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The public offer for the Strata Elite℠ Card (Citi Strata Elite℠ Card) has been increased from 80,000 points to 100,000 points.
However, the spending requirements have also increased by $6,000 (based on 3 months), so keep that in mind.
| Citi Strata Cards | |
|---|---|
| Disclosure | Information about these cards has been collected independently by MileMoa. The issuer did not provide the details, nor is it responsible for their accuracy. |
| Strata Elite ($595 annual fee) | 75,000 points as a welcome bonus after spending $6,000 in 3 months (Citi Strata Elite℠) |
| Strata Premier ($95 annual fee) | 60,000 points as a welcome bonus after spending $4,000 in 3 months (Citi Strata Premier® Card) |
| Strata (no annual fee) | 20,000 points as a welcome bonus after spending $1,000 in 3 months (Citi Strata℠ Card) |
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Along with issuing a new card, Citi Cards is undergoing a major transformation of its existing ThankYou loyalty program.
One of the biggest wishes of the Magicians was to get the ThankYou Points to American Airlines Miles 1:1 conversion introduced on select cardsThis has the makings of a game changer.
In today's post,
- Key benefits of the new Strata Elite card
- Key benefits of the Strata Premier Card
- Key benefits of the Strata General Card
- Recommended card combinations
- Things to keep in mind when applying for the card
and more.
Table of Contents
1. A little background: What are ThankYou points?
Before we get into the new cards, a little background on ThankYou Points is in order.
ThankYou Points are Citi's own loyalty program and can be thought of as the card points equivalent of Chase's Ultimate Rewards (UR), Amex's Membership Rewards (MR), and Capital One's "miles".
It's the ability to earn points through a variety of different cards and then combine them into one card or transfer them to airline miles, hotel points, etc.
ThankYou points were first introduced in 2004, so that's more than 20 years ago, making them even older than Chase points, which are the reigning champs of the redeemable points world.
By the way, I haven't seen too many people around me who are diligently collecting ThankYou points, have you? Even on wear sites, UR and MR are the focus, but ThankYou is discussed sparingly, like beans in a drought.
This could be for a variety of reasons.
- The first downside is that the branding has changed too often. They started with the PremierPass card, then renamed it Premier, then discontinued Prestige, then introduced Preferred, Rewards+, or Double Cash, then made it possible to earn ThankYou points, then lost track of time ;);
- In the early days of the card, they were giving away a lot of perks, and then they wised up and started removing perks, and customers churned at the same time. In the early days of the ThankYou program, they advertised "25,000 points for any domestic flight in the U.S., no price limit!" You'd think the ticket would be around $300-400, but you'd find a lot of domestic flights for $2,000, so that feature was immediately revamped.
- Poor points transfer partners. Amex has Delta and Chase has United as their respective transfer partners, and Citi has never been able to transfer AA despite being the primary card issuer for AA, one of the three largest US airlines.
So, this time, the Bringing AA on board as a transition partner shows that the city is willing to step up to the plate and do it right.I think.
The newly issued cards are not without their concerns, but I'd say the sign-up bonus alone is enough to get me interested.
And for reasons I'll explain later, I think it can be a very attractive combination for those who think of AA as their primary airline miles.
2. Key benefits of the newly launched Strata Elite card
First up is the newly launched Strata Elite card (Citi Strata Elite℠ Card).
This card is the most premium of the ThankYou points-earning cards, and in that respect, it's the most premium of the Chase Sapphire Reserve cards.®), a competitor to Amex's Platinum card.
The base offer is 80,000 points for 3 months and $4,000 spend online, but they say you can get a link to a 100,000 offer by visiting your local Citibank branch or calling them.
This card has an annual fee of $$595 for the first year.
There are a number of benefits that can offset the annual fee.
Your usage will depend on your personal travel patterns, but I think you could easily spend $300 on hotels and $200 on AA or BestBuy, which would more or less cover the annual fee.
Things like AA lounge access are a bonus.
| Benefits | Maximum amount per year | Details | Caveats |
|---|---|---|---|
| Annual Hotel Benefit | $300 (calendar year) | Benefits when you book a hotel for 2 nights or more through Citi Travel | Hotel reservations are in the Cardmember's name or AU Cardmember's name if applicable |
| Annual Splurge Credit℠ | $200 (calendar year) | For use with 1stDibs, American Airlines, Best Buy®, Future Personal Training, and Live Nation | Pre-enrollment required before using the card (citi.com/splurgecredit) |
| Annual Blacklane® Credit | $200 (calendar year) | 100 semi-annually for an airport ride service called Blacklane | |
| AA Admirals Club® Lounge Access Passes | Chapter 4 (calendar year) | 4 AA lounge passes | Adults 18 and older need one ticket each; children under 18 can bring up to 3 guests |
| Priority Pass™ Select | Lounge access. Up to 2 companions | No access to restaurants | |
| Global Entry® / TSA PreCheck® | $120 (once every 4 years) | Get a credit for the application fee |
For the Strata Elite, you earn points at different rates depending on what you spend on the card.
For starters, the default earning rate is 1.5 points per dollar = 1.5 AA miles.
Other than that, the 3 points at restaurants, 12 points for booking hotels on Citi Travel, and 6 points for dining on Fri/Sat dinners seem like a good deal.
| Item | Earning rate per dollar | Caveats |
|---|---|---|
| Default earning rate | 1.5 points | Minimum AA 1.5 mile guarantee per card spend |
| Citi Travel book hotels, car rentals, attractions | 12 points | Hotel elite benefits are most likely not applicable |
| Citi Travel booked tickets | 6 points | Use the airline's official website for ticketing whenever possible |
| Restaurant spending on Friday and Saturday evenings (Citi Nights℠ ) | 6 points | The time base is 6 p.m. Friday to 6 a.m. Saturday and 6 p.m. Saturday to 6 a.m. Sunday Eastern Time. |
| Restaurant | 3 points | For weekday use outside of Friday/Saturday evening hours |
Overall, the signup bonus alone is Currently promoting the Sapphire Reserve Cardis a bit weak in comparison.
However, many people are unable to apply for Sari because they have previously held a Sari card or are currently holding a Sharp (Sapphire Preferred) card.
The Strata Elite card doesn't ask if you have other cards when you apply, so I'd say it's a decent option to earn 80,000 AA miles.
3. Key Benefits of the Strata Premier Card
Next up is the Strata Premier Card (Citi Strata Premier® Card).
It's a mid-range card with a $95 annual fee, which puts it squarely in the Sapphire Preferred® Credit Card's position as a chase card.
The card is currently running a 60,000 point offer after spending $4,000 in 3 months.
There's a $100 hotel booking benefit ($100 Annual Hotel Benefit) that can be used to offset the annual fee, but it's a little tricky to redeem.
You'd have to book it through Citi Travel, and since it only applies to hotel bookings of $500 or more before taxes and fees per booking, it's unlikely you'd actually find all $100 of it.
However, this card has a pretty good earning rate for everyday use.
Supermarkets, restaurants, and gas stations all earn 3 points per $1 spent.
| Item | Earning rate per dollar | Caveats |
|---|---|---|
| Default earning rate | 1 point | |
| Citi Travel book hotels, car rentals, attractions | 10 points | Hotel elite benefits are most likely not applicable |
| Book airline tickets, hotels | 3 points | |
| Restaurant | 3 points | |
| Supermarkets | 3 points | Excludes pharmacies, wholesalers, convenience stores, etc. |
| Gas stations, charging stations | 3 points |
Grocery shopping, restaurants, gas stations. Earn 3 AA miles per $1 spent on everythingright? If you need to earn AA miles, it couldn't be simpler or better.
4. Key Benefits of the Strata General Card
Finally, the regular Strata card with no annual fee.
This card used to be called the Rewards+ card, but it's more of a Freedom card than a Chase card.
- There's no annual fee, but
- When combined with the Dorrance Card, you can earn points that can be redeemed for
- That you can get bonus points for spending on specific items
etc. are a complete get-out-of-jail-free card.
With this name change, they came out with a very attractive sign-up offer for a card with no annual fee.
For a limited time, you'll get 30,000 points after spending $1,000 in 3 months.
This point is called
- Later, when combined with the Strata Elite or Strata Premier, which are the city versions of the Dorrance card, you can convert them to AA miles.
- If you don't have a Dorrance card, you can still convert points directly for JetBlue, Choice Hotels, and Wyndham Rewards (though the ratio isn't great).
- Of course, you can also redeem them for gift certificates, etc.
Similar to the Freedom card, the Strata card lets you earn extra points on certain items.
However, it doesn't change quarterly, it's a year-round thing, so I think that's something to keep in mind.
| Item | Earning rate per dollar | Caveats |
|---|---|---|
| Default earning rate | 1 point | |
| Citi Travel book hotels, car rentals, attractions | 5 points | Hotel elite benefits are most likely not applicable |
| Supermarkets | 3 points | Excludes pharmacies, wholesalers, convenience stores, etc. |
| Several modes of transportation + gas stations, charging stations | 3 points | Includes trains, taxis, tolls, etc. |
| Pick one of the choices and click | 3 points | Fitness Clubs, Select Streaming Services, Live Entertainment, Cosmetic Stores/Barber Shops/Hair Salons, or Pet Supply Stores |
| Restaurant | 2 points |
5. recommended card combinations
With the launch of the Strata Elite card, the Strata family of cards completes the same three-tiered card tier as Chase.
- Strata Elite card ($595 annual fee) = equivalent to the Sapphire Reserve
- Strata Premier® Card ($95 annual fee) = Sapphire Preferred
- Strata Card (no annual fee) = equivalent to Freedom Card
So that's three.
| Citi Strata Cards | |
|---|---|
| Disclosure | Information about these cards has been collected independently by MileMoa. The issuer did not provide the details, nor is it responsible for their accuracy. |
| Strata Elite ($595 annual fee) | 75,000 points as a welcome bonus after spending $6,000 in 3 months (Citi Strata Elite℠) |
| Strata Premier ($95 annual fee) | 60,000 points as a welcome bonus after spending $4,000 in 3 months (Citi Strata Premier® Card) |
| Strata (no annual fee) | 20,000 points as a welcome bonus after spending $1,000 in 3 months (Citi Strata℠ Card) |
Plus, there are two more cards with no annual fee.
- Citi® Double Cash Card (earn 2 points per dollar spent)
- Citi Custom Cash℠ Card (earn 5 points per $1 spent on certain items)
Of the five Dorrance cards that allow you to transfer points to AA Airlines, the top two are the Strata Elite and Strata Premier cards.
So, to get the most out of your ThankYou points, you'll need to maintain at least one Elite or Premier card.
So what should you do?
It depends on your personal situation, but assuming you're collecting miles/points as a signup bonus, the following scenarios are likely to work for you
- Get the Strata Elite card, get the signup bonus, use it well for a year, and then downgrade to a regular Strata card, Double Cash, or Custom Cash (I haven't seen any downgrades yet since the card is new, but based on past experience, I'm guessing it will be possible to downgrade to regular Strata, Double Cash, or Custom Cash).
- Create a Premier card before downgrading and keep it for Dorrance.
- After that, use your Premier card for everyday spending and earn 2 points per dollar on the rest with Double Cash.
I think that's about as far as you can go.
Of course, if you don't want to bother with all of that and just want a card that you can sign up for and use on a daily basis without a lot of fuss, you could just get a Premier card and use it all the time.
It's got you covered for all of life's crazy expenses.
6. What to look out for when applying for the card
Finally, a few words of caution.
1) Rule 1-8-65
Citi cards are known to have a 1-8-65 rule. This means that if you open your first Citi card on day 1, you can open your next Citi card on day 8. In addition to this, you can open up to two personal cards within a 60-day period.
So if you've recently created a City Card, you'll need to wait at least 8 days before applying for a new one.
2) ThankYou Points' own rules
I'll explain more in another post, but ThankYou points have different characteristics than Chase UR or Amex's MR.
First, create a If you share ThankYou points with someone, the person who receives them must redeem them within 90 days. Otherwise, the point itself will be lost!
That's why it's not possible to close the card and pass it on to another family member or friend to park points. It is important to remember this.
And even if you combine points within your own account and not someone else's, each ThankYou point retains the DNA of the original earning card, If you cancel a card that you've earned certain points on, those points will be forfeited after 60 days.
For example,
- I got 60,000 points on the Premier card,
- I combined those points with the ThankYou points from my existing Strata card,
- If you subsequently cancel your Premier card,
- This means that after 60 days, your Premier earnings will simply disappear from your consolidated balance.
That's why when you cancel a Citi card that earns ThankYou points, you'll need to decide ahead of time whether you want to redeem or convert your points, and in most cases, downgrading to a card with no annual fee is a good option.
Let's wrap up today's post.
The 1:1 conversion of ThankYou points to AA miles is great news.
There's a lot of talk about how hard it is to get approved for a city card these days, so it would be nice to be able to get approved for a city card while you're at it.
| Citi Strata Cards | |
|---|---|
| Disclosure | Information about these cards has been collected independently by MileMoa. The issuer did not provide the details, nor is it responsible for their accuracy. |
| Strata Elite ($595 annual fee) | 75,000 points as a welcome bonus after spending $6,000 in 3 months (Citi Strata Elite℠) |
| Strata Premier ($95 annual fee) | 60,000 points as a welcome bonus after spending $4,000 in 3 months (Citi Strata Premier® Card) |
| Strata (no annual fee) | 20,000 points as a welcome bonus after spending $1,000 in 3 months (Citi Strata℠ Card) |
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44 Comments. Leave new
You're in first place.
I had no idea that Thank you points could add up ;;
I've been having a hard time dealing with the little leftover points;;
I upgraded to the premier card last year with the upgrade offer from Reward+ and recently went down.
In this case, is it a 48-month reset? Or is it an upgrade and it doesn't matter?
If you've received an upgrade offer, you know it as a reset. These are the terms.
"Bonus ThankYou® Points are not available if you received a new account bonus for a Citi Premier® or Citi Strata Premier® 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 Premier® or Citi Strata Premier® account."
I'm in second place lol
Strata cards are red because they're related to Strata cards.
I was hoping there was some sort of organized documentation,
You're in the capitalization at the right time!!!
Thanks for the cleanup
We hope this helps.
I was confused about the TYP point total, but thank you for the clarification~! It looks like CITI has gone under the knife this time. ^^ I'm thinking of organizing a city ecosystem soon.
Thanks for the comment, I'll have to do a refresher on summation and conversion.
If I apply for the Strata Elite Card ($595 annual fee), Strata Premier Card ($95 annual fee), or Strata Card (no annual fee), will I receive a Welcome Bonus for each?
Or can I only get one point for each of Preferred or Reserved, like the Sapphire family?
You can get both. There used to be a so-called family rule (if you got one card, you couldn't apply for the other, or if you did, you didn't get the bonus), but thankfully that's gone.
Thanks for the cleanup.
I got a bonus for opening Strata Premier last year, can I get a bonus for opening Strata this year?
So it doesn't matter what order you open Strata, Strata Premier, and Strata Elite, right?
I know that if I get a bonus for each card and reopen it later, it has to be more than 48 months since I got the bonus.
Yes. I know that's possible. I know the order doesn't matter.
Thanks for the summary. I didn't know about the 60 days ;; The strategy of opening a premier card and keeping it down to create an ecosystem seems too good. ㅎㅎ
I see this as a great opportunity to earn DanGong miles other than AA. There is a TYP->Accor 50% conversion promotion once a year. Accor:KE=2:1, so if you utilize the 50% promotion well, you can make it TYP:KE=4:3. 100,000 TYP can be converted to 75,000 KE miles, so you can get a DanGong Biz seat. Of course, there is the evil of Yuhan ;);
AA is great for JAL miles, but the JFK/DFW/LAX route is a nightmare because they only open 331 days in advance, so it's really hard to get a seat.
Oh, sorry. Even with the 50% promotion, TYP:Accor=4:3 and Accor:KE=2:1, so the
TYP:KE=4:1.5 ì-"ë'ˆë'¤.. ì-"ë'ˆë'¤... ë'¨ì-´ë'¤.... ㅠㅠ
Thanks for the detailed explanation. It's always good to have more options.
Since the credit from the canceled card will be removed from the consolidated balance after 60 days, does this mean that if I transfer TYP points to AA, they will be removed from AA miles?
My understanding is that it doesn't matter once you're a partner.
No, miles transferred to AA are subject to AA's rules.
Thanks for the clarification~!
TYP is switching to AA, which is great news as someone who lives in an AA base area lol.
So far, I don't have any Citi cards and I've never been interested in Citi in the first place, so it's giving me a headache trying to learn from scratch lol I think the system is similar to Chase, but I'll take it slow. Thank you for the good article.
We're glad you found this helpful.
This is a hard gateway city card for a mage like me. I've been caving for quite some time now (especially managing hard pull inquiries), so I'm disappointed I didn't get to do this one, but I'm always waiting to hear if they're going to lower the difficulty. Keep up the good work, Citi!
Citi used to make it really easy for me to make cards, but in the last 2-3 years it seems to have gotten really tight. It would be great if they loosen it up a bit.
Thank you so much for making it so easy to understand for a UR-only newbie like me. Today, after seeing your email, P2 and I went into Citi Bank after work and applied just before they closed, and I got the Citi Card Approved for 100,000 TQ points! The banker was a Chinese lady and she said that a lot of people came to make this card today anyway ^^ I think they are all Mamo members ^^ P2 said that he was rejected because he had a lot of open cards, but it's weird because the last time we both made two Hilton cards in January and I have a lot more cards. I wonder if it's because I have cards open that I don't use, so I'm going to close some tomorrow. Thank you!
Congratulations on your approval.
Citi only has no annual fee cards (double cash, costco, custom), but I recently went into a branch (NJ) and opened the strata elite with a 100K offer. I got it for the first year offer, so I don't know if I'll keep it for long. The current online public offer is 80K. My banker told me that most branches are running the 100K offer, so you may want to visit one in person. He doesn't know the exact closing date of the promotion.
I signed up for the mailing list in another comment about a year and a half ago, and I'm still the only one waiting in line.
Well done!
I'm on the notification list as of October 15th of last year.
hello!
I have a question. If I had a Strata Premier card and downgraded to Strata Reward+ after 2 years, will I lose the opportunity to get the 30,000 points that Strata Reward+ gives me in the future...? Thanks in advance.
In the case you're referring to, it's my understanding that you'd get the sign-up bonus on the existing Strata Premier card and then after 48 months, you'd get a new regular Strata card bonus.
The terms and conditions say "Bonus ThankYou® Points are not available ... 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℠, Citi Strata Student, Citi Rewards+® or Citi Rewards+ Student account".
So in this case, the card before the conversion is the baseline.
Thanks for the answer!
Does the Premier card transfer to AA? The elite card benefits say transfer points to AA, but the Premier doesn't have AA in the transfer points to phrase and starts with JetBlue?
If you look at the first image I've attached in the body, you'll see the Citi Strata Premier listed as an AA transfer card.
https://creditcards.aa.com/?utm_medium=referral&utm_source=aa&utm_campaign=hp_upto
I went to AA's website and saw the Citi AA card 80,000 mile offer as a limited deal. I don't know if I'm the only one who saw it incognito, but there doesn't seem to be a post on MileMoa yet, so I'm posting a link. I'm not allowed to post on the message board.
Thanks for the information. There's a thread on the board highlighted in red, which I think people who only look at the capitalization might have missed, so thanks for the reminder.
https://www.milemoa.com/bbs/board/11807227
Can anyone confirm if the AIRPREMIA tickets are also available on CITI TRAVEL? It seems like a good offer, but it's also important to know if Airpremia tickets are available, so I'd like to ask if anyone can confirm. I would also like a notification list.
Now that I've checked, I don't see any Air Premia tickets. Bummer.
Added a notification list.
Hello~ This is my first time writing a post^^.
I'm a one-man show who's been visiting from the sidelines.
I've been doing this for about 7 years now, and I've gotten so many benefits from it that I've been telling everyone I know about it lol.
I read this article the other day and was thinking about it, and today I went to my local Citi branch and got approved for the card with the 100,000 offer. The clerk filled it all out for me, I only had to sign once on a pad or something, and they emailed me right in the middle of the process that my card was approved. Even the clerk was surprised, saying she didn't expect to know the results so quickly.
We're still at 100,000 offers in the branch. I don't know when it will end.
For reference, my history at Citi is,
I opened a Citi account early on in my life in the U.S. because of their global internet banking service,
I have a Double-Cash card that I created about 10 years ago and have maintained ever since.
I also have a Costco card, and one AA no annual fee card (which is down).
Credit score and income (which I don't have) would have an impact, but I'm guessing history would also have a positive impact.
And other people are talking about notification lists, and I'm not sure what that is, but can I request one?
Thank you~!
1. congratulations.
2. we set aside a day once every 1-2 years for a limited time, 24 hours, and once the date is set, we send out a 3-4 day notice on the board and a reminder via email that the announcement is up, and the comments that request to be added to the notification list.
I see~.
Then please add me to the notification list ^^.
Added.
Thank you^^ Thank you
I don't have a Citibank card except for AA made about 3 years ago, but why can't I get approved?!! I've been making Chase, Hawaiian, and Barclays steadily for a year, but does that have an impact?!! When I call and ask, they say too many accounts recently opened...
They said the city has gotten a lot tighter.
I was approved with a link to my Strata Premier card. I need to spend a few thousand dollars in a hurry, but I don't see an option to do it directly with Apple Pay.
Congratulations on the approval and thanks for the link.
Citi has a lot to live up to ;);
I just applied for the Strata Elite because of you. I'm still stressed about the coupon book type of card. I'm planning a trip to Europe this year and I'm thinking of using the hotel credit before the calendar year. If I stay in January, but pay in December, will the credit be used up this year?
And Citi Travel booking 6 points for airline tickets, preferably on the airline's official website May I ask why you recommend using the airline's official website for this part? I don't know about hotels, but for airline tickets, I think Citi Travel booking wouldn't be bad. Or is it better to book with Saf, since I have Saf?
1. yes. I understand that as long as you pay this year, you can book next year without any problem. However, if you need to change/cancel your reservation next year, you will lose the $300 credit.
2. If there are no delays or cancellations, it's fine, but if you need to change your itinerary, the airline will tell you to contact your travel agent, and your travel agent will tell you to contact the airline, and so on. That's why we recommend buying tickets directly from the airline if possible.