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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 only wish I’d waited until right now to apply, because the limited time launch offer for the card has actually been improved upon. Usually launch offers are the best offers – they don’t get better so I was not expecting to see ‘100,000 points after $6,000 spend within 3 months’ come as the follow up to the card’s first limited-time bonus.
Still, I got my card when the offer was just 80,000 points and I was super happy with that – and 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 right now is the 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.
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 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.
I’m surprised you did not know that the 100k offer was available in branch when it first came out. Only 4k spend
@Paul Davis — Gary was ‘le tired.’
new account today will have annual fees on 12/15/2025 and 12/15/2026 statements
12/15/2026 annual fee will be refundable upon card cancellation as late as 01/14/2027
for a single $595 annual fee:
splurge credits will be $600 – 12/01/2025, 01/01/2026, 01/01/2027
hotel credits will be $900 – 12/01/2025, 01/01/2026, 01/01/2027
There is only one problem with the Citi Strata Elite card and that problem is Citi. In the past seven years I’ve had three fraud issues each with a Citi card and a Chase card. All three times the Chase fraud was caught by Chase’s fraud detection systems and I did not need to do anything other than respond to text messages indicating I was not making the charge. All three times the Citi fraud was discovered by myself after the charge was posted to my account. In each of the Citi issues I had to first contact the merchant and get information and then had to contact Citi with that information and then wait 4-6 weeks while Citi conducted a fraud investigation. Citi’s customer service is lacking.