Credit card increases & status

I received another offer to increase one of my credit card limits. So much for the credit crunch. So far this year I've recevied:

• An offer to increase a $12,500 credit card to $19,000
• An offer to increase a $10,000 credit card to $13,000

In addition, a couple of months ago I received an offer to ugrade to a gold credit card (no increase in credit limit). Let's look at the Pros and Cons of the gold credit card, compared to the one I did have with the bank:

Pros

• It was "Gold"
• Balance transfer offer of 3.9%

Cons

• Higher standard interest rate
• High annual fee

I did accept the offer for the Gold card because I made use of the 3.9% balance transfer offer. But if I hadn't needed/wanted the balance transfer offer, the only advantage would be that it was "gold" and this got me thinking about credit card "colours" and status.

Is a gold card really any superior to a normal/standard card? I actually have a "platinum" card, and I certainly don't have a platinum level of income!

Now I'm aware that some cards, such as the Centurion Card (aka a Black Amex), provide exclusive benefits, and that probably is a card where if you use it people go "whoa". (But with an AU $4,300 annual fee it would want to provide exclusive benefits!) But in terms of Gold/Platinum cards, they seem to be more and more common. I certainly don't think I'm served any differently if I use a Gold Card.