The requirements for the Centurion Card is $150,000 in spending and paid within a 12 month period and excellent credit. The spending can be on any Amex Personal card, including Optima.

There can be exceptions, if you have been a member since the sixties or if you have a large balance in your Amex bank or brokerage ($1Miilion)

I never spent $150,000 / year with any Amex card I held, but I'm a long time customer (I applied for my 1st Amex in the 80s) with excellent payment history, and I travel a lot.
I was invited for Centurion, and accepted because I enjoyed always good service from Amex.

The annual fee is not really a problem, Centurion is a service card more than a pure charge card, and service can't be fee free.

The benefits are good (elite membership in hotel programs, insurances, etc.).

Use the card for it's benefits, but don't expect to be treated like Queen Elisabeth II  everytime you use the card : almost nobody cares  

For all of you that claim to have a Centurion Card, you are probably lying.  The card is simply great because it (by definition the Centurion Team) does whatever it can to make its customers happy.  Accordingly, my son, who is currently in Pamplona, Spain had my Centurion Travel Counselor book the wrong hotel.  Today, when he realized that the hotel was no where near Pamplona, and that he had misread a website, he had me call Centurion.  A travel counselor, not my usual one, immediately, despite the tardy cancellation that contradicted the hotel's policy, canceled the hotel room and booked him in a completely sold-out hotel in Pamplona (he could not get a room there and he was at the front desk)!  So, suffice it to say, today it saved me more than my annual fee, and it continually makes my investment worthwhile.  For all of those fakes out there, there is no reason to spurt out erroneous information about the card.  

if i apply for the Centurion card, and then cancel it 2 months, later will my enrollment in the Continetal and Delta elite programs stay active??

I received (to my surprise!) an invitation for Centurion today from Amex UK.  I already have Platinum and would be keen to hear from bugsy or any other UK Centurion cardholders if the additional benefits over and above what I already enjoy with Platinum are worth the £375/year extra (650 as opposed to 275 with Platinum...)

Cheers

Amex Gold, Plat, AND Cent all offer the CDW coverage.

Amex Platinum offers SLI ; the CDW is available as an extra cost option at £85/year - I understand this is included in Centurion.  The insurance upgrade is part of the "enhanced travel cover" package you can add to your Platinum inclusive insurance (it does offer other things as well, which elude me right now).  So, I understand that I'll get that included, plus... what?  Looks like the US card offers, for example, Gold Elite automatic enrolment in Continental OnePass (which is of interest to me as I fly CO whenever I can) but am unsure what *extra* I get with the UK card.  Is a second Priority Pass membership included?  I'll probably take up the offer as I'm so pleased to have been invited, but does it work out financially?

I was invited to have a gold card Dec 2000 from a Virgin Atlantic referral. I kept the gold for a year until offered platinum. I received that in Jan 2002.... and today I received the centurion invite.... Basically my rewards points are on £45000... so that's all I've spent in two years.... however, I have about 3 club flights in there - London/NY and the rest are 'fancy' bars or restaurants in London and NY. I think that they follow where you are spending your money.... it was my lifestyle that swung it rather than the amount of money I was spending..... I know people at work who spend more on their cards then I ever do.. ie serveral 5000USD flights each month, and still haven't had an invite. I'm def going to get mine as I'm a posieur !!! Oh, and for blaggers out there... you don't get a platinum style invite card... but a rather nice fabric covered black book with transparent pages in it !!!