Citi Strata Elite℠ Card review: Complicated and doesn’t match competitors

The Citi Strata Elite card — Citi’s newest premium credit card offering — aims to provide a luxury travel experience and reward foodies and frequent travelers with higher rewards. It also finally provides the long-awaited ability to transfer rewards to American Airlines.

However, it misses the mark overall and continues to lag behind the best travel cards. Instead, the card offers bonus rewards that only work during certain hours and credits that are more niche than its competitors.

While the card can work well in tandem with other Citi cards, you may find it difficult to get enough value from the limited bonus rewards and perks to justify such a high annual fee.

Why you might want the Citi Strata Elite Card

The Citi Strata Elite Card can be a great choice if you like to dine out on the weekends or need a boost to your ThankYou Points balance. Here’s a couple reasons you should consider this card.

Great for foodies

If you’ve got regular weekend dinner plans, this card is an excellent choice. You’ll earn 6X points at restaurants (including restaurant delivery services) on Citi Nights℠ purchases, every Friday and Saturday from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. ET. You’ll still earn 3X points at any other time. Since these are prime dining hours, you can easily earn a top rewards rate on these purchases. Just make sure you’re at a qualifying restaurant during the correct timeframe. While 3X is still good, 6X is outstanding. If you’re with a large group, you might consider picking up the entire check and getting your fellow diners to reimburse you.

Excellent welcome bonus

The card offers an outstanding welcome bonus. You’ll earn 80,000 bonus ThankYou Points after spending $4,000 in the first 3 months. Using Bankrate’s valuations of about [sc code=’pm_rates’ program_id=’36’] each, this bonus is worth around $1,280. You’ll need to average around $1,334 in spending per month, so make sure you have a plan to meet the spending requirement.

Why you might want a different card

The Citi Strata Elite makes you work to get value and doesn’t offer enough rewards for everyday spending. If you don’t have a plan to justify the cost, you might consider a different card.

Too many limitations

While the Strata Elite offers a slew of new perks, they are extremely niche and can be difficult to extract value from. Many of them require you to spend where you may not need or want to in order to get value, which defeats the purpose. For example, if you aren’t near an American Airlines hub, you won’t have much use for the annual Admirals Club passes. Also, offering an elevated rewards rate with specific hours is bound to cause headaches when charges don’t post correctly or time zones come into play.

The card continues the recent issuer trend of forcing you to book travel through the issuer’s travel portal to earn the best rates. Issuer portals often have inflated prices and don’t usually honor any elite status benefits you have. You need to compare prices and factor in the rewards earned to determine if it’s a good value. Overall, the card requires significant effort and planning in order to get proper value, which makes it not worth its high cost for many.

High annual fee

Although many of the best credit cards have annual fees to offset, the Strata Elite joins the ranks of  Chase Sapphire Reserve® and The Platinum Card® from American Express as a coupon-book-style card that you need to work to squeeze value out of.

The card needs at least one more bonus category outside the bonus for travel portal bookings to justify its high cost of $0 a year. Both the no-fee and mid-tier Strata cards are far more valuable for everyday spending than the Elite. To get the most from this card, you’ll likely need to pair it with one of the other Strata cards.

How does the Citi Strata Elite Card compare to other travel cards?

The Citi Strata Elite offers some unique features, but it may be difficult to justify its high cost without planning. Here’s how it stacks up with its competitors.

Citi Strata℠ Card	Chase Sapphire Reserve®	The Platinum Card® from American Express
Rewards rate Earn 5 ThankYou® Points for each $1 spent on Hotels, Car Rentals and Attractions booked on Citi Travel® via cititravel.com. Earn 3 ThankYou Points for each $1 spent at Supermarkets, on Select Transit purchases, and at Gas & EV Charging Stations. Earn 3 ThankYou® Points for each $1 spent in an eligible Self-Select Category of your choice (Fitness Clubs, Select Streaming Services, Live Entertainment, Cosmetic Stores/Barber Shops/Hair Salons, or Pet Supply Stores). Choose your eligible Self-Select Category on Citi Online or by calling customer service. The default Self-Select Category is Select Streaming Services. Earn 2 ThankYou® Points for each $1 spent at Restaurants. Earn 1 ThankYou® Point for each $1 spent on All Other Purchases.	Rewards rate Earn 8x points on all purchases through Chase Travel℠, including The Edit℠. Earn 4x points on flights and hotels booked direct. Earn 3x points on dining worldwide. Earn 1x points on all other purchases.	Rewards rate Earn 5X Membership Rewards® Points for flights booked directly with airlines or with American Express Travel® up to $500,000 on these purchases per calendar year and earn 5X Membership Rewards® Points on prepaid hotels booked with American Express Travel®.
Welcome bonus For a limited time, earn 30,000 bonus Points after spending $1,000 in the first 3 months of account opening.	Welcome bonus Earn 125,000 bonus points after you spend $6,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.	Welcome bonus You may be eligible for as high as 175,000 Membership Rewards® Points after spending $8,000 in eligible purchases on your new Card in your first 6 months of Membership. Welcome offers vary and you may not be eligible for an offer.
Annual fee $0	Annual fee $795	Annual fee $695
Other things to know Low intro APR on purchases and balance transfers FICO® ScoreMastercard® ID Theft Protection Citi Entertainment®: Access to presale tickets and exclusive experiences $0 liability on unauthorized purchases	Other things to know Up to $300 in annual travel credits each account anniversary year Up to $500 credit for hotel bookings with The Edit ($250 semi-annually) Priority Pass Select lounge access Up to $300 credit with Sapphire Reserve Exclusive Tables program ($150 semi-annually) Up to $300 in StubHub credits ($150 semi-annually) Up to $250 credit for Apple TV+ and Apple Music subscriptions $500 Southwest credit and Southwest A-List status when you book through Chase after you spend $75,000 in a calendar year And more	Other things to know Up to $200 credit for airline incidental fees Recurring travel credits for CLEAR® Plus membership Statement credits for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck® application fees Up to $200 credit for Fine Hotels + Resorts® annually Up to $200 in annual credits for Uber rides and Uber Eats orders ($15 in Uber Cash for U.S. rides each month, plus a bonus $20 in December; an Amex Card must be added to your Uber account and selected as the payment method) And more

Citi Strata Elite Card vs. Citi Strata℠ Card

The no-annual-fee Citi Strata Card offers significantly better utility for everyday spending, with bonus rates covering a wide variety of categories like groceries, gas and transit. Looking at the way both cards are structured, they both work best when paired together and have shortcomings when on their own. You can earn better rewards with no-fee Strata, but you can maximize your rewards much more with the Elite.

Citi Strata Elite Card vs. Chase Sapphire Reserve®

Although the annual fee on the Elite is significantly less than the Chase Sapphire Reserve®, Chase’s refreshed premium card offers substantially more travel-related perks and credits. Although Chase breaks up many of its credits into semi-annual or monthly increments, the sheer volume of rewards offered means that you can offset the card’s higher cost much more easily than the Elite. And while you still get a higher bonus through Chase’s travel portal, you aren’t forced to book there in order to earn bonus rewards for travel purchases.

Citi Strata Elite Card vs. The Platinum Card® from American Express

While The Platinum Card® from American Express sets the standard for difficult-to-use credits, the Strata Elite equals the complication needed to maximize value, expanding it to the time you make restaurant purchases. The Amex Platinum has never been a solid choice for spending outside of travel, but it does offer significantly more credits and perks for its higher cost. Neither card is a great option for everyday spending, but the Elite wins out with a 1.5X flat rate and its bonus on restaurant purchases.

How to use the Citi Strata Elite Card

• Go out to eat or order delivery on Friday or Saturday nights.
• Maximize the credits as best you can.
• Pair the card with another Strata card with better everyday spending rates.
• Transfer points to American Airlines at a 1:1 rate to boost to supplement your miles when booking trips with the airline.

Is the Citi Strata Elite Card right for you?

The Citi Strata Elite continues the trend of offering niche credits and boosted rates through its travel portal for a high annual fee. If you already dine out frequently during Citi Nights hours and have a plan to use the credits, this card could add meaningful value. But for some people, it may require too much planning to justify the steep cost compared to more flexible competitors.