BLV

Funny thing is, Cent would NEVER be able to get their members an allocation for a PP or AP or even a sh*tty Rolex. Nor would any authorized dealer care if you flashed your Cent in the store. Cent can’t even get you a silly restaurant resie last minute. Can’t wait for you to run into some realities and run back here to complain about them, though.

exigence

After much back-and-forth, I'm again looking at shifting spend to chiefly Amex.

Have a JPM Reserve and Amex Plat. Had cancelled my Amex Gold. Wanted to simplify and just put most things on the JPMR which I enjoy having as a high-end card.

It increasingly annoys me, though, to leave points on the table (i.e., Amex Gold and 4x on restaurants/groceries), and, pertinent to this thread, I would also like to optimize chances of getting a Centurion invite.

For Personal Centurion cards, is there any reason whatsoever I should be consolidating spend only onto the Platinum and giving up the points opportunity cost as opposed to splitting spend between the Platinum and a new Gold to optimize spend/point categories? Looks like the FT prevailing wisdom is that all accounts of the same type (e.g., all personal cards) are considered when extending a Centurion invite of the same type, as best as anyone can tell.

immaculate

I split my personal cent qualifying spend across all of my personal products based on direct guidance from Amex when I inquired about the centurion a few years back. I used my platinums as catchall, gold for all dining/groceries, bonvoy for all marriott stays.

Nugget

Luxury watches are the universe's way of encouraging the redistribution of wealth

jcain

Would be interested to know how someone could do $500K/yr Amex spend on $500K/yr (I assume gross?) income. I thought Amex hated manufactured spend!

The answer is almost certainly "less accurate than a Casio F-91W, which is currently available for $18 on Amazon." I like mechanical watches myself but don't buy them for accuracy.

darrvao777

One of many inconsistencies in his story

I make more than that listed income, my spend unfortunately isn't anywhere close to $500K/year

david82

Sorry if this has been covered, but -

Anyone know if it's possible to book a FHR property online while getting the full Centurion benefits? Or do you have to call in and book over the phone?

Thanks

newmanium

Not sure when, but it appears that the page to request consideration has now been removed from Amex's website.

I'm at spend of 375k in 2022 and 304k so far in 2023 - apparently this isn't jack squat for the Amex gods. Ironic thing about the Centurion is that the sweet spot for its value is probably before you actually qualify. Once I'm at 750k/year of spend, the perks become insignificant if every flight is a paid J, hospitality tickets are used for sports, etc, we're not quite there yet but getting close.

Fangflyer

Have patience and consistency! I was in the same boat a few years ago, but I don't think there is an automatic trigger on the basis of cumulative spend in the middle of a calendar year, otherwise those who spend 1M in a moment with no consistency would be getting these cards immediately after paying off the bill. YMMV but it did take three consistent years on my end and a bunch of other stuff for a NYC based card. Good luck!

JMo74

I've always done FHR online but I've never been impressed with the benefits over Platinum. Maybe I'm missing out by not doing it over the phone.

vtasv

With the new Delta Medallion changes, I am ready to give up on Amex. I have already spent $375k with Amex this year, broke $400k last year, and broke $300k the year before. Still no invite to Centurion...

Polytonic

Technically, the Delta changes help you (if you qualify for a Centurion). If the changes really do result in significantly fewer PMs/DMs, the complimentary PM status from the Centurion card becomes much more valuable.

SteveT

Was the spend all on a personal Amex?

newmanium

Well with the Delta Reserve, you can now get PM with 180k of spend each year and DM with 350k (no flying required), so kind of makes the Centurion redundant on that perk. They really should give DM to the Centurion, or at least consider it a “earned” PM.

I was just looking this over today and also agree that the whole thing seems kind of worthless. We mainly do paid business to Europe so I was wanting the global transfer upgrades, but since they require you to be in Premium Economy already, the value looks to be $500-1000 each certificate at best. As I was saying before, by the time they give people these Centurion perks we start to be at the point where they’re too late for it to really matter.. too bad there’s not much competition for another high end CC.

DMSFCA

These threads are so funny. I've been one of the charter personal Centurion holders since 1998 or 1999, back when the AF was $1000 and the AU was $500, and we received that letter from the president saying our AF would never go up (cough-cough...).

I've probably swiped my card literally tens of thousands of times, and it's only been recognized as the mythical "black card" maybe a dozen times, and even then, I can't think of it happening for years now.

I'm not sure where all the hype comes from. The women don't swoon, and the chef doesn't come from the kitchen with special dishes for us to try. My card doesn't even come out of my wallet until the end of the meal, so I'm not sure how it would pave the way when I walk through the door, and I can't imagine flashing it when I walk in, how embarrassing.

Are there really people who flash it in the velvet rope line at clubs? Good god.

I did have someone look at it and say that the personal Centurion is a lot more prestigious than the business one. I suppose many businesses can rack up enough spending to qualify, but the personal one requires more personal net worth. I'm not sure if that's true.

Someone had posted a link to that internal Amex marketing document that showed the average net worth of the Centurion holders. It was something like $11MM net worth and $1MM annual income. I don't think those numbers are too outlandish but in California we tend to have a warped view of reality.