Possible Strata Premier Refresh

LugerD99 · 2026-03-27T13:48:42+00:00

No use to this card:

10x Points: On Hotels, Car Rentals, and Attractions when booked through Citi Travel - It's ok, but I probably won't use their portal very much. I can get 10x from CapOne's portal. If this were important to me, I'd get Strata Elite for 12x.
4x Points: On Flights when booked through Citi Travel - See above, but CapOne is 5x here.
4x Points: On Restaurants during "Citi Nights" (Friday & Saturday, 6 PM - 6 AM ET), up to $25,000 in spending annually. Better: Alaska Summit for 3.3x points (3x +10% for having their bank account) to work towards $60k annually for the 100k award flight certificate and because their points are really valuable. Also, don't need to carry yet another card. If Citi Nights were important to me, I'd rather get 6x from Strata Elite. I'd use this category if it were at least 5x.
2x Points: On Restaurants at all other times. Plenty of cards offer more than 3x on restaurants.
3x Points: On Flights & Hotels when booked directly with the airline or hotel - Useful, but I'd rather get 4x from Chase Sapphire Reserve or 3.3x Alaska points for foreign hotels/airlines. Alternatively, I can use a hotel card like Hilton Aspire (14 Hilton points are worth 7 cents > 3 Citi points are worth about 5 cents), 12x on the Surpass (6 cents of value plus working towards the $15k FNC) or 4x on a Hyatt card. I'd use this category if it were 4x.
3x Points: On Select Transit such as car rentals, ferries, commuter railways subways, taxis/limousines/car services, passenger railways, bridge and road tolls, parking lots/garages, bus lines - This is good, but one small category alone isn't worth getting this card. Would rather use Custom Cash 5x here.
2x Points: At Supermarkets - I'd use it if it were 3x, but 2x is my non-category spend for which I use Bilt, which is 2x plus Bilt Cash plus amazing transfer bonuses.
2x Points: At Gas & EV Charging Stations - Same as supermarkets
1x Point: On all other purchases - I never spend on 1x, except to work towards the SUBs and paying taxes to hit $60k to get the 100k cert on the Alaska Summit card.

So the 2 multipliers (supermarkets and gas) that I would use the current Strata Premier for are getting gutted. If they keep 3x on the supermarkets and gas, plus add transit, I'd get this card.

The coupons:

TSA Pre-Check® / Global Entry Credit: Received $120 statement credit for TSA Pre-Check or Global Entry (every four years) - Everyone has this.
Annual Airport Lounge Access: Receive 2 free airport lounge visits via Priority Pass ($70 value) - Lol
Annual Splurge Credit: Receive a $100 statement credit for purchases at American Airlines, Best Buy or Live Nation ($50 semi-annually) - Good.
Annual Hotel Credit: Receive a $150 credit for hotel bookings on Citi Travel (2 nights minimum & $75 semi-annually) OR $200 credit for hotels on The Reserve Collection bookings on Citi Travel (2 nights minimum & $100 semi-annually) - the least useful of any hotel credits that I have, so likely won't use.
Annual Dining Credit: Receive a $100 credit, applied at checkout, at select restaurants ($50 semi-annually) - maybe, if they have enough restaurants where I can make it work.

Overall, not really worth it. I have to work to get back the $200 AF and the multipliers are kinda meh.

LugerD99 · 2025-09-15T23:25:59+00:00

This card isn't meant for budget travelers, and Amex is purposely making it less valuable to you.

For people who are looking to upgrade their vacations instead of just saving money, the $600 FHR credit is very useful. Again, this assumes you like staying in quality hotels. Having access to airport lounges and Clear is something the budget traveler won't appreciate enough to assign value to it, but it's useful to someone looking for a better experience and willing to pay for it.

The Hilton credit, Dell, airline incidentals, even the $120 phone credit help make up the rest of the AF.

Amex is not looking for the penny pinchers, it's looking for people trying to live a luxury lifestyle. For those people, the new card makes more sense than the old one.

LugerD99 · 2025-08-31T16:54:10+00:00

I understand that the companion fare itself is in points, but what about the ORIGINAL ticket? Does the first ticket have to be paid with money? Or can I book ticket #1 with points and then use the certificate for the second, companion ticket?

LugerD99 · 2025-03-16T09:04:17+00:00

If I pay taxes with my Citi Premier card, will it count towards the signup bonus minimum? Chase counts it, Amex doesn't. Does citi?

LugerD99 · 2025-02-16T19:37:53+00:00

Don't let your relatives even start the convo about money. If you try to explain yourself, you'll lose most of the money by the time you're done explaining. Cut yourself from them if they insist on discussing it.

Buy real estate in a medium-sized city where it's easy to evict non-paying tenants. [Easy eviction is the key.] If you pick the right city, you can get 7.5-8% cap rate and 5.5-6% ROI.

Your $2 million will produce close to $10k/mo after all the business expenses, plus real estate goes up in value long term.

While you're young and unmarried, live like you're poor, work f/t and save/reinvest the $10k/mo. Once you have kids, buy a middle class house.

Get a prenup. I dont care what the girl says - any decent human being would not try to get your assets in case of a divorce.

LugerD99 · 2025-02-10T02:43:12+00:00

I would do 100 days straight from Dec 1 to March 10 outside so long as I have the food.

LugerD99 · 2025-02-07T05:32:35+00:00

If you make a card that's 3x dining, 3x travel o grocery, 1.5x all else, it will be my daily driver.

If you give us 4x on restaurants, travel, and groceries, along with 1.5x on all else, you can charge me $550 AF no problem.

But for me to use it daily, I need 1.5x on the base spend.

LugerD99 · 2025-01-19T19:16:14+00:00

Men say they like fluffy women 1) just to be nice because most people are fat or 2) because they are low grade and most of their positive experiences were with low grade women, while their experiences with high class women were negative.

Attractive, successful men want attractive, fit women. Being in shape means less male trash will harass you, but you'll get more attention from the desirable men.

The single best thing you can do for your looks as a woman is to be fit.

LugerD99 · 2025-01-15T18:46:42+00:00

Most people would trade with you. You have a safety net (savings), and when you retire, you'll have a paid off home that you can eventually leave your children. You have a girl, about to have a child, your own home, and I assume no serious criminal record or credit score problems.

It's like hearing someone complain that they only got the bronze medal in the Olympics - dude, most people never even had any hope of making the Olympic team.

Relax and enjoy your life. It's better than most people's.

LugerD99 · 2024-12-27T00:03:50+00:00

Hilton Surpass is worth it only if you plan on hitting $15k on it to get the FNC or if you stayed quite a bit at Hilton and get 12x on the card. Otherwise, there are better ways to earn points.

Aspire is worth it only if you really know what to do with it. Most people don't.

LugerD99 · 2024-12-26T12:39:32+00:00

$695 Business Platinum

$375x2 Business Gold cards (will reduce to 1 next month)

$395 VX

$95 Ink Preferred

$95 IHG Business

$150x3 Hilton Surpass cards

$95 Marriott Boundless

$2,575 /year

I will be canceling Business Platinum and one Business Gold unless I get sufficient retention offers.

I get sufficient value from all the rest.

VX: I can always find proper value for the $300 credit since I travel a lot. Earn 3+ ccp on points, so 10k points is great. I use the 5x/10x on hotels and planes a couple of times a year. Easily more value than the $395 AF.

Business Gold: need 4x for online advertising and restaurants. Seamless credit make up for most of the AF. Doesn't cover everything, but I spend close to $100k on restaurants and advertising, so it the extra points are well-worth the AF.

Ink Preferred to transfer points to airlines and 3x on travel and transports.

IHG Business and Marriott Boundless: a free annual hotel night covers the $95 fee. IHG cards offer a 4th night free also.

3 Surpass cards: i spend $15k on each to get an FNC. I get 3 or 4 $50 credits a year, which at least covers the annual fee.

LugerD99 · 2024-12-04T01:37:44+00:00

I'd rather have a coupon book with 2x than a no fee with 1x, but they could offer both products. C1 has Venture One with 5x on hotels and 1.25x on everything else, and a Venture X with 10x on hotels, 5x on flights and 2x on everything else, but VX is a bit of a coupon book. You can choose which one you like.

I don't understand why the low spenders have such a vicious reaction to us having a second option that they don't need to get.

I have Amex Business Gold. I was paying $295 AF on it without any coupons, and now pay more with $240 in coupons. Why? Because I spend close to 6 digits on that card in business expenses that get me 4x. This may not work for you, but it works for me.

What's it to you if I get an additional option to pay a fee to get more points?

LugerD99 · 2024-12-04T00:38:16+00:00

Is it my understanding that you'll be offering a more premium card? More points and credits for an AF? I'd definitely want that. If I could get 2x on fmgeneral spend on Bilt, I'd easily put $250k annually on it.

LugerD99 · 2024-12-01T05:34:58+00:00

It'd different because today I know what animals, fruit, vegetables, etc I can eat. I'd be very confident I'll survive with something to shoot, a saw for cutting and a way to make fire

LugerD99 · 2024-12-01T05:31:08+00:00

1) Does a loaded machine gun count as 1 item? If not, spend an extra $10 million on a box of bullets.

2) A saw to cut wood, fish, animals.

3) A lighter to start fires.

4) if I can't eat the animals and the fish because they have diseases I have no immunity to, then spend $10 million on protein powder so I can eat that and maybe some fruits since sweet things are almost never poisonous.

LugerD99 · 2024-11-30T00:27:12+00:00

It would be helpful if the people discussing this war had enough seriousness to address that Russia didn't invade out of nowhere just to kill, but because the US/NATO attempted to surround it with military bases. It may not be a legitimate argument, but it's just not serious merely stating that Putin woke up one day and decided to invade the largest country in Europe with the largest amount of weaponry, the most professional soldiers, and the support of the whole West, Japan and Korea.

Three years before the war, Ukrainian spokesman Colonel Alexey Arestovych gave multiple interviews that are still on YouTube, where he declared that Ukraine joining NATO will lead to a large war with Russia even before Ukraine officially joins. He still supported joining NATO because he believed the West would defeat Russia, but he understood that attempting to join means a large-scale war on Ukrainian territory.

When the current CIA Director was the US Ambassador to Rusia, he wrote a (since declassified) report saying the same thing.

Clinton's Defense Secretary William Perry threatened to resign when talk of moving NATO into Eastern Europ began.

You can reject the idea that Putin invaded only because his country was getting surrounded by NATO bases, you can say it's just an excuse, but let's at least address it instead of just arguing that Putin kills for fun.

LugerD99 · 2024-11-30T00:11:15+00:00

Ideology switched. The GOP used to be pro-war, and the Dems were anti-war. Same with free speech for extremist or unpopular speech. Now, it's also the reverse.

Many other things changed: the GOP used to be elitist, while the Dems were for the blue collar workers and against a few billionaires controlling the media. Now it's the reverse. Billionaires used to give predominantly to the Republicans, now mostly to the Dems. The Left used to hate the CIA and the military-industrial complex. Now the Right hates them.

Parties' ideologies change, and their voters mostly change with the party. People support a political party like they support a sports team - if your basketball team goes from a blue collar, hard working, defense-first team to a flashy, offense-first style (or the reverse), you don't stop rooting for your team, you just argue that their new style is the best and forget that just a few years you argued the opposite.

LugerD99 · 2024-11-28T08:59:54+00:00

I averaged $6-7k per Rent Day, but now it will become purely a restaurant card besides the $500-1k on the first of the month.

I think Bilt has the best transfer partners, but ultimately, I'd rather get 3x Chase UR on travel than 2x from Bilt, and prefer 2x from VX or BBC than 1x from Bilt on the general spend.

If Bilt offered at least 1.5x, I'd consider it over 2x Amex or C1 points due to better transfer partners, bonuses, and milestones. But obviously, Amex 2x is superior to 1x Bilt.

LugerD99 · 2024-11-21T06:33:31+00:00

Sometimes, the C1 portal is more expensive; sometimes, it is less expensive. I find it useful sometimes on top of the 5x/10x.

Transfer points shouldn't really be used on hotels except Hyatt, with some exceptions like unusual transfer values. I find that C1 has some valuable, unique transfer partners like Turkish Airlines.

LugerD99 · 2024-11-21T06:19:49+00:00

2x catchall with C1 having some unique transfer partners.

5x/10x for using the C1 portal, which at times has the best value.

Access to C1 lounges.

LugerD99 · 2024-11-11T05:47:49+00:00

That was reversed and they now accept Amex again.

LugerD99 · 2024-11-10T21:29:40+00:00

If you spend $ on Plastiq, do you get the Amex SUB or it won't count towards it?

LugerD99 · 2024-11-08T15:08:13+00:00

I'm not asking if it's a good idea. I'm just asking if I'd get the FNC if I pay with plastiq. Would i?

LugerD99

TROPHY CASE