A black mark against the black card? Here’s the sad saga of a Centurion slip-up

Chris – the last line of this article needs to be changed. I personally believe that you should get what you pay for, so if you pay premium prices, you’re entitled to premium customer service, not just “competent” customer service. She didn’t even get competency.

When you pay for a service like the AmEx black card, you shouldn’t receive service like Pamela did. It’s unfortunate that there such a breakdown of communications between Centurion and the Ritz-Carlton. If AmEx was alerted that the hotel cancelled the entire reservation, they could have quickly fixed the reservation and there wouldn’t be a problem. AmEx should pick up the difference in hotel costs as the customer wasn’t at fault for the cancellation.

I do believe that AmEx needed to do more to compensate her for their mistake. She trusted the travel agent to do her job, which is to get the customer a room. Also, being hung up on is completely inexcusable, no matter the situation. Holding the black card entitles you to superior customer service, and what the customer recieved was not at all acceptable. Shame on you AmEx.

What a pain, talk about not getting what you pay for. You would think being a black card member would mean you don’t need inside contacts to get a room you had already reserved, i guess that’s not the case with american express. Easy solution, get rid of the middle man. Pamela should be staying in Miami for free.

I think we are all entitled to more than just competent customer service. But as a black card holder you should expect and receive more than that. Amex promotes the card for just that reason. Amex should do whatever is needed to resolve this situation to Pamela’s satisfaction. “The customer is always right”

My boss also has the AMEX blackcard and he too has run into problems with the American Express Business Centurion Travel Service. You would think that with the annual amount they charge their members to have one, that they would have all the glitches figured out. I guess it really doesn’t pay to be a black card AMEX carrier!

I’ve worked in the service industry for 20 years — as a waitress and a marketing professional, and I’ve learned two very important things: First, whether you like it or not, the customer is ALWAYS right. Second, how you deal with a mistake is almost always more important than the mistake itself. I give AmEx kudos for accepting responsibility (sort of), but “sorry” doesn’t solve the problem. Any reasonable customer would expect “sorry” to be followed by, “this is how we’ll fix it.” By not offering an acceptable resolution (a room rate that is almost double the original rate is not acceptable), AmEx was basically saying, “We don’t need your business.”

This whole story is horrible, but unfortunately not unusual in the chaotic chasm of the credit card industry.

Here are the basics:

1. Regardless of whether you have a Black Centurion Card or any other pricey membership, you will receive the same basic service as would any card holder at the basic level. The only measurable difference in service might be in how fast your phone call is answered.

2. Most travel and concierge services are outsourced by the major credit card companies. Only account services (if that) are provided internally. The down side is that it makes it hard to know with which group you are speaking, and how much access to your account they have.

3. Regardless of which department you are working, or which program you belong to, customer service is the primary responsibility of any customer service agent when working with their customer. Regardless of fault, if what was sold is no longer available, it becomes the responsibility of both the bank and the vendor (if applicable) to make good on this purchase.

To summarize, the loss of the room due to a technical glitch should have been rectified immediately, without the need of itinerary change, as soon as it was recognized. Allowing for this error, where a new hotel became necessary, any additional cost, either in room expense or in transportation needs, should be compensated by and arranged for by the agent making the new reservations, at that time. The customer should never suffer at the incompetence of their customer service agent. I highly recommend calling back and speaking with the manager, or whoever you can get a name and contact for who has a title of significance. Frequently just speaking to a different department about your concerns, can do wonders.

It’s not that hard. Pamela booked a room, and she gets the room for the price she booked it. End of story for her. Quite frankly, she shouldn’t even hear about the mess-up. The travel agent arranges that with the hotel.

Now once the customer is off the hook, the travel agent and the hotel start their own separate battle of who is to pay for the virtual damaged. I say virtual, because hotel pricing is as set as car rental pricing, so basically, the hotel would not even have to eat it if they wanted to.

In a reasonable world, the hotel and the travel agent would kinda share the burden, but in the real world, the hotel and the travel agent would probable have to just see who wins the game of chicken. Travel agent could argue the number of customers it booked in the hotel so far, and threaten the hotel to stop referring customers. The hotel will then have to figure out how serious that threat is.

Ok, that was the story for every client of a travel agent. Now the special case with the black/gold/diamond/whatever credit card with “excellent” service.

Amex could just eat the burden. Pamela already paid them $2500 for the card. I would think that annual fee is there just for cases like this. I would not believe that Amex has significantly more expensive customer representatives as compared to other credit cards. More perhaps. And perhaps a bit higher paid, but that should all easily fall within the price difference of a “free” credit card and one that charges you $2500 a year.

It’s worse than some might think.

AMEX attempted to make more profit on this “mistake”.

AMEX “invites” you to their exclusive club because you spend a min of $250,000 per year. AMEX gets hefty merchant fees off that spending, PLUS your $2500 per year member fee, PLUS a commission for booking the room.

So them offering a higher priced room nets them a higher merchant fee, PLUS a higher travel agent commission.

Was there really a mistake here? Of someone trying up their numbers?

What about the fact that the Ritz-Carlton was completely booked, and then when Pamela calls a higher up at Amex, a room suddenly and magically materializes?

If travel companies were straight with its customers, we wouldn’t need to badger and escalate and disbelieve. The fact that being a pain in the butt gets results, insures that the behavior will continue.

$2500 to “look cool”?? What a waste of money. The people who can afford to spend that amount for marginal, if any, service are either brainless or too wealthy.

I have a black card provided by my employer as a significant perk. Its main benefit is it provides you elite status on a number of airlines and gets you those benefits including upgrades, priority boarding and access to many airport lounges. For hotels, you do get breakfasts, and some added benefits including better prices for rooms than I could get otherwise.

If I had to pay for it personally, its real questionable. The service I have had when dealing with Amex’s travel 3rd party supplier has been OK, but not great. As stated, the real benefit is the upgrade to elite status in the airlines and some hotel chains.

The service this customer received was ridiculous for any level of cardholder. Amex made the mistake and has to step up and make the customer completely whole.

There is a BIG difference between travel agencies and these comments seem to LUMP them all in one pot.

Just like all MEN are NOT the same, all cars are not the same, all religions are not the same, the world travel agency or travel agent is not the same

And the commissions we make are NOT that high. The reason why AMX and Master Card and Visa have to outsource this type of work, is that no one in the USA or other large countries wants a full time career as a travel agent any more.

The pay is terrible compared to even a school teacher in Fairfax County Virginia or Montgomery County.

So in the never ending quest for the “lowest fare” or the best hotel deal, which has produced NOT much service at the airlines or many hotels, these days, try saying THANK YOU once in a while, if you are lucky to have a MATURE long time TRAVEL consultant that you deal with!

You thank your hairdresser, tip them well, and call way in advance for an appointment if you have a good hairdresser. You thank and tip your nail lady.
You thank your doctor, dentist, CPA, and they make about 10 to 30 times a year plus what a good travel agent makes.

So why not some thanks for agents. You don’t tip us, you don’t give us gifts at Christmas, you expect everything to be Perfect, even though I don’t own or run the airline, limo company, cruise line, hotel, inn, villa, and get all the grief, is there is one tiny thing on your trip you did not like.

It is a two way street folks. I treat my once a week cleaning service nicely, even though they always forget something, as well as my paper boy, mail man, lawn guy, nail lady, hairdresser, tailor,Doctor, receptionist,vet, and I pay them for their services.

And I write a small card of thanks with it. Does anyone do that with their travel agent, not all the time. They just call to complain about the airline being late, the hotel room did not have the best view, the maid did not clean well, the toilet made funny noises, the TV does not get every cable channel, the rent a car was not clean or made clunky sounds or was dirty.

I had a man once from Potomac Maryland who called from the Ritz Carlton in Maui to tell me that the gourmet dining room would not let him in for dinner in shorts and flip flops and a tank top and I should have given him a list of acceptable clothing attire in their top dining room.

Like I knew he was going to wear that in their fine dining room at 8pm at night. Even my 28 year old son would know what to wear at the Ritz versus Taco Bell.

.I told him to go to town and buy a long pair of slacks and a decent shirt, if he wanted top gourmet dining rooms for dinner or go eat at Maui Taco or a lower priced dining spot in his more casual dining attire.

He actually wrote me a letter when he got back, enclosing the receipts for his shirt and pants, and wanted me to PAY for his pants and shirt, for not giving him a clothing list on what to wear for each type of place he might go to on his trip……………

I was tempted to pay a native to drop a few coconuts on his head or throw him in a shark pool.

I have had quite a few men, including my young lawyer, who asked me to come up with a list for the “right’ type of attire on their trips and I have been glad to do it, even though it does not come under Websters definition of travel agent..

Real good LOCAL travel agents have worked over time from the day we started, and work hard for lower pay then my niece makes, one year after college.

So if you don’t want to end up with Brandi’s, Tammi’s, and the like at some outsource office, find a GOOD agent in your own town, and treat them with some respect. and call or write and thank them like a lot my clients do.

Many Clients today are arrogant and they treat their travel agents for the most part like we are serfs, peons, doing nothing but easy work and making big commissions, getting all those free trips, ha ha and not even worth a thank you. That is common courtesy.

The good agents are NOT 19 or 20 or 25 years old. They are old tough ladies like me, who know our stuff. But I will not take certain people anymore. You can almost size up a potential problem client, and believe me, it is a two way street!

There is a lot more to travel then just book an air ticket and a hotel. At least with my clients and I do get thank you’s and gifts from a lot of them. But when I read columns like this, and the way your writers talk about “travel agents” it makes my blood boil, after all these years…………………..

I like what I do and I do it well. I once worked for AMX, and it was too regimented, but new money clients are impressed by the Platinum and Black Cards.

In this case, I feel AMX was clearly in the wrong, and they should be providing their 2500 a year fee black card clients better. Everyone is trying to cut corners and keep costs down, even AMX. Then don’t charge 2500.

Travelers could get many of the same “extra’s” if they picked the time to choose the RIGHT travel agent and developed a relationship.

I have gone to the mat for many of my clients, even when they were in the wrong, because we had a relationship of respect, and I work with them.

People lump travel agents all in one pot, and we are NOT!!!! Thank you, and have a nice day.

I’ve been a Centurion Card holder since the program began, in fact i believe I was one of the first. I’ve also been an American Express Card holder since 1970. Does this make a difference?? The answer is “NO”.

American Express could care less about consumer loyalty, customer service, and value. I have had numerous experiences with their “travel counselors”, “concierge service” and all I can say is that the old adage… “if you want it done right, do it yourself” consistently applies to anything that Amex puts their fingers on. I have horror stories that make what this young lady went through seem like a walk in the proverbial park.

This April I received my Amex statement, only to see that my annual membership fee for the Centurion Card was arbitrarily increased from $1000 to $2500. My Centurion membership was as a “Charter Member” and as such, my membership fee was to be grandfathered from the inception at the original $1000 rate.

I guess that they arbitrarily decided to change their agreement with the charter members, and without any notice… I mean, this is a company that for its “Centurion” members sends out lavish annual renewal packages… thumb drives, exquisite Lucite boxes, tony magazines trumping the “benefits” of the black card… but they couldn’t take the time to send me a letter announcing the abrogation of a 20 year old agreement!

When I called the Centurion customer service desk, I was given the usual runaround… first.. they gave me a wrong phone number to call.. then, they cannot do anything about it, then someone would get back to me later… Later turned out to be 5 to 7 days later!!! So much for valuing my longevity with the Amex card! What a crock of… “MERDE”…in French!

So, I decided to write their Chairman, Kenneth Chernault about this unilateral revision to the charter membership. That letter was emailed on the 13th of April, and then sent DHL to his office. As of today, 28th April there has been no response. I mean… I’ve been a card holder for 38 years… at least the courtesy of a response??? Nope… NADA… nothing… well, “screw them”… I’m voting with my feet here..and quickly too!

In short, unless you need to impress some luckless desk clerk in Bangladesh with a metal black credit card, or some unfortunate sales girl in some local retail shop… the card is worthless. Customer service is non existent, the room rates offered are little better than the rack rate, the airfares.. even the 2 for 1 deals.. you can get better pricing elsewhere.. the special events.. well if you have a black card, you’ve probably already received an invitation.. the ability to assist you when you really need it… I lost my card a few years ago, and it took hours on the phone and several arguments with “managers” to get a replacement… which took several days.. I could go on and on.

Needless to say, I am giving up this privileged card, and all of my American Express Cards. I now get much better service with the local branded Visa and Master Cards.

There no longer is any pride in carrying the American Express card. They were, in the 1970′s quite the company to beat. today, they are quite the company that is already beaten and left in the dust.

Take your $2500, and your $250 annual spending – bring the year end Amex summary, into your local bank. Not the HUGE commercial bank, but the decently sized local bank with local people. You probably know some of them if you make that much money you spend $250 a year on credit cards.

Have a little chat with the local credit officer abut getting a nice high limit card and putting some money in his bank. S/he’d be a lot more willing to give you a big credit line and when you need customer service, well, you know who to call.

We just canned both of our affinity cards with airlines because we never use the miles – we can’t STAND flying the airlines any more. I did the above and now have a nice mastercard with essentially no limit, a local banker who cares about me keeping my personal business with their bank, and who believes me instead of a merchant in a dispute and does the charge back with out any hassle. The best part of it is that they send people to my house or office with cash when I need it so I do not have make an extra stop at a bank, I get a great rate on foreign currency, and they say hello when I see them. Its a small town, but any decent local bank can give you the same service,

Service IS out there. Its just not with the big companies since they’ve all cost cut service to Bangla Desh.

AS to you travel agents out there? Where are you? I’ll pay $1000 a year to spend my $75k on travel. Everyone of your profession I have ever dealt with generally ask the same question 12 times – after I’ve answered it 11, 12, counting what I told them before they were really paying attention. “How are going, and what type of hotel” Answer: “I’d like to pay a decent rate and receive an upgrade to the concierge / business floor, there will be three of us – we will be arriving at insert name airport, NOT the main airport for the city, and we’d like to hotel to send a car to pick us up.”

Two days I get a call “What airport are you going into again? There is no listing in my computer for that airport”

Three days later: “Mr. Farrell, I cannot the name of the airport in my system.”

guess what, its not in your system, it is a non-airline field. Do you have the information I typed up -

“Why yes, its here somewhere”

“Did you look at it?”

“”well, I’ve never had anyone fly private before”

Me: “Ah – can you handle the request?”

“Well, I’ve never really dealt with the hotels directly – its usually over he computer”

Me: “Thank you, I’ll handle it from here”

This is usually after they tell me in the interview that they’ve been in the business 20 years, have personal contacts etc etc etc. So yeah, I keep hearing about travel agents – what would do for a customer who paid you a $500 annual retainer, let you keep your comissions – all I want is someone getting me the best room and best service and I’m even willing to pay for it – to guarantee you $500 or $1000 a year plus commissions?

Any takers? resumes to

just a quick update: although DHL delivered my letter 15 days ago to the Chairman’s office, there has been no response whatsoever from Amex.

I will buy 100 shares of Amex stock and attend their next shareholder meeting so I can ask Mr. chenault personally in front of 500 people why a respnse to my letter was not given. We’ll see how he responds at that time!

While the rich have tons of money and AMEX makes tons of money off of the black card, the folks manning the AMEX phones and actually giving the “customer service” aren’t making a living wage. All customer service SHOULD be remarkable, but most is barely passable. If you pay more for excellence a company should have excellent people in place to ensure customers get it – not giggling cubicle monkeys who hang up on a customer rather than cope.

I doubt AMEX has higher standards for those it promotes to its black card lines. As a former journalist I have to agree – AMEX IS journalist paranoid and controlling.