I also had issues redeeming gifted hotel nights, in the past, but that hasn't been the case in the last 2 years. When I found it impossible (no availability for a 6 month period) i asked for points, to the value of the room cost plus taxes at an exchange rate of 1 cent. when the Starwood promo was on for SBS card a couple of years ago, I tried to redeem at W Koh Samui and negotiated a 60000 point bonus in lieu of the unavailable hotel gift.
My biggest issue has been that the very few member Only events I'm interested in are unavailable within 5 mins of receiving notification. I consider this false advertising.
I do not travel much, for business, and only travel on redemption tickets, so I find the CX Diamond/OWE very useful. QF Club has no value to me as I always redeem in premium classes. Neither do any of the other flight travel benefits offer anything, as they are already included as class-of-travel benefits.
Since VA allows status credit earn on redemptions and family pooling, it's easy to earn VA plat with a few domestic weekends in J, and they offer the Hilton Plat and Hertz Pres, too, so not much value from Cent, there either.
Small losses like Westfield Valet parking are a pain. I used them, as I would use airport valet, if it was ever offered.
I don't use PC Plat, very rarely HH Diamond (it gets free exec club and internet and the odd upgrade, but I'm usually tied to SPG trying to maintain an ambassador, so 100 nights go to Starwood before I look elsewhere.
The main value in Cent, for me, is the 375000 bonus points (most spend is on travel), the free bottle of wine, whether it's for marketing purposes, or otherwise, the free hotel night and the odd free inclusion at restaurants. These, just about make up the cost of the card. The rest is covered by errors on behalf of service providers (e.g.: St Regis Florence gave us the benefits of SPG plat, which I hold, plus the benefits of Amex FHR, when they saw the card, including some value in the restaurant, even though I had booked with SPG points), and my wife's pleasure in showing off to her friends in other countries, where the card is seen as a big deal. ( A group of Japanese Amex marketers at a mall in Yokohama thought I must have been a rock star, when they saw the card).
I also received CX Diamond renewal, yesterday, which helps to get good seating on redemption tickets, if nothing else.
If I may add a wishlist:
- I like valet parking. Pronto at SYD charges $20 on top of normal rates for valet. it would be nice to have this included for Cent, as well as adding Westfield back in, or some deal with Secure or Wilson for city parking.
- Star Alliance Gold, with any carrier, would be great. I prefer SQ and TG, but will cop any.
Sorry for the ramble... I wrote as it came to me.