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)
Sep 1, 2017, 12:57 am
#931
Join Date: Aug 2017
Posts: 5
Converting to BA then booking Aer Lingus business class (50k o/w) to Europe via Dublin. You have to find availability via the AVIOS site and then call BA to book.
Sep 1, 2017, 5:23 am
#932
Join Date: Dec 2009
Location: NB, Canada
Programs: Fairmont, Amex MR, Marriott
Posts: 2,531
So I transfer my Amex points to BA, then use 2-4-1 for first class flights. As an example, Toronto to Rome in first class (LHR-ROM leg in business) with the 2-4-1 works out to about 80,000 points plus $1000 each. Not cheap on the fuel surcharge side, but it is BA First.
Sep 1, 2017, 10:45 am
#933
Suspended
Join Date: Oct 2009
Location: Kan@da
Programs: Anything with sweet spots
Posts: 1,790
Does the AmEx Platinum card in Canada give complimentary Shangri-La Golden Circle Jade status. Has anyone tried to get it before ?
Sep 2, 2017, 7:14 am
#934
Join Date: Aug 2014
Location: YQB
Programs: AC SE
Posts: 2,139
I guess I will cancel this card and open up a new one. I just have to decide which one now and if I even bother to stay with Amex.
Sep 2, 2017, 11:37 am
#935
Join Date: Jul 2014
Posts: 27
can you no longer refer from personal SPG to Business SPG? I just checked my account and only had the option to refer to another personal spg.
Both my wife and I have personal SPG's and are planning on referring to SPG bus before the 25k promo ends
Thanks for any advice
Both my wife and I have personal SPG's and are planning on referring to SPG bus before the 25k promo ends
Thanks for any advice
Sep 3, 2017, 6:13 pm
#936
Join Date: Mar 2007
Posts: 4,784
can you no longer refer from personal SPG to Business SPG? I just checked my account and only had the option to refer to another personal spg.
Both my wife and I have personal SPG's and are planning on referring to SPG bus before the 25k promo ends
Thanks for any advice
Both my wife and I have personal SPG's and are planning on referring to SPG bus before the 25k promo ends
Thanks for any advice
I just checked my Personal SPG link, it works still
Sep 6, 2017, 8:55 am
#937
Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: yyz
Posts: 1,611
Just trying to confirm this...but are MR conversions to AP to another's person's account pretty foolproof? For example, my wife's MR to my AP account?
Sep 6, 2017, 10:48 am
#939
Join Date: Jun 2015
Location: YYZ
Posts: 123
6 months ago I signed the whole family to Gold Biz, moving on to the next set of Amex Card and want to take advantage of the last referral I have on the Gold Biz.
Looking for some strategy going forward from here. Should I go to biz Plat or SPG biz (I read somewhere SPG will not be doing the referral anymore after Oct 18 Promo). Any other good options I'm missing?
Looking for some strategy going forward from here. Should I go to biz Plat or SPG biz (I read somewhere SPG will not be doing the referral anymore after Oct 18 Promo). Any other good options I'm missing?
Sep 6, 2017, 11:09 am
#940
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: Canada
Programs: *void
Posts: 2,408
6 months ago I signed the whole family to Gold Biz, moving on to the next set of Amex Card and want to take advantage of the last referral I have on the Gold Biz.
Looking for some strategy going forward from here. Should I go to biz Plat or SPG biz (I read somewhere SPG will not be doing the referral anymore after Oct 18 Promo). Any other good options I'm missing?
Looking for some strategy going forward from here. Should I go to biz Plat or SPG biz (I read somewhere SPG will not be doing the referral anymore after Oct 18 Promo). Any other good options I'm missing?
For the SPG card, Amex appears to be ready to implement a change to the referral system for this family of cards, on Sep 27th. Whereas the Oct 18th date is the expiry of the enhanced 25K welcome bonus for opening either the SPG Personal or SPG Biz cards (normally both are 20K). You'll really need to "make hay" if you want to open a SPG card now, if you want to start referring before the change on Sep 27th. At this point, no one has announced what that change will be (stopping? reducing to say 5K?), but best to get your referring plans lined up and ready to go.
For the Amex Biz Gold MR card, you cannot use this to refer to open an Amex SPG card, if that's what you meant. As for its last referrals, not sure what you mean, I'll message you.
JJJ
Sep 6, 2017, 8:09 pm
#941
Join Date: Nov 2014
Location: Somewhere
Posts: 1,178
Sep 7, 2017, 1:00 pm
#942
Join Date: Jan 2012
Programs: SPG Platinum, FPC Platinum, Marriott/Ritz-Carlton Platinum Elite, Accor Platinum, AC SE, MPC SL
Posts: 450
Amex SPG & Gold referral from Plat
Fellow FTers,
I have the Canadian Plat and Gold cards and wanted to refer to people:
1) Amex SPG
2) Amex Gold
Both Canadian cards. When I clicked on my referral link I was brought to the Plat referral page. When I clicked "View our other cards" I was brought to Business Plat and Business Gold only. Can I not refer any other cards?!?!?
See attached screenshot. Thanks for your help.
I have the Canadian Plat and Gold cards and wanted to refer to people:
1) Amex SPG
2) Amex Gold
Both Canadian cards. When I clicked on my referral link I was brought to the Plat referral page. When I clicked "View our other cards" I was brought to Business Plat and Business Gold only. Can I not refer any other cards?!?!?
See attached screenshot. Thanks for your help.
Sep 7, 2017, 3:19 pm
#943
Join Date: Jan 2014
Location: yyz
Posts: 1,611
Fellow FTers,
I have the Canadian Plat and Gold cards and wanted to refer to people:
1) Amex SPG
2) Amex Gold
Both Canadian cards. When I clicked on my referral link I was brought to the Plat referral page. When I clicked "View our other cards" I was brought to Business Plat and Business Gold only. Can I not refer any other cards?!?!?
See attached screenshot. Thanks for your help.
I have the Canadian Plat and Gold cards and wanted to refer to people:
1) Amex SPG
2) Amex Gold
Both Canadian cards. When I clicked on my referral link I was brought to the Plat referral page. When I clicked "View our other cards" I was brought to Business Plat and Business Gold only. Can I not refer any other cards?!?!?
See attached screenshot. Thanks for your help.
2) you can't refer to spg card from a non-spg card
Sep 7, 2017, 3:29 pm
#944
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: Canada
Programs: *void
Posts: 2,408
Amex Soup Naazzees
First time Personal Gold MR card for family member.
Errr????
- Activated new Gold card and spent $1500 within 2 weeks.
- Waited a few days, saw all the purchases posted, well over $1500, but no automatic reward of 25,000 welcome points.
- Waited another week, still no points, so Secured Message was sent to Amex.
- Amex responded to say: "This is not your first time with the Gold card, no points for you".
Errr????
Sep 7, 2017, 3:42 pm
#945
Join Date: Dec 2011
Location: Canada
Programs: *void
Posts: 2,408
PoT,
Two separate questions:
Any experience with these two cases?
Thanks, JJJ
Two separate questions:
- Does it matter if the address that you list when you are linking to the Aeroplan account is NOT the same as your own address on file with Amex for your cards, or do you make sure they are the same?
- If say you list your own address at this form, but the actual address on the Aeroplan account is different, does that matter?
Any experience with these two cases?
Thanks, JJJ