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Some people will find the Citi Strata EliteSM Card (See rates and fees.) to be a fantastic card for the long-term. But it’s hard to imagine anyone that won’t find this to be incredible for a year.
- Citi has introduced its competitor to Sapphire Reserve, Venture X and Amex Platinum in the premium card space, the Citi Strata EliteSM Card. It has an initial bonus offer to earn 100,000 bonus points after spending $6,000 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 reap in year 1 if you’re approved now.
American Airlines Boeing 787-9
If the 100,000 points are worth roughly $1,500 and the credits another easy $1,200 that’s $2,700 during the first 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.
Washington National Airport E Concourse Admirals Club
Philadelphia A West Admirals Club
The list of Splurge Credit merchants is 1stDibs, American Airlines (exclusions apply), Best Buy®, Future Personal Training, and Live Nation (exclusions apply) and you have to activate up to 2 merchants at a time prior to purchase, though you can change your selection as you wish. The Blacklane credit is actually $100 January – June and $100 July – December.
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 seems like an easy win for the up front bonus offer, even with the annual fee, especially given the card benefits you’ll reap.
The card has a $595 annual fee, though Citigold customers get $145 of that rebated (Citigold Private Client customers receive the full $595 back the first year, then $145 in subsequent years).
The Citi Strata EliteSM Card seems like an obvious first year play, and then if you’re going to maximize the travel credits you’ve got a strong value card that transfers to American AAdvantage – just consider putting your unbonused spend on a no annual fee Citi Double Cash card instead to earn 2x points and then paired with a premium card those points now transfer to American AAdvantage.
Yea but where’s the lounges tho? 🙂
Which is why I used Gary’s link for the 100K offer recently, and plan to use all those credits for the first 12-ish months, then probably downgrade (to Strata, no fee, because I already have Premier) or close it. That’s probably not what Citi wants to hear, but, at least Gary and I each ‘get some,’ I hope.
Again? Incentives must be good!
And no mention of the giant WSJ piece on how Citi is screwing all these wonderful new customers?
As I said, the incentives must be ‘uge
@Tom — Saw that. Brutal. It’s a shame they didn’t reach out to our dear thot leader, Gary Leff, for a quote!
Some celestial event. No – no words. No words to describe it. Poetry! They should’ve sent a poet. So beautiful. So beautiful…
@Gary—-any comment on the WSJ article regarding people who have been frozen out of their accounts not able to use the card or the benefits?
I was pretty sure I read this ad yesterday, but I was mistaken. It was Wednesday.
I posted the WSJ piece yesterday as a comment and it was not approved by moderator… hmmm.
@jmh — Why not just comment on the WSJ article itself; reference Gary Leff and View from the Wing as the preeminent ‘thot leader’ of our field…
I’m definitely disappointed in Garys absolute silence on the WSJ article about the Strata customer debacle. This is highly unusual, as I always think the world of Gary. Not on this.
@cr – I’ve responded to comments on this, and a bunch of emails. As I understand it the group of cardmembers involved largely applied through a targeted 100k offer link that wasn’t intended for them, Citi unblocked the cards, and even gave cardmembers extra time to meet spend to earn the bonus. This isn’t, as far as I can tell, an especially widespread problem among the broader cardholder population. I haven’t heard from anyone this happened to that didn’t apply through a targeted 100k link. [Many of those folks were also asked for additional income verification.]
@Gary Leff — DoC is reporting “Citi Refunding $595 Annual Fee & Waiving MSR On Citi Strata Elite For 4506-C Affected Cardholders” …if true, ahh, shoulda used the weird Chinese link!
(No, no… support this site, no regrets.)
Sure but perception is reality. And what did Citi gain out of this – a ton of negative press when at the end of the day they made the 100k offer public anyway (albeit with a slightly higher spend requirement, although both spend requirements are very low). But if your goal is just shoring up the premium end of your card securitization financing, this is what you get. If your goal is actually launching a competitive premium card, the mistake fares become marketing dollars. Just bungling by Citi.
@Gary Leff – thanks for clarifying the nuance which is much different than the original wsj article portrayed. Anecdotally, I went for the 80k offer and it’s already posted.
When I got a bunch Hilton points, a few weeks later Hilton devalued the points dramatically . The biggest problem with all these points,, is they are devalued so frequently and without notice, there is no point in earning points. Best point cards are those you can exchange points immediately for cash, preferrable 1cent per point. That way you have maximum flexibility is the points’ usage and value.