Link: Apply now for the Citi Strata Elite℠ Card
The Citi Strata Elite℠ Card (review) is Citi’s newly introduced premium credit card, intended to be a more premium version of the Citi Strata Premier® Card (review). The card has a $595 annual fee, which is obviously on the steep side, so people will think twice about signing up.
However, I think there’s potentially a lot of merit to picking up this card, especially given the huge value offered the first year. In this post, I’d like to share 10 reasons you should consider getting the Citi Strata Elite Card, if you don’t yet have it. In no particular order…
In this post:
80,000 Citi ThankYou points welcome bonus
The Citi Strata Elite Card has an online welcome bonus of 80,000 ThankYou points after spending $4,000 within three months. Personally I value ThankYou points at 1.7 cents each, so to me that bonus is worth an impressive $1,360. Note that you can potentially get an even better bonus of 100,000 ThankYou points upon completing minimum spending if you apply in a Citi branch.
You’ll want to be aware of Citi’s general application restrictions, including the 48-month rule, plus the specific rules for the Citi Strata product lineup. Fortunately eligibility for the various Citi Strata products is considered independently, so lots of people should be eligible for this bonus.
Spending bonus categories of 1.5-12x points
While I wouldn’t say it’s earth shattering, I do think the Citi Strata Elite Card has an interesting rewards structure, as it offers the following:
- 12x ThankYou points when you book hotels, rental cars, and attractions through Citi Travel, and 6x ThankYou points when you book air travel through Citi Travel
- 6x ThankYou points on dining spending on Fridays and Saturdays between 6PM and 6AM ET, and 3x ThankYou points on dining during other times
- 1.5x ThankYou points on all other eligible purchases
While I wouldn’t say those bonus categories are broadly too exciting, I do think there’s potentially a lot of upside to booking through Citi Travel, and the 6x ThankYou points for dining over select hours is pretty awesome as well.
Unlimited Priority Pass Select membership
The Citi Strata Elite Card offers a Priority Pass membership for the primary cardmember and authorized users. Authorized users can be added to the card for $75 each, so that can potentially be a lucrative way to grant others lounge access.
Priority Pass is the largest network of airport lounges, and the membership through this card gives you unlimited visits to these lounges with two guests, pending capacity controls.
Four annual American Admirals Club passes
The Citi Strata Elite Card offers four Admirals Club lounge passes every calendar year. Each pass is valid for 24 hours, so it can be used across multiple lounge visits. Each pass is valid for one adult plus accompanying children.
While this isn’t a replacement for a full Admirals Club membership, like what you might get with the Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard® (review), it’s useful for someone who flies American every once in a while.
Up to $300 annual hotel credit for two night stay
When it comes to credits that help offset the annual fee, the Citi Strata Elite Card offers up to a $300 hotel credit every calendar year. Specifically, you receive $300 off a hotel stay of two or more nights that’s booked through Citi Travel.
Of course this isn’t quite as straightforward as just an outright travel or hotel credit. However, I’d actually say it’s one of the more valuable portal-based credits. The way I view it, use this for the cheapest two night hotel stay of $150+ per night that you have over the course of a year. I wouldn’t consider this to be worth face value, but it could definitely still come in handy.
Up to $200 annual credit with select retailers
The Citi Strata Elite Card offers up to a $200 annual “Splurge Credit.” The way this works, each calendar year, you can receive up to $200 in credits for purchases with select businesses. This is valid with 1stDibs, American Airlines, Best Buy, Future Personal Training, and Live Nation. You need to register with merchants to do this, and you can register for up to two merchants at a time, at this link.
There are exclusions with each merchant, but for the most part, they’re pretty straightforward. American is the most interesting partner here, as ticket purchases can qualify for this credit. So as long as you’d ordinarily spend at least $200 per year on American flights, I’d consider this to be worth pretty close to face value.
Up to $200 annual Blacklane chauffeur credit
The Citi Strata Elite Card offers up to a $200 annual Blacklane credit. This is a semi-annual credit, so you receive a $100 credit in January through June, and a $100 credit in July through December. For those not familiar, Blacklane is a global chauffeur service that allows you to book rides in advance.
Blacklane isn’t cheap, but that’s because it’s a “real” pre-booked chauffeur service, rather than an on-demand rideshare service. I imagine that some people will value this pretty close to the retail value, but I think for most people, that won’t be the case. However, I have found some creative ways to use this efficiently, and there are better deals in some markets than others.
Great Citi ThankYou transfer partners
The Citi Strata Elite Card allows you to maximize the value of points in the Citi ThankYou ecosystem. For example, Citi ThankYou points can be transferred to Air France-KLM Flying Blue, American AAdvantage, Avianca Lifemiles, Etihad Guest, Singapore KrisFlyer, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club, and many more. The opportunities to redeem these points for premium travel are endless.
Best of all, if you have Amex Membership Rewards, Capital One, or Chase Ultimate Rewards points, there is some overlap between partners. In many cases, you can transfer points to the same partners from multiple programs.
Maximize the value of the Citi Double Cash
If you ask me, one of the major reasons to get one of the two “premium” Citi ThankYou cards is to be able to maximize the value of the no annual fee Citi Double Cash® Card (review). I’d consider this to be one of the best cards for everyday, non-bonused spending. The card offers 1x ThankYou points when you make a purchase, and 1x ThankYou points when you pay for that purchase, meaning you can earn up to 2x ThankYou points.
Rewards can be combined with those earned on the Citi Strata Elite Card, and you could then transfer those rewards to ThankYou transfer partners at the best ratio possible.
First year double dipping opportunities
Often people may be motivated to apply for cards thanks to the lucrative welcome bonuses and in order to give the product a try for the first year. Then after a year they may decide if the card is worth holding onto, based on their experience in the first year.
In the case of the Citi Strata Elite Card, I think it’s specifically worth calling out the excellent first year value. Why? Well, a lot of the perks are tied to the calendar year rather than being tied to the anniversary year. For example, if you were applying in August 2025, you could receive the following perks with your first annual fee:
- Up to $600 in hotel credits, since you get $300 for 2025, and $300 for 2026
- Up to $400 in “Splurge Credits,” since you get $200 for 2025, and $200 for 2026
- Up to $300 in Blacklane credits; $100 between July and December 2025, $100 between January and June 2026, and $100 as of July 2026
- Eight Admirals Club passes, since you get four for 2025, and four for 2026
This makes the first year value much better than with many other cards, and it’s another reason that this card is at least worth giving a try, in my opinion.
Bottom line
The Citi Strata Elite Card is the most premium credit card in the Citi ThankYou ecosystem. It’s a unique card, and while it’s not a slam dunk for everyone, I think there’s a lot of value to be had. The card has a big bonus, some interesting bonus categories, and the credits and benefits can largely help offset the annual fee.
Bigger picture, I think there’s a lot of merit to embracing the Citi ThankYou ecosystem and building a portfolio of cards, especially with products like the no annual fee Citi Double Cash Card, which is one of the best cards for everyday spending.
What’s your take on the value proposition of the Citi Strata Elite?
Citi isn't good with travel redemption.
If you book a flight, you can't use the points as a statement credit.
The value of the points for statement credits is like .6 cents per dollar.
Every hotel is more expensive through their portal than it would be booking on your own.
You can't redeem for partial statement credit, so you always have a few points sitting in your account.
Citi's customer service is...really, really bad. Like...
Citi isn't good with travel redemption.
If you book a flight, you can't use the points as a statement credit.
The value of the points for statement credits is like .6 cents per dollar.
Every hotel is more expensive through their portal than it would be booking on your own.
You can't redeem for partial statement credit, so you always have a few points sitting in your account.
Citi's customer service is...really, really bad. Like REALLY bad.
There's a few other reasons, but go with another card, trust me.
Anyone know if the admiral club passes are transferable?
Before I kick this mortal coil, I would love to see you create an article titled "10 Reasons not to Apply."
I'll give it a shot:
1. Who wants to be held to what Citibank's definition of a weekend is? EST-specific weekend bonuses? Are there other timezones, other countries in the world? Nope, the center of the world is where Citi Bank of New York says it is.
2. Credit worthlessness - Blacklane: if Uber isn't snobby enough for you and you want to show those Amex cardholders you can ignite money faster, this...
I'll give it a shot:
1. Who wants to be held to what Citibank's definition of a weekend is? EST-specific weekend bonuses? Are there other timezones, other countries in the world? Nope, the center of the world is where Citi Bank of New York says it is.
2. Credit worthlessness - Blacklane: if Uber isn't snobby enough for you and you want to show those Amex cardholders you can ignite money faster, this is your ride.
3. Credit worthlessness - hotel credit: all the downsides of booking through an OTA, with the added annoyance of doing it twice per year.
4. Coupon mania - splurge credit. Did you want to pick what card to buy those Airpods on, or perhaps use an Amex Offer for Best Buy? Too bad, Citi signed a deal and you will pay it with your AF instead.
5. Remember when you had the Prestige for $495 and it gave you unlimited AAdmiral club access? Citi doesn't either, so now you just get a small handful of passes so you can enjoy their weird fusion of kimchi and teriyaki sauce on everything. (Also, the shrimp that are consistently rubbery.)
6. Oh, did I mention it has 12x if you're willing to put up with the Citi travel center, make any travel changes an absolute terror, *and* forgo earning points with hotels and rental cars?
7. Do you think this card has primary CDW? Only if you're not in your "country of residence." How convenient!
8. Did you park $200k+ worth of assets with Citibank just now? No you didn't. You won't qualify for Citigold until you wait 3 months of their new CAMB assessment to "deem your worthiness" and approve you for a $145 rebate on the $595 card. How about parking $1M? Surely, you'll get more priority then for their incentive? Nope - everyone has to experience the long DMV experience of Citibank.
9. Well, that 1.5x multiplier is better than the 1x multiplier for unbonused spend on the Premier, right? Oops, Double cash made both of them irrelevant. And speaking of which the bonus categories on the Premier are consistently better... which leads to:
10. There's a clear winner for $500 less per year. Why spend all this money and go through the torture of coupons?
Silly question, most likely. If you book a flight on the Citi platform, and need to change, does American treat that reservation like booking with a travel agent? Same with the hotels (I end up with a fair amount of loyalty points from AA Hotels).
to confirm, if I already have the Citi Strata Premier card and received the sign up bonus this year, because the Strata Elite is a separate product I should be eligible for that SUB?
thanks
@ Dan -- That's correct!
What's better for East Coast AA hub dwellers: Citi or Atmos? I'm thinking Citi mainly because there are so few Alaska lounges, whereas you can find AA lounges pretty much anywhere (even if they are very crowded) and the $200 splurge credit on AA is valuable. That said, Atmos really is a transferrable currency with great redemption rates on AA flights.
@ Phred -- It's a great question, and there have certainly been a lot of developments there in recent times, between AAdvantage becoming a Citi ThankYou transfer partner, and Atmos Rewards getting a new premium credit card.
I think there could be merit to picking up both cards, given the huge bonuses. If you care most about American lounge access and plan to mostly fly American without necessarily pursuing status, then I think this might...
@ Phred -- It's a great question, and there have certainly been a lot of developments there in recent times, between AAdvantage becoming a Citi ThankYou transfer partner, and Atmos Rewards getting a new premium credit card.
I think there could be merit to picking up both cards, given the huge bonuses. If you care most about American lounge access and plan to mostly fly American without necessarily pursuing status, then I think this might be more compelling.
But they're both lucrative, and it depends what you're looking for. Separately, I've written about my thoughts on getting into the Atmos Rewards ecosystem as an American flyer:
https://onemileatatime.com/insights/atmos-rewards-american-flyers-switching-loyalty/
Appreciate the insight! Thanks so much. I travel most often with two kids, so lounge access is probably more valuable to me than status. I have redundant access to Priority Pass lounges with the CSP and Venture X cards, but it's always nice to have a buffer (i.e., AA lounges) for those frequent times when the PP lounges are full and, especially now, since guests are being restricted entry by the other cards. Status was...
Appreciate the insight! Thanks so much. I travel most often with two kids, so lounge access is probably more valuable to me than status. I have redundant access to Priority Pass lounges with the CSP and Venture X cards, but it's always nice to have a buffer (i.e., AA lounges) for those frequent times when the PP lounges are full and, especially now, since guests are being restricted entry by the other cards. Status was verrrry nice when I didn't travel with kids, but perhaps less attainable and valuable now that I primarily travel as a parent. I think I'll stick with the Citi ecosystem. Thanks again!