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 $1500 required spending.
- Jan 11 to mid-May 2016, the Gold card earned 0 referral points.
- Earn 10k MR for each referal you make.
American Express Canada application and reward strategies (2017)
Jun 4, 2017, 2:03 am
#677
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: May 2015
Location: BOS, YVR, ZRH
Programs: *G
Posts: 17,399
https://www.americanexpress.com/cana...-credit-cards/
Since when do the Airmiles cards give 4400/4000 and 2500 airmiles upon signup respectively? That's 2000 higher per card than they normally do. And if you scroll to the bottom of the page it lists the original numbers and it doesn't actually say anywhere how/what those extra airmiles are for. Is this just a display error?
edit: nvm I found it, it's part of their "soar into more" promo which is apparently a year-long "offers" program where you get bonus points for spending money using certain offers. Not a welcome or general spend signup bonus at all. Lame.
https://soarintomore.americanexpress.ca/enrollment/enrollmentover
Since when do the Airmiles cards give 4400/4000 and 2500 airmiles upon signup respectively? That's 2000 higher per card than they normally do. And if you scroll to the bottom of the page it lists the original numbers and it doesn't actually say anywhere how/what those extra airmiles are for. Is this just a display error?
edit: nvm I found it, it's part of their "soar into more" promo which is apparently a year-long "offers" program where you get bonus points for spending money using certain offers. Not a welcome or general spend signup bonus at all. Lame.
https://soarintomore.americanexpress.ca/enrollment/enrollmentover
Jun 4, 2017, 7:54 am
#678
Join Date: Jul 2013
Location: YUL
Programs: Aeroplan
Posts: 107
Looking at the application page today for the Platinum Personal card and I saw that the spending requirements is 3000$ in 3 months. It was 1000$ a few weeks back, wasn't it ?
Jun 4, 2017, 8:04 am
#679
Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 4,784
that's why I re-applied my AMEX Plat after only cancelling in Jan 2017 (approved and got my 60K after $1K spend)
Jun 5, 2017, 10:03 am
#680
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: YVR
Posts: 1,847
Ha - you were right! I went to call the next day, and guess what? My points were showing on my active card's page. Thanks! Good to know it resolved itself and saved me a phone call...well, for now. Still gotta wait for the 40K to post, one of these days...
Jun 7, 2017, 12:19 pm
#681
Join Date: Nov 2007
Location: YVR
Programs: AP, AS, BAEC, HH, SPG, FPC, PC
Posts: 282
Business Gold:
There are no one-welcome notes on the Business card products, so you can contact Amex now if you'd like, to ask where the missing welcome points are. They will likely just tell you to wait 8-10 weeks and the points will eventually post. The advantage of calling them, with a very pouty attitude, is that you might also get some sympathy points while you wait for the 40K welcome points to post.
There are no one-welcome notes on the Business card products, so you can contact Amex now if you'd like, to ask where the missing welcome points are. They will likely just tell you to wait 8-10 weeks and the points will eventually post. The advantage of calling them, with a very pouty attitude, is that you might also get some sympathy points while you wait for the 40K welcome points to post.
Jun 7, 2017, 8:23 pm
#682
Join Date: Dec 2008
Posts: 4,519
if it had been 10 weeks, just reply to that secure mail reply stating it had been 10 weeks and would like an update. my experience is whoever responding to you will manually add in the points right away.
Jun 8, 2017, 1:52 pm
#683
Join Date: Feb 2013
Posts: 259
I had a Plat card, and cancelled it in Mar 2017. I would like to reapply to get Aeroplan bonus (only 40,000??), and the benefits that come with the card too - but am concerned about the risk of not getting my signup bonus because I've had one before.
What's the general consensus (or is there one) on this risk? Are most ppl getting the bonus, or being denied?
What's the general consensus (or is there one) on this risk? Are most ppl getting the bonus, or being denied?
Jun 8, 2017, 2:09 pm
#684
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: Canada
Programs: *void
Posts: 2,408
I had a Plat card, and cancelled it in Mar 2017. I would like to reapply to get Aeroplan bonus (only 40,000??), and the benefits that come with the card too - but am concerned about the risk of not getting my signup bonus because I've had one before.
What's the general consensus (or is there one) on this risk? Are most ppl getting the bonus, or being denied?
What's the general consensus (or is there one) on this risk? Are most ppl getting the bonus, or being denied?
My opinion is that the consensus is that it's very do-able for a repeat churn, but it's always going to be YMMV. For eg., just because someone cancelled and reapplied within a week/month and still got the bonus again by no means that it will be the case for everyone. You've waited just over 2 months, which could put you in risky territory for reactivating your cancelled card account, so unless you need the points right away, better to wait another month or more, to be safe.
Jun 9, 2017, 6:45 am
#685
Join Date: Apr 2012
Programs: 25 million points to burn!
Posts: 1,522
For about a year, we were able to churn a new Amex card every 3 months. Last month that changed for us, so now I'm wondering what the rest of you are doing. How many months are you waiting in between Amex apps?
Jun 9, 2017, 8:03 am
#686
Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: yyz
Posts: 1,611
6 months or longer. Was a bit more aggressive a couple years ago, but since hitting a critical mass of points, I've become more conservative.
Jun 10, 2017, 9:24 pm
#687
Join Date: Dec 2014
Location: Canada
Posts: 822
Useful new feature on the CIBC mobile banking app.....instant free credit score!
Jun 11, 2017, 11:17 pm
#689
Join Date: Feb 2014
Location: Montreal
Posts: 247
My most recent referral (dated June 9 2017) only yielded 10,000 MR points, even though I referred from my BizPlat card.
Anyone else experience anything similar?
Should I call Amex about this, or should I wait?
This is my 9th ref in 2017, so I haven't exceeded the 225,000 max...
Anyone else experience anything similar?
Should I call Amex about this, or should I wait?
This is my 9th ref in 2017, so I haven't exceeded the 225,000 max...
Jun 12, 2017, 11:52 am
#690
Formerly known as newbie elite
Join Date: Feb 2002
Location: YUL
Programs: IHG Diamond Ambassador, Accor Platinum, AC50K
Posts: 2,927
EDIT: never mind found the transfer time thread will post in there
Last edited by Admiral Ackbar; Jun 12, 2017 at 2:33 pm