American Express Membership Rewards (Canada)

Earn Points

With Card Welcome Offers

The easiest way to earn American Express Membership Rewards Points is by applying to one of the membership rewards cards and getting a welcome bonus.

Welcome bonuses differ between each card and are offered to new cardholders:

With expenses and bonus categories

Aside from the welcome bonus, the best way to earn membership rewards is by using your card to pay for all your purchases.

It is thus possible to earn between 1 and 5 Membership Rewards points per dollar depending on the categories of purchases.

This is where you need to be strategic in accumulating Membership Rewards points!

Category	Multiplier	Card
Grocery stores	5X
Restaurants – Bars	5X
	3X
Travel	2X
	2X
Food delivery at home	5X
Streaming Services	3X
	2X
Convenience Stores	5X
All other purchases	1.25X

While the American Express Cobalt^® Card is the ultimate earning card in certain 5X categories, we must not forget the other 2X earning categories offered by the American Express^® Gold Rewards Card.

However, if most of your purchases are made outside of all these categories, the American Express^® Business Platinum Card will be recommended due to its earning rate of 1.25 Membership Rewards point per dollar.

With friends’ referrals

American Express is the only institution that allows you to refer friends so they can open a card.

Offers are not always attractive compared to those offered on milesopedia.

Indeed, some offers may require spending up to twice as much money in 3 months to get an equivalent welcome bonus. Nothing to make good friends with…. !

However, it is an option to keep in mind… especially in a couple.

For the referrer, it is possible to get between 5,000 and 25,000 membership rewards points per referred card.

With AMEX’s offers

American Express recently introduced “Amex’s offers” some of which earn membership rewards

With additional cardholders

American Express regularly offers a Membership Rewards bonus for adding an additional cardholder to your account.

Offers can range from 1,000 to 5,000 Membership Rewards points.

Redeem Points

For transfers to other programs

To hotel partners

All cards offering membership rewards allow you to transfer their points to 2 hotel partners:

Here are the transfer rates and processing times:

To airline partners

All Membership Rewards cards can transfer their points to these airline partners.

American Express Canada partners with 6 airline rewards programs.

Here is each of them, with the transfer rate and processing time:

Redeem for flights

American Express Fixed Points Travel Program

American Express’ fixed point travel program is a fare schedule for some economy class flights:

And on some business class flights:

To book this type of flight, you will need to visit the American Express Travel portal.

Let’s take the example of a round-trip from Montreal to New York.

In this example, the flights costs $462.87.

Here, with the Fixed Points Travel Program, you can redeem 15,000 Membership Rewards points and pay $162.87 in taxes.

Thus, 15,000 membership rewards save $300.

So 1,000 membership rewards = $20.

American Express Flexible Points Travel Program

The Flexible Points Travel Program redemption option allows you to redeem your Membership Rewards points to pay for the ticket price in full or in part, including taxes, fees, and carrier surcharges, at a ratio that gives you a $10 statement credit for every 1,000 points.

Let’s revisit the same Montreal – New York round-trip with the Flexible Points option.

In this example, the flight still costs $462.87.

Here, with the flexible point travel program, it is possible to redeem 46,287 membership rewards to cover the full ticket.

To compare with fixed points, 15,000 membership rewards save $150.

So 1,000 membership rewards = $10.

Statement credit for travels

American Express Membership Rewards points can be applied as a statement credit for any travel purchase charged to the card.

Here, 1,000 Membership Rewards points = $10.

For all current purchases

American Express Membership Rewards points can be applied as a statement credit for any everyday purchase charged to the card.

Here, 1,000 Membership Rewards points = $10 as of May 31, 2021.

Annual Fee Statement credit

A little-known option: redeem your Membership Rewards Points as a statement credit for your Card Annual Fee.

For example, upon renewal of the American Express^® Gold Rewards Card, you could use 25,000 Membership Rewards points to pay the $250 annual fee.

Here, 1,000 Membership Rewards points = $10.

For gift cards

You can redeem your Membership Rewards Points on American Express’ online store. The first option is gift cards. There are dozens of them.

Here is an example of an Air Canada gift card:

You could use 13,000 Membership Rewards points to get a $100 gift card.

Here, 1,000 Membership Rewards points = $7.70

For products

The second option on the American Express store is for products. Hundreds of them exist.

This toaster costs $75 in stores.

Here, 1,000 Membership Rewards points = $5

Redeem your points on Amazon.ca

Another little-known option: redeem its membership rewards on Amazon.ca.

Here, 1,000 Membership Rewards points = $7.

For charitable donations

Finally, it is possible to donate your Membership Rewards Points.

Here, 1,000 Membership Rewards points = $10.

Manage

Points value

As you may have seen above, there are many ways to redeem American Express Membership Rewards Points.

The value of 1 Membership Rewards point is estimated between 0.5 and 5.0 cents per point depending on usage (from purchasing a toaster to transferring to Aeroplan for business class travel).

So we decided to rate the membership reward at 1.7 cents per dollar in order to be conservative.

This means that the welcome bonus of the American Express^® Gold Rewards Card has a value of approximately $400.

Points expiracy

Membership rewards do not expire, as long as you keep a card active and in good standing.

It can be beneficial to have a card like the American Express Cobalt^® Card, whose annual fee is one of the least expensive, in order to maintain an active Membership Rewards account.

Or the American Express^® Green Card (no annual-fee card).

Combine Membership Rewards Points between your Cards

You can combine Membership Rewards Points from several cards in one Membership Rewards account.

The condition: all cards must be in your name.

It is therefore impossible for a couple or friends to transfer Membership Rewards points from one account to another. Read our article here.

To request the combination of Membership Rewards points into a single account, you will need to contact American Express (by phone, secure message, or chat).

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