The absolute mother load that I hit with AMEX Concierge for many years in a row with a US Plat was buying tickets at face value for prime seating to the Wagner Bayreuth Opera Festival in Germany. AMEX in the 1950's evidently started buying blocks of tickets before the Festival became popular among classical enthusiasts and the Festival took care of AMEX and their international cardholders. It was wonderful obtaining prime seats year-after-year that many others spent a decade on a waiting list to purchase at face value. It was also fantastic to run into many other AMEX opera enthusiasts in the same section, often year after year-- what a great opportunity to meet people from South Africa, South America, the US, Europe and Asia, all who had the same love of opera. I still maintain contact with some of these now friends! Recently when the Wagner Festival changed management, they dumped the AMEX relationship and that was the end of my visits. It is still a popular event and they probably do not miss my annual trips. But then again, the new productions are not necessarily ones that I would want to frequent. I'm not bitter and I hope they continue to do well. I just felt when I attended the AMEX ticket block that I not only was benefitting from an ultra exclusive opportunity, but that I also ran into other cardholders who were true lovers of Wagner operas and not simply attending for the cachet of the event. In any case, these wonderful opportunities are the main reason I have maintained my multiple AMEX card memberships for many years and now choose to pay for the annual Cent membership fees. Yes, Cent still takes care of me when I travel and I have some stories, but nothing for my pleasure can compare to the opera tickets that AMEX obtained for so many years... AMEX Germany even had one wonderful employee who lovingly spent weekends in her free time working over the list of cardmembers registered for the opera performances and assigning the seating assignments within the ticket block as one would consider for a State dinner... In that sense, I always knew the people sitting next to me would have something in common... you just don't receive that level of personalized service other than at the highest levels of society and government.