Is the American Express Centurion Card worth its $5,000 annual fee?
Short answer: no combination of the Amex Centurion Card’s credits covers its $5,000 fee; all three credits together come to $1,249. The remaining $3,751 has to come from status, lounges, perks and points. The catch is cadence: $1,000 of the $1,249 advertised arrives in monthly, quarterly or half-year chunks that expire unused.
$1,249 in advertised credits against a $5,000 fee. Here is every credit, how it is paid out, where it works, and the fine print that decides whether your spending will reach it.
Two of these credits reset on December 31: up to $469. Check off what you’ve used →
What it takes to cover the $5,000 fee
Even if you reached every one of the three credits, they would cover $1,249 of the $5,000 fee. The remaining $3,751 has to come from status, lounges, perks and the points the card earns, all valued below.
Of the $1,249: $1,000 arrives in monthly, quarterly or half-year chunks that do not roll over, so that credit needs matching spend on schedule, every period, or the money is gone; $1,000 pays nothing until you enroll or activate it.
$219 of the advertised value comes from terms the issuer states ambiguously; the catalog marks those unverified and the audit scores them conservatively.
What you actually reach depends on your own charges: the audit matches every credit against 12 months of real transactions, counts what actually landed on the card toward the fee, and shows the rest as upside.
Amex Centurion Card · the arithmetic
Face values from the issuer pages cited below, as of 2026-08-31. Your reachable number comes from your own charges.
The three credits on the Amex Centurion Card, with the fine print.
Face value per year, how the issuer chunks it, where it actually pays, and what you have to do first. Sorted by value.
| Credit | Per year | Paid out as | Works at | Setup | Flags |
|---|---|---|---|---|---|
| Resy Dining CreditUp to $250/quarter at 10,000+ US Resy-listed restaurants, select Resy event tickets, and Centurion New York dining: paying with the card at a qualifying restaurant suffices; a Resy booking is not required. Replaced the Saks credit effective 2026-07-01 after the Saks bankruptcy. Unused quarters are forfeited. | $1,000 | $250 a quarter; unused amounts are lost | Resy | enroll first | — |
| CLEAR Plus CreditCovers a CLEAR+ membership paid with the card; secondary coverage says family-member memberships (up to three additional) are also covered; only the primary $219 is counted here, conservatively. Cap tracks CLEAR pricing. | $219 | $219 a year, resets on the calendar | CLEAR | automatic once you spend | unverified |
| Global Entry / TSA PreCheck Credit$120 Global Entry every 4 years (TSA PreCheck variant $85); amortized $30/yr. | $30 | up to $120 once every four years ($30 a year amortized) | Global Entry, TSA PreCheck | automatic once you spend | — |
What makes the Amex Centurion Card’s credits hard to use
- Enrollment required. Resy Dining Credit pays nothing until enrolled or activated. The audit checks your statement for the issuer’s own credit postings, so an unenrolled credit shows up as exactly that.
Beyond the credits: status, lounges and points
- Delta SkyMiles Platinum Medallion, granted by holding the card. Valued from your observed stays at that chain, and never stacked with status you already hold.
- Hilton Honors Diamond, granted by holding the card. Valued from your observed stays at that chain, and never stacked with status you already hold.
- Marriott Bonvoy Gold Elite, granted by holding the card. Valued from your observed stays at that chain, and never stacked with status you already hold.
- IHG One Rewards Platinum Elite, granted by holding the card. Valued from your observed stays at that chain, and never stacked with status you already hold.
- Hertz Gold Plus Rewards Platinum, granted by holding the card. Valued from your observed stays at that chain, and never stacked with status you already hold.
- Avis Preferred President's Club, granted by holding the card. Valued from your observed stays at that chain, and never stacked with status you already hold.
- Global Lounge Collection (Centurion + Priority Pass + Delta) with guests, plus PS LAX membership, retail value up to $1,000 a year. Valued per observed flight day, once across your whole portfolio, credited to the cheapest card that covers it.
The cheaper card it’s compared with
A verdict on the Amex Centurion Card is never just keep or cancel. The audit scores the cheaper card in the family on your same year of charges. If it clears its fee, the verdict is downgrade; if none does, it is cancel, and the report names the best card it rejected.
| Downgrade target | Fee | Credits | Advertised |
|---|---|---|---|
| American Express Platinum Card | $895 | 12 | $3,024 |
Questions about the Amex Centurion Card’s credits
How much are the Amex Centurion Card’s credits worth?
$1,249 a year at face value across three credits, against a $5,000 annual fee. Covering the fee on credits alone takes more than every credit combined. $1,000 arrives in monthly, quarterly or half-year chunks that expire unused. What you reach depends on your own charges; Worth My Fee scores each credit against 12 months of real transactions.
Which Amex Centurion Card credits require enrollment or activation?
Resy Dining Credit. It pays nothing until switched on; the issuer’s own statement-credit postings show whether that has happened.
What is the downgrade option for the Amex Centurion Card?
The American Express Platinum Card ($895 a year). Worth My Fee scores it on your same year of charges: if a cheaper card clears its fee the verdict is downgrade, and if none does the verdict is cancel.
Sources
Issuer and loyalty-program pages first; commentary only where the issuer’s own page is ambiguous. Each link carries the date we last checked it, and a weekly job diffs these pages against the catalog.
Issuer and program pages
- Amex — Centurion benefit terms on the benefits dashboard (no public card page; renders client-side, values confirmed from the secondary sources) global.americanexpress.com · checked 2026-08-31
Commentary
- FinanceBuzz — Centurion card review (2026) financebuzz.com · checked 2026-08-31
- Upgraded Points — Amex Centurion (Black) card review (2026) upgradedpoints.com · checked 2026-08-31
- Doctor of Credit — Centurion adds $1,000 Resy credit (replaces Saks, July 2026) doctorofcredit.com · checked 2026-08-31
Which of these would you reach?
Connect the Amex Centurion Card and Worth My Fee scores every credit above against your last 12 months of charges, nets out the traps, and gives one verdict: keep, downgrade or cancel. The topline is free.
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