American Express Centurion- black card

[seatrout]

Does any tugger have one of these card??

Does anyone know iff the airline upgrade to firstclass for owner of this card apply to the entire immediate family member or only to the card holder and one companion.

Also what would we have to do to get invited to get a card

 

[Icarus]

You have to be in something like the top 1% of spenders to get the invite. It's very exclusive and very expensive.

There's a lot of discussion on this card on flyertalk's Amex forum. That would be your best bet to research your questions.

-David

 

[Enrico]

AMEX black card is a mysterious entity. Hard to get info regarding it....like they say, "if you have to ask....". Rumored minimum spending threshold is $1,000,000 per year.

 

[seatrout]

my employee has one from her husband jobs. They make less than 6figure.

I was told that you just get a platnium card and charge around 150K a year. After that you can charge less. Thus you can buy a large home improvement with the card, pay cash after

 

[Dave M]

The current minimum to obtain a Centurion card is $250,000 (up from $150,000) of spending per year. You must have had an AmEx card for at least a year and have charged at least $250,000 to AmEx in a 12-month period. If you cross that threshold with your AmEx card, you can call and ask for a switch to a Centurion card. They will do it, which also means an increase in annual fee to $2,500!

You can be invited to get the card by meeting other unpublished criteria, such as maintaining a large balance in an American Express Private Bank account.

Getting airline upgrades under the program is far from a sure thing. Generally, you are given elite status (not at the highest level) with several airlines (CO, DL and US), thus becoming eligible for possible upgrades under those programs.

As seatrout states, once you have the card, you don't need to continue meeting the eligibility criteria (such as spending $250K) to keep the card.

 

[Enrico]

Interesting. The $2,500 annual fee is what probably makes the card such a rarity!!!!!

 

[seatrout]

Thanks Dave

The employee that I have doesn't know how she got the card and really don't take advantage of it so she does not know the rule. Her husband always get the first class upgrade but they rarely travel as a family. I have a friend that also doesn't know how he got the invite. He think it is worth the fees as every where he goes he get upgrade to the penhouse suite for the regular room price.

the $2500 does pay for itself if you get upgrade to every hotel room to the concier level as well as first class seat on all you flight. If it is not a certainty as to the upgrade then it might not be worthwhile.

As to qualification--we just need to charge two of the week to Marco Island and would probably qualify

 

[johnmfaeth]

If any single female Tugger has the AmEx black card, please look me up....my mother used to say I should have been born a rich kid, here's my chance.

 

[jerseygirl]

You can get it from certain large brokerage firms -- the invitation is asset-based ($10MM or above, I think, but don't quote me on that), not spend-based.

Did anyone get the charter invite for Continental's new card? The fee is $350 (I think -- I threw mine away) and it looked to me like the only real benefits were a President's Club membership (I never arrive at the airport early enough to justify the cost ... and I get free coupons from time to time, which I save for delays) and the ability to use the Elite lanes at the airport (which isn't a benefit if you're already elite). Am I missing something?

 

[arlene22]

There was also something about flex elite qualification miles, but that is useless to us as DH qualifies based on elite points, not miles. So we threw it away... Some folks over at Flyer Talk were jazzed up about it though. I just couldn't see it.

 

[jerseygirl]

Re Flex Elite Miles

Ah ... you're right, and I really wasn't sure what that meant. I qualify based on miles not points, so maybe I should have paid better attention!

Oh well, I love the card I use now. And, if it's like most credit card offers, 2847 more invitations will arrive!