I Just Unboxed The Citi Strata Elite Card—And Found Over $2,400 Value 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 reap in 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 »

    More articles by Gary Leff »

    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

    1. Citi froze my wife’s card for income verification. The process will take up to three months. I pushed to make the spend, but the last charges are still in pending. Never happened before, credit rating over 800.

      Luckily I just used the splurge credit and the hotel credit for this year. But SUB is in jeopardy. I think I saved it last minute but if I hadn’t been close, I probably would of lost the SUB.

      Part of the problem is that I’m going away for 3 1/2 weeks, the letter with the forms will arrive while I’m gone. And if I don’t respond within a month of the date of the letter (which will likely be yesterday, so I will have to express mail them back upon return to make the month cutoff.

      So, if you aren’t an existing Citi Customer, be careful of the timing. Approval 8/17, frozen 8/30.

    2. Update: it turns out that even though the phone rep said it wasn’t possible, there are copies of the form in the documents/letter part of the app. So I can fill out and return today.

    4. @Greg — I’m all for it; like, Gary can be as bombastic as he’d like, because unlike those shills at TPG, he actually allows and encourages comments at VFTW. Like, if my P2 doesn’t have a referral, I’ll use Gary’s links; he deserves it!

    5. @ Gary — I find the packaging for these cards to be a ginormous waste of money and the environment.

    6. @Gene — But, but … aren’t we supposed to ‘save’ that special frame, you know, as a badge of honor, having achieved the greatness of Citi accepting your application and your payment of the annual fee. Like, it’s a sign of ‘status,’ friend. Show it to friends and family when they visit! The grandkids will love it! /s

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