New Centurion Annual Fee, Joining Fee and Points Earning Structure

[serfty]

If you can suggest a insurance policy that gives the following for $500-800 I'd be more than happy to hear about it, as I would reconsider the benefit of Centurion: ...

YMMV on this, but if that's what you want out of insurance policy then it's your choice.

Personally, I prefer to 'self insure' to some extent - the main use from my perspective of TI is in relation to Medical cover.

So I can happily make do with a $300 PA annual policy with $100 excess - I can find better uses for the several hundred dollars difference.

 

[pshepvic]

If that's what you want out of insurance policy then it's your choice.

Personally, I prefer to 'self insure' to some extent - the main use from my perspective of TI is in relation to Medical cover.

So I can happily make do with a $300 PA annual policy with $100 excess - I can find better uses for the several hundred dollars difference.

YMMV on this.

Not disputing that. I'm still interested to hear what policy is available for that amount of money so I can do a comparison. To date I haven't been able to find a policy for that amount, even for a basic worldwide policy. Maybe I'm looking at the wrong insurers - if you can give me a couple of names I'll do some more research.


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[R36snowbound]

I can't believe what I am reading here about acceptance of the fee hike from 4,3K to 5K annually - that = 16.3% does it not?

Can I ask you guys who think a >16% increase in annual fee is ok will this extra $700 be coming out of your sky rocket or employer funded?

Thats not a fee hike - thats daylight robbery.

Cruiserelite,

Yes, I would prefer that the annual fee did not increase and it has not for a number of years. What do companies do: a 3% increase each year of a 16% increase every four or five years.

I value the services that are attached to the card. When one is in Europe and needs to urgently change their flight back to Oz in the middle of the day, being able to call Centurion travel, get it done quickly, and move on appeals to me.

Centurion travel have not left let me down yet and they have also managed to get me on flights that the local travel agents have said are full. Having this service available 24/7 is a massive benefit for me. Yes, its an expensive backup when things go right and plans dont change but cheap when they get you out of a jam in a foreign country when the locals can't. You could probably get the same service as a platinum charge card holder but then miss on a few other perks.

My experinces with the concierge services are not as positive as with the travel team but still handy.

 

[sparoz]

I have the same it is the other way around for me. The concierge has been exceptional in the past six months for me, whilst we could never get travel to work in sync with what we want.

 

[Deleted member]

Horses for courses I think.

Even though I have been offered a cent card twice now, I see very little aside from DYKWIA value.
I already have QF life membership, I don't travel on biz anywhere near a much as some, so spending $000's is not a good del for me

 

[k3nnis]

Is the CENT concierge the same as PLAT charge?

 

[mello128]

Great to see the feedback and comments. I had also received our "Centurion package" 3 days ago and received a call from the RM. I am also not happy with the new changes from Amex Centurion and am also considering making a change. The revamped MR program does not work for me and also I have seen the value of the program decline since the Aust launch in 2004. Have been Amex Gold then Amex Platinum then moved to Centurion in 2004. So disappointed with the program and the benefits are getting reduce. Simply - not that much value whether it be $4300 (current fee) and the increased fee ($5000).
Love the letter states that "we have not increased our fees since 2007" so question I have for Amex Centurion is what "value" have you delivered since 2007 that justifies the increase to $5K? Spoke to Amex about that and really - they have no idea on the value and cannot quantify it either.

Issues summarised as follows:
* MR points - I used Amex Centurion for mostly everything so the re-skew of the points system does not benefit me. They should probably start using their data mining capabilities to see how customers are spending and adapting a program that is a win-win for customer and Amex Centurion - not just Amex.
* Travel - response times are OK but their cost of flights are not that much better. They are majority of the cases - more expensive and some hotels that I have stayed even forgotten the benefits that was associated with the Fine Hotels programs (eg Ritz Carlton). The Centurion en route is not that key as all my car transfers are work paid. The fast track - this is a service which is payable at the designated airports and the cost of the transfer and fast track does not equate to a $700 hike.
* Insurance - it is not as good as they state - remember hotel rooms are capped at $250 per night whereas all hotel rooms that are offered via Centurion is over $250. I had an incident whereby I was out of pocket by nearly $1.5K because I was under the expectation that the Centurion "comprehensive insurance" would cover the fact that due to illness - the doctor had not provided approval to fly.
* Centurion Partners from hotels and restaurants are also changing (reducing) their benefits. Eg : MO one night complimentary is now only available for Bangkok, Hong Kong, Jakarta, Grand Lapa, Manila, Dhara Dhevi Chiang Mai and San Francisco. All
other Mandarin Oriental properties a US$200 Spa Services or Food and Beverage credit is applicable instead (with every minimum two-night stay throughout the year.) This used to be for all MO hotels except NYC. Est and Hemmesphere is no longer offering the comp glass of coughtail and champers. Shopping partners like Bally, Mont Blanc, Escada, Zegna, Giorgio Armani & EA have either been discontinued or changed benefits. Also the Starwood benefit is one year and then you need to keep staying at the same level of the Gold to remain at that level the following year. It used to be Platinum (again reduced to Gold).
* Events - they are all primarily aimed at Platinum (so hence thinking I might as well move to Platinum). The events are not as relevant and every year they run the Grange dinner but even the way the dinner event constructed varied greatly when the first Grange Dinner was offered. We had the Chief Wine maker of Grange present the 1st one that went to and then we just had a wine expert present on another Grange Dinner year - see the difference. Drive days are not offered, No champagne dinners and no family events. last one I went was the Shrek movie launch and it was too "busy" and not the experience I was expecting considering the price I was paying. Amex has also reduced the number of complimentary events - no Chanel launches, no jewellery launches etc..
* Service Levels - they pitch 24/7 but really most of the consultants after hours are not really empowered to do much. Glorified EA roles. Always have to wait for someone from the day team to do anything. Not effective at all. Frequent flyer team for Centurion team also covers Platinum and the standard turnaround is 3 days. Used to be 24 hrs or same day for Centurion members.
* Concierge - like the team and they are great, however, Centurion does not open up access as much as what the public perception thinks. Try getting tickets to Oprah, David Letterman or securing restaurant bookings at popular restaurants overseas - no go. The local team do not the relationship and Centurion no longer have the clout to get things done for the Centurion member. Used to be much better but now.. sigh... not so.

Each of the Centurion member are allocated RMs and it will be dependent on how much you spend and the type of RM you get assigned. They were testing this concept at the end of last year for their larger spending customers. Now you may be one of the 200+ accounts that is managed by a RM. RM concept sounds great but how effective is it when you have been dealing with the same quality people across different depts and also when you are one of 200 that is assigned to that RM?

When was the last time that Centurion thanked their members ? We had that a thank you party about 5 years ago for the Centurion members and that is about it. I do not expect an annual thank you but given that value is not delivered from the program a thank you party is better than nothing!

I saw that Visa Infinite is also available? Anyone experience it and is it any good? I have the rest of this year to decide about my renewal so at least I am starting my planning and preparations now.

 

[k3nnis]

I thought SPG gold was an ongoing benefit i.e. no requalification needed?

 

[mello128]

I thought SPG gold was an ongoing benefit i.e. no requalification needed?

I was on a Platinum the reduced to Gold then reduce to basic. I stayed maybe 1 or 2 nights with them a year. Primarily stay with Centurion partners like MO, Peninsula and also Hilton is great. Reason given to me from Starwood as that I did not meet the number of nights that required to meet Gold level so bumped down to basic. I do not stay withn Starwood anymore.

 

[k3nnis]

ok thanks. Very strange as on the t&c's on the website it doesn't say you need to requalify for SPG gold... Not that SPG is a top tier..

 

[mello128]

Only speaking from experience. Given the treatment I received - I did not even bother to go into T & Cs. The Hilton Diamond is so much better!

 

[sparoz]

Only speaking from experience. Given the treatment I received - I did not even bother to go into T & Cs. The Hilton Diamond is so much better!

I believe SPG Gold was ongoing, but I was able to requalified last year on my own merit. SPG Gold is pretty useless as the best benefit I have are the free water each day. Hilton Diamond on the other hand treated me like a VIP even I am only a Diamond by association. We will be using Hilton more often from now on.

 

[Pukka]

Like a few others on this thread, I hold AMEX Centurion and Citibank Select Visa Signature card.

My spend is above $500,000 per year and is approx 75% with AMEX and 25% Citibank.

I dont use my Centurion card to make payments to the ATO.

I am not happy with the changes to the AMEX rewards program and am accepting of the increase in annual membership fee. If the fee had increased but the membership rewards program had not changed, I would have been accepting and said nothing.

In my opinion, AMEX is simply devaluing the Centurion Card and using smoke and mirrors to complicate the rewards point earning structure, they must have some good spin doctors on the payroll.

From my point of view, most Centurion cardholders work smarter, as well as harder and most use their points for airline upgrades. This is based on meeting other Centurion card holders at AMEX organised events. Yes, there is some "shock and awe" value of having a titanium credit card in your wallet but what that worth? And is this the reason why Centurion card holders pay $4,300 per year for thr card?

375,000 per year spend wth AMEX Centurion equals 562,500 SQ points, before the changes come into effect.

I spend on average $50k per year on professional services, such as accountants, lawyers, financial advisors, doctors, dentist, etc.... All of which will now only earn 1 point per dollar spent, instead of the previous 1.5 points.

If I cancel my Centurion card, shift all my purchases to my Citibank Select Visa, the $375,000 spend will earn the equivilant of 498,750 SQ points. So, I will loose 63,750 points but would save $5,000. Hmmm, time to look at what other value I see in my Centurion membership before my renewal date.

The reality of the siutation is, in the real international travellers world, one can get by without an AMEX card but due to AMEX not being accepted everywhere, people also have either a Visa or a Mastercard. On that alone, the Visa needs to stay in my wallet.

My relationship Manager assures me that the travel insurance cover for Centurion cardholders will not be changing....which will affect my decision.

I spoke with the Citibank select call centre today and requested an increase in my credit limit, call it a pre-emptive strike AMEX. My call was answered in less than 1 minute, by a gentlemen that spoke perfect English and I was told that they have experinced a spike in enquries about the Select credt card over the lst few days, from disgruntled AMEX platinum and centurion cardholders.

Time to try out the Citibank concierge I think..........

Hi All,

Looking for some advice re rewards points & amex airline partners.

I currently have Amex platinum & have just started paying my tax on it so current spend is $400kpa on goods & services & $500Kpa on tax.

So to say I am really not happy with the new reward points structure would be a huge understatement!!! I was going to upgrade to the Centurion again (had one in the UK) but now I think there's no point.

So my question is which card would now be the best for airline rewards, At the moment I use all my points for Upper Class VA return to London from Sydney, It's not ideal as I live on the Gold Coast but 200,000 points for upper class seems a really good deal so I don't mind the extra flight to Sydney.

Second question I have around 1M amex points to transfer to an airline ( & 1.8M VA points )does any airline do a similar deal for Business class flights to London or are all the others way more than VA

Cheers

 

[Pukka]

[Edit: I just found a discussion about this in one of the other threads. Sorry for the duplicate post.]

I apologise if this has already been posted, but I couldn't see it in this thread.

I've just received a little package from AMEX advising that from August the annual fee will rise to $5,000. They have also added a $5,000 joining fee for new memberships.

There's a new points earning table from 1 October: 3 points per $1 spent at restaurants; 2 points per $1 spent on airlines, hotels, forex, etc, and 1 point per $1 on everything else except for utilities, insurance, telcos and government bodies (eg ATO) where the earn rate will be half-a-point per $1. The points threshold increases to $750,000 per year whereupon the points earning rates all drop back to 1 point per $1 except for the half-a-point per $1 categories.

There are a handful of new benefits thrown in but there's little for me in there. They've rolled out the Relationship Managers to everybody, added guest access on the Priority Pass card plus access to VA lounges when you're flying with them. There are some new hotel loyalty memberships but at hotels that I don't frequent.

Oh and there's a signed, limited edition print enclosed :!:

Personally I'm not all that concerned by the annual fee increase. If you're currently paying the $4,600 (is that what it is?) then I figure $5,000 won't make you cancel unless you were already thinking about it. That's probably how they arrived at the fee... For me it's all about the service that I receive. There's a great guy in the Sydney office Lifestyle Team and so long as they keep him on board, or replace him with somebody just as good when he leaves, then I'll probably continue to stick with it.

Now...discuss!

So does that mean that if I upgrade to Centurion from Plat in July I get the "cheaper rate"?? or is your renewal August??

Also if you have already had a Centurion card (had one in the UK and downgraded to Platinum when I moved to Au) do you need to pay the joining fee??

Not happy about the 0.5 points for ATO payments might need to get another card just for tax as I put about $500K through a year, I'm thinking this Citibank select sounds ok

 

[Diesellife]

I'm going to PM you Diesellife but it goes no further. Kapish?

Thanks Homer. Will guard it like a trade secret ;-)

 

[gibspmuh]

So my question is which card would now be the best for airline rewards, At the moment I use all my points for Upper Class VA return to London from Sydney, It's not ideal as I live on the Gold Coast but 200,000 points for upper class seems a really good deal so I don't mind the extra flight to Sydney.Second question I have around 1M amex points to transfer to an airline ( & 1.8M VA points )does any airline do a similar deal for Business class flights to London or are all the others way more than VA

If you fly on Singapore Airlines it's 190,000 points for Business Class from the East Coast of Oz to London, with a 15% discount on that if you book online. It'd save you a trip to Sydney too, which is a nice bonus (especially given the transit in Sydney).

 

[pshepvic]

SPG gold does not require requalification. However, my understanding is that there is a SPG condition that you must stay at least one night per year for your membership to remain active. I can't remember where I read this - may have been on the application form or something like that.

My gold and my partner's has been renewed every year even though neither of us have stayed the required nights. We always stay at least one night a year each though.


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[k3nnis]

Hi,

With the SPG gold renewal, does it renew to gold automatically when you renew your cent card? or do you need to reapply via a form?

Also I heard you can actually eat at one of the restaurants at a SPG hotel to keep the account active without a stay.... this was from flyertalk.

Cheers,
K.

SPG gold does not require requalification. However, my understanding is that there is a SPG condition that you must stay at least one night per year for your membership to remain active. I can't remember where I read this - may have been on the application form or something like that.

My gold and my partner's has been renewed every year even though neither of us have stayed the required nights. We always stay at least one night a year each though.


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[Pukka]

If you fly on Singapore Airlines it's 190,000 points for Business Class from the East Coast of Oz to London, with a 15% discount on that if you book online. It'd save you a trip to Sydney too, which is a nice bonus (especially given the transit in Sydney).

I love Singapore Airlines I looked on their website today & they have 3 different levels of points needed. Is it easy to get flights at the 190k points rate or do they release very few because I think the next reward tier is virtually double the points. I usually like to book about 3 months before I go so I can arrange cover at work

 

[schmoots]

i cannot believe Amex are treating their premium customers in such a way. A major devaluation in rewards and a price increase. I have no choice but to dump my Centurion because of the changes to rewards. I spend about 600k per year but not enough on restaurants and flights to compensate for the changes.
I have been with Amex for about 12 years and would never have considered changing. I will terminate my relationship with them on 30/9 and move my business to one of the 1.5 point per dollar bank cards with unlimited spend. Many of my colleagues are doing the same.
Amex are probably hoping they can lead the way and others banks will follow their lead. Many of us will not move our business back to Amex even if they do. Once a customer is lost it is hard to get them back on board.