Winetemplar

This is the lame reply I've received on Nov 15th from a random CTS employee:
"Da die Cathay Pacific den Flughafen Zürich nicht anfliegt, wird das Marco Polo Diamond Club Programm in der Schweiz nicht angeboten."
Since ZHR isn't a CX destination, the program is not offered in Switzerland.

I didn't care much for the present last year either. That said, Caminada's gingerbread spread was surprisingly good. Season's greetings JohnRain

btw, did you attend the Ferrari event? I thought the Tesla event was a good initiative. I couldn't attend that one either though.

JohnRain

This is very lame indeed as they assume that Swiss customers don't use hubs for their international flights (I often fly via FRA for example, obviously a major CX hub).

The spread was nice indeed, but complimentary CX Y=>C upgrades would be so much nicer...


The Ferrari event was great, sorry that you missed it. I would have loved to attend the Tesla event as well, but it was fully booked within 48h. The Swiss are just like any other people when it comes to freebies I guess...

Season's Greetings to you as well Winetemplar.

DMDortho

I, too, had a lot of spend using my Amex cards. After getting the JP Morgan Palladium card, I have used that more and more on my spends. I'm paying only $595 for annual membership and even received a $1000 Harry Winston gift card this past summer. They don't have as much in terms of airline status and etc but at least I do get 35,000 bonus points after a certain spend level.
So far, most of my usage(Tens of thousands) have been on the Palladium card and only couple hundred dollars here and there on the Centurion card...
Concierge is a lot better too... Recently inquired about a Hermes Birkin bag for my wife and they contacted Hermes directly. Inquired about a Patek Philippe watch and they called Switzerland on my behalf. Talk about service!! Tried with Amex Centurion Concierge and they just told me they do not even try to get those items for their clients due to rare availability...what a joke!

Vijian

I have to say that when it comes to locating stuff Amex concierge comes top. They located a Mille skull Tourbillon last week. Only took them 4 days!

DMDortho

I had them locate a Patek Philippe 5131G. The rep heard the words "Patek" and just said, "Unfortunately, that particular brand we are unable to research for you" Seems like they are not as reputable as one would assume they are in locating hard to find items!!

lenet

I also have both, i charge my palladium quite a bit because i've heard them giving nice gifts. I complained to amex CS about them not giving me anything when i spent more than 1 million dollar on the card last 12 months and they gave me 50k MR after telling them i might cancel my card.

BLV

The whining in this thread is "funny" to say the least.

Btw, I never use an Amex concierge for any of my watch purchases (or pretty much anything except some sport/entertainment tickets, and even then, I think it's faster and more convenient to go to stubhub or something similar).
A relationship with a dealer/store is what gets the job done.

Centurion

1st world problems.

b8b

Goes without saying, but it's nice for us to have a place to discuss these things, I don't know anywhere else that has "actual" Centurion cardholders in a forum.

DrivingRain

Agree. nothing wrong with us whining here. It's not like Cent benefits have gone up and the costs have gone down...it's been the other way around. Expectations were set and havent been met in a few years' time; and freebies have a role in that mix.

lenet

I could create a private centurion only forum in a couple minutes wonder if you guys would be interested in that

bubu-SNA

I can tell you my quite modest 6 figure monthly spend year over year makes me a statistical median for a centurion card holder. I got this # from a dedicated regional account manager. For the first time I've actually been questioning the value of the Centurion Card period...I've kept the card because of the airline status, otherwise I'd been cancelled/downgraded last year.

Delta Platinum & US Airways Platinum status is nice (with a very reasonable buy up option to chairman), the rest of the centurion benefits I feel are worthless to me and can be obtained for a fraction of the cost with other charge & credit products. Here is my take on the centurion "benefits":

Delta Platinum - It's nice to have in your back pocket. On the other hand I can get to Diamond medallion by opening Delta Amex credit cards which give MQM's with spend. Would take me a few months or less for a fraction of the cost..and earn skymiles (as devalued as they are). Not sure how much the fees would add up to...probably could get them waved based on spend & threats to cancel.

US Airways - Not something I can really replace...great value which sold me on keeping the centurion last year with nearly 100% upgrade success on domestic flights. The reasonable "buy up" price to chairman preferred is also a nice touch...and it counts towards your $200 "incidental" airline charges

Virgin Atlantic Gold - Who really flies Virgin Atlantic when they don't have daily service out of Los Angeles?

SPG Gold - Amex Platinum for 1/5th the price.

Hertz Gold & other car rental status - I see nearly zero value in these.

Hilton Gold or Diamond - It's nice but can be obtained through minimal spend with other products, amex and citi.

Priority Club - Properties in Europe rarely recognized, or honored their promised "platinum" benefits. Poorly run program from my perspective...no interest in it.

Membership rewards - They've been bleeding transfer partners while devaluing the value of MR on things like gift cards & merchandise. Still a big plus, but nothing exclusive to centurion here.

Concierge - one word to sump it up "WORTHLESS"! Half the time they can't even accomplish a "low hanging fruit" type request...which you can do for yourself in less time than it takes for you to call them.

Travel service - The "dedicated" counselors seem overworked, very hit or miss. Stopped even bothering to call them. "Next available agent" reps are worthless...again, may not even get a call back on "low hanging fruit" requests. You can buy airlines tickets & hotel reservations through them...sure, except you can do it faster yourself for a lower price. The 2-4-1's on premium cabin air fares seem nice on the surface, except you can usually buy 2 tickets cheaper yourself than the single full refundable fare ticket required for the 2nd companion ticket.

Lounge access - Pretty good, but nothing I can't get with a platinum card. I have yet to run into an airport lounge that accepts "lounge club/Priority Club" when I was genuinely in a bind, and wanted into a lounge of an airline I was not flying with.

Random gifts & WoW offers - The random gifts are disguised marketing for the most part; Chopard comes to mind. The "WoW" offers do come in handy, but its a rarity that the offer matches up with plans.

What would I like to see out of Centurion?

1. Reward my spend. Gold cards & other amex products get MR bonuses for spend...I want MR bonuses for spending thresholds (the extra $ made from the charge activity would pay for it). This year I did not even get a Christmas card .

2. CX Diamond, BA Silver/Gold, AA Exec/Exec Plat status. Any 1 of the 3...It never hurts to have top tier status in an alliance when things go wrong with flights. The rest of the centurion cards worldwide (other than the poor swiss who are just getting scr***d) get CX Diamond which I feel is more valuable than Delta Platinum in my opinion. Maybe let us choose which carriers we want to have status with?

3. Invite me to something! It's so nice to see the "by invitation only" events AMEX puts together for centurion members and brags about on the "centurion" website. The LeBron get-together comes to mind. Very curious what the spend of the invitees to these types of events are.

The fact is that outside of the airline frequent flyer & overall snob status, there is nothing to differentiate the centurion from a platinum...am I going to keep mine this year, yes...next year. Who knows? I know that if Chase invested in frequent flyer status for its Palladium card holders...say United & Korean air the centurion would again become a "rare" card

stimpy

It's important to remember that we all use these benefits differently. For example I have gotten a HUGE amount of value over the years with Avis Presidents club. Well worth the annual fee.

SusanDK

How does this work? Is one's starting point for buy-up presumed to be Platinum based on Cent. even if one doesn't meet the miles or segments of Platinum? What is the cost to buy up from Cent-based Platinum status?

bubu-SNA

SusanDK, that's exactly right...the buy up price is based on current status ignoring the actual MQM totals. I think it cost all off $850 to buy up from platinum to chairman. Depending on the market CP may not even be needed for near 100% upgrade success...back east the upgrades are more competitive, from Southern California I've yet to miss one this year as a plat. Obviously there are tactics to increase your upgrade odds which I won't get into here...but compared to delta, us airways upgrades are a near guarantee from my perspective.