The ultimate guide to Membership Rewards from American Express

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

Welcome bonuses are different between each card and are available to new cardholders.

The American Express^® Gold Rewards Card is the best-known card in American Express’s membership rewards program.

His welcome bonus amounts to 25,000 membership rewards and is earned after $1,500 purchases in 3 months.

The Platinum Card^® from American Express is the frequent flyer card of the American Express membership rewards program.

This card has many advantages such as unlimited access for its holder and a guest at more than 1,200 airport lounges, an annual travel credit of $200 and a nice earning of membership rewards.

The American Express Cobalt™ Card is an excellent card in the Membership Rewards program.

The Welcome Bonus can be up to 45,000 Membership Rewards points in the first 12 months (2,500 Membership Rewards are earned each month of the first year after $500 in purchases, and an additional 15,000 points after $3,000 in Card purchases in the first 3 months). In addition to the points you earn from your purchases.

American Express Business Edge™ Card is the most accessible card of the American Express Membership Rewards program for self-employed/professionals/small business owners.

His welcome bonus amounts to 30,000 membership rewards and is obtained after $5,000 purchases in 3 months.

You can also get a monthly bonus of 1,000 points per month with a minimum of expenses, which can bring the first year’s welcome bonus to 42,000 points.

The American Express^® Business Gold Rewards Card^® is the other most accessible card in The American Express Membership Rewards program for the self-employed/professionals/small business owners.

His welcome bonus amounts to 30,000 membership rewards and is obtained after $5,000 purchases in 3 months.

The Business Platinum Card^® from American Express is the card for frequent flyer professionals in the American Express Membership Rewards Program.

The card has many advantages such as unlimited access for its holder and a guest at more than 1,200 airport lounges and a great earning of membership rewards in all shops.

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 per dollar depending on the categories of purchases.

You’ll have to be strategic in the earning of membership rewards!

While the American Express Cobalt™ Card is the ultimate earning card in some 5X categories, don’t forget the other 2X earning categories offered by the American Express^® Gold Rewards Card..

For the self-employed, professionals and small businesses, the American Express Business Edge™ Card is very interesting for purchases of office supplies (e.g. Staples) or electronics (Dell, Apple…).

However, if most of your purchases are made in other categories, Business Platinum Card^® from American Express will be recommended due to its earning rate of 1.25 membership rewards per dollar.

American Express is the only institution that allows you to sponsor 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 sponsor, it is possible to obtain between 5,000 and 25,000 membership rewards per sponsored card.

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

American Express regularly offers a reward in membership rewards to provide an additional cardholder to your account.

Offers can range from 1,000 to 5,000 membership rewards.

American Express membership rewards can be transferred to many hotel and airline partners.

This is one of the best redeems of membership rewards.

American Express Canada has six airline partners.

Here are all of them, with the transfer rate and duration:

You can transfer your Membership Rewards Points to airline partners from all Cards except the American Express Cobalt™ Card and the American Express Business Edge™ Card (you can ONLY transfer their points to hotel partners).

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 have to go to the American Express Travel portal.

Let’s take the example of a round trip flight between Montreal and 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.

With flexible points travel allows you to redeem your membership rewards to pay the airfare all or part of it, including taxes, fees and carrier surcharges, based on a ratio that entitles you to a $10 account credit for every 1,000 points.

Let’s take the same round trip between Montreal and New York 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.

American Express membership rewards can be applied to the account for any travel purchase charged on the card.

Here, 1,000 membership rewards = $10.

American Express membership rewards can be applied to the account for any current purchase charged on the card.

Here, 1,000 membership rewards – $7.

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

For example, when renewing the American Express^® Gold Rewards Card, you could redeem 15,000 membership rewards to pay the $150 contribution.

Here, 1,000 membership rewards = $10.

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

For example, an Air Canada gift card:

You could redeem 13,000 Membership Rewards Points for a $100 gift card.

Here, 1,000 membership rewards = $7.70

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 = $5

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

Here, 1,000 membership rewards = $7.

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

Here, 1,000 membership rewards = $10.

Now you know how to earn and redeem your American Express Membership Rewards Points.

Now let’s see how to manage them… every day!

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

The value of 1 membership reward is estimated between 0.5 and 5.0 cents per point depending on the redeems (from the purchase of a toaster to the transfer to Aeroplan to travel in business class).

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

This means that the welcome premium for the American Express^® Gold Rewards Card is worth about $400.

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

It may be worth having a card like the American Express^® Gold Rewards Card with the lowest contribution ($150) in order to maintain an active membership rewards account.

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 from one account to another.

To request a combination of membership rewards on a single account, you will need to contact American Express (by phone, secure messaging or chat).

Pay attention to one thing: you can’t combine Membership Rewards Points earned with the American Express Cobalt™ Card or the American Express Business Edge™ Card with the Membership Rewards Points earned with the four other cards.

On the other hand, the opposite is possible but not recommended.

American Express membership rewards is the best loyalty program in Canada.

You can easily earn membership rewards with the many cards available and easily redeem them in multiple ways.

Here are the current offers for the 6 cards offering Membership Rewards:

This post was not sponsored. The views and opinions expressed in this review are purely my own.