Another day, another devaluation. The American Express referral program has been incredibly lucrative for years, where you could get one card, refer yourself for another, refer your friends, etc. As of yesterday, the referral program took a huge devaluation.
How to turn your AMEX Platinum $200 Voucher into Cash
Every calendar year, your Canadian AMEX Platinum card [this is a referral] is issued with a $200 travel voucher. To use this voucher, you must book travel with AMEX Travel Services. Personally, I find AMEX Travel Services to be way overpriced, especially for hotels. With this trick, you can convert your $200 travel voucher into a straight-up statement credit, without the need to use it for AMEX’s overpriced travel services.
The American Express Global Transfer program allows you to use the relationship history that you've built with AMEX in a foreign country as a basis to apply for a card in a new country, where you presumably have little to no prior credit history. I recently went through this process, applying for an AMEX card in the United States using my Canadian AMEX history as a basis for the application.
It has been a very long time since American Express has had a transfer bonus to one of their frequent flyer program affiliates. However, as of today, American Express Membership Rewards points are transferring at a 1:1.25 ratio to British Airways Avios! This is a 25% bonus on the normal 1:1 transfer.
Below is a reference guide for the many different ways in which Canadians can get access to lounges in Canada and abroad. Note that there may be errors or omissions, and if there are, I’d appreciate a comment below to rectify any issues.
American Express offers some excellent churning cards, such as the 25,000 no-fee AMEX Gold Card [this is a referral], and the 60,000 AMEX Platinum card [this is a referral]. Many people will go on an “app-orama,” applying for a bunch of cards, including numerous AMEX cards, in a single day. There’s nothing wrong with this. Indeed, you can apply for as many AMEX cards you want in a single day, however, you won’t be instantly approved for all of them.
