How the Citi Strata Elite Card Offers $700+ in Annual Benefits You’ll Actually Use

The Citi Strata Elite℠ Card is Citi’s reentry into the premium credit card market. While it’s lighter on features than competing premium cards from American Express and Chase, it has a lower $595 annual fee and a handful of statement credits that can more than offset this cost.

These credits can provide you with over $800 in value per calendar year if you maximize each one of them. Since opening the card this past July, I’ve found that the Citi Strata Elite card’s statement credits are incredibly easy to use. So much so that I’ve already redeemed all of the card’s statement credits this year, recouping most of the card’s annual fee in the process.

I’ll show you how I used each of the Citi Strata Elite card’s various statement credits within 4 months of opening my account and discuss how I might use them next year. Use this as inspiration when you plan how to use your Citi Strata Elite card’s statement credits as the year comes to a close.

Citi Strata Elite Card Overview

The Citi Strata Elite card is Citi’s newest ThankYou points-earning credit card, and by far the bank’s most premium card. It includes premium benefits like airport lounge access and earns bonus points on dining and travel booked through Citi Travel.

Citi Strata Elite℠ Card

U.P. Rating 

The rating for this card has been determined by our own industry experts who know the ins and outs of credit card products. Bonuses, rewards as well as rates and fees are all taken into account. Compensation from the issuer does not affect our rating. We only recommend products we either use ourselves or endorse.

The Citi Strata Elite card is Citi's most premium card built for frequent travelers and foodies.

Citi Strata Elite℠ Card

The Citi Strata Elite card is Citi's most premium card built for frequent travelers and foodies.

Welcome Offer

Earn 100,000 bonus ThankYou Points after spending $6,000 within the first 3 months of account opening.

100,000 points

UP's Offer Valuation*:

Up to $1,600

Annual Fee

$595

APR

20.74% to 28.74%

Why We Like This Card

The Citi Strata Elite card is a great option for frequent travelers, foodies, and those who are fans of the Citi ThankYou Rewards ecosystem thanks to its combination of bonus categories, perks, and annual credits.

Pros & Cons

Pros

• 12x points on hotels, rental cars, and attractions booked through Citi Travel
• 6x points on airfare through Citi Travel
• 6x points on dining on Citi Nights (Friday and Saturday nights from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m.) and 3x points on dining at all other times

Cons

• $595 annual fee
• Boosted dining rewards are limited to 2 nights per week

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Card Highlights

• Earn 100,000 bonus ThankYou Points after spending $6,000 within the first 3 months of account opening
• 12x points on hotels, car rentals, and attractions booked on cititravel.com
• 6x points on air travel booked on cititravel.com
• 6x points at restaurants, including restaurant delivery services, every Friday and Saturday from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. ET, and 3x points any other time
• 1.5x points on all other purchases
• Global Entry or TSA PreCheck credit
• Up to $300 annual hotel benefit
• Up to $200 annual Splurge credit
• Up to $200 annual Blacklane credit
• 4 American Airlines Admirals Club passes every calendar year
• Transfer Citi ThankYou Points to partners like American Airlines
• Complimentary Priority Pass membership
• No foreign transaction fees

Financial Snapshot

• APR: 20.74% to 28.74%
• Foreign Transaction Fees: None

The card earns Citi ThankYou points at the following rates:

• 12 points per $1 on hotels, car rentals, and attractions booked via Citi Travel
• 6 points per $1 on air travel booked via Citi Travel and at restaurants during Citi Nights (Friday and Saturday, 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. Eastern Time)
• 3 points per $1 at restaurants at other times
• 1.5 points per $1 on all other purchases

To me, the most interesting bonus category is restaurants. The card earns 6 points per $1 at restaurants on Citi Nights, which are defined as Friday and Saturday nights between 6 p.m. and 6 a.m. Eastern time. This is the highest earning rate we’ve seen for dining. The card earns 3 points per $1 on dining at all other times.

The Citi Strata Elite card includes a Priority Pass™ Select membership, which you can enroll in and access over 1,500 airport experiences worldwide. Plus, cardholders receive 4 American Airlines Admirals Club lounge passes that can be used at any Admirals Club, provided you have a same-day boarding pass for an American Airlines flight. You can share these passes with people traveling with you.

While the Citi Strata Elite card’s long list of benefits might seem intimidating at first, I found the statement credits to be relatively easy to redeem for things I already had to buy. In some cases, thanks to their broad applicability, these statement credits are easier to redeem than their counterparts offered by other premium cards on the market.

1. Up to $300 Annual Hotel Benefit

The card’s $300 annual hotel benefit was the first credit I redeemed when I got my new Citi Strata Elite card in the mail. Unlike the other credits on this list, the hotel benefit functions like a coupon and can be applied to any prepaid hotel stay of 2 nights or longer booked through Citi Travel.

There’s no minimum spending requirement to use this benefit, and you can use it toward any hotel bookable through Citi Travel. The only downside to using the hotel benefit is that you don’t earn hotel points or elite night credit on hotel stays booked through Citi Travel, as you typically have to book stays directly to earn these.

I used the hotel benefit when I visited a friend in Kalispell, Montana, this past September. I booked a room at the Red Lion Inn Kalispell through Citi Travel and found that rates were comparable to booking directly with Sonesta, which owns the Red Lion brand. My 3-night stay cost $780.85 after taxes and fees, so the hotel benefit brought the price to $480.85.

Since I had to book this hotel stay regardless of having the Citi Strata Elite card, I consider it a $300 rebate on the card’s annual fee. Plus, since the Citi Strata Elite card earns 12 points per $1 spent on hotels booked through Citi Travel, I also earned a huge 5,770 Citi ThankYou points on the remainder of my stay.

Next year, I’ll use the card’s hotel benefit to book a hotel room in Prague when visiting family and friends in the city. Hotels in the city are often inexpensive, and the best deals are in boutique hotels that aren’t part of major loyalty programs. This is a great use case for the Citi Strata Elite card’s hotel benefit, since I’m not losing out on hotel points by staying at a branded hotel booked through Citi Travel.

2. Up to $200 Blacklane Credit

Blacklane is a luxury limousine service that operates in most major cities, and the Citi Strata Elite card includes up to $200 per year in statement credits for Blacklane rides. You can use $100 in credits from January through June and $100 from July through December. Since I opened the card in July, I could only use $100 in credit this year.

Before I had the Citi Strata Elite card, I had used Blacklane for airport rides in New York City and Berlin. I had great experiences both times I used the service, so I was excited to use the credit on a trip to Europe this past August — and it didn’t disappoint.

I flew to Brussels (BRU) with a childhood friend to visit Belgium’s legendary breweries before continuing on to Amsterdam and Dublin. Before we left for Europe, I booked a Blacklane ride from the airport to our hotel for roughly $130. Despite a delayed arrival in Brussels, a driver was waiting for us at baggage claim and drove us to our hotel in a comfortable, electric BMW i5. Needless to say, this sure beat the train we would have taken otherwise.

Since I charged the $130 Blacklane ride to my Citi Strata Elite card, it only cost $30 out of pocket. However, I would not have booked a limousine if it weren’t for the credit, making it hard to say that I got $100 in real value from this statement credit. That said, it was a nice splurge for my friend and me.

After my credit resets in January, I’m planning to book a Blacklane ride in Bangkok when my wife and I are traveling around Southeast Asia. We’ll book a ride from our hotel to the airport before we fly to Penang, Malaysia.

Booking a ride to the airport assures us we’ll have a car waiting for us before our early morning flight. It also lets me use the credit with minimal added expense. For reference, Blacklane shows a $107 estimated fare for this booking. Which, while expensive for Thailand, still lets me redeem the credit.

3. Up to $200 Splurge Credit

The Citi Strata Elite card’s $200 annual Splurge Credit is one of the card’s more notable features. Cardmembers pick 2 merchants from a curated list and receive up to $200 in total statement credits when making purchases with those merchants throughout the year.

You can pick from the following merchants:

• 1stDibs
• American Airlines (exclusions apply)
• Best Buy
• Future Personal Training
• Live Nation (exclusions apply)

I selected Best Buy as one of my 2 merchants and quickly purchased a $200 Apple Store gift card from BestBuy.com. After this, I ordered a new iPad Mini from Apple’s website, applied the gift card to my order, and picked up my new iPad at an Apple Store near my coworking space the next day.

I’d had my eye on a new iPad for a while, and I wanted to purchase it at the Apple Store instead of Best Buy because Apple gave me a high trade-in value for my aging iPad Pro. Thankfully, purchasing a digital Apple gift card from Best Buy triggered the entirety of the Splurge Credit and effectively gave me a $200 discount on my new iPad.

As a result, I consider the $200 Splurge Credit to be a $200 rebate on the Citi Strata Elite card’s annual fee. I would have purchased a new iPad regardless of having this credit card as my old iPad was starting to show its age.

With most of my tech up to date, I’ll use next year’s Splurge Credit to book airfare with American Airlines. I have a handful of upcoming domestic trips I still need to book, and if American’s fares are reasonable when my Splurge Credit resets in 2026, I’ll use the credit to cover them.

4. Global Entry Credit

Finally, the Citi Strata Elite card provides up to $120 in statement credits every 4 years when cardmembers charge their Global Entry or TSA PreCheck application fee to their card. You must apply for these programs and, if approved, your membership is valid for 5 years before you must reapply.

I’ve had Global Entry for years now, and it’s been extremely valuable to me, as I travel at least once per month. Global Entry is a Trusted Traveler Program from the U.S. Customs and Border Protection. It gives travelers access to expedited customs lanes upon arrival in the U.S. and access to TSA PreCheck expedited security lanes when flying from U.S. airports.

My Global Entry membership was up for renewal at the end of the year, and I just submitted my renewal application and charged it to my Citi Strata Elite card. That said, I have multiple other cards that include this benefit, so I don’t consider it a direct rebate on the Citi Strata Elite card’s annual fee.

Final Thoughts

The Citi Strata Elite card is one of the newest entrants to the premium credit card market, and it’s doing things differently. The card has fewer travel benefits than much of its competition, but its statement credits are among the easiest to use.

I was able to use virtually all of them within just months of being approved for the card. The hotel benefit let me score a nice discount on a hotel stay in Montana, Blacklane gave my friend and me a comfortable ride in Brussels, and the Splurge Credit helped me buy a new iPad. Plus, I was able to renew my Global Entry membership at no out-of-pocket cost.