troyb

Has anyone had any luck securing reservations at El Bulli using the Centurion Concierge? My parents were trying to book for sometime in early/mid July 2009 and submitted a request through Centurion a couple months ago. They just received word that "they only accept reservation requests through email and now everything is booked" - or something along those lines. To me this sounds like Centurion dropped the ball (nothing new here), but shouldn't they know to request via email?

Is there any resolution possible? I would hope that they might have some sort of connection to the restaurant - even being put on a waiting list would help and they are also reasonably flexible since they have not firmed up travel plans yet.

One more thing - is El Bulli even worth all the hassle in terms of reservation and travel difficulties?

sbm12

AmEx has no special pull there because they don't need AmEx to bring them business.

Check out this post about getting a reservation there. It gives a pretty good explanation of the process and your chances. They aren't good.

And this follow-up post about the meal suggests that it is worth it.

Also, a quick search for bulli here shows a few threads that may be of interest, including this one.

Raffles

Also, as El Bulli is a fixed-price menu (and, as gleff says, you're unlikely to order much if any alcohol with your meal because of the way it is served) there is absolutely no benefit to the restaurant in getting in theoretically higher spending Cent cardholders anyway.

The only reason Amex has any pull with restaurants is that someone, somewhere, worked out the Plat and Cent cardholders are likely to spend more on booze than other customers, and of course the booze is where all the profit is.

troyb

Thanks for the links. I actually just went through gleff's report to read about his El Bulli experience, I was just hoping Centurion would be able to offer even the slimmest advantage. Guess not.

I'm going to try to get them on the waitlist or something and just hope a table opens up between now and July, but I'll tell them not to get their hopes up.

The Viking

There is definetely no waiting list (Officially that is) at elbulli. The restaurant seats 7000 people/season, and receives approx. 1,000,000 requests each year for these coveted seats (Although some of them are probably repeat requests it is still a staggering number).
Approx. 40% are allocated for new guests, 40% repeaters and the remaining 20% are hand-picked. No Concierge service will get you into the latter group, and excisting Centurion/Plat members with a wish to dine there would fill the restaurant easily any day.
I've been fortunate to lunch/dine there 5 times over the years, and going back in -09. Your best bet securing a table is
A: Pop the mail the minute reservations open mic-October for the next season. Just write that any day will do fine. A party larger than 6 will be frowned upon these days.
B: If A doesn't succeed and you're in the area phone them up 10 and 7 days before your intended meal; these are their cutoff deadlines for reservations.

Good luck, you'll need it..

LiveFromNY

It can be done through Centurion. They secured a reservation for me several months ago with about 10 days notice. I am a heavy Centurion user on my personal account (Average $250k monthly).

gleff

Send your email the afternoon of the second Sunday in October (U.S.) so that it's arriving the morning prior to open Spanish local time.

Be flexible.

If you have a decent story about why you want to go, why it would be special, and that you'll fly across the pond on whatever day they give you, that can't hurt.

Then wait. The longer it takes to hear back the better, assume at least a month or more.

That's how I got my reservation, anyway.