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So what kind of incentives does your card offer? You may have embellished in the comfort of knowing that during your next purchase, you could very well be 100 miles closer to your dream vacation. Unfortunately, your card has nothing on luxury cards which fly little circles around your airlines miles incentive program in their own little private jets.

Value is in the eye of the beholder. A standard theme of the programs is upgrades and discounts for luxury travel and hotel accommodations, and, more important, concierge or personal shopping services.

Points can be redeemed for a dizzying array of luxury items, and at the very highest echelon, the customer gets to decide where she or he wants the points to be spent.

“I’ve heard of cases where the customer spent his points on plastic surgery for his wife,” Ferguson says. “Or on an antique.”

As for annual fees, if you have to ask…

I had heard a few things here and there about the mystical Black AMEX card. We even posted a little snippet about the card a number of months back. I had no idea that a purple card existed for a prestigious few (100 cardholders) including the Queen herself.