Gig103

Centurion members haven't exactly been vocally opposed to their lack of benefits at the $2500 level. Your dream card is more likely to become the $5000 AF, invite only, card. Because how do they bump up the perks compared to your laundry list?

BTW the idea of an "airport lounge membership" credit is pretty intriguing. I fly DL, in part because of my Skyclub access to be honest, but it's clever. It probably costs Amex less than $550 though due to their DL relationship.

GUWonder

Amex seems sort of sick of paying more than it wanted for Amex Plat customers’ lounge program benefit use. Amex cut back with Priority Pass in a way and it did it for a reason. Amex cut back on lounge use at its own lounges. Giving real money to its customers to buy lounge access would make sense for Amex as a way for Amex to cap its lounge use expenses; but enough lounge credit money for its customers to buy an annual airline lounge membership? Not going to happen unless the fee increase is high enough to eat more than that whole cost .... all on the assumption the lounge credit money will be used in full by just about all cardholders with such a benefit.

m.photog

They can keep the Uber credits and toss in Hh Diamond to go along the Marriott Plat and they would have my interest. A few dollars per month in Uber credits is meaningless, I am interested in the convenience of meaningful status levels that I don't need to think to much about.

With the relationship AMEX has with DL I doubt you would see them stray into the AA and UA clubs which is fine with me. DL Gold as a starting point to upgrade from and I'm in.

Gig103

Agreed, except this is about a super-premium card, not what they would do with existing Platinums. Reimbursing a United 1K for the club might pull $20k in PQP spending away from Chase.

GTITAN

^That would be amazing! Hard to see that in the 1500 to 2000, category. However, I'd be so n on it if it were.

Safe Travels

Travelchurner

Not plausible.

LondonElite

We're getting off topic and I don't want to pick a fight with you, but believe me, several Centurion holder friends are neither in the top 1%, nor wealthy by any sensible measure. They are comfortable in the sense that they don't worry about the next meal, but they need to make sure they have enough money at the end of the month to pay the mortgage (on their nice but not spectacular house.)

Another data point just occurs to me. About 12 years ago I hired an associate-level person in our firm. He offered to pay for our drinks in Stockholm one night and paid with his Centurion card. I jokingly told him that I didn't think it was right that his father pays for our cocktails, to which he replied 'no, it's my card. They sent me an invite last year and I took them up on it.' At that time I had just received my second invitation for it so we talked about what it actually did for him. I can't remember much more of that evening as we had a few more cocktails.

747FC

The aspirations for this possible new card remind me of the wildly optimistic aspirations for the JPMR:

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/chas...palladium.html

Gasolin

That's 12 years ago but maybe the spend requirements are less critical in Europe? Or were you on a business trip but were based in a US office?
I don't think I would ever get an invite, and yeah, I am kind of skeptical of paying $5,000 or $10,000 post tax on credit card fees when I am in the range of income that was mentioned above in this thread.

synzero

Everything I have read suggests the Centurion card is far easier to get in Europe than here.

Jay66

100% true

hhdl

I think such a new card will be like a combination of Plat/Brilliant/Aspire with a touch of Green, with the credits structured to increase breakage.

$1650 AF (3x Plat, 1/3 Centurion... Makes geometric sense)
Same Uber credit as Platinum
6x on travel (amextravel and direct with airlines)
3x on transit/taxis/rideshare
2x on Hilton/Marriott direct
Bonus 1x on Delta
$100 quarterly airline fee credit
$50 quarterly Saks credit
$100 CLEAR credit
FHR benefit
Lounge access with guests (lower cards lose guest access)
$75 quarterly Starriott credit
Bonvoy Gold (Titanium after $25k)
$100 Ritz/St. Regis credit
Hilton Diamond
$125/6 months Hilton resort credit
$100 Waldorf/Conrad credit
Ability to redeem 10k MR for 1k Delta MQDs

Maybe "Platinum Preferred"?

Doubtful that Brilliant or Aspire holders would move to this (the hotel benefits are a bit watered down). Might complement the DL Reserve (MQMs from Reserve, MQDs by MR). Definitely beats Plat+Reserve+Aspire+Brilliant, but you'd still want a restaurant card.

LondonElite

Perhaps lower spend requirements. I know that Amex doesn’t know anything about my income or assets.

llngoc

Since Centurion card is mainly a lifestyle/status card, I don't think its targeted market cares much about accruing points and miles since most of them probably have access to private jets anyway. :-) It is interesting to see how Amex will position this rumored product. If it is wedged between the Black and Platinum, it may lose its luster as a status card if it only has Centurion level benefits (which I believed did not have any advantage over platinum for MR points) not sure how it can attract most of us points-n-miles collectors.





I am sure Amex has a very good marketing department but it seems like this is hard product to slot in. But I can be wrong.

llngoc

I wonder the same too. When I was in Hong Kong Centurion lounge, I noticed that there are many people with Black card who were accessing the black card section of the lounge. I am aware that HK has a lot of high earners but somehow it gave me an impression that the Black Card requirement differs from country to country.

BTW, AMEX must have been pushing the Platinum card really hard in Asia too, the Centurion lounge was completely packed.