Roger

Now £159 p.a., which is a 60% increase year-on-year!

Leumas

Currently, the Platinum card is the highest level Amex card in NZ. (Invitation only.)

Cost
NZD$1250 pa

Supp Card
Free additional card for the main cardholder
4 free additional Plat cards (must be 18+)

Lounge Access
None

Loyalty Programmes
Hertz #1 Gold
Avis Platinum Preferred
St James' Club, London UK
Fine Hotels & Resorts and Cruise Privileges, the Platinum Hotel Program
Amex Wine Cellar

MR Scheme
Included in membership fee
Always the top scheme available in NZ (currently NZD$1= 2 pts, plus bonus partners)

Others
Roadside assist
Home assist
Free travel insurance for all cardholders (very similar to other countries)
Free NZD$5000 line of credit to start

Restaurant List
They claim they can do it for overseas too, but this is the NZ list.
Auckland
- Cibo
- Cin Cin on Quay
- Essence
- Harbourside
- Otto's
- Sails
- Saints Waterfront Brasserie
- Soul Bar & Bistro
- The French Cafe
- Toto
- Vinnies
- White

Wellington
- Boulcott Street Bistro
- Brasserie Flipp
- Logan Brown
- The White House

Christchurch
- Canterbury Tales
- Pescatore

Queenstown
- Boardwalk Seafood Restaurant
- The 19th

Arrowtown
- Saffron

nimeta

I am curious as to whether the UK users feel it is worth the 650 GBP. I have the Platinum for 275GBP which I can justify as I get 6 family members on annual travel policies. I have not been offered Centurion as my spend is only 5000 GBP per month but if I was offered it I am not sure I could justify the extra cost.

Any opinions?

jchand

I think it is good Value of you Travel.


The room upgrades and offers alone that I get via SPG PLat Status more than cover the £650. ( That is forgeting the value of other benifits).

If we lost SPG plat ( Unless it was replaced) I think I would Bin Centurion.

RichardMannion

If you do a search on this subject, I think you will find multiple threads with it broken down. I know I have provided comprehesive threads on value breakdown in the past.

Thanks,
Richard

PG

Could someone post or provide link to the benefits for US cardholders. Thanks.

byoni

If you travel in the States or Canada, the Uk Centurion has better insurance than the Platinum card. For one, it includes hire car insurance. I worked it out a few years back, but I hire a car for about 4 weeks a year there, and the saving on the cdw etc alone covers the annual fee.

The extra priority pass is also good for flights, and the starwood upgrades are nice as for most of the hotels we have stayed at.

You also get little odd bits in the magazine (or maybe used to, not seen any recently). The last one I can remember was the Audi A8 for the weekend test drive. Took it up to scotland to the Westin Turnberry and got a fantastic upgraded suite.

jchand

Having not read the small print I was not awarre of the. So when you hire a car in the US you need not take out insurance ?? This indeed would be a big saving.

byoni

Yes, just to check ive just called customer services and they told me the insurance covers all the rental car insurance, and I should decline everything, in the words of the lady I spoke to 'dont let them sell you any additional cover, you do not need it.'

The second centurion cardholder is also covered when travelling independantly, and any travelling companions are covered to drive as long as they are named on the rental agreement.

In the 10/2003 terms and conditions, its all detailed in section 1.5.

mbreuer

Most gold and platinum cards - Amex, M/C, VISA, etc. all offer this in the US for any car where the rental is paid-for with that card as long as the driver is authorized by the rental company.

pauldb

Maybe in the US, but it's very rare in the UK.

byoni, I was thinking of getting a UK Plat card partly as it including NA car insurance by my understanding. Are you implying that only the Centurion car has full cover?

The T&Cs for the Plat card are here:
http://home3.americanexpress.com/uk/...Conditions.pdf

These T&Cs call the car insurance "North American Car Rental - Top-Up Liability", and it is top-up in the sense that "It is a condition of this benefit that cover will only apply in excess of the Rental Company’s own legally
required underlying insurance." Is this a lower depth of cover than the Cent card?

Thanks,
Paul

P.S. One of the exclusions is "The rental of vehicles with a retail purchase
price in excess of USD $50,000 (or local currency equivalent) or vehicles which are over 20 years old or are of a type which have not been manufactured for 10 years or more. The onus is on the Insured Person (prior to the rental) to check with AXAAssistance (the appointed Assistance Company) that the vehicle is covered by this Insurance." Does the bit in bold suggest that I'm not covered if I hire a Ford Focus???

PHL

Club Acela (in BOS, NYC, PHL, WAS) available to:
-Amtrak First class and Sleeper class customers.
-Continental President's Club members with a valid CO ticket for that day's travel
-Acela Guest Rewards Select members with high yearly earning (exact amount rumored to be greater than 7000-10000 points per membership year)

AMEX Platinum/Cent. access was cancelled earlier this year.

bmifly

I've been a bit confused about the UK Platinum car hire insurance cover when hiring a car in the US. From the T&Cs should I decline ALL insurance when hiring a car in the US. Is there compulsory insurance I have to get from the hire company?

Many thanks for any advice.

bmifly

byoni

I would call customer services to see what they say.

The very old insurance book actually had both Plat and Centurion terms in the same book, so you could see then that Uk Plat was lower than UKCenturion, but that may have changed, and my book only covers Centurion benefits.

The centurion book does specifically say LDW, CDW etc, not just top up. It covers about 4 pages on just car rental, as I understood it when I swapped to centurion a couple of years ago, the uk platinum card did not cover you, but centurion does.

It would be good to hear what customer services have to say to a plat card holder so we can compare that with centurion.

Ill dig out the book at outline the summary of cover, that may allow you to compare what plat get in comparison.

colonius

For German centurion cards, which are actually issued by Amex UK, coverage is up to 75,000 Euro (approx. $100,000) for LDW and up to 1,000,000 Euro (approx. $1,300,000) for liability. There is a 500 Euro deductible and in case of LDW the rules state that you must not accept the rental car company's LDW coverage.

Amex coverage is secondary to any insured amounts covered and actually paid by the rental car company and will top up to maximum amounts mentioned above. For example: Germany mandates 2,500,000 Euro minimum liability insurance to be provided by the rental car company. Amex liability coverage: zero. Canada mandates approx. 600,000 Euro minimum coverage, so Amex will provide another 400,000 up to the total of 1,000,000 Euro. In California, no liability is covered by the rental car company, so Amex will cover the whole 1 million Euro.

All insurances (for German Centurion card) cover any and all additional cards under the same account (2 black cards for the main card holder, 1 additonal black card, 4 green/gold/platinum cards). The colour of the additional cards does NOT matter. Also, you can register additional, German Amex cards (only card numbers beginning with 3750) issued to the main card holder to receive the same benefits. So you could have an additional blue card with centurion insurances.

Rules for Platinum used to be the same, but with lower amounts.

Another insurance benefit I like and have used several times is Road Side Assistance (towing etc.). Not only does it save the membership dues for the automobile club, but they are actually a lot faster than the clubs, since they work with ALL clubs and additional independent contractors.