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Heading out for a big event is a wonderful experience that many of us look forward to doing a few times a year. Whether it’s a concert with your favourite artist, an afternoon game of tennis or baseball, or a massive weekend-long festival, these experiences make for some of the best memories.
When it comes to these incredible opportunities, something that people may not know is that the right credit card can help you experience top events with points and perks, potentially saving you some money along the way.
Credit cards almost never pay for an event ticket outright. What they buy is access: presale windows ahead of the general public, reserved ticket blocks, priority entrance lanes, and on-site lounges. Points then do the heavy lifting on the flight and the hotel around the event, which is usually where the real money goes. Here is how that plays out at the biggest events in Canada and the US, and which cards open which doors.
Credit card points and perks are a fantastic way to improve your access and enjoyment of lots of different events, but what exactly do we mean when we refer to these points and perks?
In the context of events, credit card perks fall into a few categories:
Note that the credit card perks that are available are typically tied in with the financial institution that’s sponsoring or partnering with the event.
In terms of using points to cover costs at events, this is fairly limited; however, we will go over a few options for redeeming points to save on concerts, sports events, and other special events. Plus, we’ll share a few useful ways to redeem points to help cover the cost of flights and hotels when you’re travelling for an event.
There are so many events every year across Canada and the US, including concerts, sports, theatre, music festivals, and more, and with the right credit card, you can enjoy some extra perks and maybe even some extra savings.
To make sure you’re set up to get the most from every event you attend this year, let’s look at some of the best events to experience with credit card perks and points, as well as strategies for using points to save on related expenses.
Each year during the F1 Grand Prix season having an American Express card in your wallet can snag you some race-related perks thanks to the fact that Amex is one of the official partners of multiple races around the world.
In Canada, the F1 Grand Prix du Canada in Montreal takes place on l’île Notre-Dame, with world class driving on the Circuit Gilles-Villeneuve. One change to plan around: starting in 2027 the race moves from June to May, and the exact date has not been confirmed yet.
To make the most of this event, attendees can enjoy a range of credit card perks both on-site and around the city with eligible Amex cards:
Check out our Guide to F1 Grand Prix du Canada for in-depth information on all these cardholder benefits and more.
If you want to catch even more racing during the F1 season, you can book a trip to the F1 Las Vegas Grand Prix scheduled for November 19 to 21, 2026, or to the Miami Grand Prix in the spring.
Similarly to the Montreal Grand Prix, these weekend events are also partnered with American Express, so race fans can use their eligible Amex cards to access similar perks to the Canadian event, such as:
Tennis fans won’t want to miss the US Open in New York City, scheduled for August 23 to September 13, 2026. At 22 days, this is the longest edition in the tournament’s history: Fan Week qualifying and exhibition play run August 23 to 29, and the main draw opens August 30. The tournament takes place in the New York City borough of Queens, showcasing some of the top tennis stars in the world. Attendees can expect to see key competitors such as Aryna Sabalenka, Coco Gauff, Carlos Alcaraz, Novak Djokovic, and many more.
With your eligible Amex card, you can enjoy perks such as:
Plus, Amex perks from 2025 that we expect to be back again:
Of course, New York City has tons of additional things to see and do, so make sure to leave time to explore the summer energy in the city with the many events, parks, and concerts. Plus if you’re looking for somewhere to cool off, the hundreds of museums and art galleries and the thousands of incredible restaurants and bars give you lots of options for respite from the heat.
National Bank sponsors a cluster of events that rarely show up in national roundups: the National Bank Open in tennis, plus Igloofest, Piknic Électronik and Montréal en Lumière.
The National Bank Open ran August 2 to 13 in 2026, with the women’s draw at Sobeys Stadium in Toronto and the men’s at IGA Stadium in Montreal. The 2027 edition is scheduled for July 31 to August 12. Piknic Électronik, meanwhile, is still going: its 23rd season runs 20 Sunday events across Parc Jean-Drapeau through October 18, with its own Banque Nationale stage at the Jardin Le Petit Prince.
If you are weighing a National Bank card, the Platinum is the one the 2026 Piknic promotion was attached to, and the World Elite is the bank’s travel flagship.
Music lovers won’t want to miss the Montreal Jazz Festival, spread across multiple stages in the Quartier des Spectacles. The 2026 edition ran June 25 to July 4, and the festival has posted June 25 to July 4, 2027 for the next one. Either way, it presents over 3,000 performers, with both paid concerts and free performances in parks and public squares around the city.
Thanks to TD’s sponsorship of the festival, eligible TD cardholders can enjoy a 15% discount on all food, non-alcoholic beverages and festival merchandise purchases made at eligible vendors.
Eligible cardholders can also take advantage of priority entrance lanes at ticketed events at Place des Arts, Salle Wilfrid-Pelletier, and for free programming events at Le Studio TD. Each cardholder is allowed to also bring one guest and any accompanying minors—just keep in mind that you do need a valid ticket for each event and attendee.
Eligible TD credit cards include TD First Class Travel® Visa Infinite* Card, TD® Aeroplan® Visa Infinite* Card, TD Cash Back Visa Infinite* Card, and many more. You can find the full list of eligible cards on the TD Offer website.
If you’re coming from away, make sure to plan for some adventuring around this amazing city, and don’t forget to check out our tips below for how to save on flights and accommodations.
Known for its amazing musical line-ups and high energy, Osheaga is another Montreal music event worth checking out. It runs three days at the height of the summer in Parc Jean-Drapeau on Sainte-Hélène’s Island. The 2026 edition took place July 31 to August 2, and the 2027 dates are set for July 30 to August 1.
With an eligible Amex credit card, you can enjoy Front Of The Line Amex Presale tickets, a stack of tickets reserved exclusively for Amex cardholders, and Priority Lane access to enter the event.
Plus, thanks to its convenient location within Montreal, you can easily explore more of the city’s incredible culture, getting to know neighbourhoods like the Plateau and Mile End while staying up even later enjoying the incredible nightlife.
Theatre-lovers can use their eligible American Express card to enjoy special ticket access to Mirvish Theatre productions across Toronto. Using Amex’s Front of the Line and Reserved Tickets features, cardholders can grab some of the best seats in the house before they even go on sale to the general public.
The 2026/27 Mirvish season is one of the largest in the company’s history: 24 shows across four downtown Toronto stages, with a main subscription season of seven productions. Titles include Studio Ghibli’s Spirited Away, 13 Going on 30: The Musical, Salesman in China, and Inside the Wreck of the Edmund Fitzgerald, built around the songs of Gordon Lightfoot.
TIFF runs September 10 to 20, 2026 across downtown Toronto, and it is the one major event on this list where the card perks belong to Visa rather than American Express. Visa is marking its 25th year as a TIFF Major Partner.
Eligible Visa cardholders get an early ticket pre-sale window ahead of the general public, and Visa Infinite cardholders get the on-site benefits:
Any Visa Infinite card issued in Canada unlocks the Visa Infinite tier of these benefits, which makes TIFF one of the rare event perks you can reach with a mid-range travel card instead of a premium one.
Staying downtown during the festival means competing for hotel rooms in the busiest week of Toronto’s year. Our Toronto hotel, flight and lounge reviews cover which properties are bookable on points and what they cost.
Beyond the experiences above, there are thousands more concerts, festivals, and sports events you can attend. Many of them, or the venues that host them, are sponsored by or partnered with credit card companies, which opens the door to card-related perks and savings.
As we saw in the experiences listed above, many venues offer priority access with an eligible credit card from financial institutions like American Express, BMO, and RBC.
These perks typically line up with whichever institution is sponsoring or partnering with the event. For example, RBC credit card holders enjoy a separate entrance at the RBC Amphitheatre in Toronto and BMO credit card holders can use the special BMO priority entrance at BMO Field, home field for the Toronto FC. Scotiabank holds the largest of these deals in the country: a 20-year, $800 million agreement with Maple Leaf Sports and Entertainment signed in 2017, which is why the Air Canada Centre became Scotiabank Arena in 2018, and why Scotiabank is the Official Bank of the NHL in Canada. Its venue benefits run through the Scotia Perks programme.
American Express partners with a number of events, so you’ll often see their signs ushering eligible credit card holders to a specific entrance with a (generally) shorter line. Examples of events include eligible F1 Grand Prix weekends and Rogers Stadium in Toronto.
As also mentioned above, select credit cards also get you early access to tickets for many of your favourite concerts, festivals, and events. This can be through Amex Ticket Presales under the Amex Experiences umbrella, or through RBCxMusic, which lets eligible credit card members access special tickets and presales for select events.
One detail worth knowing: Front Of The Line is an American Express network programme rather than an Amex-issued-card programme. The Scotiabank Gold American Express® Card carries Front Of The Line presale access to concerts, theatre productions, restaurants and special events, so you can reach the same presales through Scotiabank instead of Amex itself. Check the eligibility requirements on the card page before applying, since this issuer is not the easiest approval on the market.
Additionally, Mastercard Priceless offers eligible Mastercard holders preferred tickets, unique experiences, and discounts on popular events like Cirque du Soleil.
When the presale window has already closed, or the event sold out before you got near it, the resale market is the fallback. StubHub is where we point readers for that, and the same card logic still applies: put the purchase on whichever card earns the most, and if the event is outside Canada, use a card with no foreign exchange fee so you are not paying 2.5% on top of an already inflated ticket.
A lesser-known way to redeem points for event access is through Marriott Bonvoy Moments. This program lets you redeem your Marriott Bonvoy points for special events around the world.
These events include concerts, professional sports, Michelin dining, and more. Recent events that were available for redemption in Canada include watching the SailGP race in Halifax from a boat at the finish line, tickets to the 2026 FIFA World Cup, and premium access to the Memorial Cup in Kelowna, BC.
Some Marriott Bonvoy Moments can be redeemed for a set price, while others are put up for auction. Additionally, you can also sometimes find “1-point Drops,” which give a few lucky members an incredible and unique experience for only 1 Marriott Bonvoy point!
If you’re travelling to an event by plane, using points to save on your flight is a great way to keep your costs in check.
Depending where you’re travelling to and from, there’s lots of airline loyalty programs to choose from. Popular options in Canada include Aeroplan, Flying Blue, WestJet Rewards, British Airways Club, and VIPorter.
The easiest and fastest way to earn these points is with co-branded credit cards like the following:
Spending a night or two around an event can make the experience more special and more convenient. Whether you’re travelling from far away for the event or just treating yourself to a hotel stay to save yourself the post-event commute home, there’s a few ways you can make this expense more affordable.
With hotel loyalty programs like Marriott Bonvoy and Hilton Honors, you can earn points on your stays or with co-branded credit cards and then redeem these for free nights at properties around the world.
Additionally, the Marriott Bonvoy® American Express®* Card and the Marriott Bonvoy® Business American Express®* Card both give you added perks like an annual free night certificate and strong welcome offers, making them a compelling addition to any rewards-inclined wallet.
If you don’t have airline or hotel loyalty points (or if you don’t want to use them), you can also use flexible travel points to cover some or all of your accommodation expenses. Points programs like Scene+, TD Rewards, NBC À la carte Rewards, and American Express Membership Rewards are especially helpful if you’re booking an Airbnb or smaller hotel that isn’t covered by the major hotel loyalty programs.
Flexible travel points can also be used to pay for flights booked through Expedia, Booking.com, and through each financial institution’s own travel booking portal (e.g., Scene+ Travel powered by Expedia).
To earn these valuable points, we recommend the following credit cards:
Another great way to save on your flight or other related travel expenses is by using a credit card that comes with an annual travel credit.
In Canada, there are a handful of cards that provide annual credits, some for travel expenses, some for dining, and some as lifestyle credits. You can learn more about these credits in our article on which Canadian cards carry annual credits, but here’s four examples to get you started:
One final way to save on your favourite event if you’re travelling outside of Canada is to put your foreign currency spending on a card that doesn’t charge FX fees.
Most Canadian credit cards charge you a 2.5% fee when you make a purchase in a currency other than Canadian; however, with a no-FX card like the Scotiabank Passport™ Visa Infinite +* Card, you can avoid that fee entirely.
Wealthsimple’s credit card is the other no-FX option worth knowing about in Canada. It charges no foreign exchange fee of its own and pays 2% cash back on all spending. Here is the nuance most roundups skip: Wealthsimple drops its own markup, but the payment network still sets the underlying conversion rate, so no FX fee is not quite the same thing as no conversion cost.
Check out our guide to saving on foreign currency transactions to learn more ways to save on your spending abroad.
Enjoying an event anywhere in the world is a wonderful way to experience something unique and to create memories that will last a lifetime. Regardless of whether you prefer to dance all night at a big music festival, enjoy a relaxed evening at the theatre, or cheer on your favourite sports team, these events help us connect with ourselves, our friends, and our community.
One habit is worth building: find out which financial institution sponsors an event before the tickets go on sale, not after. The presale window is where the good seats go, and it is consistently the most valuable perk on this list. The lounges, the terraces and the priority lanes are pleasant extras, but early access is what actually changes which seat you end up in.
Savings are this way:
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