Originally Posted by
Zhariak
These offers are avail on platinum as well.
It is, there's actually quite a return.
And just to address some of the other comments on the board...
Canadian Centurion card is $2,500 a year, with a one-time initiation of $5,000, or at least that's what it was when I pulled the trigger 8 or 9 years ago... First year was a full $7,500.
It had the "wow this is cool" effect for 4 months or so (just a sense of accomplishment I guess). No one recognizes the card in Calgary though which is fine (everyone thinks it's an avion or something), it does get recognized in other places. I've seen some people "flex" or show it off in public, I just look at it like they are embarrassing themselves.
There definitely is value in having it though. If you do a lot of travelling (hotels and flights) and utilize the perks, you can get a return on the annual fee back easily. The years I've calculated it, sometimes the return is 4 or 5 times more than the annual fee. One year, the continuous "gifts" of $500 gift cards for companies like Holt Renfrew, Air Canada, the various boutique shops, exceeded $4,000... Keep in mind, they send you these so you go in and spend more than the gift card value (which I did), but we all treat ourselves anyways, they just use these to direct us to specific vendors... It's a marketing strategy that works for them and their merchants, and works for people to because they are going to do the spending anyways, may as well just direct it.
The status with Delta, and the status with hotel loyalty programs is awesome too and it pays for itself if you regularly fly around and stay at hotels.
The service provided with the card is great too. Doing tons of transactions for myself as well as business expenses, it's nice to know I have immediate access to support if needed. They always go above and beyond. It's nice to not have anything to worry about.
EDIT/Addition: There's also a $500 yearly travel credit that you can use for any travel related expenses through Amex Travel. Also, with Amex Travel sometimes they have Centurion specific deals for promos/discounts on hotel and flights. I use Amex travel quite a bit and love it. There's been soo many times where I've had to change travel plans during the trip, and it's so nice to be able to call them and get them to change and deal with it (and me not have to wait on hold with the airline). For some reason the change fees were always less or didn't exist with Amex travel, vs changes when going direct with airline. I don't know why this is, just noticed it because I was expecting change fees and never saw them, just the occasional fare difference.
TL/DR. It's a fun flex for a few months, but you definitely get value from the program overall as long as you maintain and keep the card (because of the initiation fee).
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