American Express Canada offers an Annual Travel Credit for some credit cards:

• $100 Annual Travel Credit with the American Express^® Gold Rewards Card
• $200 Annual Travel Credit with the American Express Platinum Card^®
• $200 Annual Travel Credit with the Business Platinum Card^® from American Express

Here’s how to use the annual travel credit on these American Express Cards.

The Annual Travel Credit is available immediately when you apply for the American Express^® Gold Rewards Card, the American Express Platinum Card^® or the Business Platinum Card^® from American Express.

This Annual Travel Credit is then added to your account each year when you renew your annual membership.

You can use this Annual Travel Credit on the American Express Travel website to book:

• an hotel
• a flight
• a car rental

To use your American Express Annual Travel Credit, you’ll need to visit the American Express online travel agency. Log in to your americanexpress.com/canada online account.

Once there, click on Menu / Travel / Book a trip.

This redirects you to the American Express travel agency. You may have to log in again with your login information. If this doesn’t work in French, try in English.

If you have several American Express Cards, you will be asked to select the one you wish to use for your travel booking. Here, for example, I use the $100 Annual Travel Credit that comes with the American Express^® Gold Rewards Card.

Then, all you have to do is find the trip, hotel, flight or car that suits you best and use your American Express Annual Travel Credit. Here’s an example of a refundable hotel.

Once on the booking page, you’ll need to tick the appropriate box to apply your American Express Annual Travel Credit to the amount of your booking.

The American Express Annual Travel Credit will be credited to your American Express Card account within 24 to 48 hours of booking. Generally, the Annual Travel Credit will appear even before your trip is charged to your account!

Travel plans may change. If, for example, you have booked a hotel that can be cancelled without charge, a refund will be issued by American Express.

For example, the hotel I chose to book above can be cancelled up to 3 days before arrival without charge (if the cancellation is made three days or less before arrival, the cost is one night).

If I cancel this reservation, American Express will refund the $242.31 charged to my American Express Card.

However, the Annual Travel Credit will remain on my American Express Card account! It will appear as a payment to the account. This means you can do whatever you like with the cash (see more in this article).

To cancel your reservation, call the American Express Travel Department, contact them by email (OLCO@aexp.com) or reply to the email address that sent you your reservation confirmation.

The Annual Travel Credit that comes with some American Express cards is a benefit to be used yearly. This virtually reduces the cost of your annual membership fee!