Bonuses & Fees

Currently, the American Express Business Gold Rewards Card offers a standard bonus of up to 70,000 Membership Rewards points, awarded as follows:

50,000 MR points upon spending $7,500 in the first three months
20,000 MR points upon spending $30,000 in the first 12 months

The annual fee is $199.

Amex also offers a "Quarterly Purchase Bonus" which awards 10,000 MR points upon spending $20,000 in each of the four calendar quarters every year. No enrollment or registration is required – all of your purchases will count towards the quarterly bonus. Indeed, this is quite a large amount and not everyone would be able to take advantage of this feature.

The card also allows you to earn 15,000 MR points for every referral you make to any card in the Membership Rewards family, up to a maximum of 75,000 MR points a year.

American Express Referral Program: Refer Friends, Earn Points

At Prince of Travel, our favourite tool to use with minimum spending requirements is Chexy, a Canadian platform that allows you to pay a host of bills – including rent, tuition, utility bills, car lease payments, property taxes, and much more – with a credit card and earn points. There's a 1.75% processing fee for each payment, but when you consider the value of the points you earn from spending and welcome bonuses, it's easy to justify.

Earning Rewards

With the Business Gold Rewards Card, you'll earn a flat 1 MR point per dollar spent on all purchases. This is a very simple structure and the earning rate is standard.

However, it can be a decent addition if you incur a lot of business expenses and can take advantage of the quarterly bonus which can amount up to an additional 50% more points.

Historical Welcome Bonuses

Welcome bonus history is for Members

See how this card’s welcome offers have evolved over time.

Become a Member Log In

Redeeming Rewards

The Membership Rewards program offers outstanding redemption opportunities. This is primarily because it’s a flexible, transferable rewards currency.

You can transfer your MR points to these airline and hotel programs at the following rates:

Aeroplan at a 1:1 ratio
The British Airways Club at a 1:1 ratio
Cathay Pacific Asia Miles at a 1:0.75 ratio
Air France KLM Flying Blue at a 1:1 ratio
Delta SkyMiles at a 1:0.75 ratio
Etihad Guest at a 1:0.75 ratio
Marriott Bonvoy at a 1:1.2 ratio
Hilton Honors at a 1:1 ratio

What makes Membership Rewards points so powerful is that they can pretty much do everything that all other points currencies in Canada can, but they can also do much more.

By earning a single points currency, you have access to airlines in all three major alliances, and within each of those programs, you also have access to other external partners, too.

Air Canada's Aeroplan gives you access to Star Alliance-member airlines, such as All Nippon Airways, Lufthansa, Singapore Airlines, Turkish Airlines, United Airlines, and more, as well as external partners, such as Etihad Airways, Virgin Australia, and more.

The Essential Guide to Aeroplan

The British Airways Club gives you access to oneworld-member airlines, such as Cathay Pacific, Japan Airlines, Qatar Airways, and more. Plus, you can also convert your British Airways Avios into other "flavours" of Avios, which can result in some excellent redemption opportunities.

The Essential Guide to the British Airways Club

Air France KLM Flying Blue gives you access to SkyTeam-member airlines, such as Delta Air Lines, China Airlines, and more, as well as external partners such as Etihad Airways and even WestJet.

The Essential Guide to Air France KLM Flying Blue

Furthermore, you can redeem MR points directly for flights through the Amex Fixed Points Travel reward chart, although these are limited to round-trip flights departing from Canada.

Lastly, you have the option of redeeming MR points directly against travel purchases at a rate of 1 cent per point (cpp), although this is typically not recommended, as the value pales in comparison to what you could get by booking flights through Aeroplan, Avios, or even the Fixed Points Travel chart.

Insurance isn't necessarily the strong suit of the Business Gold Rewards Card, but it does include the following coverages if you charge your travel expenses to the card:

Flight delay insurance: Up to $500 (aggregate maximum with Baggage Delay insurance), for food, accommodation and items purchased within 48 hours when your flight is delayed four or more hours.
Baggage delay insurance: Up to $500 (aggregate maximum with Flight Delay insurance), for items purchased within four days of arrival when your baggage is delayed six or more hours. (Note: this is different from lost and stolen baggage insurance, which doesn't cover delays)
Lost or stolen baggage insurance: Up to $500 of coverage total for all insured persons.
Hotel burglary insurance: Up to $500 coverage for stolen items (excluding cash).
Travel accident insurance: Up to $100,000 of Accidental Death and Dismemberment Insurance.
Car rental theft and damage insurance: Comprehensive coverage for up to 48 consecutive days for cars with an MSRP of up to $85,000.

One significant drawback: The Business Gold card does not include Emergency Medical Insurance - a crucial benefit many travellers rely on.

As a business credit card, it does offer Employee Card Misuse Protection of up to $100,000 per Basic Cardmember in the event an employee misuses their Supplementary Card for unauthorized charges after their termination.

Additionally, it is one of the few credit cards to offer Mobile Device Insurance. Coverage will be up to $1,000 per insured person, in the event of theft, loss or accidental damage, anywhere in the world, for up to a maximum of two years from the date of purchase.

Lastly, the card offers Purchase Protection Plan and Buyer's Assurance Protection Plan, covering most eligible items you’ve purchased with your card up to $1,000 should they be stolen or damaged within 120 days of purchase, as well as an extended one-year warranty period on the manufacturer’s warranty.