fredsxb

I flew last week with my wife and daughter SXB-CDG-MIA-NAS.

Upon our arrival in NAS, our bags weren't there. I called the French CTS to inquire about the delayed luggage insurance and was told that we were covered for emergency purchases up to 500 euros/person (hence 1500 euros for the 3 of us) if our bags were more than 4 hours late.

We made our purchases based on this statement for a total of about 1250 US$ (Approx 1000 euros). I, however, called the next day to inquire about how to process my insurance claim and was told that we were covered up to 450 euros in total and not per person if our bags were more than 6 hours late (not 4). (Our bags ended up being 19 hours late)

I got very upset as I had called the day before and acted upon what I was told. They, then put me through different people to end up with their insurance department that told me, after I argued a bit, that the coverage was 450 euros/person for a delay longer than 6 hours.

This will cover our expenses in the end but I truely believe it is unprofessional of them not to be able to get a simple thing straight in the first place. I also wondered what would have happened if I had not insisted. I doubt they would have corrected this on their own.

Moreover, I haven't been reimbursed yet and I am expected to go through the same kind of nonsense once my file is processed.

Have any of you had troubles with any of the Centurion/Platinum insurances?

yep

For German Plats it is EUR 400 (approx $500) per person after 4 hours and an additional EUR 400 per person after 48 hours. I used that once a year ago after arriving without bags in Las Vegas and had no problems covering around EUR 700 for the first day . Unfortunately my bags arrived after 28 hours ...

Terms and Conditions for french cards seems to have a difference:
Incidents de voyages: Remboursement de vos frais de bouche et de logement à hauteur de 200€ par personne lors d’un retard d’avion, d’un départ manqué ou d’un manquement de correspondance. Prise en charge à hauteur de 800€ des achats de 1ere nécessité en cas de retard de bagages.

yep

Junkplat

In my own experience, the French Plat CS don't know sh*t about insurance.

The Insurance dept. is ont much better, though.

This confirms that Centurion is really not worth anything more than status...

fredsxb

Which means the Platinum card has a better insurance than the Centurion one...

pterostyrax

If you travel very much, and we do, the Centurion benefits are well worth the price of admission. For example, we are spending four nights at the Windsor Court in New Orleans starting this Friday. We were upgraded to a full suite at the time of booking, will get a free lunch and dinner once during our stay, breakfast for two every day, and our fourth night is free. The cost of breakfast each day, lunch and dinner once during our stay, and the free night amounts to a savings of $690. We also took advantage of the free night last month as well and plan on doing it again in October, so the total savings on three trips to New Orleans is $2070. We have also been on four Silversea cruises so far this year to the tune of $2000 in onboard ship credits plus four bottles of 1996 Dom Perignon at around $160/bottle. Throw in upgrades to suites and club level with free drinks and hors d'ouerves, free breakfast, free lunches and/or dinners, 2 nights for the cost of one at Mandarin Oriental in Singapore, Hong Kong, and San Francisco, amenities and room upgrades at the Fairmont Olympic in Seattle, Grand Bretagne in Athens, Hotel de Paris in Monte Carlo, Plaza Athenee in Paris, Hotel Arts (club level) in Barcelona, and the Observatory in Sydney plus additional perks when flying (including airline status and access to lounges everywhere), and we have easily saved $15,000 this year, and done it in a much nicer style. In the upcoming years, the savings will be even more as I just retired this last Monday and we plan on traveling a lot more.

I am well aware that platinum gets you some of these benefits (but not all), but the savings for the included platinum benefits are the same regardless of whether or not you have a platinum or Centurion, the Centurion just gets you more.

For us, the Centurion is a no-brainer. If you don't travel like we do, then it is probably not worth it.

Junkplat

Sorry, I correct my post:

This confirms that EUROPEAN Centurion is really not worth anything more than status...



EDIT: And sorry, I add something more:

I don't care about a card paying for itself. I don't mind paying a fee.

I carry the card for insurance / assistance, which are priceless -if they actually deliver what they advertise (card replacement, emergency services, etc.).

As for the "card paying for itself" part, I have never been offered a competitive deal by AMEX on any hotel, airfare, car rental, other service (restaurant reservation -what a joke), that I could not either match or better.

Again, my comment only concerns Europe...

EDIT #2: Sorry, my whole post is way off topic...

Winetemplar

Why would anyone carry the card for insurance / assistance? You're likely to have an assistance card for true emergencies from your private insurance provider. You're likely to have a boatload of other emergency numbers from your car/plane/boat manufacturer...in addition, your non-life insurance provider's hotlines etc. etc. all scrambling for your business.
Ok, my wife does love the Centurion for status, real and perceived. Most Centurion card holders probably don't care about insurance status anyway be they Europeans, Americans, Asians.... Might be a plus but who cares? Oh wait, how can I possibly comment about Europeans as a whole? I can only add my experiences and they have been more than positive.