American Express Membership Rewards - Flaky AMEX Phone Reps

I called AMEX yesterday (I have a blue Optima Card) for informaiton on their rental car LDW, and the rep told me that I had qualified for a "Rewards Gold" charge card with the annual fee waived on account of my "excellent" credit history. I told her that AMEX sent me an invitation for a Platinum card, so the fact that I "qualified" for a gold card was not much news to me. She put me on hold for a minute and said I was pre-qualified for the "Black" card - I'm assuming this is the Centurion card, since she said it was a charge card.

My question is, on what basis do they pre-qualify people for different cards? I charge an average of $1500 per month on my blue card, and pay it all off at the end of the month. I'm guessing this qualified me for the Plat card. But a Centurion?

And what benefit do I get from a Centurion card vis-a-vis the Plat card? The annual fee for Centurion didn't seem to justify the card, IMHO.

And what benefit do I get from a Centurion card vis-a-vis the Plat card? The annual fee for Centurion didn't seem to justify the card, IMHO.You get to pay 6x as much as for the Platinum card and for that you get mid-level elite on 3 airlines.

I thought the minimum expendiature in a years time to qualify for black was 150K

I thought the minimum expendiature in a years time to qualify for black was 150K

It is :confused:

I thought the minimum expendiature in a years time to qualify for black was 150K

This is what I wanted to hear - I don't believe the agent was really sure what she was talking about - when I told her (in response to her offer for Rewards Gold charge card) that I already had an offer for Plat, she went into a tizzy, put me on hold for a while and came back with a "you're pre-qualified for Black". Since I wasn't willing to pay extortion annual fees, I "settled" ;) for Plat..!

This wasn't one of the India reps, that much I'm sure about. The only logical explanation I have for her gaffe - and I believe it's a gaffe since I'm NOT prequalified for Black by ANY standards, is her relative lack of experience - she couldn't answer some basic questions on the car rental LDW I have as as add-on to my Blue Optima (I essentially wanted to cancel this since I was getting the Plat, which comes with this)...

To be honest, I'm not sure how I qualified for Plat either. Like I said, I charge approximately $1500 per month (sometimes more, but ATLEAST $1.5k) and pay it off in full, but I did NOT apply for the Plat - they sent me an invite out of the blue...Maybe the fact that I regularly rack up upwards of $5k per month on my company issued Corporate AMEX was a factor.

Any ideas?

I get offers in the mail all the time for the gold card. And I'm a plat member. That just goes to show you how much they know and who they send these invites to.

I get offers in the mail all the time for the gold card. And I'm a plat member. That just goes to show you how much they know and who they send these invites to.

ask them to sent you the appliance form for the centurion.

it can happen that people spending only 1500 usd can get a centurion.

i saw many things ;) and one of this is, that i know one guy, who only spent 1500 Euro one month on amex , but ge the centurion.

sometimes, amex makes some non - understandable things ;)

I got a letter in the post last week from AmEx. Very thick, expensive envelope. Embossed logo. Printed in the corner: "The Centurion Card from American Express".

I rip open the envelope, expecting that Amex has at last recognised my worthiness (despite not spending much with them) to find ..... two tickets to a Plat Amex drinks party. Damn!