Centurion cardholders are situated at the market’s high end, but Amex is not without rivals for these customers. The broader industry targets households earning $100,000 and up. (Amex won’t comment on private transactions.) The travel points from the Modigliani purchase alone would ensure Yiquian’s family free first-class travel and accommodations for life-not that they needed them.Ĭoncierge services are a $3.4 billion industry in the United States, with 127,000 providers and growing at 3 to 4 percent annually, according to the research firm IBISWorld. The year before, he’d reportedly used the card to purchase a $36 million Ming dynasty teacup. In November 2015, when Chinese billionaire Liu Yiquian bought a Modigliani reclining nude at auction for $170 million, he said he intended to put it on his black card. ![]() ![]() A third wanted to purchase the actual horse Kevin Costner rode in the film Dances with Wolves -the animal was tracked down in Mexico and delivered to the client in Europe. Another black card holder had Amex plan their entire wedding. Amex dispatched an agent via motorcycle to obtain the sand and courier it to London. They were able, in one case, to get him out of Bali in a hurry after a volcanic eruption closed the airport and left thousands of travelers scrambling for alternatives.Īccording to Snopes, one Centurion cardholder requested a handful of authentic Dead Sea Sand for a child’s school project. Kelly, who travels extensively, estimates that the services of Ray and his colleagues alone are worth $20,000 a year. Amex even sent him a Tiffany crystal decanter and glasses as a holiday gift.īut the biggest benefit, he wrote, was Ray, his dedicated concierge. He got VIP tickets to Stevie Wonder and early access to Hamilton tickets for his employees. When he checked into a Las Vegas hotel, he was automatically upgraded to an executive suite. He wrote on his popular website about the time he lost a $2,800 jacket and Amex replaced it, no questions asked. In exchange, you get, in effect, the billionaire express pass.Ĭredit card guru Brian Kelly - better known as The Points Guy - has the business version of the card. If invited, you pay an initiation fee of $10,000 and an annual fee of $5,000. The advent of the Centurion Card in 1999 relegated Platinum cardholders to the petit bourgeoisie. Sprinkled throughout the descriptions are words like “insider,” “unique,” “exclusive,” “private,” “prestigious,” “premier,” and, of course, “luxury.” But on a more fundamental level, Platinum membership gets you 24/7 access to Amex concierges, who will do their best to fulfill customers’ every desire. Platinum cardholders are offered - or were, until the pandemic came along - a rotating selection of “By Invitation Only” packages: a prime Wimbledon experience, VIP access to the Venice Biennale and the Monaco Grand Prix, a gastronomic tour of Tokyo with PBS Lucky Chow host Danielle Change, etc. The Platinum designation was created in 1984. Amex won’t say what it takes to get an invite, but word on the street is that you must have been a Platinum cardholder for at least a year, ringing up a minimum of $350,000 in annual charges. The no-limit black card, issued by invitation only, instantly identifies its holder as what’s known in the trade as a “whale”-someone with vast resources. “It wasn’t true, but we decided to capitalize on the idea anyway.” “There had been rumors going around that we had this ultra-exclusive black card for elite customers,” Amex executive Doug Smith told the fact-checking website Snopes. The Centurion Card, better known as “the black card,” began as a myth before American Express decided to make it a reality.
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