Centurion Requirements/Application
 

I think I spend enough with AMEX to get an invitation but maybe because I use too many of their cards they dont know im out there!!! Anybody know how to get their attention?!!?

You need to have charged and PAID at least $150,000.00 in the previous 12 months on time with any of the Amex personal cards. If you have done that please reply on this board and I will post the top secret number to call Centurion but I will have to kill you if you share it with anyone else http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif Or you could just search on this board using the term "Centurion" http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif

If your charging is spread out among multiple cards, and not just on a personal Platinum card, they may not notice you to send an unsolicited invite. But if you meed the criteria, call Centurion customer service and the agent will manually look up your accounts and take your application over the phonoe if you qualify.

yes please make it easier for me...has the annual fee increased from $1,000 to $2,500?

The United States yearly fee is now $2500.00 for cardholders and they still only charge $1000.00 to people who acquired the card prior to approximately May 2002. If you have the Platinum Card call 800-525-3355 and they will pre-qualify you and then they will transfer you to Centurion. I think this is the way Amex wants it to happen so that is what I suggest. However Amex did advertise the Centurion number in several advertisements in an issue of Departures earlier this year and I believe I did post the number but really do not feel it is appropriate to do it again. Also their are multiple threads on this subject and many people believe that you should find an existing thread to post your question so the wealth of information on this web site will be more organized.

Yeah well part 2 of my thread was going to disucss how so not worth it is this card for $2500....Most of the perks listed can be used by Platinum members and unless you or just going to be buying 8K business class tickets and try to get upgraded to First which is becoming harder since most US International planes only have 1 class of service I dont think in a slumping travel industry $2500 is worth an annual fee!

You will find multiple threads/discussions on flyer talk on if the Centurion card is worth the money. My synopsis of all the discussions is that if you travel enough the card is worth the fee and as a status symbol Centurion is worth less than zero. But I can honestly say and many others that if you find one of the addtional benifits useful it pays for the card.

[This message has been edited by Centurion (edited 08-17-2003).]

Yeo, mine's paid for itself many times over with Hilton upgrades and free breakfasts let alone any other benefits.

Nigel

Five months ago I obtained an American Express Corporate Platinum Card and have accumulated $384,000 in paid charges through that period. Do I qualify for the Black Card? If I do what will it cost for the additional (secondary) cardholder?

It was my understanding that any spending on a corporate card is not considered when assessing your credit or ability to re-pay. As a result, I applied for a personal card and have been using that for my business expenditure -- and have been solicited with many more offers as a result.

Nevertheless, it can't hurt to ask. The situation may be different if you are a partner or owner of the business in question.

I also believe the previous poster is correct that your Corporate charges will not count and it has to be personal charges. That being said any of the personal products may be used to qualify on the spending, ie Optima card. Many people are under the wrong impression that it must be the Platinum Card. But let me also say that they will look and see that you charged and PAID over $150,000.00 within 12 months. The current US rates are $2500.00 for the primary and $1000.00 for each additional or secondary card.

I without debate qualified for the CENT/Corporate card based on my PLAT/Corporate card purchases last spring, 2002, since I do not have an AMEX "personal" CHARGE CARD nor have ever had one. Through sheer luck, I got my CORPORATE CENT upgrade literally weeks before the $2500 annual fee increase took affect last spring, and so far am grand-fathered under the $1000/yr fee.

CENT offers a single perk which I find worth the $1000/yr investment (won't go into details here), otherwise it is overpriced at $1000, and waaaaay overpriced at $2500, IMO.

Concierge services are the same as PLAT; questionable value the few times I've used them.

AMEX can't seem to get a simple US-customer CENT-only password-protected web site so we can actually read and learn and understand more of the CENT-only perks, if such perks exist. I know of at least two or more international web sites for the CENT cardholders abroad. Good for them.

In all, I find the CENT perks to be a marginal value, but like I said above - one single perk thus far makes the investment ok for me, so I'll hold as long as the $1000/yr fee holds.

But I can personally attest that, in spring of 2002, CORPORATE PLAT history qualified me for my CORPORATE PLAT card, FWIW.

Therefore: Only if the CORP CENT program, per se, is suspended, would I agree w/ the two posted above that indicate CORP CARD history would not qualify, which would make sense.

During some time last year (2002), AMEX supposedly suspended the CORPORATE-designated CENT program and was only accepting PERSONAL CENT applications; has this now changed ?

[This message has been edited by ILUVCITIBANK (edited 08-19-2003).]

AFAIK, the personal CENT card is only offered to customers using personal cards (with personal liability), and not corporate card users.

It must not be a PLAT charge card, any personal charge card is taken into account.

Personal credit cards are considered as well as personal charge cards. The credit card can be a standard Optima, or one of the private-label Optima derivatives, such as a Delta or Starwood card. In the case of a credit card, it's supposedly the payments during the past 12 months that count, not just the fact that you were able to run up a balance (anyone can do that http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/smile.gif).

ahrz,
to clarify:
At one time, at least back when I applied, the applicant made the choice of applying for the PERSONAL or CORPORATE CENT card, and logically one should/would apply for the same type (pers or corp) as the PLAT card they were upgrading from. So, only issue that I can see is whether AMEX still takes applications for a CORPORATE CENT, as I know for awhile they had suspended CORPORATE CENT applications. Who knows why ?

I don't recall if I was able to add the history of my AMEX/OPTIMA account or not when AMEX considered my CORPORATE CENT application, but I don't think I was. AMEX's CREDIT DIVISIONS are complete split apart, and I am told, and have experienced, AMEX being completely unable to pull personal creditworthiness data from the OPTIMA side to use to qualify one's CHARGE CARD side, and vice-versa. Yet another example of AMEX's inability to really show and express true customer service, and IMO, another proof of their antiquated IT competency. Hey, they make a quarterly profit, a nice one at that, so why should they move into this century too fast ?

Finally, the aggregate charge AMEX supposedly relies heavily on is based on a => R O L L I N G <= 12mo period prior to the date of application. In my case, back in "x" month (spring of 2002, don't recall the exact month, so let's assume Feb 2002), when AMEX reviewed MY rolling 12mo prior chargehistory, my 12th MO out (in this example Feb, 2001) was a very high charging month...and I knew, and they reminded me, if I waited a couple more weeks, that 12th month out would soon "roll out" of the prior 12-mo rolling average, and my aggregate spending then would not qualify. Knowing this was actually the key reason I made my application.

So - as you review your spending history, you should look to your aggregate spending for the prior 12 months for the card type you're seeking to upgrrade...and that is the "snapshot" AMEX will look at. (I do not personally believe AMEX will also consider OPTIMA charge history - as I explained above).

Lastly, when I made this comment above, "...Finally, the aggregate charge AMEX supposedly relies...", the reason I say this is I was also told that, in rare cases, AMEX will waive this aggregate spending limit and look to your liquid cash on hand verified by faxing over bank statements. I am sure yet another waiver would be for celebrities, noted politicians, friends of the AMEX ceo, et al.

[This message has been edited by ILUVCITIBANK (edited 08-19-2003).]