Centurion

Oh you are way to naive to think any corporation remembers and learns from past mistakes. They just shut things down and do a "write off".

makemoretospendmore

Don't need to be a Cent to get in to these. PLT is good enough.

grazing

Seriously? You would equate losing USAir Plat (w Star Gold) with getting some additional lounges in the future? Remember we lost Continental Plat just a year ago.

charlesfromage

To me, this is the real point. The only difference between Centurion and Platinum is basically the Delta status now. Assuming Cent is $2500/yr and Plat is $450/yr, is it worth $2K for Delta and an upgrade at the Ritz? It all depends on your usage patterns, but it's not for me.

At this point, I'd rather spend the extra money on buying the services I actually use. I can then choose to fly JetBlue or Virgin or United (well, maybe not United) and pay the extra $50 for the extra legroom instead of having to restrict myself to Delta in hopes of an upgrade.

Admiral Ackbar

You forget the aforementionned wallet bling factor

m.photog

There was a time I thought the Centurion was a value if you traveled enough. I could not justify it based on my travels. Sorry to hear about the loss of value to those of you who have enjoyed the card in the past.

I will just stick with my Platinum.

jsq

the DL Plat status is a bit misleading to those who aspire to it. as a personal Centurion card holder i have DL Plat status, but i seldom fly Delta.

when i have flown i have found out it does not help with complimentary upgrades. Delta looks at what you have spent with them ( a reasonable business approach but not what most people understand) since i seldom fly with them my $'s spent with Delta means i almost never get the upgrade and wife most certainly gets left in the dust. Delta will take a gold member who has spent more $, before a low dollar spending Delta Plat, not a bad business decision for Delta but something most aspiring card holders do not understand. also the upgrades are for space available or some such terminology and segregated for upgrade, i have flown on flights and seen LOTS of empty seats at the gate and no upgrade for my Plat DL status.

so lots of fine print to understand and in order to benefit most from Delta PL you need to also do a lot of $ with Delta. the whole point of the upgraded centurion status with various programs was that if you do not do a lot of flying with the carrier you were to be granted status as if you had. not quite true in my experience. with Centurion in this instance i am granted a Delta Plat physical card but it confers little to none upgrade availability within the Delta system as it is currently designed.

regards to all

sdix

Slight correction in that a Gold will not get priority over a Plat. However you are spot on with the rest of your comments.

As a Plat I generally tend to be very close in getting upgrades but whenever traveling with a companion forget about it. My son is Silver and when we fly together I have been 33 out of 60 for an upgrade.

Centurion needs to give Diamond level to replace US leaving

scubadu

But they probably won't. So, perhaps finally some Cent members will actually cancel the card and move on. Another, larger, percentage will keep paying (and complaining)

The "death spiral of the Centurion Card" actually began quite sometime ago...

Regards

tingalex

I'm not understanding most of your post...
What is it you're referring to with DL "taking" a gold who has spent more $ versus a low-spending plat? In terms of upgrade priority, a plat will always be ahead of a gold (barring travelling with a companion on the same PNR). And re: empty seats, I'm assuming you're talking about an int'l flight, there there should be no empty F seats at the gate on a domestic leg if there are people in Y on the upgrade list.

What do you mean when you say it confers little to no upgrade availability? Is the DL plat status for centurion cardholders in the USA different than DL plat status for someone who actually earned it? In Canada, cent cardholders get the same DL gold as regular DL gold people who earn MQM's through flying. I'm confused.

thanks for clarifying

aviators99

No, it's the same exact Platinum status, and I've been upgraded on a great majority of my DL flights (domestic).

jsq

Your points on this thread are well thought out.

As for me i have dropped spending on my Centurion card over 90% and shifted $$ to various non-Amex cards that seem to "appreciate" me more as a customer.

I have been a customer for over 30 years at Amex, Personal Centurion cardholder for over 7 years.

Likewise for spending on hotels, air, and other travel I have shifted massively to other non - Amex cards.

regards

jsq

hello and i will try to clarify what i have experienced and been told by the gate personel when asking about being way down the list with lots of empty seats and not getting an upgrade. i am not savy as many on this board when it comes to terminology or even rules of many programs so maybe accidently saying some words wrong. also, my experience with delta is strictly domestic united states.

what i have seen, and been told by Delta employees at the gate is they look at who has paid the most for the economy ticket and from my understanding possibly cummulatively for the year. with Plat status on Delta i assumed it meant i was in front of gold etc. my status helps is true if tickets are equal, not true if i am on a lower cost economy fare from my experience. on the rare occasion i fly Delta (nothing wrong with the airline, they just are not my most flexible option most of the time) i buy some trips way ahead and get a relatively cheap fare price in economy and hoped to get the upgrade. someone who bought economy at a more recent and typically higher price (is this perhaps a y class ticket someone mentioned earlier??, here again not sure of my terminology) with a gold status will get the upgrade. i was kinda surprised and clarified with various people at Delta and with Centurion travel

also one other big surprise is that very few seats were "availble" or whatever they call it for upgrade even x many days out even with a lot of empty seats, because Delta staff told me they were saving them to sell at the gate. basically the upgrade price seems to be seen as extra revenue that would have been "wasted" on a free upgrade that someone with platinum status, as in my case, would have assumed would readily be available.

i wasn't so much worried about the value lost as to understand what i was really being told. i called delta reservations and asked questions about what i have said above. they talked in circles for quite a while then finally confirmed what i was seeing. i then called centurion travel and got them to verify and they did. this was earlier this year or late last year.

once again, from a business standpoint whoever pays the most for an economy ticket probably should be given the upgrade. but the way most of us look at it you would assume platinum status would get you above gold.

maybe something has changed. i only fly delta 2 or 3 times a year.

maybe someone who really knows the current delta program can clarify what i am trying to say and verify if it is still in place.


all the best

bubu-SNA

...I have likewise taken my spend to other cards with better rewards (while hanging on to the cent for the now diminishing perks). Not a peep out of the "relationship manager". The semi-annual "gifts" also stopped coming shortly after I shifted my spend, wonder if the gift cards are tied to spend.

tangfish

I am just like the rest of you. Have had my Business Centurion for over 10 years and have seen a stead decline in both benefits and level of service from concierge and travel.

However it is worth mentioning that there is a major "reboot" underway at American Express. Management all the way up to the top has realized that their travel business has not kept up with the times, and as a result I believe everything has been shaken up and is being re-evaluated. This coincides with the loss of US Air Plat, and I sincerely hope that they find a way to replace that value and especially the loss of CO, which really hurts me based on my travel habits (really need Star Alliance Gold somehow - anyone know another way now?).

Anyway, though I've found the benefits to be pretty diminished and the system of calling in to make use of them utterly useless based on the time it takes, I have enjoyed a lot of my years with Amex and I'm willing to stick with them for at least another year or two to see what kind of (hopefully bold) moves they make to turn the thing around. Call me an optimist.