There have been rumors circulating about this card for a few weeks and it is now officially live!

The new Citi Strata Elite is Citi’s entry into the ultra premium credit card space with a massive sign up bonus and comes with a ton of statement credits as well as great points earning potential. Let’s get into the details of the card!

Apply for the Citi Strata Elite

Quick Facts

Signup Bonus: 80,000 ThankYou points after $4,000 spent in the first 3 months. Or 100,000 points if you are a Citigold member which requires $200,000 in assets with Citi.

Points Earned: Citi ThankYou points which can transfer to 17 airline and hotel partners.

Earnings Structure:
12x points on hotels, car rentals, and attractions booked through cititravel.com
6x points on air travel booked through cititravel.com
6x points on dining on Citi Nights purchases Friday and Saturday nights between 6pm and 6am
3x points on dining outside of Citi Nights.
1.5x points on everything else

Foreign Transaction Fees: None

Annual Fee: $595

Authorized User Fee: $75
Citigold Discount: $145
Citi Private Client Discount: Free in year one then $145 discount

Citi Nights

This is an interesting way to offer bonus points on dining by offering 6x points on Friday and Saturday nights. Citi Nights eligibility is based on the day and time your restaurant purchase is authorized, not when the transaction is posted to your account. For example, when paying for your dinner, the restaurant may authorize your purchase at 8:00 PM ET on a Friday night, but the transaction does not post to your account until Monday. In this example, your purchase will qualify, because the purchase was authorized during Citi Nights. ThankYou Points will be issued to your account once the purchase posts to your account and is based on the amount of the final transaction, not the authorization amount.

Earn up to $820 Back in Credits

Like with other ultra premium cards, the Citi Strata Elite comes with tons of statement credits up to $1,500 back.

$300 Annual Hotel Credit

Earn $300 back on hotel purchases each year on a hotel purchase of at least 2 nights through cititravel.com

$200 Annual Blacklane Credit

Earn $100 statement credit between January 1st and June 30th and another $100 statement credit between July 1st and December 31st each year on luxury chauffeur services booked through Blacklane.

$200 Splurge Credit

Every calendar year, earn up to $200 in statement credits on your choice of up to 2 of the following brands: 1stDibs, American Airlines (exclusions apply), Best Buy, Future Personal Training, and Live Nation (exclusions apply).

Lounge Access

The Citi Strata Elite comes with a Priority Pass Select membership which gets you into over 1,500 airport lounges across the world. Additionally, you’ll also receive 4 American Airlines Admirals Club passes to use at over 50 lounges around the world.

Global Entry/TSA PreCheck Credit

Like other ultra premium the Citi Strata Elite comes with a $120 credit for your Global Entry or TSA PreCheck application fee once every 4 years. As always, I recommend getting Global Entry which comes with TSA PreCheck.

Citi Adds American Airlines as a Transfer Partner

One of the best changes with the launch of the Citi Strata Elite is the addition of American Airlines as a transfer partner. Citi briefly allowed transfers to American Airlines a few years ago but now is making them a permanent transfer partner. This is huge news and opens up a ton of value. You must have either the Citi Strata Premier or the new Citi Strata Elite to transfer ThankYou points to American Airlines.

Citi now has 18 airline and hotel transfer partners. Be on the lookout for transfer bonuses as Citi regularly has bonuses when you transfer points to one of their partners. You can get an additional 20-30%.

*Use Citi ThankYou points for Travel on Qatar Airways in Business Class*

My Thoughts

To be honest, I’m a little disappointed in the points earning structure of this card. While earning 12x points on hotels and 6x points on air fare is great, you have to book these through cititravel.com which I would rather not do. Booking through a credit card’s travel portal means you typically don’t earn elite status with the hotel and prices are usually a little higher. From data points I’ve seen, hotels on cititravel.com seem to be priced competitively. While you will earn elite status with airline purchases, if there are any irregular operations, the airline won’t help you and you have to work with Citi for any changes to your travel.

Citi Nights is an interesting concept for dining purchases. Earning 6x points on dining is the best out there but only on Friday and Saturday nights between 6pm and 6am. Outside of those times, the American Express Gold is still the best option for dining purchases.

All the credits actually seem pretty easy to use unlike with other premium cards out there so I’d value those pretty much at face value.

Having a Priority Pass membership and Global Entry/TSA PreCheck credit is pretty standard now on ultra premium cards but the addition of American Airlines Admirals Club passes is a nice addition.

I would have liked to see better bonus point categories and a higher signup bonus but overall I think this is a solid addition to Citi’s portfolio of credit cards.