American Express Membership Rewards - Stratus Rewards - What is it?

A few days ago, I got an inviation to join some type of rewards program called Stratus Rewards - invited through Cierge, which I got through Amex. It's $1,000 per year (normally $1,500), and I can't begin to see what good it is.

Has anyone else received this offer? Can anyone figure out what it offers beyond what Centurion already has? The packet reminds me of one of those impotence drug commercials - you can't really tell what they are selling, but it sounds good. www.stratusrewards.com

After looking at that website... I can say I have no idea what they are selling. Except for some ramble about flying on private jets- I can't figure it out...

Ron Leiber from the WSJ called me yesterday about this. There may be an upcomming WSJ article. All I could tell him was that I have no idea what they are offering in exchange for $1,000.

I also received information in the mail regarding Stratus Rewards through my company's affiliation with Sony. In my search for credible third party information regarding the company, I came across this website. Please excuse me as I have never participated in a chat room before. In my opinion though, and after spending the better part of my morning on the phone with their customer service, it sounds a hell of alot better then the Black American Express card. I use to be a Centurian member, but left because I felt it to be a waste of my money. I will continue my search for information regarding the Stratus company however, you may want to take a better look into those beneifits... They seem to be more beneficial and in line with my lifestyle than does Amex.

jazz_433, could you list specifics? Your description of why it is great is almost as vague as the web site itself.
It is interesting to note when you do a Google search for the company that they are trying to hire phone agents "with a proper British accent", I guess they think that makes them seem more sophisticated?

I always loved the female flight anouncements in the BA concorde lounge so I think it is a smart move by stratus rewards. Does anyone think the LA event will be a yawn or something different than a jazzed up private jet show?

There was an article in Section D of today's WSJ talking about the difference between Stratus and Centurion (Black) AmEx. Sounds like Stratus is banking solely on private jets while Amex is banking on the fact that Amex won't do out of business anytime soon as the article hinted about Stratus. As I am happy with my low fee cards, neither will interest me anytime soon...

Anyway, good article.

Stratus Rewards

I also read that WSJ article this morning. Interesting! I for one admire a company that is willing to think out of the box a little bit. Look on this website alone; every credit card is the same in one way or another. It is nice to see new companies taking on the big guys, as well as trying something new and innovative! It is ignorant to think that companies like US Bank, Visa, Sony and Marquis Jet would partner with a company that has no capital? I don’t think for a minute that these companies would risk there reputation on a maybe. I for one have completed my due diligence… I’m trying the WHITE card!

Is the WSJ report this？
http://www.emailthis.clickability.com/et/emailThis?clickMap=viewThis&etMailToID=1186173640&pt=Y

It is very interesting!

masahiro

I also read that WSJ article this morning. Interesting! I for one admire a company that is willing to think out of the box a little bit. Look on this website alone; every credit card is the same in one way or another. It is nice to see new companies taking on the big guys, as well as trying something new and innovative! It is ignorant to think that companies like US Bank, Visa, Sony and Marquis Jet would partner with a company that has no capital? I don’t think for a minute that these companies would risk there reputation on a maybe. I for one have completed my due diligence… I’m trying the WHITE card!

To be more specific with my previous question, what are the specific benefits you found in your due diligence? For example, I am looking for something like "You get X points per dollar spent on an affiliated credit card. You can redeem XXXX points for a free 500 mile flight on a corporate jet" These are the details lacking in the web site or in the WSJ article.

My business manufactures machine parts in the automotive business in a suburb outside of Detroit. We generally travel commercially in groups of four to six with little notice. My employees put an estimated $600,000 per year on their cards combined. On top of that, I usually put $100,000 plus on my personal card (mostly my wife). I will now have the opportunity to take a private jet on two plus trips per year based on the points that I will accumulate! The airlines don’t tend to work because of our short notice trips, and the Detroit airport is over an hour away.

You receive one point per dollar that you spend on the card… I am not sure how many points you need for the large jets, but the seven seat jet was less then 200,000 points per hour. Customer service said that they are as fast if not faster than an airliner, and that we can use the local airport instead of having to go to Detroit Metro. My meetings normally take place in Chicago, so for me it is perfect. I will actually get something for spending all of this $.

They are partnering with MarquisJet.

The Marquis Jet Card is available on your choice of 9 different aircraft types catering to a wide range of requirements. Pricing begins at $109,900 for 25 hours on NetJets Citation V Ultra.

Thats about $4396 per hour, so 200000 points per hour with Stratus Rewards is 2.2 cents per reward point.

I also had an associate who had that many amex points, they could ring amex and get whatever they wanted. They ended up redeeming around 10 million for a nice car I think. I would have thought they could arrange points for a private jet if you had enough.

recieved invite to intro party in santa monica...funny though one of the items on display to "try on" is a huge diamond from my local jeweler in arizona. they say party will be different and no "hard sell"

Did anyone go to that Stratus party in Santa Monica? A friend of mine went in my place and said that it was pretty amazing.

It looks like a poster on this thread (jazz_433) is a Stratus Rewards employee posting on the "down low". I'm going to close this thread and forward it to Randy for review.

I understand that the original poster has nothing to do with Stratus Rewards, and if he's still interested in discussing it, I'd like him to start another thread in TravelBuzz!.

I'd like to take a min and remind the Stratus Rewards employees (and everyone else) that commercial messages (either up front solicitation or "viral" marketing) is prohibited on Flyertalk.

From the TOS:

Commercial Messages

Posts containing promotional messages for commercial or charitable products or services -- included but not limited to Internet sites, business advertisements and solicitations to donate miles or points -- will be removed. Unfortunately, it is impossible to verify the validity of each charitable organization, therefore, in an effort to protect FlyerTalk users from fraud, we must prohibit solicitations for charities. We do reserve the privilege to post announcements for donations of miles or points for recognized charities directly associated with various frequent flyer/guest programs.



Thanks