After all that work and talking about getting the Cent card and they turned you down? Sucks man. I'm sure a manual review will get you in, if not just keep asking for it.

If I were AMEX I'd be willing to let anyone who's silly enough to pay a $5,000 initiation fee get the card. I've seen the card benefits in action, and while they can be valuable for sure, the initiation fee on top of the already questionably worthwhile annual fees is crazy. I'll hold off on saying anymore as its been discussed ad naseum elsewhere.