SusanDK

Thanks! That is the case, so I may drop his card for a while until we really feel we'd get benefit from it.

tingalex

I'm waiting for Amex Canada to eliminate the free supplementary cent card. With all the cuts to benefits for US cardholders, I'm starting to feel like the Canadian offerings are even better, on the whole. With the free supplemental cent card, we get an extra person with Delta Gold, an extra free night at any fairmont property, extra suite upgrade vouchers at fairmont property, etc. Almost every cent benefit for he primary cardholder extends to the secondary. So, I'm waiting for them to either cut the free secondary card, or increase annual fee to 3,500. Any thoughts?

SusanDK

That's impressive. I didn't know any of the free supplementary cards offered the perks. I used to have an IDC Centurion which included the extra Cent for my husband and even an extra black card for business expenses, plus a bunch of extra Platinum and Gold cards for no additional fee. However, there were no airline elite perks nor extra hotel perks at that time (this is some years ago before the IDC Cent fee increased). It did give the extra Priority Pass, which IDC Platinum still does.

I would love to keep my husband's US Cent at the previous lower fee but the only thing it really gives us is DL Platinum for both of us and we don't get enough value from that with our current travel pattern for $2500. Maybe in future we would. Otherwise, we can manage fine with the hotel and Avis status just on my account.

NYflyer1

I've been told by two different CT reps that Amanhotels are no longer participating in the Centurion program. If Ritz Carlton is also gone and MO no longer offers free nights at any of its properties, the value of the Cent card (for me) has plummeted.

tuchop

Not sure if that is very accurate. I have declined the card in 2010 because there were really no differences with Platinum.. and by then i had a free Platinum (Amex didn't make me pay annual fees).. so it was really not worth it.. I got a phone call from Centurion every 6 months telling me the invitation was still there.. till i decided to try it in 2012..

mia

I think these circumstances are different. American Express may hold open an invitation for a prospective cardholder, but there is anecdotal evidence that a Centurion cardholder who cancels is not automatically welcome to re-apply -and- that the initiation fee needs to be paid again if accepted a second time. This combination of uncertainty and expense is an effective technique to encourage Centurion cardholders to wait and see rather than cancel when benefits disappear.

aviators99

Delta Platinum status has been devalued with the loss of Systemwide Upgrades, and loss of elite upgrades for transcon flights. At this point I'm actually looking forward to my Platinum "downgrade" in July.

What are other Centurion members choosing as their Medallion Choice for this year? The $200 voucher or 20,000 miles? The miles are valued higher than $200, but only if you have enough of them for an international J flight.

bubu-SNA

I'm one of those that lets the centurion gather dust but wont cancel on the "I wont get it back principle". All my spend has gone to Chase with a sprinkling onto the SPG. Whats amusing to me is that I took a decade of 7 figure per year spend elsewhere, and not a word from my "dedicated account manager".

HaydenFive

I've never heard of a Centurion "dedicated account manager" before. They do have dedicate travel counselors with CTS.

mia

Discussion of when US Airways status will end has been moved:

http://www.flyertalk.com/forum/ameri...oing-away.html

tuchop

They introduced me to my dedicated account manager a year after i got the card. Dedicated travel counselors are just for personalized trip plans, but you can really use anyone who's working at the time you phone American Express. But for the Account Manager, you have a direct line with her (in my case).

tyberius

I am the same way. I mostly used Hyatt until starting to use St. Regis with Centurion. That lead to use of SPG points and adding an SPG Amex and that lead to Hyatt being squeezed out for the most part and SPG taking them over.

Though I'm a Canadian Cent with Hilton Diamond via the card, I rarely stay at Hiltons just because the program seems to be of no value to me (I convert SPG and MR points to Aeroplan and redeem for mini-RTW). Even with the double dip, though I should probably crunch some numbers.

Used to be that almost any Starwood hotel though I stayed at I could find a 2 for 3 or 4 for 6, including St. Regis but that has dried up. But basically wherever I have a choice still of say a St. Regis vs. Mandarin Oriental, St. Regis wins because I am in this MR / SPG / Aeroplan axis... should they devalue this in some way I will go. The sideline is the SPG / Delta relationship where my revenue fares now go to Delta and the cross rewards get me some Aeroplan points via SPG as a result of flying Delta (which seems crazy but there you have it).

I'm obviously a group 2 person because I look at the benefit the card gives me. 2 times in my life did someone notice what it was and one of those was a US Airways lounge staffer and don't have to worry about that anymore I guess. So the wallet candy thing doesn't quite apply and I'll never rent a private jet. Basically the card has to remain to be a useful tool for travel in which case I will spend a lot on it and stick close to the partners.

I used to book more FHR hotels than I do now though, for the most part they started doing the math where:

Base Rate = x
FHR Rate = 1.33x
FHR Promotion = pay 3 nights get 4th complimentary!

*adjusted* FHR rate = 0.9975x

Look at the amenities... $100 spa credit to go towards a $500 massage. Uh no thanks. Continental Breakfast... ah great, a piece of bread and juice, value of one dollar, plus get it anyway with a lot of hotel status. Space-available upgrade is interpreted in an almost meaningless way a lot of the time. Your "preferred" room is 3 sq. ft. larger or something. 4pm checkout, already have it with hotel status. Can get 3pm in a lot of places just by asking anyway with no status. Benefits all vanish into smoke and mirrors. And this is with a "pay 3 stay 4" promotion on. Without the promotion often it can end up paying a lot more.

Look at the advance purchase rate direct on the hotel website, and can pay 0.8x.

Book the APR directly and don't have to call Cent travel and spoon feed the details over the phone. Sigh.

CHP though with St. Regis still has a lot of value if you can find a nice upgrade (though hotels in general have beaten the upgraders for the most part by offering 12 different room types with $20 difference per rate, then deny "specialty rooms" and suites often, or force you to argue at the front desk or check inventory and have a semantic fight over the meaning of the word "available").

The marketing people just in the end, always win by continuing to push the concept of an illusory product. Get people to pay for something that does not exist, but is only perceived to exist. That's very profitable because you don't have to provide a product and you make money for it. As long as suckers buy into it they will sell it. Ultimately enough people just have to cancel their cards for the product to go away.

Until then I'll keep looking for the ways the card is a tool. The travel insurance is very valuable to me, but I guess year over year I'm just moving more to my SPG card and getting more in bed with them. It's become a decision of "should I put this on my Centurion card and lose out on SPG points?" vs. what used to be an automatic spend.

Yes.

We are doomed.

I have to say though that they did do a good job in adding new benefits to the Canadian cards. Since I got the card along came Delta Gold status which was of real benefit to me. Also to Delta as they got all my revenue spending domestically instead of Air Canada. Cathay Pacific diamond is "nice" but frankly I see almost no value in it. It has gotten me two bottles of water, no upgrades, and just extra baggage. The Delta Gold has been far better so if you want me to give one up I will drop the Cathay and never look back.

Fairmont is particularly nice with their program. I use them a lot when they are available and some of the properties outside North America are spectacular.

mia

I am amazed that you think the travel insurance benefit is any more real than the upgrades, breakfasts and credits which you have found to be an illusion. How many claims have you filed?

scubadu

Agreed. There are far, far more cost effective ways to obtain travel insurance, if that is important to someone.

Regards

charlesfromage

I think it's clear that everyone has the things that they value for their own situation/home airport/favorite hotel, etc.

For me, I never really realized there was an special travel insurance and I certainly haven't taken advantage of it.

But unlike tyberius, I love the FHR benefits. For the way I book, the price is frequently, though not always, similar. Usually breakfast ends up being a $60 or so credit which normally translates to a nice, cooked breakfast at a place where I would otherwise blanche at paying $25 for some eggs and bacon. When it's included, I love the perk.

Same goes for massages. They are not typically $500 in my experience. And while they aren't cheap, they are usually a pretty nice perk for my wife and when you knock $100 off are much more affordable.

Still, you don't need Centurion to get FHR. For me, I'm waiting another month or two to see how things shake out and then I will almost certainly downgrade to Platinum. The benefits just aren't worth the incremental money to me anymore. I've clung to it because of the "can't get it back" phenomena, but I can only take so many years of waiting for things to improve.