Questions and Answers

Hey Lucky! You frequently talk about the SPG Amex card issued in the US which currently has – and will continue to have – some pretty nice perks, including 15 stay credits and a low annual fee (when compared to the Canadian card).

The equivalent card issued by Amex in Canada, however, has nowhere near the perks as its US “cousin.” While one still gets 1 starpount for every dollar spent on the card, the annual fee is higher ($120), and – sadly – there’s no room night credits (unlike the 15 nights granted by US SPG Amex cards). One only gets a single weekend night after spending $40,000!!! One gets SPG Gold status if one spends $30,000. That’s it for perks – pretty stingy, I’d say.

It would be helpful if you could learn more about what Amex has planned for the new Marriott/SPG card – it would be great if we in Canada could receive the same perks as US cardholders.

Thanks for looking into it!

Welcome [USER=4335]@Rob McPhi[/USER] – as you note, this blog has more of a US focus. For Canadian info I’d look at other Boarding Area bloggers like Canadian Kilometers and Pointshogger.

[QUOTE=”Rob McPhi, post: 55772, member: 4335″]
It would be helpful if you could learn more about what Amex has planned for the new Marriott/SPG card – it would be great if we in Canada could receive the same perks as US cardholders.
[/QUOTE]

As Midsouth Skier notes, pointshogger and canadian kilometers have a better Canadian focus on boardingarea. I would also recommend princeoftravel and rewardscanada (not boardingarea) to follow the Canadian perspective.

That said, the Canadian credit card market is pretty non-competitive so I wouldn’t expect great things. I don’t see any of the big banks teaming up with any hotel programs anytime soon as the market is just not there. Outside of SPG Amex all we have is the MBNA Best Western card. Here’s hoping that we will get another co-branded Marriott card after the loss of the Chase Canadian version.