A new record-high offer of 90,000 US MR points + 20% back on restaurant spending, up to US$250 has now surfaced on the Amex US Gold Card, which is available via select refer-a-friend links until June 8, 2022.
If you haven’t applied for the US Gold Card yet, there’s never been a better time to pull the trigger.
90,000 US MR Points Via Select Referral Links
The best-ever bonus on the Amex US Gold Card is here: 90,000 US MR points upon spending US$4,000 in the first six months. Compared to the more common minimum spending window of three months, the six-month window gives you a lot more leeway to meet the relatively high spending requirement.
Furthermore, you’ll have the opportunity to earn 20% back in statement credits on worldwide dining, up to US$250, during the first 12 months.
This is an incredibly easy type of statement credit to unlock. Effectively, as long as you spend US$1,250 at restaurants around the world over the course of the year, you’ll be able to offset your first year’s US$250 annual fee!
(Plus, that restaurant spend would also earn you at least 5,000 extra US MR points due to the card’s 4x multiplier on dining, too.)
There’s one more interesting wrinkle to this offer: it’s only available through specific referral links. Not any arbitrary refer-a-friend link will be able to generate it; only specific individuals out there can generate referral links that come with this all-guns-blazing welcome offer.
Given that Amex US enforces a strict once-in-a-lifetime rule on welcome bonuses, it’s best to wait for historical high offers before applying for any product you haven’t held before, and this offer on the Amex US Gold Card fits that bill exactly.
As a reminder, some of the best uses of US MR points these days might include:
- Transferring to Virgin Atlantic Flying Club to book ANA First Class for 55,000–60,000 miles one-way
- Transferring to ANA Mileage Club to book an ANA round-the-world award with eight stopovers and four open-jaws
- Transferring to Emirates Skywards to book Emirates First Class to Europe for 85,000 miles one-way
- Transferring to Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer to book elusive Singapore Airlines business class, First Class, and Suites Class awards
- Transferring to Cathay Pacific Asia Miles to book Cathay Pacific flights with much greater award space
As you can see, the welcome bonus of 90,000 US MR points would go a long way towards many types of aspirational awards. Combine it with, say, a 30% transfer bonus to Virgin Atlantic, and you’ve already got enough points for a round-trip ANA First Class award to Asia!
If you’ve already gotten started with US credit cards, then you can simply go ahead and apply to add the Gold Card to your portfolio.
If not, you can quite easily apply for this card via the Nova Credit service, simply by checking the box that says “I don’t have a credit history in the US, but have had a credit card or loan in the UK, India, Mexico, Canada or Australia” on the application form, where it asks you for a Social Security Number.
The Nova Credit service will then link to your Canadian credit file to assess your creditworthiness, although you may still be required to give Amex US a call for identity verification purposes. Be sure to review the full guide to getting US credit cards for Canadians for more information.
Is the Amex US Gold Card a Long Term Keeper?
Under the current all-time-high offer with the US$250 statement credit on restaurants worldwide, you can effectively offset the first-year annual fee of US$250.
Even going forward, though, I do think there’s a strong case to be made for keeping the Amex US Gold Card for the long term despite its US$250 fee.
The card offers a handful of annual credits totalling US$240, which, if maximized, will offset the vast majority of the annual fee. For Canadians, though, these credits may be tricky to use without spending significant time in the US:
- There is a monthly US$10 Uber credit that can be used towards Uber or Uber Eats, but only for rides or orders in the US.
- In addition, there is a monthly US$10 credit that can be used towards any of Grubhub, Seamless, Boxed, The Cheesecake Factory, Ruth’s Chris Steak House, and Shake Shack. Again, it seems that these can only be used in the US.
For most Canadians, I think it’ll be a matter of doing their best to maximize these credits on their trips to the US, and then weighing whatever’s left of the US$250 annual fee against how much you value the Amex US Gold Card’s most attractive benefit: its 4x earning rate on restaurants worldwide.
If you’re an avid foodie and eat out frequently both at home and along your travels, the Amex US Gold Card will be one of your closest companions.
Even if you’ve just sat through the most amazing meal of your life at that three-Michelin-Star restaurant you’ve dreamed of visiting, it’s never easy to digest the final bill at the end of a meal like that, so the least you can do is earn 4x US MR points on those dollars you’re dropping.
In most cases, once you factor in the exchange rates in terms of both the dollars and MR points, I’d say that the 4x earning rate on the Amex US Gold Card outstrips both of the optimal choices we have in Canada for dining spend: the Platinum Card’s 3x MR points and the Cobalt Card’s 5x MR Select points.
If food and travel are both a big part of your lifestyle, then the Gold Card can quite easily justify its annual fee year after year.
For Canadians, the other strong perk of the Amex US Gold Card is the 3x US MR points on airline purchases, which is a stronger earning rate on airfare than anything we have in Canada at the moment.
Compared to other US cards, the US Platinum Card still dominates on airfare spending with its 5x return; however, its US$550 annual fee means that it might not be the right fit for everyone, and in my view the Amex US Gold Card strikes a better balance between strong benefits and a reasonable annual fee.
Lastly, it’s worth mentioning that the card also offers 4x US MR points on up to US$25,000 of purchases at US supermarkets; however, it has been verified that this indeed does not extend to Canadian supermarkets. Alas, what a cool benefit that would be, given the many varied items that can be purchased at supermarkets these days.
Apply Now
Credit card offers in the US have been rising to seemingly impossible levels over the past two years, and this current refer-a-friend offer from the Amex US Gold Card is yet another step along this crazy trend.
Indeed, over the past few years, this particular product had put out welcome bonuses of 35,000, 60,000, 75,000, and now a staggering 90,000 US MR points with the opportunity to offset the first-year annual fee.
This particular offer is currently only available via specific refer-a-friend links. Head over to the Prince of Travel Elites Facebook group or Prince of Travel Club Lounge on Discord if you’d like to share a referral link that can generate this spectacular offer of 90,000 US MR points + US$250 statement credit on restaurants worldwide.
