Originally Posted by mshaikun
I also carry a Starwood Card. I use it everywhere except where the Centurion offers special benefits such as double points. Sometimes I use Centurion to reserve a car, but when I get it back whole I switch charge to Starwood. Same for hotels. Also, I use it on major purchases where it offers a better extended warranty.
To me Starwood points are more valuable. Not only do you get a 25% bonus if you transfer 20,000 points to an airline, the Starwood hotels are often bargains. I am staying at the LAX Sheraton for two nights (one weekend one not) for a total of 7,000 points. The cost with tax would have been around $300 so I got a value of over 4 cents a point.
We all will miss the loss of Starwood Platinum come February. I suspect you only got gold. Still the late checkout and other benefits are nice and I really don't need to be upgraded to a suite.
Recently I tried to get reservations on my own at one of Cenurions fine restaurants. I wanted to arrive at 7 and the earliest it had was 7:30. Since I was coming from a meeting that ended at 6:30 and would easily be at the restaurant before 7, sitting around for 30 minutes did not thrill me so I called Centurion. I got the 7 pm reservations and VIP treatment on arrival.
So enjoy your card.
Yesterday I used the Centurion concierge for the first time. She did get us into a restaurant that I would not have otherwise been able to get in to. However, I noticed when I got there that there was nothing special marked in the reservation book to differentiate us. We were also given a crappy table in what I consider to be the "tourist section". I didn't say anything since, after all, it was a bonus just to get in to the restaurant. But I wonder how the conversation works between the concierge and the restaurant, and whether it could be done differently to ensure "VIP treatment". This was one of Amex's "Fine Dining" restaurants...