Keep open a Canadian Gold Amex card?

[thehound]

I've got both Gold and Platinum Amex charge cards in Canada, but we're leaving the country after a year here in July. The Plat is $700 a year whilst the Gold is free for this year, but will become $150 pa thereafter.

I'll prob close the Plat card due to annual cost, but should I keep open the Gold card?

Amex reward points in Canadia can be transferred to BA Avios (currently with a 25% bonus), Aeroplan (both 1:1), Asia Miles, Delta, Alitalia and Etihad (rest all 1:0.75), plus Hilton (1:1) and SPG (1:0.5).
I believe the current forex fee is 2.5%.

I'd probably have to keep open a Canadian bank account in order to pay the Amex bills, and either way I'd have to transfer AUD since I won't have any Canadian income, incurring further forex losses.

Apart from the ability to earn Avios, is there any compelling reason to keep this card alive?

 

[andye]

No experience of Canada but....
It's easy to get over AUD 0.02 value from an Avios even with domestic QF Y redemptions.
My first thought was about ATO payments given that the Australian options are dwindling fast but difficult to see how you can make this work for ongoing spend once you've built in the Forex
Unless I was planning to go back to Canada (regular holidays or another work stint) , I think I would find it difficult to justify an annual fee