The American Express Cobalt^® Card is a popular credit card because it earns 5X American Express Membership Rewards points on everyday expenses such as groceries and restaurants. Then, if you’re adept at the gift card strategy, you can extend that 5X multiplier on many other everyday expenses like gas, kids’ clothes, subscription services like Netflix, SAQ purchases, etc.

It’s a card that’s indispensable to any strategy, especially when it comes to travel. In fact, the American Express Cobalt^® Card has a central role to play, since its Membership Rewards points can be transferred to numerous loyalty programs, and can be used against any expense charged to the account.

American Express Canada’s transfer partners and ratios are as follows:

As you can see, Membership Rewards points can be transferred to six airline programs and two hotel programs.

By using an American Express Cobalt^MD Card on everyday expenses and accumulating 5X points that can be transferred, this translates to the following:

In fact, you can earn the equivalent of 5 Aeroplan and 6 Marriott Bonvoy points per dollar spent at the grocery store. This is totally unbeatable, even with cards co-branded with these loyalty programs; Aeroplan credit cards give only 1X and 1.5X per dollar for your groceries. Similarly, Marriott credit cards only give 2X points at the grocery store, and the same goes for other programs with co-branded credit cards in Canada.

Plus, once or twice a year, there’s a promotion offering a 30% bonus when transferring Membership Rewards points to Marriott Bonvoy. This means you’ll earn 7.8X Marriott Bonvoy points per dollar on current spending if you wait for these promotions before transferring.

For transfers to Aeroplan, promotions are almost non-existent.

There is no card as generous as the American Express Cobalt^® Card when it comes to accumulating points (airline or transferable to airline programs) on organic spending, even when compared to the US market. Indeed, there are a few cards that can stand up to it with their 4X and 5X, but it’s important to remember that these multipliers are per US dollar, since these are American credit cards.

In fact, in the U.S., they accumulate between 2.85X and 3.65X points per Canadian dollar on their grocery stores, depending on the current exchange rate. So the grass isn’t necessarily greener next door.

Although the accumulation rates for everyday spending are not as high south of the border, they have access to many more transfer partners. In fact, there are numerous loyalty programs that are not accessible with transferable points from Canada but are available in the United States.

But is it worth signing up for a U.S. credit card just to gain access to these programs?

At first glance, it might seem appealing to have the opportunity to transfer to a wider range of partners, but there is still a significant cost to subscribing to an American credit card that offers a high multiplier on grocery spending. Indeed, it’s important to remember that these credit cards come with annual fees, and the high multipliers are sometimes only applicable in the United States. For example, the American Express Gold Card offers 4X Membership Rewards points per US dollar on grocery spending only within the country and 4X points on restaurants worldwide, but the annual fee is $325 USD.

There is, however, a strategy for accessing a wider range of partners while remaining within the Canadian Membership Rewards ecosystem.

It is possible to transfer Membership Rewards points into Marriott Bonvoy points. Marriott points can then be transferred to a very large number of airline partners. In general, transferring Membership Rewards points to Marriott Bonvoy and then converting them into airline miles may seem like an appealing idea, but this approach usually results in a significant loss of value.

If you transfer 25,000 Membership Rewards points directly to Aeroplan, you will receive 25,000 Aeroplan points.

If you transfer them first to Marriott Bonvoy and then to Aeroplan, you’ll earn just 10,000 Aeroplan points.

* Marriott Bonvoy Bonus: When you transfer 60,000 Marriott Bonvoy points, an additional 5,000 airline points are added.

** 30% transfer promotion to Marriott Bonvoy: This increases the ratio of Rewards points to Marriott Bonvoy to 1:1.56, but is ultimately disadvantageous.

In fact, since Marriott Bonvoy is a transfer partner with many loyalty programs, these become accessible with Marriott as intermediary.

Here are all the programs available with Marriott:

Therefore, if you accumulate points with the American Express Cobalt^® Card on your daily expenses such as groceries, we can repeat the table above for air points not accessible via Marriott Bonvoy as follows:

3,25X

This means that you can earn up to 3.25X in non-accessible airline points directly on your everyday spending with the American Express Cobalt^® Card via Marriott Bonvoy (if you wait for point transfer promotions)!

As a result, the American Express Cobalt^® Card has a higher rate of accumulation on current spending for airline points than its American counterpart, the American Express Gold Card, with its 4X per U.S. dollar (3.25X for the Cobalt vs. 2.85X to 3X for the American Express Gold depending on the exchange rate).

If you’re considering transfers in this way, make sure you do your calculations beforehand and research availability on the direct transfer partners you have access to, such as Aeroplan and Avios.

Certainly, if you see the same Japan Airlines flight on British Airways Executive Club and it has the same number of points, it’s not worth going through an intermediary. We don’t have as many transfer partners in Canada, but since we can transfer our Membership Rewards points to Aeroplan, Avios and Flying Blue, we already have access to the networks of all three major airline alliances.

However, the number of points and the amount of taxes and fees to pay can vary from one partner to another, making it important to compare different programs. Additionally, beyond the cost in points and fees, a flight might be available on one platform but not on another; some programs release seats exclusively for their own loyalty program and not for their alliance partners. Therefore, it may be worth it depending on the situation. This is why it’s essential to always do the calculations and research before each transfer.

Finally, it is not recommended that you transfer more points than you need to make your reservation. Once points land in an airline program, they cannot be transferred elsewhere. In fact, points can expire if you don’t maintain activity in your account, and they devalue over time. By keeping them as Membership Rewards points, they have the greatest value, since their flexibility is maintained.

Even though round-trip economy flights are available for 100,000 Aeroplan points (100,000 Rewards Points) with United on this route, it may seem more advantageous to transfer 77,000 Rewards Points to Japan Airlines Mileage Bank to make the reservation. In the end, you’ll spend fewer points this way.

On the other hand, taxes and fees are significantly higher when you book with Japan Airlines Mileage Bank than with Aeroplan. The programs do not charge taxes, fees and surcharges in the same way.

So, it’s up to you to decide whether it’s worth keeping the difference in Membership Rewards points and paying more in taxes or using your Membership Rewards/Aeroplan points to pay less out of pocket. Milesopedia values Membership Rewards points at 1.7¢ per point, so in this case, you save 23,000 points, which are worth $391. Therefore, you shouldn’t pay more than this amount. Since the taxes for one segment are $277 (¥29,380) for the outbound flight and $335 (¥35,500) for the return, you would end up paying significantly more in taxes and fees to preserve your Membership Rewards points. The final decision will always depend on your personal valuation of the points.

On the other hand, if you want to travel in business class, it’s more economical to do so via Marriott and Alaska Mileage Plan or Japan Airlines Mileage Bank, since the transaction will cost you only 230,000 Rewards points versus 568,000 Aeroplan/Rewards-points. In this case, the strategy has unlocked an opportunity that costs far less in Rewards points.

Then, if you compare the rates of the Alaska Mileage Plan and Japan Airlines Mileage Bank programs, you’ll notice that the fees are very low with Alaska compared to JAL.

So, in this example, it’s more advantageous to transfer your Rewards points to Aeroplan if you want to travel in economy class, and to Alaska Mileage Plan if you want to travel in the comfort of business class.

The American Express Cobalt^® Card is the card of choice for anyone wishing to maximize the accumulation of Rewards points in Canada. By offering high multipliers on daily spending and transfers to numerous airline and hotel partners, it sets itself apart from other cards on the market.

While some transfer strategies, such as via Marriott Bonvoy, may result in a loss of value, they also provide access to programs not directly accessible with Rewards Points. In short, it’s essential to carefully analyze your options before each transfer to make the most of your points.