Citi Strata Elite Card Review: Are The Premium Perks Worth The Fee?

Caveats:
- The AA lounge passes expire Dec. 31, 2025
- Priority Pass isn’t a given. I tried to use it at DTW North terminal this week, and they don’t accept it between certain hours
- The hotel prices on their travel site are higher than you’d pay if you booked direct

No. It’s an overpriced priority pass card. Barely counts as a travel card. And it’s a Citi card. Meaning I wouldn’t trust it traveling, certainly not internationally. Mediocre card.

The Citi DoubleCash is the most important card in the Citi ecosystem. 2x points on everything - this should be the daily driver for many people.

The Citi Strata Premier is the second most important card in the Citi ecosystem. $95 (or $0 if you use the $100 hotel credit off $500 - one night stay eligible), many 3x points categories, and unlocks 1:1 transfers for TY points including to AA.

The Citi Strata (Regular) is the third most important card in the Citi ecosystem. Unlocks 3x select transit and 3x a self select category of your choice.

The Citi CustomCash is the fourth most important card in the Citi ecoystem. 5x a category of your choosing up to $500/month.

The Citi Strata Elite is the fifth most important card in the Citi ecosystem. Gets you 4 AA passes (it's something!). Gets you priority pass (although the $0 US Bank Altitude Connect gives you 4 priority pass visits a year for free). Gets you 6x dining for 24 out of 168 hours a week (it's something!). Gets you 12x citi travel (if you want to book through Agoda - who citi travel uses - can just use Rakuten - today it's 11x MR points plus use the Citi Strata Premier for an additional 3x - that's 14x vs 12x). There are travel insurance benefits. Excellent SUB and year 1 value. No Citi branded lounges. Not great Citi customer service.

I applied for the card, received it promptly, started to use it physically at various merchants as well as on amazon.com without any issue.

I had a trans-Pacific BC ticket to purchase, so I went to cititravel.com, which had issues, so it took a while to start the booking process.

When I tried to purchase the selected ticket, I got an error message and was asked to call the phone number on the back of the card.

I spent the 90 mns on the phone, spoke to several representatives but received the same error message after re-creating the ticket (for every unsuccessful attempt, you receive an email from cititravel and a booking #, which gives you access to the itineray of the ticket that you tried to book, but this cannot be used when you attempt to pay for the ticket again) and tried to pay for it.

The Citi customer service represensatives, except one, were not helpful. The one that was more willing to help, called Cititravel and stayed over 30 mns on the phone waiting for somebody to pick up the phone, but we agreed that we were going nowhere and staopped the call.

The next day, I tried again and was transferred to the Citi Fraud Dept., which was very unprofessional and unefficient. I even spoke to a supervisor of that dept., which transferred me to Cititravel without asking me or telling me that she will hang up and let me deal with the Cititravel agent.

The Cititravel had my booking on his screeen after I gave him the # (I accessed to Cititravel after logging in the Citi website). He asked me a LOT of questions, but I stopped answering after he asked me for my social security #. I stopped the booking process at that point as I cannot remember a travel agent asking for sec. soc. #.
I called citi and cancelled my card with an agent that was very unapologetic.

CORRECTION at the end of the text.

I applied for the card, received it promptly, started to use it physically at various merchants as well as on amazon.com without any issue.

I had a trans-Pacific BC ticket to purchase, so I went to cititravel.com, which had issues, so it took a while to start the booking process.

When I tried to purchase the selected ticket, I got an error message and was asked to call the phone number on the back of the card.

I spent the 90 mns on the phone, spoke to several representatives but received the same error message after re-creating the ticket (for every unsuccessful attempt, you receive an email from cititravel and a booking #, which gives you access to the itineray of the ticket that you tried to book, but this cannot be used when you attempt to pay for the ticket again) and tried to pay for it.

The Citi customer service represensatives, except one, were not helpful. The one that was more willing to help, called Cititravel and stayed over 30 mns on the phone waiting for somebody to pick up the phone, but we agreed that we were going nowhere and staopped the call.

The next day, I tried again and was transferred to the Citi Fraud Dept., which was very unprofessional and unefficient. I even spoke to a supervisor of that dept., which transferred me to Cititravel without asking me or telling me that she will hang up and let me deal with the Cititravel agent.

The Cititravel had my booking on his screeen after I gave him the # (I accessed to Cititravel after logging in the Citi website). He asked me a LOT of questions, but I stopped answering after he asked me for my social security #. I stopped the booking process at that point as I cannot remember a travel agent asking for sec. soc. #.
I called Citi and cancelled my card with an agent that was very apologetic.