kennycrudup

Name your price for one of the plastic cards

(... I ask this half-seriously, if it's some token amount- but as you'd posted this nearly a week ago, and this is FT where the Cent is still highly valued I wouldn't be surprised if your PM inbox was already on fire)

GUWonder

There is a market of sort for Centurion card account holders to "sell"/"barter"/"trade" additional user Centurion cards at prices between $2500-$7500 (plus maybe an additional security deposit) with the charge limit to those additional Centurion user cards being capped by the account holder. But the market is very thin on the supply side.

Brian Chen

That's amazing ha, but ya, definitely a lot of trust and seems a lot of trouble

ptxl

No, not at all.

MT_Switch

Shouldn't the cards be made of metal, or are those cards invitation cards and not the actual charge card?

GrnLantern

I definitely understand that principle, but what does that have to do with a Centurion invite?

Honestly, I'm pretty sure the CEO has the authority to ask for that string to be pulled.

747FC

GrnLantern

Agreed.

aceman

cool, flip one my way then, purely for academic purposes of course

mysterym

Regarding country clubs, there are many legal implications in allowing someone outside of a true member access as a guest member or member. Real member owned/operated not-for-profit country clubs won't want randoms on their premises and using their facilities. Others should consider implications, i.e. ADA accessibility. Now there are privately owned for-profit country clubs where an individual, corporation, or family owns the club and wants to make a profit. I can see those types being interested if it means $$ for them.

747FC

I would dissent on part and confirm part. The majority of marginal country clubs, including not-for-profit ones-- are hurting for business. As such, limited access for daily fee is a model that is used to help support the club. Of course, members hate this, but directors try to strike a balance between inclusivity and paying the bills.

I can see a whole host of non-top-tier clubs welcoming Centurions to play their courses. Augusta--not.

mysterym

The clubs hopefully are aware when they start offering a daily fee they have to be compliant with a whole host of regulations including ADA. For most clubs, it would be extremely expensive to become compliant. Perhaps they are not contemplating the implication. I am speaking as someone who recently heard an attorney's opinion on this exact matter when a club was contemplating offering a daily fee for non-members.

contrariangeek

Hi everyone

New here and first post as a member but have been browsing FT for some time.

I thought I would share my experience (in case it helped others with some data points).

I originally had the PRG charge card (signed up Dec 17). In April this year I upgraded to the Platinum charge card. My usual spend is not much (about £1k per month with some months higher around £4k).
Over the last 3 months I have been putting more of my work expenses on the card and have spent ~£30k in the last 3 months (average around £9k-£10k per month).

Out of curiosity I emailed concierge asking if they could let me know of the requirements for Centurion. Their reply was:

"Thank you for your e-mail. In regards to upgrading to the Centurion card, unfortunately you are not able to simply upgrade to it. It is on an invite only basis and you must hit a certain spend on your card within a particular time frame in order to be eligible for the invite. Unfortunately, I do not have the exact figures available to me.

For more information, please make sure to call the card servicing department and they may be able to disclose more information."

So I called card services at the start of this week and the person put me on hold and spoke to the Centurion department. He came back and repeated the above but said that they were allowed to fill in a form to 'recommend' members to the Centurion team and that if I was successful that I would receive a phone call within 5 working days.
He said that from what he saw, and from previous experience, he thought my account was in good standing to be considered and that my account had been marked as "high value account". Although I think this may have just been lip service.

Anyway, I haven't received a call from the Centurion team (although it's not been the 5 working days yet). I realise I hardly spend anything compared to other AmEx members and never thought I would be eligible for Centurion anyway, but wanted to try my luck.

Cheers!

Sohan

I wish you luck, but don't think it would be fruitful. I put 7 figures annually on mine consistently and have not gotten an invite although I have a gold card and not platinum so not sure how much that is impacting there.

fourstardust

I received an invite via post 2 weeks ago, my spend is nowhere near to the amounts which have been quoted here so I was extremely surprised. I spoke with the Centurion team, accepted the invitation and am now awaiting the arrival of the card which I am told takes around 4 weeks