Warming up to Citi’s Strata Elite card

When the Citi Strata Elite℠ Card premiered, I was excited about its first-year value (and I still am), but disappointed with it otherwise. Previous rumors had suggested that the card would offer a bunch of great category bonuses, so it would no longer be necessary to carry multiple Citi ThankYou Rewards cards to maximize earnings from spend (2x Double Cash, 3x Strata, 5x Custom Cash, etc). Instead, Citi did the opposite. The card has only one category bonus that doesn’t require shopping through a portal (dining), and it’s challenging to optimize: get 6x on weekends, but only when it’s nighttime in New York, or else get 3x. Now that I’ve had time to get over my disappointment, though, I’m starting to warm to the card…

Card overview

• Annual Fee: $595 ($450 for Citi Gold and Private Client customers, thanks to an annual $145 rebate)
• Authorized User Fee: $75
• Rewards type: Citi ThankYou Rewards
• Earning rate:
  • 6X flights and 12X hotels, car rentals, and attractions booked through Citi Travel®
  • 3X or 6X dining: 6X from 6 PM to 6 AM ET every Friday and Saturday night.
  • 1.5X on all other purchases
• Major Perks:
  • Four American Airlines Admirals Club passes each year: Each pass is valid for 24 hours once redeemed. Includes free entry for up to 3 children under 18.
  • Priority Pass Select Membership: Allows two free guests. Restaurants are NOT included.
  • Travel protections: Trip Cancellation and Trip Interruption, Trip Delay, Lost or Damaged Luggage, MasterRental Coverage (Car Rental)
• Coupons:
  • $300 Hotel Benefit: Once per calendar year, get up to $300 off a hotel stay of 2 nights or more when booked with Citi Travel
  • $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, Best Buy®, Future Personal Training, and Live Nation.
  • $200 Private Chauffeur Credit with Blacklane®
    • Up to $100 January through June
    • Up to $100 July through December
  • $120 Global Entry® or TSA PreCheck® Application Fee Credit

Why I’m warming up to the card

Citi Hotels

The primary reason I’ve warmed up to the card is that Citi often has great hotel prices. Based on a couple of datapoints, it appears that you won’t earn hotel points or status benefits when booking through Citi, but when booking independent hotels or when booking for others who don’t have any status, that doesn’t matter. I do both of those things pretty often. As a result, I’m finding it super easy to use the card’s annual $300 hotel discount (I could have used it three times this year if I had more Strata Elite cards!). Also, I’m finding the 12x earnings through Citi Travel to be super valuable! The ability to earn 12x while also getting great hotel rates is a fantastic combination.

Coupon value

In my original assessment, I estimated the $300 hotel discount to be worth around $200. Now, I think $250 is fair (it can’t be worth $300, since you won’t earn points on the $300 you save). And I continue to think that the $200 Splurge credit is worth close to face value, so for convenience, let’s call it an even $200. That brings us to $450 in value with just those two coupons. It’s nice too that these two coupons are valid throughout the calendar year. You don’t have to remember to use them a little bit at a time, as with many other coupons.

For those who agree with those valuations (which should not be everyone!), the adjusted annual fee “after coupon,” then, is $595 – $450 = $145 (plus a small amount of effort to use up your hotel and splurge coupons). That now seems like a reasonable price to pay for the card’s other major perks:

• 4 AA Admirals Club Passes
• Priority Pass with two free guests
• $100 semi-annual rebate for Blacklane’s Private Chauffeur service
• Earn 12x super-valuable Citi ThankYou Rewards points for hotels, car rentals, and attractions (and 6x for flights) booked through Citi Travel®

Those with Citi Gold or Citi Private Client receive an additional, automatic $145 rebate each year. Those customers can think of the card as being “free after coupon.”

Since I’m a Citi Gold customer, I’ve started thinking of it as being essentially free after the $300 hotel discount and $200 splurge credit. I don’t value the Priority Pass membership since I get better versions through my grandfathered Citi Prestige card (includes restaurants), and my Ritz card (unlimited guests), but I do value the AA club passes, the private chauffeur rebates, and the ability to earn 12x when booking hotels.

About those AA Admirals Club Passes

I didn’t factor in the value of the 4 AA Club passes with my initial card assessment. When I fly AA, there are usually other, better lounges I have access to via Priority Pass or my American Express Platinum Card®, which gives me access to Centurion Lounges, Airspace Lounges, Escape Lounges, Plaza Premium Lounges, etc.. Of course, I also have access to Sapphire Lounges thanks to my Ritz-Carlton™ Credit Card and my Chase Sapphire Reserve® Card. Still, now and then, I may fly AA from a terminal without any of those lounge alternatives. The passes could come in handy then. More importantly, I think that many readers value these passes, so it’s important for me to factor them in when deciding whether to recommend a card.

The problem with Citi Hotels

The value of booking through Citi Hotels is a big part of my warming up to the Strata Elite card. But things aren’t all rosy in Citi-hotel-land…

Discount rather than rebate

Unfortunately, Citi’s $300 hotel benefit is a discount rather than a rebate. This makes it very difficult to use when plans aren’t firm. In the post “Best credit card travel portal credits,” I explained why rebates are better than discounts:

A problem with a once-per-year discount is that plans can change. Imagine wanting to book two separate, refundable hotel stays, but you’re unsure whether you’ll keep both bookings. With a discount, you need to select just one booking where you’ll apply your discount, and then you’ll have to pay the full price for the second booking. If you end up cancelling the stay where you used your discount, it might then be too late to rebook the other stay or to use the discount elsewhere before it expires. With a rebate, though, you can book both stays, get the rebate, and then feel free to cancel either one. As long as you don’t cancel both stays, your rebate shouldn’t be clawed back. This is just one example of many where a rebate can be better than a discount.

Missing hotels

On several occasions, I wasn’t able to book a hotel through Citi when I wanted to! In one case, Citi claimed that the hotel I tried to book was sold out even though every other booking platform (including the hotel’s own website) showed it available. In two other cases, the hotels I wanted to book didn’t show up in Citi’s search results. Again, the hotels showed up on other common booking platforms, but not on Citi’s site (nor on Agoda, which is the booking engine Citi uses). I found this particularly weird and frustrating when the hotel I wanted to book was a popular Holiday Inn! How in the world could this site not have access to all Holiday Inn hotels?

While writing the above paragraph, the song “She’s not there” by The Zombies kept going through my head. So here’s a slightly altered version I’ll call “The hotel’s not there”…

Well, let me tell you ’bout the hotel I booked
The poolside bar, the beach-side chairs
The bed was soft and cool
The room was clear and bright
But, thru Citi, it’s not there!!!

It’s too late to say you’re sorry
I booked through Rove. Does Citi care?
Don’t bother trying thru Citi
It’s not there!

Conclusion

Despite my frustration with missing hotels, I’ve had enough success with Citi’s hotels to have changed my opinion about two key things with the Strata Elite card: 1) I value the annual $300 discount more than expected; and 2) I value the ability to earn 12x on all Citi hotel bookings. Citi ThankYou Rewards has become my favorite rewards program, and so I love the ability to earn 12x! Additionally, since I recently cancelled my Citi® / AAdvantage® Executive card, it’s good to know that I have a few AA club lounge passes in case I ever need them. I’m also looking forward to trying out Blacklane’s Private Chauffeur service because… why not?

Don’t get me wrong… this card is very far from a big win for ongoing use. Yes, you can get incredible value in the first 12 months of card ownership, thanks to the card’s welcome bonus and the ability to use its coupons multiple times during that period (as long as you don’t wait until late December to apply, you can use coupons both this calendar year and next). After that, though, I think some people will find just enough value to keep the card long term. More and more, I’m thinking that I’m one of those people. That said, many (maybe most) others won’t find ongoing value, and that’s fine! If that’s you, make sure to use up your coupons before the next annual fee comes due, and then product change to another Citi ThankYou card (to preserve your Citi ThankYou Rewards points).

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