Originally Posted by
wanaflyforless
Yes, there are significant risks involved.
If I go for Centurion, it would be $2M on my Business Plat card (1.5X earn) and could do $2M on a second and possibly third Business Plat cards if necessary, stopping at $2M per card due to the 1.5X earning cap.
After getting Centurion, I would be tempted to go back to mostly putting 4X spend on Business Gold cards.
Maybe keep just $500K/year on the business Centurion
and
$160K/year on Business Gold cards ($150K at 4x earn) x 9 cards (have 6 so far)
The rest of the spending could go back to the BofA 2.65% and Chase 2.5% cards.
Regarding an unpublished cap on the 50% rebate (Business Centurion Airfare) I did ask Amex and the Centurion department rep I spoke with had never heard of one but that wasn't an official answer and could of course change.
I haven't seen reports of Amex shutdowns because too much spend was in bonuses categories but maybe I just missed them?
Does Amex shut people down only because our spend patterns are unprofitable for them?
Should I be afraid of a shutdown for doing the following if I go to that:
$160K/year on Business Gold cards ($150K at 4x earn) x 9 cards
All of this only holds up if that bill killing credit card bank commissions does not pass.
I still am wondering, what are the odds of being able to get a business Centurion a year or two after shifting $2M/year to my Business Plat card or $4M/year to two Business Plat cards?
Is an informed estimate of the odds even possible?
Amex are not shutting people down for spending too much in a particular category so don't worry about that.
There is not really any way to justify Centurion mathematically (believe me, I've tried) but it's OK to just say you want it for lifestyle reasons like a nice watch or whatever.
Depending on your spend categories I don't think a business invitation is very likely.
The spend would probably be enough to attract a personal invitation but if they are mostly obvious business purchases you are probably out of luck there too. Amex will review your spending profile for quality as well as quantity - they want to market Centurion cardholders to expensive brands.
Shifting a large volume of business expenses to your personal cards would probably attract the attention of Amex for some kind of financial review so I guess just think carefully how much you really want that Centurion.