stimpy

If you have Saks issues and are able to stop by the 5th avenue store, I recommend going up to the 5th avenue club and asking for a manager. I had an issue and the gentleman took great care of me. He noted that "we love our Centurion customers".

Sometimes you have to escalate past the front line staff. Especially these days as there are so many new people on the front lines.

Howard Long

UK Centurion here (one of the "charter members" from the 1990s no less!).

My Prada bracelet thing arrived today.

Bearing in mind these have been around for a few months already to US cardmembers, and possibly elsewhere, does anyone actually use it long term, or is it just a gimmick?

It seems to me to be just another thing for me to try to remember to put on in the morning, and for those with a smart watch (I'm not), what value does it add over that?

Oh, and it's quite a tight fit.

BeantownFlyer

Gimmick. And you are exactly right - you can use your phone or watch to pay already so why is this a good idea…

ironmanjt

You're lucky. At 6'4 with a non-skinny build it's a good inch too short for me to even get it on. Useless.

MiaNY

Hello all, I'm curious as to how many of you maintain multiple AX cards and use them for different purposes. My rep told me that she has a lot of clients who do this and initially my reaction was 'who has time for that?' But I've since come to think that it's ridiculous that I only get 1x points with the Centurion when I can get 3x points for groceries and any travel (including trains, ferries, etc.) using green, and 4x on dining (including takeout) globally using gold, So I decided to add a new gold to the mix, put it in my Apple Wallet, and pick and choose a little as to which card I use. The AX rep said that she can use the green card when booking flights, etc., even if its done through the Centurion desk, and I'm changing the default card on various airline sites to green - it's not huge, but between having multiple Uber benefits and the extra points it should more than pay the fees for the cheaper cards.

BeantownFlyer

My reaction to AMEX providing inferior benefits on centurion has been to give that business to their competitors. I have told them this in surveys, to my relationship manager etc and as far as I can tell they couldn’t care less - even though my charge volume went from $300k-$500k to around $100k.

MiaNY

I would much rather consolidate, but agree that it's super annoying. I've had the Centurion since it was issued in Canada, more recently in the US, but I'm pretty sure the reward benefits in Canada were initially better than the other cards - doesn't make sense to me that the entry level cards would have better points benefits.

But I'm trying to use up points with Chase, Citi, RBC and others so rather than keep spreading them around I decided to try getting a few extra AXs and see if it's easier to consolidate them in one place. The rep was basically recommending it, which is also a bit odd. I will continue to reinforce your comments though, i completely agree.

sdix

I did the card expansion several years ago to capture every possible point but it just became too tiring.

I gave up my inferior Centurion for a Personal Plat and a Business Plat, I also have the Amex Hilton.

I'll be getting rid of the Plats when they come up for renewal but will keep Hilton for the Diamond status and free nights.

With gas prices skyrocketing I started using Discover for the 5% cash back. This moves to supermarkets July 1 so will shift supermarket spend to Discover.

For day to day spend I'm building miles on my AA Citi Card.

For me it's just confusing and sometimes a waste of time chasing many different point schemes. I'd rather get as many in one bucket as possible.

MiaNY

What I don't understand is why would you want to even create an impression that you are treating some of your best clients in a manner inferior to your newest and arguably least valuable.

For most of us it's probably not even the points that matter, it's the optics of having better benefits provided to the lower tier much less expensive cards. It feels like we're getting ripped off. I knew that the business Cent got 50% points back on redemption for airfare and the personal Cent only 20%, but I didn't know until doing some research today that Plat gets 35% - ... is that all about??

mia

Are you surprised? American Express is a mass market company. No individual customer is important. It appears that American Express has a low acquisition cost for new Centurion cardholders, it may even be negative cost due to the initiation fee. There is no economic incentive for American Express to bundle higher rewards with this card. The reps are, of course, happy to sell Platinum, Gold, Green and co-branded accounts to those who are rewards-sensitive, but many are not.

If you conclude that the optics of Centurion exclusivity is outweighed by the inferior rewards, there is only one remedy. Cancel all of your American Express accounts, and take your business elsewhere.

MiaNY

I don't recall "concluding" anything, I was politely soliciting views, and considering various different options, but seems like you have only a one-size fits all response, similar to AX
I also don't recall mentioning "exclusivity" as a benefit, but if that's your thing, do you.

DMSFCA

So with my Centurion card, I can order up three platinum cards for something reasonable - $175? I do this for family members. Does spend on those cards get the Platinum accumulation rate or because they all hang off my Cent card they just follow the Cent point accumulation rate?

It all seems like kind of a pain to do, and I agree, why doesn't their "ultra" card have all the best point earning options? 4x on dining is pretty compelling. I do a lot of business dining, which would add up.

I've been shifting a lot of my spend onto my Chase card. I'm not super informed like many of you to know which card is most optimal, but I know the Chase CSR card is a better multiplier.

Between Covid and moving spend away, my annual Amex spend has cratered. They might be wondering if I'm still alive. There are (still, barely) enough benefits worthwhile to me to keep paying for 2x Centurion personal cards, but I'd happily go back to putting all my spend on them if they would toss us a bone.

bubu-SNA

My centurion spend went from 7 figures to sub 4 figures years ago when the benefits started to get eroded while other Amex products were increasing their reward structure. The RM could care less and disappeared, not that they were doing much for me. Today the Centurion is only used to buy expensive electronics where I think I'll need the extended warranty. I've shopped my spend to where I maximize the rewards and carry a fruit salad of AMEX cards as a result, and yes it is tiring to keep track off for sure.

The customer service is atrocious. The Centurion agents are no longer empowered to fix problems with other AMEX products, yet all the calls get routed to them when I call in. The follow-up is inconsistent at best. This is probably my last year as a Centurion.

BeantownFlyer

Supplemental platinum cards on a centurion account only get the centurion earnings rate. In addition there are numerous other platinum card benefits that you will discover the supplemental cards don’t enjoy.

DMSFCA

Argh. Thank you.