Update 5/13/24: The Strata Premier card has been released by Citi earlier than expected and can be found here (we’ll have posts out soon about it). Additionally, those who had the Citi Premier card have found when logging into their account that their card’s have already been converted to Strata Premier cards.
The new Strata card is basically identical to the old Citi Premier card, but with a few tweaks:
- The Strata Premier now includes travel protections
- The Strata Premier has an additional 3x category: EV Charging
- The ability to earn 10x for hotels, car rentals and attractions booked through Citi Travel is now a permanent feature (it was previously listed as temporary)
Here’s the original post.
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Where there’s smoke there’s fire, and after dozens of smoke signal rumors about an impending Citi Strata credit card for what’s felt like years, it’s now almost here.
We’ve received word that Citi will be retiring the Premier card for new applications from May 9, 2024. It’ll be replaced by the Citi Strata Premier card a week later on May 16.
We don’t have any further details right now about the Citi Strata Premier card, so it’s not known as of yet what its annual fee will be, nor its card benefits, transfer partners, welcome offer bonus, earning multipliers, etc.
It’s also unknown as to whether Citi will product change Premier cardholders into the new Strata Premier card at their next renewal, but I suspect not considering how long people have been able to maintain other Citi credit cards after their retirement.
There’s no word either on whether or not Citi will later launch a premium Strata card, similar to the old Citi Prestige card.
Seeing as you’ll no longer be able to apply for the Citi Premier card after May 9, it might be tempting to apply for that ASAP as it’ll be your last opportunity to get the card. However, we don’t know what the application rules will be for the new Strata Premier card. If it launches with a rule that says that you can’t earn a welcome bonus on a Strata card if you’ve earned one on a Premier card in the last 48 months, you’d be ruling yourself out of getting a Strata bonus for four years. Citi has been weird with welcome offers over the last 5 years, so it’s hard to know if the Strata will rock our worlds with a generous welcome offer, if it’ll be a continuation of the Premier’s 60k offer or if they hope that hype around the new card will mean they can offer a less generous welcome bonus.
Your Thoughts
What would you like to see from the new Citi Strata Premier credit card? Let us know in the comments below.
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The premier card is still available online. I thought it was going away on 5/9?
I’ve had the premier for several years. If I cancel it now will that allow me to get approved for this new card? Or do you think they would allow me to get approval without canceling the old one?
It said you can’t get a new bonus if you’ve gotten one in the past 48 months so I think you’re probably good to apply for the new one.
I just completed min spend for Citi Premier SUB last week. Any early data points re: match to the $75k? It’s a diff product so I’m not very confident.
The new card hasn’t launched yet, so there won’t be any data points about matching until at least next week.
Bring back the 3 free rounds of golf that the Prestige had. That was my favorite benefit ever on a card. Got to play TPC Sawgrass and some other amazing courses for free.
This copy and paste job with a new card name just seems like a waste of time and resources. Citi could have kept the same name, added the 1-2 new benefits, and increased the sign up bonus to make a splash. Which they would have worked on adding more TYP transfer partners or offering transfer bonuses.
The real question is…is it made of metal?
I was going to ask if it has a door?
[…] Frequent Miler reported that the new Citi Strata Premier card was going to launch on May 16. It will replace the Citi Premier Card, which will close for new applications on May 9, 2024. […]
I’m still kicking myself for throwing out all the Prestige mailers that Citi kept sending me, back before I understood the travel points game… Hoping the Strata Elite comes out with similar points/benefits.
I’m kicking myself for cancelling my Prestige card.
Crossing my fingers for AA transfer partner. Its really the only thing that would excite me. Along with the current 3x categories. Im sure we all already have a card with travel benefits. I don’t need that
It’s not in AA’s financial interest to do so.
More like Citi isn’t willing to pay an amount that AA believes is in their financial interest. There is definitely a price in which it is.
I never quite understood that. Why is it for Delta’s relationship with Amex and not Citi’s with AA?
AA miles are much more valuable than SkyPesos, so they cost Citi more to buy them.
What’s so exciting about AA as a transfer partner? I suppose they have Etihad, but other than that I don’t see that they offer much incremental value over CX or the various Avios.
AA is completely refundable, and has less fees than Avios. Japan Airlines bookings are a prime example ($5 booking fee vs ~$300 for business class)
Study the AA award chart against those from EY or CX and you’ll see.
[…] friends over at Frequentmiler heard sources that the Citi Premier card is retiring on May 9, 2024. A new Citi Strata Premier card […]
Why not add benefits or modify card and call it a refresh of the Premier card? Marketing stuff?
“fiddled with the benefits of Premier card” sounds a lot less impressive on LinkedIn than “Responsible for global launch of new industry-leading Strata Premier product”
Could be they are going to relaunch 400-600af card(prestige replacement/csr comp) and they want it to save the same branding as 95af one.
I wonder, though, why they don’t launch both cards together? With the four year lockout period they will have people who signed up for the Premier, but would have instead gotten the more expensive one if they had known….
There are a few reasons. It could not be ready yet, they could be waiting for global economic conditions to improve, they could be assessing customer reaction to the venture x, or they could be waiting to see what chase does with the csr. Remember the head of citi’s first party cards is Pam Habner, who launched and ran the csr for it’s first few years. Her first launch at citi was the custom cash, arguably the best 5x card on the market. Combined with Citi adding partners to Thank You im excited to see what they do in the next 12-18 months. In regards to the “lockout period” it will likely follow their updated language from the last few years, 48 months from last bonus but only for that specific card product.
I hope they keep the 3X categories of the Premier but bring back travel protections and make the hotel credit have a lower dollar threshold ($50 off $100 like the Sapphire Preferred, or even $50 off $200 – requiring $500 before taxes and fees to get $100 is harder to use). It’d be nice if the Travel category was a little broader to include things like trains or cruises. Do that and it’s a better card than the Sapphire Preferred, AMEX Green, or Venture card which are the biggest direct competitors.
I always thought the Citi Premier was the best one card solution on the market for someone not wanting to get into the game of churning or juggling cards. 3X in what will be most people’s largest spend categories, the ability to cash out at 1cpp without category restrictions like the Venture, and decent transfer partners for higher value options. Killing travel protections really hurt that and is the main thing to bring back for it to reclaim that spot.
As Greg has highlighted Citi can provide great ongoing spend earnings when combining the Premier with a DC and an army of CC cards (and add a Rewards+ for a little extra boost on redemptions). They just don’t have many opportunities for good TYP welcome bonuses, particularly churnable TYP business cards, so they are kind of an after thought many times. My one Business Platinum offer earned more MR than a couple of well tuned CC cards could generate in TYP.
“We’ve received word” from whom precisely?
The affiliate network
To be clear: it was the affiliate network that let us know the original info which was simply that the Premier was going away on a certain date and that the Strata Premier would launch a week later. Additional details that were added since original publication did not come from the affiliate network.
I want everything from Greg’s old wish list for the Venture X. And a pony.
as a travel card, it really doesn’t make sense that it doesn’t have any travel protection. Also, the $100 off $500 hotel benefits is too boring and hard to use. I hope they fix that with the new card.
Very true, I’ve been essentially paying $95/yr (or less, with retention offers) for the ability to transfer TY points to partner programs. It’s been well worth it, but I’d not mind switching to a more ‘exciting’ travel card from Citi.
I got a retention offer that negated the a/f last time (with some spend), but this time, if I get no offer, I am transferring my 100K+ points (probably into Choice Hotels) and then dumping this card. I refuse to pay $95 even once simply to retain my option w.r.t. these points. Time to choose.