Citi Strata Premier Card: Guide

The Citi Premier Card relaunched as the Citi Strata Premier on May 12, 2024. The card kept many of the same benefits as the previous version and added some new benefits as well!

As of May 21, 2024 — The Citi Strata Premier has a welcome offer of 75,000 points after spending $4,000 in 3 months of account opening.

Card Perks

• • The Citi Strata Premier card offers the best extended warranty protection — an additional 2 years on manufacturer’s warranties.

• • Travel insurance

• • Once per calendar year, $100 off a single hotel stay of $500 or more, excluding taxes and fees, when booked through thankyou.com

Earning rates:

• • 10 ThankYou points for each $1 spent on hotels, car rentals, and attractions booked through CitiTravel.com
  • 3 ThankYou Points for each $1 spent at restaurants
  • 3 ThankYou Points for each $1 spent at supermarkets
  • 3 ThankYou Points for each $1 spent at gas stations and EV charging stations
  • 3 ThankYou Points for each $1 spent on air travel and hotels
  • 1 point for everything else

Our Take:

With Choice, Preferred Hotels, and Wyndham as transfer partners, the Citi Strata Premier is a good option for these hotel programs. 

The transfer partners are a bit more obscure but that doesn’t mean they provide less value.

Previously, Citi had removed all travel insurances from their credit cards, but with the Strata Premier, they’ve added those back. Customers can now get trip delay, cancellation, and interruption protection, plus rental car coverage, and coverage for lost or damaged luggage.

The Extended Warranty is the best in the business and a reason to keep this card (or another one from Citi) long term. You get an additional 2 years of warranty on items that you purchase with this card. We have used this benefit for anything from washing machines to clothes!

I think the $100 hotel credit is useless to most people, but you may find a good option. Hotel rates at ThankYou.com (where you have to book to get this benefit) can be inflated so you probably won’t actually save $100. But you never know and it is worth checking if you are going to pay cash anyway.

If you like the Choice hotel options in US or Europe, or want to try the redemption on Turkish — I’d say this card is worth a 5/24 slot as it will likely be easier to get approved if you have fewer cards open.

My Favorite Redemption Options

Transfer to Choice Hotels at 1:2

With a transfer rate at 1:2, this option can provide some phenomenal value. That means if you transfer 50,000 Thank You points, you will have 100,000 Choice points!

Choice Hotels is often overlooked as a points program because it has a lot of lower-end properties in the US. But it actually has a number of great properties in Europe.  Most hotels in the Preferred Hotel Collection are bookable with Choice points as well.

Also – Choice has a number of Ascend Collection hotels, which are often independent, historic, or boutique hotels that partner with Choice Hotels. This means this collection includes a lot of unique options from 4 bedroom cabins in Big Bear, CA to B&B properties in Florida and historic hotels in the Northeast.

Most hotel chains only allow you to book a standard hotel room with points. Some offer the option to use more points to upgrade to a suite. With Choice, though, the number of points charged is the same no matter the room type. So if a property has larger suites or even 2-4 bedroom villas available, they cost the same as a 1 room hotel room! This makes these properties great options for families.

Choice also has a partnership with Bluegreen Vacations which has timeshare properties that usually include a full kitchen and separate living room, these are included in the Ascend Collection.

Transfer to I Prefer at 1:4

I Prefer is the loyalty program for Preferred Hotels & Resorts. The program features many unique and independent boutique hotels all over the world. With the 1:4 transfer ratio, you could transfer 25,000 ThankYou points and get 100,000 I Prefer Points!

Here's an example of how you could use those points:

This 5-star hotel in Barcelona with views of the Sagrada Familia costs $425 or 50,000 points per night for a stay in November. With the 1:4 transfer ratio, you would only need to transfer 12,500 ThankYou points per night to cover this stay. 100,000 ThankYou points would cover eight nights at this hotel! The cash price for the same stay would be $3,400.

Transfer to American Airlines at 1:1

Citi is the only transfer partner for American Airlines. That makes Citi ThankYou points especially valuable if you're working on earning American AAdvantage miles.

American offers competitive award pricing with some of the best rates out there to places like Japan and Hawaii. You can often find flights to Europe for around 25,000 miles each way or less.

What makes it even better is that the taxes and fees are typically very low. And you can typically add a connection from your home airport without increasing the cost much (if at all).

This ticket from Cleveland to Rome is 51,5000 miles and $75.83 for a round trip. You can book this route for as low as 19k points each way if you don't mind having two stops instead of one.

Transfer to Qantas at 1:1

You can use Qantas points to book flights to Australia and New Zealand. Qantas tends to have more award availability to/from New Zealand than other programs, which makes this a nice option.

To fly from the West Coast to Auckland booked with Qantas costs about 86,000 miles and $220 in taxes and fees roundtrip. Qantas also offers a non-stop from JFK to Auckland, which is a nice option from the East Coast.