Link: Learn more about the Citi Strata Elite℠ Card, Citi Strata Premier® Card, or Citi Double Cash® Card
If you’re looking to earn travel rewards for your credit card spending, I always recommend doing what you can to earn transferable points currencies. That’s because these programs give you the flexibility to transfer points to many partners, so you’re not invested in any single airline or hotel loyalty program.
Citi ThankYou is one of the major transferable points currencies, and the program has become more interesting in recent times, thanks to the introduction of new cards, plus the addition of American AAdvantage as a transfer partner. There are lots of great ways to redeem Citi ThankYou points.
In this post, I’d like to take a look at the best cards for maximizing your Citi ThankYou points earning potential. While there are several cards earning ThankYou points, I recommend having one of two “hub” cards, which allow you to then redeem all your points at the highest rate possible, and then there are three more cards that act as good “boosters,” to maximize your points.
In this post:
The two Citi ThankYou “hub” cards
While Citi has several valuable cards that can potentially earn you ThankYou points, the reality is that you’ll want to have one of two cards in order to be able to transfer all your points to airline and hotel partners at the best possible rate (the Citi Prestige is also a “hub” card for these purposes, but is no longer open to new applicants).
Citi Strata Elite℠ Card
Annual fee: $595
Bonus categories: 12x points on hotels, rental cars, and attractions, booked through the Citi Travel portal, 6x points on flights booked through the Citi Travel portal, 6x points on dining on Citi Nights (Fridays and Saturdays from 6PM until 6AM ET), 3x points on dining, and 1.5x points everywhere else
The Citi Strata Elite Card is Citi’s lucrative new premium card. While the card has a steep annual fee, it offers valuable credits and benefits that can help offset that, including up to $300 in annual hotel credits, up to $200 in annual Splurge Credits (which can be used for American flights), up to $200 in annual Blacklane credits, up to four annual Admirals Club passes, a Priority Pass membership, and more. The card is particularly lucrative the first year.
The Citi Strata Elite Card has a welcome bonus of 75,000 ThankYou points after spending $6,000 within the first three months. There’s lots of merit to picking up this card, especially if you’re an American flyer.
Read a full review of the Citi Strata Elite Card, apply for the Citi Strata Elite Card.
Citi Strata Premier® Card
Annual fee: $95
Bonus categories: 10x points on hotels, rental cars, and attractions, booked through the Citi Travel portal, 3x points on dining, 3x points at supermarkets, 3x points on gas stations and EV charging, 3x points on other hotel purchases, 3x points on airfare, and 1x points everywhere else
The Citi Strata Premier Card is an incredibly lucrative card for maximizing Citi ThankYou points. The card has fantastic bonus categories, no foreign transaction fees, a $100 annual hotel credit when booked with Citi Travel®, and more.
The Citi Strata Premier Card offers a welcome bonus of 60,000 ThankYou points after spending $4,000 within the first three months. I’d argue this is the most well rounded mid-range credit card out there.
Read a full review of the Citi Strata Premier Card, apply for the Citi Strata Premier Card.
The three Citi ThankYou “booster” cards
There are three Citi credit cards that act as excellent complements to the Citi Strata Elite Card or Citi Strata Premier Card. What’s fantastic is that these three cards all have no annual fee, so you can maximize your rewards without paying extra (and that says nothing of the fact that having no annual fee cards long term can be good for your credit score).
While they offer points that can independently be transferred to select travel partners, you get a better transfer ratio if you have them in conjunction with one of the above cards. Fortunately the process of combining the points is quite easy. Let me mention that the below cards have 3% foreign transaction fees, so I wouldn’t recommend using them for purchases in foreign currency.
Citi Double Cash® Card
Annual fee: $0
Bonus categories: 2x points on all purchases (1x points when you make a purchase, and 1x points when you pay for that purchase)
The Citi Double Cash Card is an unrivaled no annual fee product for non-bonused, everyday spending. The card offers 1x ThankYou points when you make a purchase, and 1x ThankYou points when you pay for that purchase. These rewards can either be combined with Citi ThankYou points earned on other cards, or can be redeemed for cash back at the rate of one cent per point. This is one of my go-to cards for everyday spending, and it probably should be yours as well.
The Citi Double Cash Card offers a welcome bonus of 20,000 ThankYou points after spending $1,500 within the first six months.
Read a full review of the Citi Double Cash Card, apply for the Citi Double Cash Card.
Citi Strata℠ Card
Annual fee: $0
Bonus categories: 5x points on hotels, rental cars, and attractions, booked through the Citi Travel portal, 3x points on supermarkets, select transit, gas stations & EV charging, and self-select categories, 2x points on restaurants, and 1x points everywhere else
The Citi Strata has phenomenal bonus categories, when you consider that the card has no annual fee, and can complement another card in the portfolio. The select-select categories let you choose from several options, including fitness clubs, select streaming services, live entertainment, pet supply stories, cosmetic stores, barber ships, and hair salons.
The Citi Strata Card offers a welcome bonus of 20,000 ThankYou points after spending $1,000 within the first three months.
Read a full review of the Citi Strata Card, apply for the Citi Strata Card.
Citi Custom Cash® Card
Annual fee: $0
Bonus categories: 5x points in your top eligible spending category every billing cycle, on up to $500 worth of spending per billing cycle, and 1x points everywhere else
The Citi Custom Cash has a unique rewards structure, as you can earn a massive 5x points, though you’re capped at $500 of spending per billing cycle for earning those bonus points. Eligible spending categories include drugstores, fitness clubs, gas stations, grocery stores, home improvement stores, live entertainment, restaurants, select streaming services, select transit, and select travel.
Some of those categories aren’t eligible for bonus points with many other cards, so this could be useful if you spend a decent amount at home improvement stores, or on entertainment, for example.
Read a full review of the Citi Custom Cash Card, apply for the Citi Custom Cash Card.
Best strategy for maximizing Citi ThankYou points
Often you can really supercharge your points earning potential by picking up credit card duos, and that’s an area where I think Citi’s card portfolio is incredibly competitive.
For example, if you pick up the Citi Strata Elite Card or Citi Strata Premier Card, there’s huge merit to them also picking up the Citi Double Cash Card. Why? Because the Citi Double Cash will earn you 2x points per dollar spent (after paying the bill), making it the best of those cards for everyday spending. So that lets you use the bonus categories, while also earning as many points as possible for categories that aren’t eligible for bonus categories.
Just keep in mind Citi’s application and approval rules, which restrict you to being approved for at most one Citi card every eight days, and at most two Citi cards every 65 days (on a rolling basis). Each individual card also follows Citi’s 48-month rule, but beyond that, there aren’t many eligibility restrictions.
Bottom line
The Citi ThankYou system has improved nicely over time, especially with the launch of the Citi Strata Elite Card and Citi Strata Card. If you’re into collecting transferable points, and in particular, if you want to earn American AAdvantage miles, these cards should be on your radar.
The $595 annual fee Citi Strata Elite Card offers a huge welcome bonus and valuable perks and credits (including lounge access), while the Citi Strata Card has phenomenal bonus categories for a no annual fee card. I also think the Citi Double Cash Card is quite special, for the ability to earn up to 2x points per dollar spent, after paying your bill.
Which Citi ThankYou cards do you have for maximizing points?
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
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…
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?
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.
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...
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?)
Lol imagine earning 100k Citi points and then wasting them on Cathay’s terrible excuse for a “first class.”
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.
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?
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.
“Peter” clearly got paid for their huge endorsement of Citi. Even promoted Citi-gold bank product/status. How lame.
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 –...
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.
Citi card welcome offers are weak. AND 48 month rule.
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.