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 30, 2017, 12:16 pm
#841
FlyerTalk Evangelist
Join Date: May 2015
Location: BOS, YVR, ZRH
Programs: *G
Posts: 17,383
Jul 31, 2017, 5:14 am
#842
Join Date: Jun 2011
Posts: 1,147
My Platinum fee hit but I haven't used the travel credit yet for this year. Is there any point to try to do it? Will Amex still refund the 699 if I use the credit? I know the Alaska card is really picky about this.
Jul 31, 2017, 7:16 am
#843
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: Canada
Programs: *void
Posts: 2,408
I think it's a lost cause to get the full refund if you want to try using the $200 travel credit now. You'll have 60 days to cancel for the AF refund.
Jul 31, 2017, 2:48 pm
#844
Join Date: Sep 2012
Location: YVR
Posts: 1,846
I was ready to take another stab at churning Gold Personal, but decided on SPG Personal because I plan to transfer to Marriott Points for a Hawaii trip I have coming up next spring, so the SPGs will go a long way!
Jul 31, 2017, 9:05 pm
#845
Join Date: Mar 2011
Location: Canada
Programs: Star Alliance G*, Marriott Bonvoy Titanium,
Posts: 3,584
cancelled AP Plat card, churning query?
According to the Retention Dept, there are no current retention "offers" for AP Plat card. So I cancelled mine, effective on the renewal date.
Meanwhile, AMEX is trolling for new members with a 40K AP sign-up bonus (no referrals). Any recent experience with churning this card? Thanks!
Meanwhile, AMEX is trolling for new members with a 40K AP sign-up bonus (no referrals). Any recent experience with churning this card? Thanks!
Aug 2, 2017, 8:05 am
#846
Join Date: Aug 2017
Posts: 5
The gig might be up?
Been churning for some time now and never been denied an AMEX card before.
This time around, trying to apply for the SPG Personal and was declined, so I applied for the Business.
Got approved for the business card, however when they called to get more personal info and activate the card, I was told that I no longer qualify for the bonus as I had the SPG card last year and the bonus is a "once per lifetime" bonus.
I withdrew my application. Yikes!
This time around, trying to apply for the SPG Personal and was declined, so I applied for the Business.
Got approved for the business card, however when they called to get more personal info and activate the card, I was told that I no longer qualify for the bonus as I had the SPG card last year and the bonus is a "once per lifetime" bonus.
I withdrew my application. Yikes!
Aug 2, 2017, 8:27 am
#848
Join Date: Aug 2010
Location: YWG
Programs: Aeroplan, MileagePlus, Marriott Rewards
Posts: 2,159
Been churning for some time now and never been denied an AMEX card before.
This time around, trying to apply for the SPG Personal and was declined, so I applied for the Business.
Got approved for the business card, however when they called to get more personal info and activate the card, I was told that I no longer qualify for the bonus as I had the SPG card last year and the bonus is a "once per lifetime" bonus.
I withdrew my application. Yikes!
This time around, trying to apply for the SPG Personal and was declined, so I applied for the Business.
Got approved for the business card, however when they called to get more personal info and activate the card, I was told that I no longer qualify for the bonus as I had the SPG card last year and the bonus is a "once per lifetime" bonus.
I withdrew my application. Yikes!
Aug 2, 2017, 8:58 am
#850
Join Date: Mar 2012
Posts: 3,165
Three of my friends applied for the SPG card recently after AmEx raised the signup bonus to 25K points.
All of them were told explicitly by AmEx that they don't qualify for the sign up bonus as they all had the SPG card before.
This is really really bad looking.
All of them were told explicitly by AmEx that they don't qualify for the sign up bonus as they all had the SPG card before.
This is really really bad looking.
Aug 2, 2017, 9:10 am
#851
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: West
Posts: 3,357
Got approved for the business card, however when they called to get more personal info and activate the card, I was told that I no longer qualify for the bonus as I had the SPG card last year and the bonus is a "once per lifetime" bonus.
I withdrew my application. Yikes!
I withdrew my application. Yikes!
Aug 2, 2017, 9:20 am
#852
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: West
Posts: 3,357
At what process step were they told about the bonus decline. Did they got approved and inquire about the sign up bonus.
Aug 2, 2017, 9:29 am
#853
Join Date: Aug 2017
Posts: 5
They called to confirm my personal information, sorry, not to activate. I was told that I was approved but I was not eligible for the bonus...I did not ask. When I was told this, I requested he withdraw my application.
Aug 2, 2017, 9:32 am
#854
Join Date: Mar 2012
Posts: 3,165
When this happens one can call the new application department to follow up with the application, and usually AmEx will ask a few questions and then approve the application if there's nothing wrong with your credit.
However, this time when they called in to inquire about their applications status, all of them were told their applications were being reviewed by an "executive team", and the new application department phone reps cannot approve their application before the executive team finishes the review, so they need to wait a few days for a decision to be made by the executive team.
(IIRC the new application department reps used to be able to approve applications themselves.)
So they waited a few days and received phone calls from AmEx and were told their applications could be approved if they wanted but they would not be getting the welcome bonus.
Aug 2, 2017, 10:32 am
#855
Join Date: Aug 2013
Location: YYZ, YUL, PEK
Posts: 429
We've heard this "fear-mongering" from Amex before and in those instances people have still received their sign-up bonuses. While this time the data points appear more explicit, I wouldn't be surprised if everyone still received the bonuses.
In any case, there should be no issue getting the repeated signup bonus on the Business card, since the once-per-lifetime language only appears on the personal card terms & conditions.
In any case, there should be no issue getting the repeated signup bonus on the Business card, since the once-per-lifetime language only appears on the personal card terms & conditions.