mia

We do:

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/travel-dining-161/
https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/destinations-704/

...but due to the way that credit cards are marketed in the United States, card discussion will have a heavy emphasis on bonuses, mixed in with card benefits, many of which are currently travel-related.

speculatus

I see how this thread slowly diverged from original topic into some nonsense. The physical card is less appealing to get/brag as more people are paying by Android/Apple pay. The trend is on. Nobody has to see the card. I found myself using Android pay whenever I can because it's easier and less prone to chip hacking (yeah, exactly).

So, to AMX, I predict in two years those who want to have it for a look won't apply (~95%), those who value perks will still apply/stay. Wow/look factor is 99% gone. You do the math on then future fee revenue.
AMX, get in those who want it now, the clock is ticking against you.

mia

I wouldn't generalize from personal experience. I find Android Pay much more complicated to use than a physical card because of the way it interacts with the phone's security settings.

kennycrudup

Explain?

emcnj

RedSun

Have not heard of many high-end restaurants which won't take AmEx credit card. This is way off.

Some of the foreign countries, at least Canada and Mexico, will swipe the CC with its mobile CC terminal that the waiter brings to your table. I'm not sure if those mobile terminal can take digital wallets.

Physical CCs won't go away any time soon. American people are very conservative. Digital wallets have been adopted in China years ago, but is still slow going in US. To many people, physical CCs are still status symbols. If I go to dine with my friends, I'd be happy to hand my AmEx Plat or Chase Ritz Carlton CCs to the waiter, than handling out my iPhone.

tibook

Well, after a Concierge request, I went ahead and asked about the Centurion. Was sent to a specialist, said everything on my account was acceptable, he would flag it, and that invitations are sporadic but the next time it happens mine will be noted as interested. Thats good enough for me. If they send me an invite, I'll be sure to report back.

johndoes

May I ask whats your normal spend on card? Is it on personal or biz plat?

tibook

Centurion

Centurion phone number can be found on flyertalk and also in several Amex magazines.

emcnj

I got to speak with someone was senior as an Executive Director level at an AMEX Tier 1 event last week, and even they are kept in total darkness on the Centurion invites.

tibook

Yeah it was funny to hear the other CS laugh about how they don't tell them anything about the Centurion. The specialist I ended up with sounded very serious about it.

emcnj

Sorry, should have clarified further:

What I meant in specific was that US high-end restaurants wouldn't be quick to adopt an android/apply pay, as from a geographical perspective, they intend on returning the check to the table for added gratuity. Whereas in EU, they will bring the terminals right to your table and have you pay without the expectation of gratuity. NOT that AMEX isn't accepted at high end restaurants in the US, but more commonly than high end restaurants in EU/APAC/LATAM

nyc2cal

We've discussed this before on this thread. There is definitely a process for Director level salespeople and above at AMEX, at least in the corporate card group (and I'm fairly certain, the OPEN card group), to get a Business Centurion for a client. It's all based on spend and spend potential. I know this from personal experience, and think the spending they want to see to avail themselves of this process is >= $5M/year. If the spend is high enough, they'll pop one immediately.

This invitation process occurs each month. That's why it's so comical to hear people report here that AMEX says "no invitations have happened for a year now", etc. That's either an outright lie, or they're referring to extending invitations themselves for the personal card, and perhaps the business card also, based on their internal invitation formula. That may not be totally about spend, but the way the business card salespeople can get you the Centurion is 100% about spend.

I also suspect you would have much greater success getting a Centurion card using this approach if you, as I did, bring them new spend rather than ask for one based on existing spend. They are compensated based on bringing new spend into the company, and I'm pretty sure there's a monthly quota on how many cards they can get issued for their business dev activities.

slay0r

Been spending big since 2013... I have Gold, Plat, Plum (all Business) I use it for high end stuff, ad spend, business expense etc. I've had multiple 3mil+ years with amex and never got any invites. I think you need 5-10mil+ spend in a year to even get an invite unless you're some kind of celeb/famous guy where it looks good for PR. (Some big youtubers/instagram personalities got black cards like this if im not mistaken)

At this point i don't even care anymore. I moved most of my CC spend to Citi & Chase and Amex keeps calling me asking how I can scale spends up with them again. They called me today offering a new service, where i can actually send ACH/Wires via AMEX so the wires I send out for invoices on business spend would count on my amex towards points. He said the program is in its infancy and not fully rolled out yet but that'd be something I'd be interested in, because I spend millions a year outside of amex as most of my b2b partners require me to pay via ACH or Wire and won't take Amex, so I put a lot of spend out there without getting much benefits on it. The rep said he will call me as soon as the program goes live, i'll keep everyone posted on that.

Good to see you guys still helping out the people here!