Though we located numerous references to it on the American Express web site, nothing we came across explicitly outlined its eligibility requirements or benefits.
Yet for all of its snob appeal, the Centurion is still a thing of mystery. They did receive two cards, but it wasn't a case of one card for business and one for pleasure - one card was the Centurion charge card and the other was a 'Priority Pass' (also black and gold) which allows them into first-class lounges the world over but can't actually be used to pay for anything. Some of our readers who possess Centurion cards have reported that their new plastic arrived with no hoopla at all, nary a security guard nor a mini-computer. Hooper was probably attempting to add to the black card's mystique by speaking with his tongue planted in his cheek, however. You get this big, black, velvet-lined box, with a special mini-computer and two black cards in it, one for business, one for pleasure." If you put your card in the mini-computer, it tells you how much you've spent.
And for another cardholder who aspired to be an actress and wanted to be part of the crew of a weekly soap opera on TV, American Express contacted the director and arranged for an audition.Īccording to cardholder and record producer Nellee Hooper, the Centurion "arrives at your house with a security guard. Yet another cardholder required American Express to organize a wedding, including designing the wedding card, drawing maps to direct guests to the banquet, renting tuxedos and shoes for guests, and preparing the hotel room with a jacuzzi for the wedding night. Someone was dispatched by motorcycle to the shores of the Dead Sea to obtain the sand, which was couriered back to London. Another cardholder wanted a handful of sand from the Dead Sea for a child's school project on the Holy Land. The horse was located in a stud ranch in Mexico, purchased and delivered to Europe. One cardholder wanted to locate and purchase the horse ridden by Kevin Costner in Dances with Wolves. So far we've had a customer buy a Bentley and another charter a jet." "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," says Doug Smith, director of American Express Europe. It is akin to having a personal concierge always on call. Someone from the service will even call to remind cardholders of upcoming anniversaries. They also receive assistance in securing hard-to-come-by tickets for popular events, reservations at trendy restaurants, and shopping for Christmas gifts. In exchange for its hefty annual fee (initially $1,000 US, but now $2,500), cardholders receive automatic upgrades on fifteen of the world's leading airlines. Available only by invitation to selected Platinum card members, this black credit card promises to simplify the lives of the harried rich. In 1999 American Express announced the introduction of its Centurion™ card. That 1988 Wall Street Journal article described the black card as "high-class ID for check-cashing" even as it made clear nothing could be charged on the card AmEx cardholders were still required to use their platinum, gold, or green cards to make purchases.) (It's possible AmEx issued a special card that wasn't a chargeplate to the super-privileged back in the 1980s. 
While people insist a few of those fabled cards were provided to the ultra-privileged (those who had millions of dollars in American Express bank accounts Imelda Marcos and the like) from 1984 to 1987, and a 1988 Wall Street Journal article appears to support that claim, whatever the truth about those chargeplates of lore, in 1999 the corporation finally bowed to the belief and began openly offering a real card at least somewhat in line with the rumor. Thus, thanks to the infamous $250 cookie recipe legend Neiman-Marcus now sells a chocolate chip cookie, and McDonald's (on behalf of its Ronald McDonald Houses) collects pull tabs for a charitableĪnother potential entry in this category is American Express, a company dogged for years by a rumor that it handed out black AmEx cards entitling holders to purchase anything up to jet fighters and beyond. Origins: Every now and then, a long-lived rumor spawns a real-life counterpart when someone in the business world comes to the startling realization that there is corporate gold to be mined by cashing in on what people are already committed to believing.
0 kommentar(er)
