I Unboxed The Citi Strata Elite Card—Here’s The Value I Found Waiting Inside

by Gary Leff

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I’ve been looking forward not just to earning a big initial bonus, but to making the most out of all of the credits that come with the Citi Strata EliteSM Card (See rates and fees.)

I got my card and I was pretty impressed by the packaging.

Obviously it’s not the box that’s the appeal of the card. But they want to make clear that this is a premium product, and it makes an impression.

The first thing I’m actually interested in is the 80,000 bonus points after spending $4,000 in the first 3 months of account opening. Current Strata Premier and Prestige customers are not excluded.

  • Those points transfer to a variety of airline and hotel programs, now even including American AAdvantage. By the way, this card earns AAdvantage miles faster than the American Airlines cards to (even unbonused spend with this card earns 1.5x, versus just 1 mile per dollar with American Airlines cobrands).

  • Many of the card’s annual benefits are on a calendar year basis so you have the opportunity to take advantage of them twice in your first cardmember year: the $300 hotel benefit for 2+ night stays booked through Citi Travel; the $200 Splurge credit (take it for American Airlines travel!), and $100 in Blacklane credits twice each year. That’s $1,200 in credits you can potentially reap in cardmember year 1 if you’re approved now.


    American Airlines Boeing 787-9

    If the 80,000 points are worth roughly $1,200 and the credits another easy $1,200 that’s $2,400 during the first cardmember year – not even including benefits like Priority Pass (which includes two guests) plus Priority Pass for authorized cardmembers as well; protections like Trip Cancellation and Trip Interruption coverage, Trip Delay coverage, and Lost or Damaged Luggage; and four American Airlines Admirals Club passes each year.

    For the card’s Splurge credit I’ll just buy an American Airlines ticket. I do that anyway. And the $300 hotel credit is easy to use – I just won’t use it when I want to apply elite benefits (since it’s a travel portal booking). And points can be transferred to:

    • oneworld: American Airlines AAdvantage, Cathay Pacific Asia Miles, Malaysia Airlines Enrich, Qantas Frequent Flyer, Qatar Airways Privilege Club
    • Star Alliance: Avianca LifeMiles, EVA Air Infinity MileageLands, Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer, Thai Airways Royal Orchid Plus, Turkish Airlines Miles & Smiles
    • SkyTeam: Aeromexico Club Premier, Air France KLM Flying Blue, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
    • Non-alliance: Emirates Skywards, Etihad Guest, JetBlue TrueBlue
    • Hotels: Leading Hotels of the World Leaders Club, Accor ALL – Accor Live Limitless, Choice Hotels Choice Privileges, Preferred Hotels I Prefer, Wyndham Hotels Wyndham Rewards


    American Airlines Boeing 787-9P Flagship Preferred Suite

    Citi Strata EliteSM Card is an easy win for me with the up front bonus offer, even with the $595 annual fee, especially given the card benefits in this first year.

    Citi Strata EliteSM Card

    • About Gary Leff

    Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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    Editorial note: any opinions, analyses, reviews or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any card issuer. Comments made in response to this post are not provided or commissioned nor have they been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by any bank. It is not the responsibility of advertisers Citibank, Chase, American Express, Barclays, Capital One or any other advertiser to ensure that questions are answered, either. Terms and limitations apply to all offers.

    Comments

    3. This may well be worth it for the SUB and Year 1 benefits, but Chase’s retention flyer that it sent out to Reserve members touting all of the new Reserve benefits makes more of an impression than that unboxing. Sorry.

      Did Citi ever publish its trip insurance benefits anywhere? Website still says you only get more information once you have the card?

      I guess Amex’s new offering is so good that they are not paying referral fees? That’s a shame.

    4. @Peter — Well said.

      As we’ve discussed on other comments threads here already, Amex really is knocking it out of the park with the Platinum updates. I enrolled in the new Resy and Lulu benefits, already made some purchases for Q3, and eagerly await those credits to post. Booking FHR stays as well. If all goes according to plan, I’ll be chuffed.

      With Citi, Strata Elite is still good for the SUB, and the double or triple dip on first 13 months, but it’s no Prestige card, especially with the lack of that prior fourth-night-free. Nothing ‘great’ lasts forever, it seems.

      And, for Chase, for now, I’m still keeping CSR for now, but still miffed mostly about the loss of 3x travel as a general category (non-portal).

      Finally, due to all the churning, CapOne wants nothing to do with me, so, for those of you who can enjoy their new lounges, please do!

    5. Also, @Peter, if you haven’t tried it out yet, the new Amex Travel app is excellent for mobile. I was wishing for years that Amex would build a better app for booking, reviewing flights, hotels, etc. via their platform. I think it came out recently; shows the Platinum discounts for International Business Class. Good stuff.

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