Lai See | Nightmare airport ride darkens Black card reputation

We are still receiving complaints from holders of the American Express Centurion Card - the so-called Black card. Centurion Travel Services (CTS) appears to be a particular source of frustration.

One reader "absolutely concurs" with the problem of CTS waiting times. She writes: "Whilst one sort of puts up with it on day-to-day matters, when it comes to emergencies, it is a real problem."

She describes how she had arranged with CTS to take her family of six to the airport for a 9am flight. "The van was late as it 'got lost'. We tried to call CTS - of course we did not get an answer. Finally, the van found us and we were so late for the flight that we thought we must notify CTS so that they could call ahead to the airlines for us - or do something … We were on hold for the entire trip from our house in Clearwater Bay to the airport and never got to speak to anyone at CTS. We tried calling their concierge service, who said someone would call us back in five minutes. That call never happened. We only made our flight because it was delayed."

The cardholder also says that Amex's service has declined considerably over the years. A recent trip to Singapore was cancelled since she didn't want to expose her children to the smog and e-mailed CTS about its cancellation policy.

"Not only did they get my name wrong in their response, their response was 'CTS doesn't have a special policy for smog - so the approach you must take is to decide whether to go or not, and then read the cancellation policy on the air ticket," she writes.

"Not the kind of response you would expect for the price that they charge, or from any competent travel agency!"