'll just have to sit tight for 10-12 weeks after May 19.
And what's with the 10-12 weeks? Is it 10, or is it 12?
I lost an entire month because Amex took so long to send me the card (see above), but I still managed to hit my $1500 spend in the first 2 months after I received the card (post date of May 19). No sign up bonus on the first statement (May 20) after spending $1500, and nothing on the next one (June 20) either. I don't expect this will auto-post. Based on all the other posts, guess I'll just have to sit tight for 10-12 weeks after May 19.
And what's with the 10-12 weeks? Is it 10, or is it 12?
Jul 23, 2017, 1:12 pm
#798
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: Canada
Programs: *void
Posts: 2,408
Give it a shot. YMMV.
Jul 24, 2017, 10:33 am
#799
Formerly known as newbie elite
Join Date: Feb 2002
Location: YUL
Programs: IHG Diamond Ambassador, Accor Platinum, AC50K
Posts: 2,928
Sorry if I am late to the party but can't seem to refer biz gold from my biz plat (only biz plat referral), is this a recent change?
Jul 24, 2017, 11:04 am
#801
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: Canada
Programs: *void
Posts: 2,408
The recent change is that NO other MR card can refer to the Personal Gold anymore, but you can still refer to Business Gold (and Platinum and Business Platinum).
I'm looking at my Business Platinum referred signup page right now, and at the bottom I do see Personal Platinum and Business Gold.
Admiral, try a different browser? Or try clicking on the Personal Platinum icon at your Business Platinum referred signup page, and then see if the Business Gold icon appears in that page.
Well, if it's true that Business Gold is starting to look 'missing', this was also the case with the Personal Gold. It began to look like it was removed from the 'other cards to refer' lineup on the Personal Platinum's referred signup page, but when you clicked on one of the other cards it would be there. It was like an early warning for what was coming down the pipes, and now we see it in effect today: NO MORE REFERRING TO/FROM the Personal Gold MR card.
Jul 24, 2017, 11:06 am
#802
Join Date: Jun 2016
Location: Prince Edward Island
Programs: Air Canada P25K, Hilton Honors Gold, Marriott Gold, MGM Gold
Posts: 1,582
You should still be able to refer to the biz gold (just not the personal gold). Your referral page will automatically refer to the biz platinum since that's the card you have, but applicants can click on "view our other cards" or the pictures of the other cards to apply for either the biz. gold or the personal platinum.
Jul 24, 2017, 11:16 am
#803
Join Date: Jan 2011
Location: YVR to SEA
Posts: 2,536
Maybe finally getting US style refer to same card only
Jul 24, 2017, 11:17 am
#804
Join Date: Jun 2016
Location: Prince Edward Island
Programs: Air Canada P25K, Hilton Honors Gold, Marriott Gold, MGM Gold
Posts: 1,582
Jul 24, 2017, 11:22 am
#805
Join Date: Jun 2015
Posts: 77
Wait, what? Say it ain't so.
The recent change is that NO other MR card can refer to the Personal Gold anymore, but you can still refer to Business Gold (and Platinum and Business Platinum).
I'm looking at my Business Platinum referred signup page right now, and at the bottom I do see Personal Platinum and Business Gold.
Admiral, try a different browser? Or try clicking on the Personal Platinum icon at your Business Plati
The recent change is that NO other MR card can refer to the Personal Gold anymore, but you can still refer to Business Gold (and Platinum and Business Platinum).
I'm looking at my Business Platinum referred signup page right now, and at the bottom I do see Personal Platinum and Business Gold.
Admiral, try a different browser? Or try clicking on the Personal Platinum icon at your Business Plati
Jul 24, 2017, 12:12 pm
#806
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: May 2015
Location: BOS, YVR, ZRH
Programs: *G
Posts: 17,410
Amex changed it a while back to instead of the referrer selecting the card they want to refer, now the the referred person selects which card they want to apply from on their landing page from the referral email.
Maybe that's the issue here? Maybe the poster is still familiar with the old system and rightfully thus cant see the biz gold anymore.
but biz golds are definitely still referrable by selecting it from the landing page in the referral email.
Maybe that's the issue here? Maybe the poster is still familiar with the old system and rightfully thus cant see the biz gold anymore.
but biz golds are definitely still referrable by selecting it from the landing page in the referral email.
Jul 24, 2017, 1:33 pm
#807
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Toronto
Programs: UA 1K, AC MM E75, Marriott LT Ti, IHG Dia Amb, Hyatt Glob
Posts: 15,521
There have been several successful datapoints from people who had applied for the SPG (Personal and Business) recently, when it was at the normal 20K welcome offer level, but a Secured-Message to Amex has resulted in a manual addition of 5K to match the current 25K welcome offers (until Oct 18, 2017).
Give it a shot. YMMV.
Give it a shot. YMMV.
Jul 24, 2017, 5:41 pm
#808
Formerly known as newbie elite
Join Date: Feb 2002
Location: YUL
Programs: IHG Diamond Ambassador, Accor Platinum, AC50K
Posts: 2,928
Amex changed it a while back to instead of the referrer selecting the card they want to refer, now the the referred person selects which card they want to apply from on their landing page from the referral email.
Maybe that's the issue here? Maybe the poster is still familiar with the old system and rightfully thus cant see the biz gold anymore.
but biz golds are definitely still referrable by selecting it from the landing page in the referral email.
Maybe that's the issue here? Maybe the poster is still familiar with the old system and rightfully thus cant see the biz gold anymore.
but biz golds are definitely still referrable by selecting it from the landing page in the referral email.
Jul 24, 2017, 5:56 pm
#809
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: Jun 2007
Location: Toronto
Programs: UA 1K, AC MM E75, Marriott LT Ti, IHG Dia Amb, Hyatt Glob
Posts: 15,521
Hey markandrew, great to see you're still hovering around in the vicinity!
I believe margarita girl has figured it out now. But for those who may be wondering what it should look like, at the referred Personal SPG signup page, on my desktop browser I see the SPG Biz icon at the right, which as markandrew mentioned, does look like the Personal card's icon, but once you hover on top of the icon a tooltip appears to indicate that it is indeed the Business version.
Click on the thumbnail below, to see a screen capture image of what I mean:
With the Membership Rewards (MR) cards it's similar, but you'll see the other 3 MR card icons, which will look like Plat cards (silver/grey) or the Gold cards. Hover on top of them to see which card it is and then click to start applying for that other card. Again, click the thumbnail below to see what I mean.
I believe margarita girl has figured it out now. But for those who may be wondering what it should look like, at the referred Personal SPG signup page, on my desktop browser I see the SPG Biz icon at the right, which as markandrew mentioned, does look like the Personal card's icon, but once you hover on top of the icon a tooltip appears to indicate that it is indeed the Business version.
Click on the thumbnail below, to see a screen capture image of what I mean:
With the Membership Rewards (MR) cards it's similar, but you'll see the other 3 MR card icons, which will look like Plat cards (silver/grey) or the Gold cards. Hover on top of them to see which card it is and then click to start applying for that other card. Again, click the thumbnail below to see what I mean.
Jul 24, 2017, 9:56 pm
#810
Join Date: May 2009
Posts: 821
anyone able to get retention offer recently (somehow I can't churn now http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...l#post28242070)
I called today to cancel my SPG (spend 50k+), IVR just cancel right away with no save attempt
want cancel my Gold(spend 40K+), no offers at all after speak 2 reps. I don't know if have anything to do with my financial review last November
, maybe I'm on their somekind of list?
I called today to cancel my SPG (spend 50k+), IVR just cancel right away with no save attempt
want cancel my Gold(spend 40K+), no offers at all after speak 2 reps. I don't know if have anything to do with my financial review last November
, maybe I'm on their somekind of list?