called up the general hotline and asked another person and it appears that I would have to cancel my green card and then a new gold card would be sent to me. Account details as such do not get lost but I will lose my charter membership.

Is this also the case with other cardholders in other countries?

It seems like if you have a Charter Member Green Charge Card then there is no point in upgrading to Gold Card as you would loose your Charter Membership for a year (one benefit of charter is a free supplementary card).

A side question, do any members here hold amex accounts in two different countries? I was thinking of getting a UK charge card as well for my spending in UK so that I don't get raped by 2% currency charges from amex when i use my HK card in UK.

Many thanks in advance and thanks for all the information supplied by all the members here!^