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 26, 2017, 11:40 am
#826
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: YVR
Posts: 1,847
Ugh...my points didn't post automatically either for Biz Gold. This is the second time I've held this card (I held it the first time about 3 years ago) and I was referred by hubby's Amex Gold account (he got the referral points immediately after I was approved). I messaged them today, but it's unclear to me if I'll end up having to wait another 10-12 weeks, or if that's the max wait we should have, regardless of when the spending limit is met? I did come out and ask them to post my missing 40K manually, so we'll see what they say!
Data points: I hit my $5000 minimum spend a few weeks ago, just before my third statement was generated. Today it's been 91 days (13 weeks) since I was approved, so unless they like to wait until my balance is paid, and/or the 4th statement is generated, there should be no reason my points didn't auto-post.
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UPDATE: They responded to my message saying that the bonus points post in batches 8 - 10 weeks after you hit your minimum spend. It's been 4 weeks since I met my minimum spend, so I guess I'm waiting another 6 weeks until I can complain again. UGHHHH!
Data points: I hit my $5000 minimum spend a few weeks ago, just before my third statement was generated. Today it's been 91 days (13 weeks) since I was approved, so unless they like to wait until my balance is paid, and/or the 4th statement is generated, there should be no reason my points didn't auto-post.
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UPDATE: They responded to my message saying that the bonus points post in batches 8 - 10 weeks after you hit your minimum spend. It's been 4 weeks since I met my minimum spend, so I guess I'm waiting another 6 weeks until I can complain again. UGHHHH!
Jul 26, 2017, 12:44 pm
#828
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: Canada
Programs: *void
Posts: 2,408
But if you JUST hit the minimum spend, you'll need to wait till your next statement to see the SPG points. Unlike Amex Membership Rewards points, which, when things run smoothly, posts the welcome bonus automatically to your MR account once the qualifying transactions posts onto your online Amex.ca page.
Jul 26, 2017, 3:31 pm
#829
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: YWG
Programs: Aeroplan, MileagePlus, Marriott Rewards
Posts: 2,159
Pop the cork, I got the 5,000 SPGs too. I was going to ignore approach this in a combination of laziness and pessimism that they would give me anything since my card dates back to March, but after seeing all of you jokers get points I decided to follow suit... and success! 
Thanks for spurring me into action! ^
Thanks for spurring me into action! ^
Jul 26, 2017, 4:13 pm
#830
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: Canada
Programs: *void
Posts: 2,408
Pop the cork, I got the 5,000 SPGs too. I was going to ignore approach this in a combination of laziness and pessimism that they would give me anything since my card dates back to March, but after seeing all of you jokers get points I decided to follow suit... and success!
Thanks for spurring me into action! ^
Thanks for spurring me into action! ^
Good job there, Kemosabe.
Jul 26, 2017, 6:11 pm
#831
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: YWG
Programs: Aeroplan, MileagePlus, Marriott Rewards
Posts: 2,159
Jul 27, 2017, 5:59 am
#832
Join Date: Jun 2015
Posts: 77
I guess I won the lottery of being the only person that got a csr that will not do it. Kinda crappy and leaves a sour taste on the whole thing to be honest.
Jul 28, 2017, 7:37 am
#834
Suspended
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Kan@da
Programs: Anything with sweet spots
Posts: 1,790
got my 5K SPG approved too
Jul 28, 2017, 8:16 am
#835
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: YYZ, YUL, PEK
Posts: 429
Someone I know got their request declined, sent one again, and got it accepted. Try sending again.
Jul 28, 2017, 11:31 am
#836
Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: YQB
Programs: AC SE
Posts: 2,139
Sent a request for the third time through secure messaging. Still no reply. 
Jul 29, 2017, 3:00 pm
#837
Join Date: Feb 2010
Location: London / Los Angeles
Programs: Hilton Diamond, IHG Diamond Ambassador, Marriott Platinum, Hyatt Globalist, BA Silver
Posts: 1,631
How strict are Amex Canada about making a refundable booking to meet your spending target and then refunding it later? If I make sure when I refund it later that I have spent more than the target by that stage so the refund comes off what I owe Amex, do they generally not notice/care?
I've done this with Amex UK and they never cared but just checking how it is in Canada.
I've done this with Amex UK and they never cared but just checking how it is in Canada.
Jul 29, 2017, 5:38 pm
#838
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: YYZ, YUL, PEK
Posts: 429
How strict are Amex Canada about making a refundable booking to meet your spending target and then refunding it later? If I make sure when I refund it later that I have spent more than the target by that stage so the refund comes off what I owe Amex, do they generally not notice/care?
I've done this with Amex UK and they never cared but just checking how it is in Canada.
I've done this with Amex UK and they never cared but just checking how it is in Canada.
Jul 29, 2017, 6:00 pm
#839
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: May 2015
Location: BOS, YVR, ZRH
Programs: *G
Posts: 17,399
I just received my 25k signup bonus for a personal gold I self-referred from a business plat 2 months ago.
I last held the Gold a year ago, pre-"no repeat signup bonuses" rule change.
So I'm happy. Even if I hadn't gotten the 25k, the 25k from the referral& FYF would've made it worth it, but this is even better.
I also got the 5k for the additional user signup.
I last held the Gold a year ago, pre-"no repeat signup bonuses" rule change.
So I'm happy. Even if I hadn't gotten the 25k, the 25k from the referral& FYF would've made it worth it, but this is even better.
I also got the 5k for the additional user signup.
Jul 30, 2017, 9:37 am
#840
Join Date: Sep 2013
Posts: 130
Between the Gold Rewards and SPG sign-up bonus, which one is valued higher? Have always only done MR - regret not having done a self-referral before the policy change for Gold..