Collision Damage Waivers on International Car Rental

[My English Castle]

The MyEnglishCastle family is going back to England for a while this summer, and we're renting a car. We always get hit hard on the CDW for international rentals, to the point where I've lost my temper with the rental agents.

I'm trying to find a way to avoid paying ths outrageous ripoff.
I've contacted my regular insurance agent, and he can't do anything about international rentals. Our regular credit card won't cover international rentals in the UK either. So....we're considering upgrading our American Airlines card to a gold card which does cover CDW. The annual fee is $75 or something like that, but that would more than pay for the CDW.

Anyone have any other ideas on this one?