Amex Black Card. Info Please

My Platinum card paid for itself, every year, in upgrades and discounts, not to mention the 24-hour travel concierg. Free rental car club memberships, free hotel upgrades, free companion airfare to Europe (one each year).

Initially, you could not apply for a Platinum card, had to be invited. Now you can apply. Wonder what AmExp will come up with after the Black card?

 

My old man just got one......If you have spent $150k in the past 12 months you can call up and just apply for one (don't need to be invited). He mentioned that you get 4x the miles for every dollar you spend as well as elite status with 4 airlines.....we'll see if it turns out to be worth the fee....

 

I have had a green amex for about 15 years. Keep turning down the platinum card about twice a year since I don't do enough personal travel to justify the perks. Only spend 4-6000/mo on it, so I don't qualify for a black card - which I would also turn down.

I see the opposite. Since most everyone has a gold card, people are surprised to see my green card. But then again, I get a kick out of being in "stealth mode".

 

It's not the color of the card that matters, as long as it gets accepted, who cares...

That said, if you are a moderate traveler, the platinum Amex as a personal card is more than enough. Good hotel perks and access to all CO, NW, and DL lounges. (Access to one club and membership rewards pays for the card).

My corporate Amex cards are all green. We have our own in-house Amex travel agency with about 6 reps. I can usually get anything I want AND I know that it will meet our travel and entertainment policy.

The black cards are usually for small business owners who don't have access to this level of corporate support.

If you never leave town and don't entertain, your debit card is probably the best way to go.

 

But if you travel a lot or avail yourself of some of their other benefits, it can more than pay for itself.


I agree, the Platinum card is awesome for travel. We have two small children so on vacation unless we want to go to bed every night at 7pm, we need a large suite. Normally a suite is a fortune but if you book a regular room, Platinum Card gets you an automatic free upgrade at any of their select hotels. You also get late checkout, complimentary continental breakfast and other amenities. At airports you get access to the more "civilized" clubs with a comfy leather chair, a bar, newspapers, etc. As far as the Concierge service I have used them as well and found them to be great. When I proposed to my wife in Venice, Italy nine years ago, while we were out I had the Platinum card concierge service arrange to have fresh rose petals strewn on our bed, along with a chilled bottle of Dom. They pulled it off perfectly! You should have seen her face when she opened the door. (Good thing she said yes!)

 

Just wondering, how do you guys handle tipping when all these services are performed for you? (especially if you aren't there when they do it or don't even know who actually did it).

 

Ever since they started nailing things down, it's become very hard to tip them over. I still give it my best shot though.

What about you?

 

Unless you take out more in perks than you pay in it's not worth it. When my wife and I worked she had to visit her corp office from SoCal to the UK. She would use our Plat card to purchase her airfare, at her level they flew her first class then she would get a free first class ticket for me to go( I think my tickets usually ran around $9,000.00 USD ). Her employer paid her membership fee as did mine. So I got to go the British GP's for free . They upgrade your rooms to suites, plus you can get into private boxes at arenas for concerts . We don't fly commercial now but the upgrades and stuff we get more than offset the Black Cards annual fees. We use the points we earn for hotels rooms or experiences that they offer. The Visa signature card is also ok in terms of perks. I was told your credit line with Amex is the same green gold black or pink. They know how much money is in your piggy bank.

 

Can Amex points be used with American Airlines?

 

Ricky,
if you are talking about the Membership Miles program, no, AA is not one of the partner airlines.
Rgds,
Faisal.

 

My huge question is how do you discreetly show this to the manager/maitre'd/attendant without it being awkward?

- Have it sitting in your jacket breastpocket sticking out like a hankerchief
- Ahem! And drop in on the floor in front of you
- Have it tucked into your hand as you shake the maitre'd's hand
- Flash it like a cop badge
- "Oh, yesss... put it on my CARD... bwu-hahahaha!!"
- Ask if you can pay for the meal beforehand and plunk it on the table
- Walk into the tailor, show to the manager and have the place closed to the public for you
- When asked for ID, show Amex. "Whoops, I'm sorry..." you chuckle and feign sheepishness.
- Put it in a clear plastic cover and put it on a necklace (like conference ID)
- "Oh, I'm sorry, this table/seat/suite is unacceptable. You see, I have this."
- Gansta-domino-style: Slam in down on the table and yell, " BLACK CARD MUTHA-F**A!!"
- Walk into the store and immediately ask if they take credit cards. "Why yes."
"Do you take this card?"
"Yes, my lord." The attendants bow in obeisance.

 

You have your Centurion concierge set up the reservation.

 

yeah, booking stuff would be alright if retail monkeys knew that you're excellent because you have a certain colour plastic...

but the thought amuses me, to show your card before you shop SO you'll get better service.

 

I love this one:
- Gansta-domino-style: Slam in down on the table and yell, " BLACK CARD MUTHA-F**A!!"

 

Goin' chronic plates on yo' ass bee-yatch !!! Calvin Broadus (aka Snoop Doggy Dog) Cardmember since he lifted one off that pimp in lockdown.

 

For those that ever saw the show Fastlane, there was one scene where the two main characters were trying to get into a private club.
Doorman, "The entry fee is $10,000 a head." "Would you like paper (holding up stacks of $100's) or plastic (holding up black card in other hand)!"

 

I have one.

I spend $10-100K per month. The main reasons that I like the card are:

Gold Status on a few airlines - Free Upgrades to First, Pre-boarding, Etc
Upper Tier Membership in Hotel reward clubs, (Hilton, Hyatt, Etc) Room Upgrades.
Concierge than can arrange pretty much anything I want, In any city I am in.

The rest of the offers, travel agent, free tickets are pretty much the same as Platinum.

The look on the waitres/Hotel/car rental persons face when a 30yr old hands her the cars... Priceless

Oh, on a practical note, the insurance coverage I get when I rent a car or fly is better than any other card.

 

My wife has a black MBNA Mastercard... but given the *low* limit I think they were just saving money not printing any graphic at all on the darn card.

 

Just heard on NPR today that some think that the Black Amex is an Urban Legend. In response, they had a Restaurant Owner from Nappa saying she has seen two of them.

 

I have heard but never confirmed the rumor that there are indeed certain restaurants that will insure a table for four can be made available for black card holders on extremely minimal notice. But for lots of accurate information hit:

http://www.snopes.com/business/bank/blackcard.asp

I have heard that in the UK they are fairly easy to come by but the concierge service is horrible. I have heard nothing but praise in the US from those who actually make use of the benefits. Those who don't use what they are paying for just ***** about the high annual fee.

I wish I could find an article I read about the Centurion Card awhile back from some tiny newspaper in Oregon(if I remember correctly). They called American Express with questions about the card and were suprised to find that if their past history of huge purchases showed them to be able to cover the bill at the end of the month, they would be allowed to attempt a hostile takeover of the American Express, Corp. and pay for it with the card. Apparantly the rep on the other end didn't find it funny when they asked if they would be allowed to strike the charge from their account once they owned it.

Another great story from some random show on tv...

Apparantly P. Diddy was out with a few friends somewhere in NY and ordered 300 or so bottles of Cristal. When asked how he cared to pay he handed them his black card. The bartender, slighly unsure of the whole thing called AMEX and asked if he could put $70,000 or so on the card. They told him he could put a private jet on the card as long as the cardholder was willing to sign for it. You have to wonder if the merchast customer service people get tired of answering that question.

-ag

 

Here's the deal: you have to spend at least 150k in a 12 month period, have excellent credit and have an account in good standing already with them. If these criteria exist you can call and ask to be considered for one. Annual membership is $2500. and $1500 additional card holders. Member services are a bit better than Platinum but not much. They claim to be able to get you very hard to find items or reservations at fancy restaurants that would otherwise be hard to get. Two days before Valentines they couldn't get me in to any of about ten restaurants I wanted. They couldn't get me a SS Rolex Daytona at retail price;(I had to wait to get one from my jewler and promise him I wouldn't sell it on ebay). They were able to get me superbowl tickets but for much more than I found on my own. The complimentary gold elite status with continental is nice but no first class upgrades with tickets purchased with rewards points really sucks. I have only had one person at a bar give me that little smile when I went to pay my tab with it, every one else just treats it like a regular card and probably doesn't know what it is. I did have one materialistic ex-***** say to me "oh my gosh that's a black card, only one percent of people have one, how come you never married me?" Bingo! That's why! Anyway I think it's way less than 1 percent of amex cardholders. Beyond that it is kinda cool looking and travel related benefits do eventually pay for itself.
Bill

 

Agreed. I've had a black AMEX for a couple of years and it's way more hype than beneficial. The best thing it's ever done for me was get me an Urban Suite at the Lakeshore Chicago W for a regular room rate. Aside from a couple of things like that, it hasn't been much benefit.

 

One service they offer is their senior financial advisor to handle your account. I'm not going to go into details, but my advice is to stick with a real brokerage company. I'm probably going to drop to the green card next year if I even keep them at all (I was a happy platinum customer before this).

 

My friend has one he said that when you spend $150K a year on your AMEX you get an invitation.