Citi Strata Elite Credit Card Review (New Card Launched: 80k or 100k Offer)

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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 80k 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: 1stDibs, American Airlines (exclusions apply), Best Buy, Future Personal Training, and Live Nation (exclusions apply).
• $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. Citigold members ($200k assets required) get a $145 annual fee discount, which makes the annual fee $450. Note: Annual fees do not count toward the welcome bonus spending requirement.

Introduction to TYP

• You can earn TYP with Citi Strata Elite, Citi Strata Premier, Citi Strata, 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 Strata Premier or Citi Strata Elite or Citi Prestige (Discontinued), TYP can be transferred to some airline miles. The best way to use TYP is to 1:1 transfer them to American Airlines miles (Oneworld) or EVA Air (BR) miles (Star Alliance). Other good options are: Cathay Pacific (CX) miles (Oneworld), Avianca (AV) miles (Star Alliance), Singapore Airlines (SQ) miles (Star Alliance), Flying Blue miles (SkyTeam), Virgin Atlantic (VS) miles (Non-alliance), etc. If you use TYP in this way, the value is about 1.6 cents/point.
• You can redeem your TYP at a fixed rate 1 cents/point towards cash.
• If you have Citi Prestige (Discontinued), 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 Rewards+ (Discontinued), you can get 10% back when redeeming TYP, up to 100k TYP per year. This feature further boosts the value of TYP. [Expired]
• 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

• [1/48 Rule] Bonus ThankYou^®Points are not available if you have received a new account bonus for a Citi Strata Elite^℠ account in the past 48 months or if you converted another Citi credit card account on which you earned a new account bonus in the last 48 months into a Citi Strata Elite.
• [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.

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