Citi Strata Elite Card American Admirals Club Access Passes Explained

Link: Apply now for the Citi Strata Elite℠ Card

The Citi Strata Elite℠ Card (review) is Citi’s new premium credit card. The card has a big welcome bonus — many people should be eligible for the product, and it’s a card that I recently applied for. There’s likely a particular interest in this card since Citi ThankYou points can be transfered to American AAdvantage.

The card has a $595 annual fee, but offers a variety of perks that can help justify that. I’d like to cover some of the details of the specific benefits of the card, and in this post, I’d like to take a look at the four American Admirals Club lounge access passes that the card offers, as that’s a perk that I think many people will value.

How complicated is it to use this benefit, though, and what are the restrictions? Let’s go over the details…

Details of the Citi Strata Elite Card Admirals Club benefit

The Citi Strata Elite Card offers four American Admirals Club lounge access passes annually. As you’d expect, there are some terms to be aware of:

• The Admirals Club passes are offered per calendar year rather than per cardmember year, so you’ll receive four to use between January 1 and December 31 of each year, and any that aren’t redeemed will be forfeited
• The Admirals Club passes can be used by the primary cardmember and any adult companions traveling with the primary cardmember
• Each Admirals Club pass is valid for one person age 18 years or older, and up to three children under the age of 18 can accompany each adult with a pass
• To use an Admirals Club pass, you must have a boarding pass for a same day arriving or departing flight on American or a oneworld partner airline
• Each Admirals Club pass is valid for 24 hours after activation, and can be used across the network, so you can use it at multiple lounges, at multiple airports, etc.
• These Admirals Club passes are deposited into eligible American AAdvantage accounts; you can redeem the passes either by scanning your boarding pass with your AAdvantage number on it, or simply by showing the passes in your AAdvantage wallet at the Admirals Club front desk
• Per the terms, if you close the Citi Strata Elite, all Admirals Club passes not redeemed will be forfeited; it’s anyone’s guess if that’s enforced in practice

Logistics of the Citi Strata Elite Card Admirals Club passes

Since I recently applied for the Citi Strata Elite Card, let me share my experience with the logistics of this perk. During the card application process, you’ll be asked for your AAdvantage number, so make sure you provide that, because that will be the account in which the Admirals Club passes will be deposited.

Based on my experience, the Admirals Club passes posted instantly upon the account being approved, in case that’s a useful data point for anyone trying to time their application (maybe you want to apply for the card shortly before you take a trip on American, where you’d benefit from those passes).

If you want to search your email inbox, the news of the passes is in an email with the subject line “New Admirals Club Citi Strata Elite Passes available in your AAdvantage wallet.”

Regardless of the email, you should see the passes when you log into your account. Just go to the “Rewards hub” section and the “Rewards” subheading, and there you’ll see the passes listed under the “Seat coupons, upgrades and passes” section. That will show the number of passes that are available.

Each of the passes has a unique ID and barcode, which is what you’d want to present when visiting the Admirals Club.

How much are American Admirals Club passes worth?

How should consumers go about valuing the American Admirals Club passes offered with the Citi Strata Elite Card? It’s tricky, since it depends how much you value Admirals Club access, and also, if you otherwise have other ways to access the lounges.

When it comes to Admirals Club access, ordinarily an Admirals Club pass would cost $79 or 7,900 AAdvantage miles. So on the surface, I imagine the claim is that these four passes are worth $316. Now, personally I wouldn’t value them nearly that high, but that’s just me.

For someone who flies American every once in a while, especially as a family, I’d say those passes can be decently valuable, given that each pass is valid for an adult plus kids. The issue is that more frequent American flyers will probably want a more comprehensive lounge access option.

For example, I recently picked up the Citi Strata Elite, but I also have the Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive World Elite Mastercard® (review), which is the only credit card offering a full Admirals Club membership. I struggle a little with the Citi Strata Elite benefit, since I fly American too often to just want Admirals Club access four times per year.

That being said, I could still see myself getting some value out of these passes. Keep in mind that Admirals Club members can either bring their immediately family or up to two guests. There are some situations where I’m traveling as part of a bigger group, so in those cases, it’ll be useful to supplement my membership with some of these passes to bring in more companions.

Bottom line

The Citi Strata Elite Card offers several valuable benefits, and among those is four American Admirals Club access passes per calendar year. This perk is pretty straightforward, as the passes are deposited in your AAdvantage account, and each pass can be used for one adult (and up to three children) to get Admirals Club access for a period of 24 hours from activation.

Admittedly people will value these vastly differently — some people will get significantly value out of these passes, while some people likely won’t get much value from them (either because they don’t fly American often enough, or fly American too often).

What’s your take on the Citi Strata Elite Card Admirals Club passes?