I have been a customer with Amex since 1996 and was recently invited to pay £700 for the privilege of using their black centurion card. As I had used my Platinum card extensively (at times more than £10, 000 per month) it was good to know that there were people to help me with travel arrangements and insurance.
However, the UK centurion card has very few of the deals offered to the American customer; no airline membership schemes, no upgrades on the major UK airlines, no upgrades with the major UK hotels, and unable to get tables in some of the good London restaurants. So what makes it worth £700? I am really not sure.
Recently I tried to make a purchase to find a stop had been put on my account. I was very angry and it took several phone calls to try and find out what was going on. The Centurion ’team’ kept me on hold for what seemed like hours and passed me from department to department, and not return calls they said they would. It turns out that my bank had messed up an electronic transfer, so Amex stopped my account. Was this for a vast sum of money? No, it was for a paltry £300. I had never been late with a payment, and they had not contacted me to find out if anything was wrong (although they claim they tried to phone me, but they must have been too bashful to leave a message).
The Platinum team made regular contact when there was unusual activity on my account. But this centurion team- representing the pinnacle of exclusivity and customer service manages to annoy and alienate its most valuable customers. So is it worth £700? Certainly not and I will not be renewing my membership.
Stay away from this- if your vanity demands you have a status symbol, there are better ways to spend your cash!