On October 14, 1999 American Express announced
the introduction of the Centurion™ Card. The Centurion
Card is offered by invitation only to selected Platinum
Card members.
The black-colored Centurion Card offers
customized personal service to help ease the busy and demanding
lifestyles of cardmembers. It has been designed for individuals
who travel frequently, entertain often and value single
points of contact for service.
“We created the Centurion Card in
response to customer research that identified a small but
affluent group of cardmembers for whom individual attention
and access to previously unavailable elite travel benefits
was of great interest,” said James Bush, senior vice
president of Consumer Marketing at American Express. “Many
of our prospective cardmembers are already frequent travelers
receiving elite benefits on one airline. The Centurion Card
is the only product on the market that can grant them elite
status on four airlines, and much more.”