Wow! Thanks for that ma91pmh. It's a magic number indeed! I was able to have the $85 fee waived after $1k in purchases (over 3 months). Considering I spend that in 1 week, that was fine, lol. Then, they also informed me I was eligible for an additional 1mile/1$ spent on the account and applied it effective for this statement, i was very happy.

Next step will be to follow up with a November call to upgrade the card to the new Citi Exec card to get the MM qualifying miles for (at least) 1 more year.