American Express Membership Rewards - Personal or business Centurion?

I called American Express today to apply for a Centurion card, intending to get a personal card, but opted for business instead. Now I'm wondering if I made a mistake. The agent told me the items you get with the personal card that you don't get with the business card are the following,

1. VIP Welcome and Discovery with Club 5C. Meaning that if you book a room with one of the hotels in the Relais & Chatueaux group, you get a welcome gift and some kind of other special perk.

2. Sony Search - You can get a personal shopper at Sony.

What you get with business card that you don't get with personal: You can visit Regus business offices, and get free 1/2 day upgrades to personal offices. That's more valuable to me than "1" or "2" above. But I ran across a list of business Centurion benefits on the web, and get the impression that you don't get the one-day-per-year free hotel stay at several hotel chains with the business card. Is that correct? Are there any other significant items anyone is aware of that's available with personal but not business, or vice versa? Thanks

The SONY program is called 'Cierge, as in concierge, not search.

Many of the posts in this thread about the random gifts that are not part of the benefits seem to imply that they are for the personal card only, if that matters to you.

Regus is definitely only on the biz cards. The roadside assistance programs are different (domestic only on the biz cards). I'm sure there are other bits but I cannot think of any more at this point.

If you can still reverse the decision, I would definitely go with the personal. I've seen business cards becoming more and more popular since they are technically easier and more simple for people to get (meaning more people charge the $250,000 through their business than on their personal cards). Yes, I know they will let you apply spending on all of your cards towards this threshold, but most do not and just upgrade the card they do their normal charging on.

As noted above, business card members get next to nothing in terms of the gifts and gift cards provided to personal card members. You do, however, get access to the buy one, get one at most Mandarin Oriental properties and last year business card members did get the free LXR night.

Unless you're going to have trouble writing off the fee on the personal card as a business expense (for example, if it is not your own business), I see no reason to go with the business card.

Troy, Do you have any rough idea of the annual value of the gifts and gift cards? I read about things like $500 Wynn hotel credit, and wonder if most are promotions, where whoever is supplying the gift is expecting to profit more from the cardholder than the value of what they're giving. I'm assuming the greater cachet with the personal card would be the strongest reason for getting it?

Based on your comments, I just called AMEX to ask about switching. Essentially, I can do it with no problem until October 5, the end of my billing cycle. To switch, there's no charge, but you have to qualify again for the personal card, meaning $250,000 in previous 12 months in payments (which I won't meet after Oct. 5). You do get the free nights at hotels with the business card. A couple of other items that you don't get with personal, discounts for certain rental car companies and, unlike the personal, you can place limits on subsidiary cards, which actually might be a good idea to make sure my significant other doesn't go hog wild.

and wonder if most are promotions, where whoever is supplying the gift is expecting to profit more from the cardholder than the value of what they're giving.
Of course they are. ;)

Troy, Do you have any rough idea of the annual value of the gifts and gift cards?

Sure, here are a couple of examples from FT. Of course, there's no guarantee that every cardmember will receive this stuff nor is there any guarantee that they'll offer it in the future. However, it should give an idea of what they might possibly send you:

http://flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=762596

http://flyertalk.com/forum/showthread.php?t=854010

I agree - the cards provided by the companies are intended to get you to spend money at the companies. Of course.

But that doesn't stop you from using them without having to do that, either. I'm using the Wynn card to get a free night in the Wynn Tower Suites because the price of the room that night is less than $500. I still think it's a good deal even if the Wynn is, say, $650 for that night - you're not going to get nearly that level of room for $150 anywhere in town.

Thanks guys, appreciate the info.

Is Regus access offered to some personal Centurion members via a special promo code, or exclusively to business accounts?

Moremiles, Regus is offered only to platinum and centurion business accounts. The Centurion also brings with it a space-available 1/2 day upgrade to a private office.

yeah it seems the sony does not come with the business card, i was looking forward to it but I guess i will find out what it takes to be on the sony program without the amex card

what exactly does the sony concierge do? like help you pick out electronics by sony? cant imagine anyone buys them often enough to need help doing it...or am i missing something?

I called American Express today to apply for a Centurion card, intending to get a personal card, but opted for business instead. Now I'm wondering if I made a mistake. The agent told me the items you get with the personal card that you don't get with the business card are the following,

1. VIP Welcome and Discovery with Club 5C. Meaning that if you book a room with one of the hotels in the Relais & Chatueaux group, you get a welcome gift and some kind of other special perk.

2. Sony Search - You can get a personal shopper at Sony.

What you get with business card that you don't get with personal: You can visit Regus business offices, and get free 1/2 day upgrades to personal offices. That's more valuable to me than "1" or "2" above. But I ran across a list of business Centurion benefits on the web, and get the impression that you don't get the one-day-per-year free hotel stay at several hotel chains with the business card. Is that correct? Are there any other significant items anyone is aware of that's available with personal but not business, or vice versa? Thanks

I thought that you were not able to choose between a personal or business centurion card. It was determined based on which type of account that you made the $250K in charges.