Citi Strata Elite Credit Card Review (New Card Launched: 80k Offer)

     2025-07-27     2025-07-28 0 Comments

Citibank

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Citi Strata Elite℠ Card Review

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Benefits

  • 80k Welcome Bonus: Earn 80,000 ThankYou Points (TYP) after spending $4,000 within the first 3 months of account opening.
  • We value TYP at 1.6 cents/point, making the welcome bonus worth approximately $1,280!
  • Points Transfer: Points earned from this card can be transferred to airline and hotel partners. You can also redeem them for cash at a fixed 1 cent/point rate.
  • Points Earning Structures:
    • 12x TYP on Hotels, Car Rentals, and Attractions booked through Citi Travel
    • 6x TYP on Flights booked via Citi Travel
    • 6x TYP on Dining during “Citi Nights” (Fridays & Saturdays, 6 PM – 6 AM ET)
    • 3x TYP on Dining (regular hours)
    • 1.5x TYP on all other purchases
  • $300 Hotel Credit: Up to $300 per calendar year in statement credits for hotel bookings of 2 nights or more through Citi Travel.
  • $200 Splurge Credit: Get up to $200 in annual credits at up to 2 chosen partner merchants. Current merchants include Ticketmaster, Live Nation, and American Airlines. (Gift card purchases may qualify based on data points.)
  • $200 Blacklane Credit: Receive $100 credit every 6 months for Blacklane airport transfer services.
  • 4 Admirals Club Passes: Four American Airlines Admirals Club passes per calendar year.
  • Priority Pass Select: Cardholders receive a separate Priority Pass Select membership for lounge access worldwide. Cardholder can bring up to 2 guests for free.
  • No foreign transaction fee.

Disadvantages

  • $595 Annual Fee: Not waived the first year. Note: Annual fees do not count toward the welcome bonus spending requirement.

Introduction to TYP

  • You can earn TYP with Citi Premier, Citi Rewards+, Citi Custom Cash, Citi Double Cash, etc.
  • You can add all these cards into the same thankyou.com account, and points that are about to expire will be redeemed first in the order in which they expire automatically.
  • In most cases, TYP never expire. But closing account, product change, or receiving points from other people may cause TYP on that account to expire.
  • If you have Citi Prestige or Citi Premier, TYP can be transferred to some airline miles. The best way to use TYP is to 1:1 transfer them to Asia Miles (Oneworld) or Avianca (AV) miles (Star Alliance). Other good options are: Singapore Airlines (SQ) (Star Alliance), Flying Blue (SkyTeam), Virgin Atlantic (VS) (Non-alliance), etc. If you use TYP in this way, the value is about 1.6 cents/point.
  • If you have Citi Prestige, you can redeem your TYP at a fixed rate 1.25 cents/point towards air tickets on thankyou.com. This is a common way to use TYP. Points+cash is available when redeeming for air tickets, so no need to worry if you do not have enough TYP.
  • If you have Citi Prestige or Citi Premier or Citi Custom Cash or Citi Double Cash, you can redeem your TYP at a fixed rate 1 cents/point towards cash.
  • If you have Citi Rewards+, you can get 10% back when redeeming TYP, up to 100k TYP per year. This feature further boosts the value of TYP.
  • In summary, we estimate that TYP are worth about 1.6 cents/point.
  • For more information about TYP, see Maximize the Credit Card Points Values (overview), and Introduction to TYP: How to Earn & Introduction to TYP: How to Use (very detailed).

Recommended Application Time

  • You’re ineligible for the bonus if you’ve opened or converted to this card and received a bonus within the past 48 months.
  • [8/65 Rule] You can apply for at most 1 Citi cards every 8 days, and at most 2 Citi cards every 65 days, no matter approved or not.
  • Best to apply with fewer than 3 hard inquiries in the last 6 months (even though Citi’s limit is 6).
  • Citi values the number of recent hard pulls a lot, we recommend you apply when there’s less than 3 hard pulls in the past 6 months (Citi generally requires less than 6 hard pulls, but this card is different).
  • We recommend you apply for this card after you have a credit history of at least one year.

Summary

This card is not very compelling, with a $595 annual fee and only 80k limited-time welcome offer. The statement credits are relatively easy to use (not monthly like other cards), but even if you maximize the $300 hotel and $200 Splurge credits, it barely offsets the fee.

Unless you book a lot through CitiTravel, it’s hard to justify this card. If your main goal is to transfer TYP to travel partners, the Citi Strata Premier ($95 annual fee) is more than enough.

Related Cards

Recommended Downgrade Options

  • Citi Strata: Best downgrade path to preserve TYP. Downgrading to non-TYP cards like Citi Double Cash or Custom Cash may cause existing TYP to expire in 60 days.

Historical Offers Chart

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