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Amex Sues Courtney Love Over Unpaid Centurion Bill
According to a news article I saw today, American Express has filed suit against Courtney Love, wife of the Kurt Cobain, for unpaid charges to her cards which include over $279K in unpaid Centurion Card charges.
No wonder Amex keeps slashing everyone’s limits. Idiots like Courtney love are defaulting on huge payments. They need to be hassling her to pay early instead of calling their other cardholders in good standing and demanding early payment before the bill is due.
Black Card iPhone Site
I meant to post this awhile back but I forgot. I was sitting in the airport shortly after I got my Centurion card and I realized I needed to check and see if I had payed off my Plum Card for that month. I logged into the American Express website on my iPhone and it sent me to this page:
I thought, well that’t neat, it auto flags my login and sends me to a custom Centurion site for the iPhone. Honestly, the site is pretty well done and very helpful. I can do things like Help you find airport lounges or find a nice restaurant.
It lets you sort by the city you’re in to find a nice restaurant. In addition to these two services, it also has a Centurion phone number directory in case you need to call the concierge, travel, roadside assistance, just about anything. It also has a section where you can view balances, recent activity and even pay your bill. As you can see from the screen shots below, the panels shows my Plum card, which I use for business, my personal Centurion, my recently cancelled personal Platinum, and my personal Blue Cash that I have as a backup. You can select an individual card, view its activity and pay its bill.
Pretty nifty if you ask me. I have found myself actually using this portal quite frequently. Anyone else been using the iPhone Amex portal?
2 Months With A Black Card, What I Learned
Well the world hasn’t changed since I got my black card that’s for sure. I got the card back in February and have used it around town and on trips to NYC, Las Vegas, and San Francisco. I use this as my main credit card, with a Visa as my back up, so I use it on everything from clothes, to Bojangles, and trips. After using it for 2 months I have learned a few things.
It draws attention to you fast. I knew it would, but I don’t think i realized the magnitude that it would. Having used it everyday for 2 months, hundreds of transactions, I think maybe a total of 5 people have NOT said something to me about it. I almost don’t like using, in fact some places I have started not to use it. I get comments anywhere from “ohh this is that black amex, man it’s heavy” to “is it true you have to have $5 Million dollars to get one?”. I don’t mind people asking about it, but sometimes, especially at a bar, people tend to cross the line asking way too personal questions, barely any of which I answer.
You can’t really book Hotels through a service like Hotwire and expect to get upgrades/benefits. For example, I recently stayed at the Wynn in Vegas, which is great and I love it there. However, I wasn’t allowed the Centurion benefits of late checkout, $40/day breakfast credits, or free lunches because my friend booked the rooms through Hotwire. In fact, after losing a small fortune, they decided to comp our rooms, then said they couldn’t because we booked through hotwire. Lesson learned, book through Amex or the Hotel directly.
Airfare upgrades are not guaranteed. Centurion gets you first class airfare upgrades on most major airlines like Virgin, Delta, US Air, Continental, Northwest. I have a terrible habit of getting to the airport late and because of this I couldn’t get airfare upgrades because they were already taken. Also, I live in Charlotte, which is decent size, but often flights have to run through other cities. So what ends up happening is you are on a 1 class plane, making it impossible to get an upgrade. For my trip to Vegas/San Fran I was unable to get an upgrade on any of the 5 flights I was on either because I was late or it was a coach only plane. Lesson learned, stop showing up 25 minutes before departure and expect an upgrade.
The Starwood upgrades really aren’t that great. All they basically do is give you a higher room or a room with a better room, and some free water. I have been less than impressed with the SPG Gold status upgrades and I have stayed in 3 different starwood property hotels so far. I am going to try Intercontinental next.
The Centurion Concierge is very friendly and helpful, but so far the service is no different than the Platinum concierge I used to have. I have used the concierge service for 2 things so far, neither of the tasks were they able to do, but it wasn’t necessarily their fault. I tried to use them to get into Club XS in Vegas at the Wynn, for me and 3 other guys. The host at XS told American Express, who told me, I couldn’t get in/skip line unless I brought at least 3 girls with me or got bottle service. Which is Vegas for you, but feels like High School at the same time. We ended up not going because we were all in reationships and our significant others weren’t there. Looking back on it we should have just gotten bottle service, which you don’t need Amex to do to skip line/set up. Secondly, I tried to get them to make reservations on a Saturday night with 2 hours notice at a nice steakhouse for 8PM, they couldn’t get anything before 10PM. Not necessarily their fault, they just couldn’t make it happen.
I can’t use the credit card at most gas pumps. Generally speaking, the card is supposed to fit in any card reader, but I can;t seem to make it work at Gas pumps and I don’t want to force it through.
The card is surprisingly scratch resistant. I thought it would mark up easy, but so far my card has no visible signs of wear. I guess that’s titanium for you.
All in all, I’m still happy I got it, mostly so I will be able to blog about it, but I haven’t been overjoyed from the benefits SO FAR. But I still have a lot more traveling to do this year, so I am sure it will still end up paying for itself and being worthwhile. But I think if the Centurion program still had SPG Platinum status, instead of Gold (which Amex Platinum also has), it would make it much better. So Amex, if you’re reading this, please add it back.
Kiss My Black Amex
I don’t mean it literally, but apparently there is a new rap video out called “Kiss my black Amex”. Before, it was quite trendy to mention your black card in your songs if you were a rapper, but apparently the new thing to do is make a whole song about it. Not to mention, if this is the Black card lifestyle, then I am severely missing out. If you have seen the video or heard the song, here it is. It is by a rapper from Chicago named Draft.
What’s even more interesting, and im not sure how they’re getting away with this, is that this rapper/his company/someone he works with is selling clothing with “kiss my black amex”. Surely American Express has seen/heard this song, heck they might even endorse it, but I would be completely shocked if they let someone sell clothing with their trademarked brand on it. Especially considering I couldn’t even use it in my domain name. Here is the link to the site that has the clothes - http://kissmyblackamex.com
BlackCardSource Gets A Black Card
That’s right, I bit the bullet, broke down, and I got a black card about 4 weeks ago. I called it an early birthday present to myself. I had been going back and forth on getting it for several months after I qualified, and I finally decided to get one. Being what some people might call “cheap” it was tough for me to part with the $5,000 initiation fee and the $2,500 annual fee, but I did it. So far I have been really happy with it, but more on that in another post.
The Process For Calling In
When I decided that I wanted to get one, I called the number on the back of my platinum card and told the concierge I would like to speak to someone about upgrading to Centurion. They transfered me to a really nice representative who helped me apply. He clearly explained to me that the requirements were to have been an Amex member for at least a year, spend AND pay off 250K or more in the last 12 months, then asked me if I understood was I sure that I wanted to apply. I of course said that I understood and wanted to apply. The whole process took about 5 minutes, they said I met the criteria and then said congratulations (like I was part of a new fraternity). That was it.
About 3 days later the UPS man delivered my welcome package and card.
I eagerly tore into the box and found a nice welcome letter, my benefits information, some forms to fill out, and my new black card, all enclosed in a very nice “Nice to have you with us” box.
First impressions are that it is extremely well packaged, as it should be, the card is obviously made from metal, but it wasn’t as heavy as I expected. I am not sure if I expected it to be like a brick or what, but it is heavy enough to notice that it isn’t a regular card, but not heavy enough to be cumbersome. It is not flexible at all.
So far I have been very happy with it, while it most certainly seems to make a scene every where I go. My friends have given me a hard time about getting it, but so far it seems like a good decision. I will post more on my initial thoughts a little later, as well as using it on a few trips since I got it to NYC, Las Vegas, and San Francisco. But hopefully I will have a lot more good content in store for you all.
New Maserati - Centurion Edition
As reported today by MotorTrend, Maserati just launched a special Centurion edition Quarttroporte.
Unveiled at Forbes House, in London’s Belgravia in front of an exclusive audience of American Express black card holders, card members had the option to buy this new car for either 88,315 pounds (US$124,205) for the 400-hp or 94,185 pounds (US$132,461) for the430-hp version. The 400-hp model has a 4.2L V-8 engine backed by a ZF six-speed automatic transmission, good for 0 to 62 mph in 5.6 seconds and a top speed of 167 mph. Tthe 430-hp trim has a 4.7L V-8 with the same six-speed transmission, but does 0 to 62 mph in 5.4 seconds and has a top speed of 174.
Both models feature Nero Carbonio (black carbon) paint, a Bianco Polare (polar white) Poltrona Frau leather interior, titanium trim, polished 20-in wheels, American Express Centurion logos embossed in the headrests and a special dash plaque that mimics the Black Card.
I think this is a pretty cool idea, especially since Amex is trying to revamp the UK Centurion benefits. I am not a big maserati fan but I like it. Now all Amex needs to do is pair up with Aston Martin and offer one in the US, i’d be all over that. Visa Black card who?
Reader Pictures From Europe
One of our loyal readers, JD from a small country in Europe, sent over a bunch of pictures for the site. JD’s been a Centurion since October 2002, and according to him and his Rep at his Amex office, he was the first person in his to get this card. Also, according to the rep, there are approximately 20 people in his country that are cardholders. I’d say that is a very small, elite group. Besides loving his black card, he also apparently feeds his card to his dog and loves Saab’s :). Thanks for sending the pictures JD.
Black Card Ultra Lounge Card Pictures
If you remember awhile back, I made about about a night club that was opening in Scottsdale, Arizona called Black Card Ultra Lounge.  Basically, they were ripping off the American Express brand trying to create a high end club. Anyway, here are some pictures of the membership cards they issues. Word is though, that this club has already closed up shop. Can anyone confirm this? I haven’t been able to find an article online.
What Other Additional Benefits Would You Want?
This post is primarily for US card members. In light of my recent post on how to get your money’s worth from a Centurion card, I thought I would also pose the question of “What additional benefits would you want?”.
What other benefits, if they were added would make you feel like you were getting your moneys worth? Or even if you feel you do get enough value from the card, what are some additional benefits American Express should consider adding?
Additional discounts or upgrades? More airline ticket upgrades? More free gifts? Whatever you think, i’m interested in hearing what readers think should be added. The UK Centurion is going through a benefits refresh, say the US one did too, what should be in it?
What’s Better Than A Black Card?
Ever wonder what is better than a black card? Well the obvious answer is a cute dog with a black card.
Thanks to one our readers for sending it in, nice kitchen too!
