Citi Strata Elite complete details leaked (and my personal analysis)

Well… despite predictions otherwise, it doesn’t seem that the Strata Elite card became available in-branch over the weekend. Tim and I called many branches — we only found two bankers who had heard of the card, and all we really learned is that the card is expected to go live July 27th and that branches can begin accepting applications starting July 28th. That said, Miles Talk was able to find a Citi branch with detailed offer information and, even better, leaked information with the card’s terms & conditions has surfaced on USCardForum (thanks G H!). Finally, a landing page with terms & conditions has also been posted on USCardForum here. I’ve compiled all of that information below…

Card Offer & Details

• Offer: 100,000 ThankYou points after $4K spend in 3 months
• When available for applications: Monday July 28th (not sure whether this is in-branch only or everywhere)
• Application Rules
  • 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.
• Annual Fee: $595
  • Citi Gold customers: $145 rebate (e.g. $450 annual fee after rebate)
  • Citi Private Client customers: first year $595 rebate, then $145 rebate each year thereafter.
• Authorized User Fee: $75
• Earning rate:
  • 12 ThankYou Points for each $1 spent on hotels, car rentals, and attractions booked through Citi Travel® via cititravel.com or 1-833-737-1288 (TTY:711).
  • 6 ThankYou Points for each $1 spent on air travel booked through Citi Travel® via cititravel.com or 1-833-737-1288 (TTY:711).
  • 6 ThankYou Points for each $1 spent at restaurants, including restaurant delivery services, for purchases authorized between Friday 6:00 PM through Saturday 6:00 AM ET, and Saturday 6:00 PM through Sunday 6:00 AM ET (“Citi NightsSM”).
    • 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.
    • Restaurant purchases made outside of Citi Nights may post to your Account on a Friday or Saturday. However, these purchases will not qualify for Citi Nights if the authorization for the purchase occurred at a time other than between Friday 6:00 PM through Saturday 6:00 AM ET, or Saturday 6:00 PM through Sunday 6:00 AM ET. For example, a restaurant purchase you made on Thursday night that posts to your Account on Saturday night would not qualify because the authorization took place outside the Citi Nights timeframe.
  • 3 ThankYou Points for each $1 spent at restaurants, including restaurant delivery services, for purchases authorized at any time outside of Citi Nights.
  • 1.5 ThankYou Points for each $1 spent on all other purchases, including the purchases excluded below.
• Credits:
  • $300 Annual (Calendar Year) Hotel Benefit via Citi Travel
    • Once per calendar year, enjoy up to $300 off a hotel stay of 2 nights or more when booked with Citi Travel
    • You must pre-pay for your complete stay with your Citi Strata Elite Card, ThankYou® Points, or a combination thereof
    • Processed as discount, not rebate (sounds similar to VentureX travel credit, but this one is only for hotels)
    • Can use less than $300 and the rest on subsequent booking within the same calendar year
    • If reservation is cancelled, you get the credit back (as long as it’s still the same calendar year as when you used the credit)
    • The $300 Annual Hotel Benefit cannot be combined in the same transaction with the Citi Prestige® Card Complimentary 4th Night hotel benefit if you have both the Citi Strata Elite and Citi Prestige cards. This benefit also cannot be combined with any other promotions or discounts on thankyou.com.
  • $200 Annual Splurge Credit℠
    • Must activate splurge credit merchants prior to purchase.
    • May only activate up to 2 splurge credit merchants at any time.
    • May change your selection at any time.
    • Available Splurge Credit merchants are not yet detailed other than LiveNation and American Airlines.
    • LiveNation includes TicketMaster too. Not eligible for events or venues outside of the United States and U.S. Territories
  • $200 in Annual Private Chauffeur Credit with Blacklane®
    • Up to $100 January through June
    • Up to $100 July through December
• Additional Benefits:
  • Priority Pass Select Membership
    • NO Restaurants
    • Authorized users get their own membership
    • Allows 2 free guests, then $35 per guest after that (no “and children” like the Prestige card)
  • Four American Airlines Admirals Club passes each year
    • Once redeemed, a Pass is valid for a 24-hour period and can be used in multiple locations during that time
    • The primary cardmember must redeem one Pass to enter an Admirals Club lounge and may redeem available passes for each accompanying adult 18 years of age or older.
    • The primary cardmember must be present with each accompanying adult for them to enter any Admirals Club lounge location
    • Up to 3 children under 18 years of age who are traveling with an adult who redeemed a Pass may also enter the lounge
    • To access lounge:
      • the primary cardmember must present for themselves and on behalf of accompanying adults:
        • a Pass located in their AAdvantage Wallet (located in the American Airlines Mobile App);
        • OR their boarding pass including their AAdvantage® number.
      • The primary cardmember and any accompanying adults must also present:
        • (i) their current government-issued I.D.; and
        • (ii) a boarding pass for same-day travel on an eligible flight, which includes any departing or arriving flight that is
          • (1) marketed or operated by American Airlines,
          • (2) marketed and operated by any oneworld® carrier,
          • or (3) marketed and operated by Alaska Airlines;
        • and (iii) any additional documentation required by American Airlines.
  • Up to $120 Global Entry® or TSA PreCheck® Application Fee Credit
  • Premium Hotel Benefits: Citi seems to have two hotel programs where one is called “The Reserve” and the other is the “Hotel Collection.” You might think this sounds familiar if you’re aware of Amex’s Fine Hotels & Resorts plus The Hotel Collection.
    • The Reserve by Citi Travel (for Citi Strata Elite℠, Citi Strata Premier®, and Citi Prestige® cardmembers)
      • $100.00 (USD) Experience Credit per stay (varies by property)
        (Back to back reservations are considered one stay)
      • Room Upgrade, upon availability
      • Daily Breakfast for Two
      • Complimentary Wi-Fi
      • Early Check-In, upon availability
      • Late Check-Out, upon availability
    • Hotel Collection (for all cardmembers with access to Citi Travel®)
      • Daily Breakfast for Two
      • Complimentary Wi-Fi
      • Early Check-In, upon availability
      • Late Check-Out, upon availability

Still Unknown

• Do hotel bookings through The Reserve or the Hotel Collection earn points with hotel chains?
• What happens to Citi Prestige customers? The terms explicitly state that if you have both cards, you can’t combine the Prestige card’s 4th Night Free benefit with the Strata Elite’s $300 Hotel benefit so my guess is that they won’t forcibly convert Prestige owners to Elite cards. I hope that’s true!

My Take

1.5x Base

I like the fact that the card offers 1.5x for non bonus-category spend. I really wish Amex and Chase would do the same with their premium cards! That said, the no-annual-fee Double Cash card earns 2x on all purchases, so this is hardly exciting.

No category bonuses besides dining!

It’s so weird that restaurants are the only bonus category for this card when paying directly (not through a portal). After all, the $95 Strata Premier card offers 3x for many types of spend: restaurants, grocery, gas stations & EV charging, flights, hotels, and travel agencies. And the no-annual-fee Double Cash earns 2x everywhere. Unless you spend heavily at restaurants on weekend nights, the Strata Premier & Double Cash combo is way, way better for points earning than the Strata Elite.

6x Dining: Cool but not enough

The ability to earn 6x at restaurants on weekend nights is interesting, but I don’t think that’s enough to move the needle for most people. Or, to put it another way, if I wanted the card for other reasons, I’d see it as a nice-to-have to be able to earn 6x when eating out on weekend evenings, but I wouldn’t get the card for that purpose. One thing I really hate here is the fact that hotels are not a bonus category except when booked through Citi’s portal. The reason I bring this up here is that restaurants are often inside hotels and you never know whether your dining tab will code as a restaurant or hotel when you pay. With the Citi Prestige card, I like the fact that if I don’t earn 5x I’ll at least earn 3x in those situations (since it earns 5x at restaurants and 3x at hotels). But with the Strata Elite, you’ll only earn 1.5x when a restaurant charge codes as a hotel.

Priority Pass: Disappointing

I find it really disappointing that this card’s version of Priority Pass doesn’t include Priority Pass restaurants. Boo!

Hotels booked through Citi are the key

For those who book paid hotel stays often, there’s a lot to potentially like here. You’ll earn 12x on all bookings through Citi. You’ll get $300 off per year for a 2+ night stay. And you’ll have access to multiple hotel collections which offer free breakfast daily.

I haven’t booked hotels through Citi in a very long time because the pricing used to be horrible. Even with the Prestige card’s 4th night free, I’ve found times where the Citi portal still cost more than other options. But some readers have reported that it has gotten much better. So, I did a quick experiment to check prices of a few hotels against Hotels.com for 3 night stays and I looked at the complete price after all taxes and fees. Surprisingly, Citi’s prices were usually better! Keep in mind that this is a very, very small sample. Here’s the data:

• Crowne Plaza Utrecht
  • Non refundable: Citi: $487, Hotels.com: $524 (Citi cheaper)
  • Refundable: Citi: $698, Hotels.com: $578 (Hotels.com cheaper)
• Reikart House:
  • Refundable: $1327, Hotels.com: $1327 (tie)
• The Londoner
  • Non refundable: Citi: $1703; Hotels.com: $1818 (Citi cheaper)
  • Refundable: Citi: $2052; Hotels.com: $2190 (Citi cheaper)

The main problem with Citi’s hotel search is that I couldn’t find a way to see the full price after taxes and fees unless I clicked all the way to the check-out screen. That’s really annoying.

My coupon thoughts…

I hate the prevalence of coupons on these high end cards, but that’s the landscape we’re now tied to. Here’s how I might personally use / value each coupon if I had the card:

$200 Blacklane Chauffer Service Credit ($100 bi-annual)

I found that Blacklane would charge about $150 to take me to the airport. Since Uber or Lyft is often around $60 or $70, the $100 rebate would mean a discount of only about $10 or $20. So, I would value this coupon at $0, but I’d probably use it twice a year if I liked their service.

$200 Splurge Credit (annual) – Earn up to $200 in statement credits at up to 2 merchants (currently AA and Live Nation appear to be the options).

I probably book and cancel enough AA award flights each year to use this credit up without even thinking about it thanks to paying award taxes and fees. This one is worth very close to face value for me.

$300 Hotel Benefit (annual) – $300 off a hotel stay of two nights or more booked through cititravel.com

Until I did my little experiment described above, I thought that this benefit would be worth very little to me. But now that I see that Citi at least sometimes has very good prices, I actually think that this might work out well. Until that thought is proven false, I’ll estimate the value of this coupon at $200.

So, with all of the above, I value the Strata Elite coupons at a total of about $400. That’s not enough to make up for the card’s annual fee.

My conclusion

Since I earn 5x every day at restaurants with my Prestige card, and since I have better versions of Priority Pass with other cards, the Strata Elite is NOT a card I’d be interested in having long term. That said, I’ll happily pick up the 100K welcome bonus (if approved) and use the coupons for a year, and then downgrade to a fee free card.

On the other hand, if Citi’s hotel prices prove to be pretty good; and if their two hotel collections are any good; then my Citi Prestige card (no longer available to new applicants) with its 4th Night Free benefit is looking better than ever. Please, please, please Citi, don’t take it away!

Update: In my first analysis, I forgot that I have Citi Gold, which would give me a $145 rebate each year. That brings the effective annual fee to $450. So, if I really do value the coupons at $500, this could be a keeper card for me. That said, I’d probably keep it only because of what I do at Frequent Miler (it’s helpful to have each of the major rewards cards). If I wasn’t in this business I can’t imagine being excited enough about the card to want to keep it for its coupons.

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