{"id":13582,"date":"2026-04-30T04:00:00","date_gmt":"2026-04-30T10:00:00","guid":{"rendered":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/?p=13582"},"modified":"2026-04-30T00:05:36","modified_gmt":"2026-04-30T06:05:36","slug":"the-unsung-hero-series-revisited-a-familiar-candidate-enters-the-ring","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/2026\/04\/30\/the-unsung-hero-series-revisited-a-familiar-candidate-enters-the-ring\/","title":{"rendered":"The Unsung Hero Series Revisited: A Familiar Candidate Enters the Ring"},"content":{"rendered":"\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">The State of the Heroes<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p>It&#8217;s been a while since we&#8217;ve had a new <a href=\"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/category\/unsung-heroes\/\">Unsung Hero<\/a> candidate for two major reasons:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ol class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Plenty of would-be candidates are at smaller banks and credit unions, and the volume of the greater internet would likely kill them<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Venture capital investment in the FinTech and credit card space has been declining annually every year since 2017, at least in terms of deal volume<\/li>\n<\/ol>\n\n\n\n<p>Don&#8217;t worry though, a decrease in venture capital has been met with increased annual fees and coupon book crap benefits at most major banks. Oh wait, no do worry.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<h4 class=\"wp-block-heading\">A New Challenger<\/h4>\n\n\n\n<p><a href=\"https:\/\/www.citi.com\/credit-cards\/citi-strata-premier-credit-card\">The Citi Strata Premier<\/a> is familiar card to most of us I&#8217;m sure. After all, other than <a href=\"https:\/\/www.citigroup.com\/global\/news\/press-release\/2024\/citi-enhances-the-citi-premier-card-with-new-benefits-to-make-travel-adventures-more-rewarding\">rebranding the card to have more confusing naming in early 2024 and a few worth-ignoring new category multiplers<\/a>, nothing significant has changed about the card. It has, however, become a standout because:<\/p>\n\n\n\n<ul class=\"wp-block-list\">\n<li>Its $95 annual fee is \ud83e\udd0f in today&#8217;s world<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>It earns 3x at grocery, gas, and restaurants, <em>uncapped<\/em><\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Citi payments can be shenaniganie<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>It doesn&#8217;t have any coupon book credits, other than a hotel credit you don&#8217;t need to worry about and probably won&#8217;t use<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>This card&#8217;s approvals are relatively loose<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>Citi&#8217;s transfer partners are surprisingly great<\/li>\n\n\n\n<li>ThankYou points can be simply cashed out for a penny each<\/li>\n<\/ul>\n\n\n\n<p>In other words, in a face of $195 annual fees, $25,000 bonus caps, $7 ride share credits, 0.6 cent point cashouts, Bilt cash, and <a href=\"https:\/\/www.reddit.com\/r\/AmexPlatinum\/comments\/1pqy6dh\/new_to_amex_is_an_hour_and_a_half_wait_this_normal\/\">lounges with 90 minute long lines<\/a>, the Citi Premier card is easy, valuable, and unobtrusive.<\/p>\n\n\n\n<p>Have a nice day friends!<\/p>\n\n\n<div class=\"wp-block-image\">\n<figure class=\"aligncenter size-full\"><img loading=\"lazy\" decoding=\"async\" width=\"338\" height=\"149\" src=\"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image-11.png\" alt=\"\" class=\"wp-image-13584\" srcset=\"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image-11.png 338w, https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/wp-content\/uploads\/2026\/04\/image-11-300x132.png 300w\" sizes=\"auto, (max-width: 338px) 100vw, 338px\" \/><\/figure>\n<\/div>\n\n\n<p class=\"has-text-align-center\" style=\"font-size:14px\">It&#8217;s not all Strata Premier roses though: Leaked upcoming monthly Strata coupon.<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"<p>The State of the Heroes It&#8217;s been a while since we&#8217;ve had a new Unsung Hero candidate for two major reasons: Don&#8217;t worry though, a<\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"closed","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"_editorskit_title_hidden":false,"_editorskit_reading_time":0,"_editorskit_is_block_options_detached":false,"_editorskit_block_options_position":"{}","footnotes":""},"categories":[18],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-13582","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-unsung-heroes"],"_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13582","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=13582"}],"version-history":[{"count":3,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13582\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":13639,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/13582\/revisions\/13639"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=13582"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=13582"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/milesearnandburn.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=13582"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}