A free private jet flight for all UK American Express Centurion cardholders

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We don’t discuss the ‘high net worth’ American Express Centurion card much on Head for Points, even though a fair few of our readers have one.

My personal view is that, unlike Amex Platinum, the Centurion card offers terrible value for money however you look at it. The members I know are generally people who got it when it launched and have a grandfathered annual fee which is a lot less than you would pay today.

As with Amex Platinum, very few of them even use the card much. 1 Membership Rewards point per £1 is a poor return compared to other cards. You don’t even get double points on airline spend or foreign spend, as you would with Amex Gold. The value is in the top-tier hotel status cards, eg Hilton Diamond, and the member events programme.

Anyway, Surf Air – the new membership based private jet service operating from London City, run by ex-BA executive Simon Talling-Smith, has a new offer for Amex Centurion cardholders.

It is willing to offer you a free one-way flight from London City Airport to Zurich, or vice versa, to try out its service. Anika has already given it a go and you can read her review here.

If this sounds like something you want to try, Amex Centurion cardholders should visit this page of the Surf Air website (link removed as offer has expired).

You need to book by the end of January to fly by the end of March. You can take a friend for a 50% discount on the standard rate.

Category

General

This article is closed to new posts. Discussion continues in the HfP Forums.

Mike says:

8 Jan8 January 06:49

What is the annual fee for the Amex Centurion card
- Mike says:
  
  8 Jan8 January 07:15
  
  It would appear it’s $7,500 initiation fee followed by a $2500 annual fee ????
  - S says:
    
    10 Jan10 January 09:21
    
    In the UK it’s £2500 initiation with £2200 annual
John says:

8 Jan8 January 07:30

Not sure about the “terrible value” for Centurion. I have the International Dollar Card programme (USD and EUR) and while you are right in terms of not using it as much as my other card, some of the benefits which have justified the annual fee are;

1. the travel insurance (for my family and my parents who are in their mid 70’s. Haven’t been refused yet including when cancelling points-based travel),

2. hotel offers (marginally better in some cases than what the fellow that Rob has a deal with…but significantly better on a couple occasions),

3. Car rental top tier: huge price difference with A is and Hertz (not all the time but frequently). Save d over $1000 for 2 week hire of a large SUV compared to any other provider including local companies.

4. Concierge: it is a different department than Platinum. My current relationship manager is. It great but my previous was absolutely excellent. Changing the current one. Getting very hard to secure tickets for concerts at face value was positive.
Nigel says:

8 Jan8 January 07:57

Centurion is by invitation only….as was Platinum when it was the top tier. The annual fee is £2200 compared to £1800 when it launched. You get Platinum benefits and some…..
The travel insurance is second to none and is underwritten by AXA, with no silly excesses at all and prompt payout with stress free claims – essential after an MI !!
The top tier loyalty status of all kinds of partners is worth having.
The Concierge service books tables / tickets when they are released, thereby relieving you of having to leap to the phone at 10AM 3 months before wanting to dine somewhere. They also have “same day” or same week tables at “trending” venues.
Fine Hotels and Resorts programme via Centurion does indeed give a service that is as good as and often better than Bon Vivant.
I use the card for everything, where AmEx is accepted. I have NEVER paid for any points in any programme and I simply accumulate the AmEx reward points and shift them to a programme when there is a significant (30% or more) bonus being offered. This is more often than not Virgin or BA – I am happy to wait as the points do not expire.
Other tiers that I have achieved significant status with, are through loyalty to the brand (as yet you cannot get BAEC tier points via your Lloyds AmEx card or HSBC credit card!!).
Is the AmEx Centurion worth £2200 a year? That depends on your own desires and activities I suppose.
However, there is a new sub tier of AmEx Centurion which I haven’t seen mentioned :- )) You have to be on target to spend £250,000 a year on the card. The benefits are rather specialised like personal dining with opera singers and private wine tastings with “listed” celebs. I have found the experiences thusfar not especially rewarding. We shall see if it lasts.
- matthew says:
  
  8 Jan8 January 08:55
  
  Just to add what many are now thinking…. “£250,000″… flipping heck!!!
  - Darren says:
    
    8 Jan8 January 09:23
    
    You can buy quite a few printer cartridges at Tesco’s with that 🙂
- Alex W says:
  
  8 Jan8 January 09:20
  
  Haven’t seen transfer bonuses from Amex MR in the UK for years. Are there special centurion transfer deals?
  - Rob says:
    
    8 Jan8 January 10:01
    
    No.
Alan says:

8 Jan8 January 08:05

The demographic spread of readers on this blog never ceases to amaze me.

Well done Rob on having such a widespread appeal for your blog’s content.
- Rob says:
  
  8 Jan8 January 23:38
  
  Quantcast, who track our stats, tells me that a HFP reader is 412% more likely than the average Brit to earn over £70k.
  - Genghis says:
    
    9 Jan9 January 05:48
    
    How do they know that?
    - Genghis says:
      
      9 Jan9 January 05:50
      
      I can understand potentially tracking IP addresses to locations, to salary bands in certain areas where accessed (assuming from home or work). But what about mobile access?
      - Rob says:
        
        9 Jan9 January 08:24
        
        If you run Facebook or similar via your mobile and a desktop, 3rd parties can use the cookies to link the devices. Facebook is the main driver. I can tell you what percentage of HFP readers (or readers of any other website) claim to have a degree for example.
Lady London says:

8 Jan8 January 09:48

There’s also the Amex Centurion lounges at US airports in a land where otherwise many lounges are quite lacklustre whereas I gather the Amex Centurion lounges have a better offering. Can only Platinum access those, or just Amex Centurion?
- Rob says:
  
  8 Jan8 January 10:00
  
  Platinum gets in, we’ve done a couple of articles on these.
- Imbruce1 says:
  
  10 Jan10 January 08:36
  
  Hong Kong airport also has a Centurion Lounge, I do not have my
  Platinum card with me on this trip as I am mainly using my Aussie cards.
  The Priority pass lounge was average.
RussellH says:

8 Jan8 January 10:45

Thanks for the IHG reminder. Just booked HI Corby (again) for 10 000 before it goes up to 15 000. Executive rooms selling for £153 (it is the day after the May Bank Holiday).
BlueHorizonUK says:

8 Jan8 January 12:30

OT – Have the spend £600 and get £200 back on Amex Travel but annoyingly the flight I want is £599.18. Is there any way of getting it bumped up to £600?
- Rob says:
  
  8 Jan8 January 13:12
  
  Spend is PROBABLY cumulative so booking a £10 pre-paid hostel in India afterwards will hopefully do the trick.
  - BlueHorizonUK says:
    
    8 Jan8 January 13:19
    
    Fingers Crossed
- Mr(s) Entitled says:
  
  8 Jan8 January 23:02
  
  You can book a hotel for only part of your stay. Select one night and select the cheapest. Depending upon where you go this will eat into your £200 by varying degrees but better to pay a few pound over £600 to knowingly secure £200. Bird in the hand and all that.