The card seems like a no-brainer if you are a Citigold customer. I got the card because the $300 Citi Travel and $200 splurge credits seem easy to use (and for face value), even though I fly UA nearly exclusively and am a ThankYou points neophyte.

I use Booking already when I can't or don't want to book at a chain or through Amex FHR, so I can easily move over that spend to Citi Travel. The Strata Elite's 12X beats the 3.5% on my Bank of America Premium Rewards or the Apple Card's 3%.

I know Citi Travel uses Booking as its backend, but I still wanted to compare prices to see if I could find a markup, and I couldn't find one. A quick look at a few random hotels in Mexico City and Osaka (cities where I exclusively book through Booking) on Citi Travel came within 1% of the cost of the same hotel and room or cheaper than Booking. The 1% higher cost I saw is likely Mastercard's FX rate given that no one can get the mid-market rate anyway (Citi Travel displayed USD, while Booking showed MXN).

Separately, does anyone have firsthand experience using Blacklane?

I've read different blogs and their criticisms of the Blacklane credit, but I think they're coming at it from the wrong perspective. Nearly everything I've read has compared it to a one-way, point-to-point rideshare, but Blacklane has a by-the-hour service, which seems more comparable to a private car service.

Blacklane could be perfect for a day trip to a nearby city in an expansive metro area (San Francisco Bay Area) or a big dense city (New York or Paris). It could also make sense if you are traveling and would have to take many rideshare trips (don't drive, traveling with kids or older folks, need a bigger car because of a large party).

The by-the-hour service has some limitations without incurring extra charges, like distance traveled (seems to be 40km an hour across the board) and having to be in the same city or metro area, but I think most people should be able to work around them if they want to keep the cost low.

Some quotes I got for a two-hour service (service minimum) this Saturday at 10 a.m. (date, time and locations picked randomly):

• $193 from Manhattan (New York Midtown Hilton)
• 142 euros (about $163) from Paris (Hyatt Regency Paris Étoile in the XVIIe)
• $162 from San Francisco

For example, I'd consider myself coming out ahead if I took three or more point-to-point rides within the two-hour window of these quotes, like say Midtown to one or two places in Brooklyn (or Queens) and back. The comparable one-way rideshare (assuming Blacklane's equivalent to Uber is UberXL or Black) would probably be as much as $80 or $100 for the borough-to-borough travel. Alternatively, day trips from San Francisco to someplace in the North Bay or East Bay could be a sweet spot for value, as Blacklane's quote says it includes tolls.