Citi Strata Premier Card vs. Chase Sapphire Reserve Card [Detailed Comparison]

The Citi Strata Premier℠ Card and the Chase Sapphire Reserve^® are 2 popular credit cards for travel rewards.

The Chase Sapphire Reserve card is generally the more popular choice and comes jam-packed with benefits, but you shouldn’t write off the Citi Strata Premier card, especially if you have an aversion to high annual fees.

So if you’re considering adding either the Citi Strata Premier card or Chase Sapphire Reserve card to your wallet, you’ll want to read this guide in detail before making your decision.

Citi Strata Premier Card vs. Chase Sapphire Reserve Card — Overview

Short on time? Check out this table of benefits and costs associated with the Citi Strata Premier card and Chase Sapphire Reserve card:

To start with, the Chase Sapphire Reserve card earns Ultimate Rewards points, while the Citi Strata Premier card earns ThankYou Points.

These currencies can be used in different ways — for example, you can transfer Chase points to United and book award flights on United, but Citi points can’t easily be transferred to United.

Generally speaking, Chase points are more valuable than Citi points.

The Chase Sapphire Reserve card has a much heftier annual fee but offers greater benefits and protections overall than the Citi Strata Premier card.

We recommend accessing the benefits guides for these 2 credit cards so you have all of the relevant information about benefits.

The Value of a Welcome Offer

Getting a credit card welcome offer is designed to give a boost to your points balances with a small spending requirement.

Both of these cards offer consistently solid welcome offers:

Citi Strata Premier Card

Chase Sapphire Reserve Card

Citi ThankYou Points vs. Chase Ultimate Rewards Points

Citi ThankYou Points and Chase Ultimate Rewards points are both examples of transferrable currencies, also known as flexible rewards currencies.

Citi maintains a unique list of airline and hotel partners, and Chase does the same. For example, Chase is partnered with United, while Citi is partnered with Avianca LifeMiles. Also, Chase is partnered with World of Hyatt, and Citi is partnered with Choice Privileges.  The point here is that Citi and Chase can both be utilized for sensational value as long as you’re savvy about how you use your points.

Here’s how quickly you can earn points with either card:

Earning Power

Even if you’re comparing 3x Chase points to 3x Citi points, you’ll usually come out ahead by picking Chase points on an apples-to-apples comparison.

In fact, we value Chase points at around 2 cents apiece, while Citi points are worth around 1.6 cents each. So a 3x multiplier on Chase points is worth a 6% return on spending, while a 3x multiplier on Citi points is worth a 4.8% return on spending. Also, the Chase Sapphire Reserve card maxes out at 10x points, which is worth an astonishing 20% return on spending.

However, the Citi Strata Premier card outperforms the Chase Sapphire Reserve card at grocery stores, gas stati0ns, EV charging, and supermarkets.

Redemption Options

As we’ve discussed at length, the flexibility of Chase and Citi points is the main reason why they are valuable currencies to hold.

For example, if you have Chase points, you can choose between transferring them to Hyatt to book luxury hotels around the world or transferring them to Singapore Airlines to book high-end flights like Singapore Airlines first class.

Similarly, Citi points can be transferred to airlines and hotels, but with a different list of partner airlines and hotels.

Also, with the Chase Sapphire Reserve card, you can get some solid redemption value outside of transfer partners in 2 additional ways:

• Chase travel portal bookings
• Pay Yourself Back

In both of these ways, you’ll get 1.5 cents per point of value. You can also redeem Chase points for lesser value through gift cards, statement credits, Amazon.com, Apple products, online shopping, and so on.

Statement Credits

The Chase Sapphire Reserve card sets itself apart from the Citi Strata Premier card in a couple of ways, but statement credits is one of those major ways.

The Chase Sapphire Reserve card comes with a travel credit of up to $300 every cardmember year, and it’s extremely easy to use. Also, it has a Global Entry or TSA PreCheck application fee credit every 4 or 4.5 years, respectively. The application fee credit also be used for NEXUS.

Meanwhile, the Citi Strata Premier card has an up to $100 annual hotel savings benefit whereby you can get $100 off of a single hotel stay of $500 or more (excluding taxes and fees) for reservations booked through thankyou.com, once per calendar year.

Travel Benefits and Protections

We’ll show you the differences in this section.

Airport Lounge Benefits

One of the benefits of the Chase Sapphire Reserve card that can’t be ignored is the complimentary Priority Pass Select membership that’s afforded to cardholders.

This membership gets you complimentary lounge access for yourself and up to 2 guests (additional guests beyond that cost $35 per person per visit), including access to the new Chase Sapphire Lounges by The Club. We reviewed one of these lounges at LaGuardia Airport (LGA) in New York City and came away impressed.

Additionally, the Chase Sapphire Reserve card allows cardholders and 2 guests access to Chase Sapphire Terrace locations. Currently, there’s only 1 location, which opened in March of 2023, at Austin–Bergstrom International Airport (AUS) in Texas.

The Citi Strata Premier card doesn’t offer any airport lounge benefits.

Hotel and Rental Car Program Benefits

The Chase Sapphire Reserve card partners with Avis and Audi on demand for discounts and benefits. With National, you can get Emerald Club Executive elite status.

Cardholders also get access to The Luxury Hotels & Resorts Collection for room upgrades, daily breakfast, and much more, and can tap into benefits at Relais & Chateaux and Ennismore.

The Citi Strata Premier card offers access to the Mastercard Luxury Hotel & Resorts Collection of 3,000+ properties offering complimentary breakfast for 2 daily, amenity credits of up to $100, and more.

It also offers an annual hotel savings benefit that gets you up to $100 off a single hotel stay of $500 or more excluding taxes and fees when booked through thankyou.com. This benefit is applicable up to once per calendar year.

Ride-Share Benefits

One of the features we love the most about the Chase Sapphire Reserve card is the complimentary Lyft Pink All Access membership, which is valued at $199 per year.

Cardholders get 10x points on Lyft rides (through March 31, 2025) and 2 years of complimentary Lyft Pink All Access (when activated by December 31, 2024), which comes with these perks:

• Complimentary Priority Pickup upgrades to get picked up faster
• Member-exclusive pricing, including 10% off all Lux rides
• Cancellation forgiveness up to 3 times per month for free
• In-app roadside assistance for your own car for free (up to 4 times per year)
• Free Grubhub+ for 1 year
• Free SIXT car rental upgrades
• Free unlimited 45 minute classic bike rides
• Free unlimited e-bike and scooter unlocks
• Discounted e-bike and scooter rates
• 3 bike or scooter guest passes per year
• 50% discount off of the third year of Lyft Pink All Access membership

If you’re a frequent rideshare user, the Chase Sapphire Reserve card is awesome.

The Citi Strata Premier card offers World Elite Mastercard benefits with Lyft, which gets you a $5 credit once per month when you take 3 rides with Lyft in a month.

Rental Car Insurance

The Chase Sapphire Reserve card offers some of the best primary rental car insurance from a credit card — you’ll get up to $75,000 per rental in coverage. Just decline your rental car company’s collision damage waiver or loss damage waiver (CDW or LDW), pay for your reservation using your Chase Sapphire Reserve card, and you’ll have coverage. Just keep in mind that you don’t get liability coverage at all.

The Citi Strata Premier card does has MasterRental coverage (secondary car rental insurance).

Trip Interruption and Cancellation Insurance

If your trip is canceled or interrupted due to a covered reason such as death, accidental bodily injury, or sickness, you can use the Chase Sapphire Reserve card to claim up to $10,000 per person and up to $20,000 per trip in reimbursements.

The Citi Strata Premier card offers up to $5,000 reimbursement per covered nonrefundable trip, up to $10,000 per account every 12 months.

Trip Delay Reimbursement

Trip delay reimbursements can be yours with the Chase Sapphire Reserve card on eligible delays due to covered hazards for more than 6 hours (or requiring an overnight stay). You can get up to $500 for each ticket purchased.

The Citi Strata Premier card offers up to $500 reimbursement for covered trip delays of 6 hours or more, up to twice per 12 months.

Baggage Delay Insurance

If your baggage is delayed, you can file a claim using your Chase Sapphire Reserve card to get up to $100 per day for up to 5 days on eligible delays of more than 6 hours.

The Citi Strata Premier card doesn’t cover baggage delay insurance.

Lost Luggage Reimbursement

Lost luggage is one of the most inconvenient potential outcomes of traveling — when you’re traveling on a common carrier (like a commercial airline) and your luggage is lost, you are eligible for up to $3,000 per person per trip in reimbursements with a sub-limit of $500 for jewelry and watches and a sub-limit of $500 for cameras and other electronic equipment.

The Citi Strata Premier card offers up to $3,000 reimbursement for lost or damaged checked or carry-on luggage per covered trip (or up to $2,000 per bag per covered trip for New York residents), up to 2 claims every 12 months.

Travel Accident Insurance

With your Chase Sapphire Reserve card, you are eligible for up to $1,000,000 in travel accident insurance.

The Citi Strata Premier card doesn’t offer travel accident insurance.

Roadside Dispatch

When you hold the Chase Sapphire Reserve card, you’ll get access to 4 free service calls per year with a maximum value of $50 per service call, which covers the following:

• Towing to the nearest service facility or location or driver’s choice
• Fuel delivery, up to 2 gallons at no cost
• Changing of tires with a good, inflated spare
• Jump-start services
• Lockout services, excluding key replacement
• Standard winching

Coverage includes both the U.S. and Canada.

The Citi Strata Premier card does not offer this benefit.

Travel and Emergency Assistance Services

With the Chase Sapphire Reserve card, you’ll get access to the Travel and Emergency Assistance Services hotline, which can help you get legal referrals, emergency consulate or embassy appointments, passport replacements, and emergency cash advance services.

The Citi Strata Premier card does not offer travel or emergency assistance.

Emergency Evacuation and Transportation

Another great feature of the Chase Sapphire Reserve card is the emergency evacuation benefit that covers up to $100,000 in expenses.

The Citi Strata Premier card doesn’t offer this benefit.

Emergency Medical and Dental Coverage

With the Chase Sapphire Reserve card, you’ll get up to $2,500 in coverage for emergency medical and dental expenses, as well as up to $75 per day for 5 days at a prescribed hotel.

The Citi Strata Premier card doesn’t currently offer this benefit.

Hot Tip: Make sure to check out our full list of travel insurance benefits for the Chase Sapphire Reserve card for more details on these coverages. 

Shopping Benefits and Protections

In this section, we’ll walk you through what you can expect in terms of shopping-centric benefits with both the Citi Strata Premier card and Chase Sapphire Reserve card.

ShopRunner Membership

Both the Citi Strata Premier card and the Chase Sapphire Reserve card offer complimentary ShopRunner membership. Citi Strata Premier cardholders can enroll through March 31, 2024, thanks to the card’s World Elite Mastercard standing, and Chase Sapphire Reserve cardholders can enroll through August 31, 2023.

Instacart+ Benefits

One of our favorite benefits of the Chase Sapphire Reserve card is the complimentary 12-month Instacart+ membership plus a $15 monthly credit when you activate your Instacart+ membership by July 31, 2024.

The Citi Strata Premier card doesn’t offer any benefits with Instacart.

DoorDash Benefits

The Chase Sapphire Reserve card also offers a complimentary DoorDash DashPass membership for at least 1 year with a $5 monthly credit when you activate your DoorDash DashPass membership by December 31, 2024.

The Citi Strata Premier card gets 3 free months of DashPass, plus $5 off every month when you use your card at checkout until September 30, 2023 (valid in the U.S. only). This is thanks to its World Elite Mastercard status.

Purchase Protection

The Citi Strata Premier card offers purchase protection thanks to its World Elite Mastercard benefits for eligible incidents within 90 days of the original purchase and up to $10,000 per item ($50,000 per calendar year).

The Chase Sapphire Reserve’s purchase protection also covers up to $10,000 per item and $50,000 per calendar year, but its policy is valid for up to 120 days after the purchase date, instead of 90 days.

Extended Warranty

The Citi Strata Premier card offers an extended warranty by virtue of the fact that it’s a World Elite Mastercard product — you can extend your manufacturer’s warranty for an additional 24 months for a maximum of 7 total years from the purchase date. This coverage is capped at $10,000 per item.

The Chase Sapphire Reserve card can extend eligible warranties by 1 additional year on eligible warranties of 3 years or less.

Bottom Line: The Citi Strata Premier card’s extended warranty is far superior to the Chase Sapphire Reserve card’s.

Return Protection

The Chase Sapphire Reserve card is one of the few credit cards with return protection, which is essentially a shopping benefit you can use if you attempt to return an item to the original merchant and the merchant doesn’t accept the return. If that happens and you attempt your return up to 90 days after the date of the original purchase, you can get up to $500 in return protection reimbursements per item.

The Citi Strata Premier card doesn’t offer any return protection.

No Foreign Transaction Fees

The Citi Strata Premier card and Chase Sapphire Reserve card both have no foreign transaction fees.

Annual Fees and Adding Additional Users

In our final section, we’ll walk you through the major costs associated with holding each card.

Annual Fees

The Chase Sapphire Reserve card’s annual fee is $550, while the Citi Strata Premier card has a $95 annual fee.

Authorized Users

The Citi Strata Premier card doesn’t have any additional annual fees for adding authorized users.

Authorized users on the Citi Strata Premier card more or less enjoy the same benefits as the primary cardholder with the exception of the $100 annual hotel savings benefit. Only 1 is offered, although stays booked by the authorized user can certainly count toward it.

The Chase Sapphire Reserve card has an additional annual fee of $75 for each authorized user.

Any authorized users on the Chase Sapphire Reserve card will enjoy the same benefits with the exception of:

• Travel credit
• Global Entry, TSA PreCheck, or NEXUS application fee credit

However, authorized users will get travel insurance, access to The Luxury Hotel & Resort Collection, their own Priority Pass Select membership, and other benefits.

Final Thoughts

Well, there you have it! The Citi Strata Premier card offers excellent rewards for a card with a mild annual fee, though the benefits are definitely on the lighter side.

On the other hand, the Chase Sapphire Reserve card has a very substantial annual fee, but awesome rewards and ongoing benefits to sweeten the deal for you.

Overall, the Chase Sapphire Reserve card is considered to be the more prestigious credit card, but the Citi Strata Premier card might be the perfect fit for you if you want a credit card that earns you lots of travel rewards points for everyday spending without worrying about large annual fees.