Best Cards For Earning Citi ThankYou Points: Maximize Your Rewards

Citi should be commended for creating the #1 ecosystem for points for spend. Nothing beats this. C1VX/Savor maybe comes close? CSR/F.Un. combo seems very 5 years ago at this point. This is the gold (dare I say Citigold?) standard now.

Lol imagine earning 100k Citi points and then wasting them on Cathay’s terrible excuse for a “first class.”

Unfortunately, the bank’s endemic customer service issues preclude this. Who cares about the points ecosystem when your card gets shut down every time you try to use it, or if crappy AI flags you for retroactive income verification weeks or months after you receive your card?

“Peter” clearly got paid for their huge endorsement of Citi. Even promoted Citi-gold bank product/status. How lame.

Oh the Elite is an absolute dumpster fire, as is Citi customer service. But they still created the best ecosystem for earning points through non-SUB spend.

Citi Travel portal should not be used. So earning even 12x isn’t attractive. Citi IT and risk mgt policies are a joke. And it’s important to note Citi has by far the worst customer service in all of financial sector (or at least tied for worst). That’s not hyperbole.

Save yourself and Just by AA points when they’re on sale. Careful. Strong possibility A points will devalue in 2026.

Love the entire system but particularly the lux hotel redemptions. I booked (& used) 2, Blacklane res almost a mth ago (on 2 diff CSE) - has anyone here received the credits from Citi?

Any insight on what impact this will have on rewards cards?

https://www.wsj.com/finance/visa-mastercard-reach-settlement-with-merchants-to-lower-fees-c5fde9b7?mod=hp_lead_pos9

LOL, I wish! After the last 25 comments I made on this site completely bashing Citi's roll out of the Elite (including earlier today where I wrote "Citi completely bungled the Elite launch, and the WSJ article was mortifying,") I figured, hey, for once, credit where credit is due. As I commented on an OMAAT article on July 30:

Why not get all 3 for effectively $0 and hit the trifecta?

DoubleCash – $0 – 2x points on everything
Strata – $0 – 3x select transit, 3x selected bonus category (Fitness Clubs, Select Streaming Services, Live Entertainment, Cosmetic Stores/Barber Shops/Hair Salons, or Pet Supply Stores)​
Strata Premier – $95 (but effectively $0 if you use the $100 hotel credit on $500 spend) – 3x direct air, direct hotel, restaurants, supermarkets, EV charging, gas; 10x portal (hotel/car rental/attractions).

Would note that Strata (regular) at $0 is probably now the best card for transit spend at 3x (that CSR dropped). Could also get Custom Cash for transit but that maxes out at $500/month.

And Strata (regular) is equally good as Strata (Premier) on supermarkets! Would add that to your list from a few days ago.

Absolutely incredible value here from Citi on its non-Elite cards.

Peter clearly works for Citi. lol. Ppl need to relax… same bad Citi, but now has AA. Which if it wasn’t for the value of their points, you’d avoid AA. AA has super mediocre hard and soft product.

Citi's portal is run by Agoda, not by Citi. Folks can be against portals if they would like, but I have little problem with them for hotels (and I specifically very highly endorse AA Hotels for earning miles/LPs). As for 12x spend, I don't think that's valuable at all. Can use Rakuten where Agoda is constantly at 10x or higher (MR or Bilt) and pair with strata premier (which is 3x other hotels) and there's 13x points versus 12x. So the 12x really doesn't get you anything you can't already get by having a card that earns MR or for free for the "next 6 months" (whatever that means - will the 5/15/26 transfer date count? who knows!) with Bilt.

Points, including AA points, are living through constant devaluations as well as scarce availability. Unless you have a plan to use your points in the next 12 months, you're better off taking cash back (or... doublecash back??? See what I did there?)

Oh, that ‘the sky is falling’ article making its way around points and miles blogs… yeah, yawn, it’s the end, burp, sell everything, fart, it’s over, sigh. Oh, whata world… whata world…

Citi card welcome offers are weak. AND 48 month rule.