Centurion replacement for Starwood Platinum status -- any rumors yet?
 

The Centurion bonus I most enjoy is Starwood Platinum. My card renews on February 1 and that benefit disappears on February 28. After that I will be Starwood Gold. Has anyone heard what Centurion is going to offer in place of Starwood Platimun?

Absolutely nothing as of yet. I'm sure Centurion will have another "enhancement" by that time. I'll leave it to your imagination to interpret "enhancement: ;)

Centurion best come with a positive enhancement or major price reduction if it wants to hold its US membership.Wonder how long it will wait before making an announcement on a replacement.

Something which I would view as a postive enhancement would be a bundle package for Centurion members with say 2 Centurions, 1-2 platinum and 5 golds(maybe more since they don't give much away with gold anyways) for the same price as now- 2500. (edit) I seem to recall reading once before that some countries' Centurion programs have a bundle like I described. A few weeks ago I got a Centurion Satisfaction survey and I did mention the bundle idea in there- let's hope somebody is reading those things!

Side note- I was told that even if the primary cardholder wants an additional centurion on the same account (eg a duplicate card with same number/exp date) they get charged for an additional member ($1500). I have 2 wallets (1 tri fold and 1 of those slim weekend credit card holders) and I don't like to switch cards all the time- all my other banks are more than willing to accomodate me. I understand it is "for my own protection" but I have never had a problem in the past and I would easily know if I lost one as I switch frequently.

They did this to me with my Plat too. I had accidently shredded my Plat card (Don't ask, very long story), and they refused to issue me another card with the same number. I begged, because, I had to go around and change my automatic payments around, but they would not budge, because it is policy "For my protection"

Well there is a way that I have used in the past for getting a dup. card, but they are very unwilling to do that with centurion so I just gave up. I have done it with Plat. What you do is say your card got demagnetized (make up a story if they dig a bit- say your wallet was lying on your magnetic cell phone case at night, you were using some magnets and one fell on your wallet, etc...) and then request for a replacement card.

Make sure you confirm that everything will be the same, but they should not be changing the number if you still have the card in your possession. Everytime I have done this the card number and exp date stay same, but the 4 digit CVV code changes, presumably since it is a new card. After you activate the new one, both still work (I still do it with all my other non-amex cards as well).

In addition to a top tier major hotel program, I'd like to see Centurion take the Delta or Continental elite staus from gold to platinum. It improves lounge access when traveling and would have other benefits. For me, Priority Pass has been of little benefit.

Hopefully AMEX will monitor this and maybe get some ideas as to what we want.

Yep the UK has this, 2 Centurions for the primary holder plus an extra Centurion for whoever you want to give it to. Plus 5 extra cards (If I remember correctly) of your choice, Gold Plat, whatever.

Are the Primary Cent cards the same? My Platinum has 'AC" after my name, and a couple of digits at the end are different.

Your Platinum card isn't the primary card but Additional Card (AC). It is for separating your private and business expenses for example.

International Currency Cards and Amex Finland seem to send these automatically when you get the primary card. And indeed, these have a little bit different card number.

When I cancelled my Centurion card a few weeks ago and told them it was due to the loss of the SPG Plat benefit, the Amex people told me that Starwood dropped the benefit, not Amex. So, the blame lies directly with Starwood.

I am looking forward to seeing what the "enhancement" will be. While my SPG Plat card is still good until February, I have already moved my business over to Hilton. This time last year I had 25+ stays with Starwood while this year I've only stayed with them one night.

I've definitely enjoyed the Starwood Amex. It is a great place to bank points until you need to transfer them.

Where true that Starwood is no longer allowing Amex to offer Starwood Platinum as an Amex Benefit, I was paying Amex not Starwood) for it and expect it to be replaced by Amex. I understand why Starwood stopped selling the benefit to Amex to prevent dilution of its program. To me that would be all the more reason to stay with them if my travel allowed me to qualify.

When talking to a Centurion agent a few weeks ago I asked about this.

The response was that Amex is already adding benefits and then he went on to ask if I had heard about the new "space benefit"...as in outer space :rolleyes: . I kind of laughed and said that I prefer to stay at hotels that are located on the planet Earth. He didnt seem to get that a new benefit for visiting outer space is not an equal replacement for the benefits of visiting *wood as a plat.


(hey...that's my :-: 1,000th post :-: )

Excellent point! It may be that the remaining Plat holders will always get all the benefits that they only get some of the time now. Time will tell. The SPG Plat benefit was the only Centurion benefit I used so it did not make sense to carry on with them.

A complimentary additional Cent card would be a comparable benefit since it cost me at least $1500 this year (actually much more) to ensure plat again through 02/08.

Other hotel benefits won't cut it since I prefer *wood.


Of all the benes the loss of *wood status hurt the most.


The only other added benefit that would make me happy would be status on another airline I use-- like Virgin or AA.