RedSun

That will be great. But I do not expect the total base has expanded much from the 20,000 on personal cards. There are LOTS more AmEx Platinum cardholders than the Centurion cardholders.

RedSun

Sure he can. He can call each hotel to ask what kind of soda they serve? How about coffee, tea, and water? This is very childish.

This guy most likely does not carry Centurion card. AmEx just does not care about this minute details.

LondonElite

Here you go...

https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/31905946-post383.html

stimpy

Whatever the number is, the personal card seems to be very rare. Outside of this forum, I only know one person who has one. And I think it has been about three years since I've seen with my own eyes someone buy something with the card. And that was in the BA lounge at ORD. The lounge agent announced a promo for first class upgrades. Me and another guy both pulled out our black cards at the same time and had a good laugh about it.

RedSun

The old card number was 20k in US and 84k globally (64k outside US). If your number of 86k outside US now, then the US base is still about 27k. I personally believe the US base has been stagnant now. There has been the rapid rise of Asian card holders. Asians have far insatiable appetite for luxury goods. There are probably more Asian Centurion cardholders than US cardholder base. Just my guess.

Again, the base is still limited. There are LOTS more Platinum cardholders than the Centurion cardholders.

LondonElite

That is not disputed, and I've just checked again, the numbers for 2020 ex-US are pretty much unchanged. About 44,000 in EMEA.

RedSun

My sons says his high school friend carried a Centurion card. They had party at his house and they had underage drinking of beer. Then that kid was shut down by his father for driving his car (Porche or Ferarri) without his permission. And this kid got in trouble with the college admission. My son carried his sub cards from my AmEx Platinum, Chase CSR and hard metal Ritz cards. Not as fancy as the Centurion, but he is happy. As now a wall street banker, he says he wants to get his own Centurion card. My other son works for AmEx and we both make a laugh at him to see if is really worth anything to get the card.

Clearly Centurion card has its symbolic value.

LondonElite

One of my daughters is an AU on my account and has the card in Apple Pay. It shows up black, unfortunately, and she is a little embarrassed about questions she gets, so we got her a Green Card (physical) to avoid these.

Visconti

While most view ostentatious bling a regrettable trait, in WS it's a bonus and part of the culture. You deal with the majority of clients for whom money is virtually everything and a pursuit in of itself. While this seems silly, all things being equal some clients would use the black card as a tie breaker, just so they can boast to their friends, "well, my guy took me here and paid with his black card." He must be on the up and up, and you'd want to be part of the ride, etc... Conversely, let's say your clients notice that instead of using the black but the green to pay for dinner, they may think if your star is on the decline, and it may be time to jump off.

We're talking about a world whose top echelon is comprised of people who aren't impressed unless you wear a Lange tourbillion, and Rolexes (a fabulous watch in its own right) are viewed as plebian, and the run of the mill leather band Patek is merely "adequate."

RedSun

Clearly he has mind on 7 figure income and it is practically possible within the firm with partners, MDs making more than just that. If people have the means to support that, sure they can enjoy the glory. I have friends who are successful Wall Street traders. They will be happy to pocket millions of bonus the firm handed to them, not knowing when their trading books will blow up. And they enjoy whatever their young careers bring them. Centurion card can be one of them if they care.

There are also many newly minted multi millionaires who made their fortune from the tech IPOs and tech stock trading. They are far more richer than those traditional business owner AmEx originally targeted. The crazy rich Asians go even far beyond with their insurance, tech, real estate empires.

Visconti

Congrats to your son. Even now, a position that he has and earned isn't easy, incredibly rare and the barriers to entry are enormous. I suspect, as he well knows, the industry has so many players that it's often very difficult to differentiate the real players (dime a dozen on the hedgefund highway) from those pikers who couldn't even a sniff meaningful work in a real shop. Bling is one of those practical and effective ways to determine who are the real players; and, while there are many little things, the Amex Black card is just one of many. As they say, time is money, and you don't want to waste it on pretenders--better just to cut to the chase.

Trading is a zero-sum game, and the ultimate meritocracy. The key is to have a niche where one's trading contributions create positive alpha for a Firm's prop account not only because it bolsters the bottom line, but it also simultaneously detracts by a similar amount from your competitors. In world where we have increasingly complex & opaque financial instruments virtually impossible to value properly, Firms will often over pay and over bid for the services of good prop traders, if only to keep them from their peers and competition.

This has been a business where sometimes it just rains money. Right now, it's pouring.

747FC

I don't think you appreciate how seriously some companies take loyalty to their product. Another example: A relative of mine who was an executive with Honda said no one would ever think of parking a non-Honda in the parking lot.

RedSun

That is totally different because everyone can see the cars in the parking lot.

But if the Coco Cola executive goes to dinner with friends and clients and explicitly refuses any Pepsi products, what other people thinks about him? Loyalty or idiot?

Chase's Jamie Dimon is not ashamed to carry AmEx Centurion card. I do not think those things are huge deals and forbidden.

The same thing a Sunway executive would never take family to go to Quiznos, Wendy's and Burger King ?

Jay66

Quote:

Originally Posted by LondonElite

One of my daughters is an AU on my account and has the card in Apple Pay. It shows up black, unfortunately, and she is a little embarrassed about questions she gets, so we got her a Green Card (physical) to avoid these.

Really? Does she have the platinum version and it still shows up black?

LondonElite

No, she is an AU on my Centurion account, which shows up black in Apple Pay.