American Express Introduces Artist-Designed Centurion (“Black”) Cards And Prada Wearable

The American Express Black Card (Centurion Card) has a $5000 annual fee and you pay a $7500 initiation fee your first year as a cardmember, too. It comes with standard Platinum card benefits (sans the $200 annual airline fee credit), plus Delta Platinum, Hilton Diamond, and IHG Rewards Platinum status. New in the last year is an Equinox Destination Access Membership, and a $1,000 annual Saks credit. Cardmembers sometimes receive expensive gifts too.

The card is getting a refresh. One cardmember sent me details on the package they’ve just received, sharing that they have the option to,

custom design [their] Centurian card and they have artist in [their new brochure to] use for the design. .. There appear to be two artist,s you use the QR code… From there you can design a card from a template… You can also have a PRADA wearable card.

…There’s also a Centurion Living section which is concerts and film events scattered throughout the globe that [to] attend for free.

Cardmembers can choose to keep the ‘classic’ Centurion card design, or they can select one of two artist-designed cards:

And they can opt into also receiving a wearable card:

The Black Card is due for a redesign. Metal cards are becoming passé even if a Centurion card did once stop a bullet. It’s still a long time since Kanye west dropped references to it in 2004,

I went to the malls and I balled too hard/ ‘Oh my god is that a black card?’/ I turned around and replied, ‘Why, yes/ But I prefer the term African-American Express’

It’s just an expensive card with some travel status. If investing in the image is key to the product, custom-designed cards make sense with each card member becoming more unique.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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  1. Had the AMEX Centurion (Black) card for +20 yrs. Services provided, ie personal travel team, decreased or significantly diminished over the years as cost significantly increased. Particularly irksome was creation of Centurion Clubs and permitting both Centurion and Platinum card members access. This, while Centurion Card costs multiples more on an annual basis. Finally swapped Centurion Card for Platinum card and never looked back.

    Chase Sapphire Reserve is premier card in my wallet as it has best rewards program and services for the cost.

  2. Why pay a $7,500 initiation fee and a $5,000 annual fee for the American Express Black Card (Centurion Card) when you are not considered worthy of receiving their $200 annual airline fee credit? I thought “membership has its privileges.”

  3. @Qinxuan Pan, agree.

    At first I thought just the R, but then I to a close up look, and there’s just so much wrong.

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