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Citi Strata PremierSM Card (See rates and fees.)
Citi currently has an outstanding limited time initial bonus on one of the best rewards cards that opens up their ThankYou Rewards ecosystem – and we now know that there’s a plan to add transfers from this program to American Airlines AAdvantage as part of Citi’s exclusive co-brand deal that was just announced.
American Airlines 777-300ER first class
Their new “Strata” card is the rebranded Citi Premier Card with some improvements. Citi Premier is no longer available, and existing cardmembers get switched to this new card. They aren’t losing anything. These are the same cards, more or less, which is why having had Premier counts as the same card (or card family) for purposes of new cardmember bonus eligibility.
- Initial bonus: For a limited time, earn 75,000 bonus ThankYou® Points after spending $4,000 in the first 3 months of account opening, redeemable for $750 in gift cards or travel rewards at thankyou.com.
- Earn: 10 points per $1 spent on Hotels, Car Rentals, and Attractions booked on CitiTravel.com; 3 points per $1 on Air Travel and Other Hotel Purchases, at Restaurants, Supermarkets, Gas and EV Charging Stations; 1 Point per $1 spent on all other purchases.
- Annual fee: $95
- Additional benefits: $100 hotel credit on stay of $500 or more booked through the Citi Travel portal, once per calendar year.
EV charging earn is new with Strata, and 10x on eligible spend through the travel portal becomes a benefit of the card (it was previously deemed a limited-time offer). They’ve also added several travel protections to the card, rolling back a previous elimination, recognizing that they – like other issuers – went too far with cuts in the past.
Points can be transferred to a variety of frequent flyer programs, including:
- SkyTeam: Aeromexico Club Premier, Air France KLM Flying Blue, Virgin Atlantic Flying Club
- oneworld: 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
- Non-alliance: Emirates Skywards, Etihad Guest, JetBlue TrueBlue,
Emirates first class: They left the bottle.
Citi’s card ecosystem is going to work for many. Remember that points from the no annual fee Double Cash card can be combined with these points and then transferred, and that card earns 2x on all spend. You’d never have to earn just one point per dollar on your spending.
I am not understanding… What would you get this card in addition to a Double Cash card if the goal is to have AA miles but still have options to transfer to other partners? Does having this card open something else up or is this just showing a promotion is available? New to the Citi eco system here (other than already having the AA card). Thanks.
Good news, indeed. Thanks, Gary!
Any idea when the AA transfer option might become real?