Citi Strata Premier Card Benefits Guide

Written by

Ana Staples,

Edited by

Published on July 19, 2024 | 6 min read

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Key takeaways

The Citi Strata Premier℠ Card offers rewards in popular travel and everyday spending categories.
This card also offers an annual $100 hotel discount on a single hotel stay booked through Citi Travel each year, which can make up for the card’s $95 annual fee.
Other notable benefits include flexible redemption options, the ability to transfer points to Citi travel partners and a healthy welcome bonus.

Citi is an advertising partner

The Citi Strata Premier℠ Card, a rebrand of the Citi Premier® Card*, is an excellent card for an occasional traveler. For a modest $95 annual fee, the card offers a solid 3X rewards rate on eligible travel and some popular everyday purchases, as well as valuable travel perks and protections — which allows it to easily compete with other popular travel credit cards.

Read on to learn more about Citi Strata Premier benefits, including its rewards program, intro bonus and annual hotel savings perk, and discover how to get the most out of this generous card.

Citi Strata Premier rewards and redemption benefits

Rewards on travel and everyday spending

Citi Strata Premier cardholders get rewards for both travel spending and purchases in popular everyday categories. The card earns:

10X points on hotels, car rentals and attractions booked on CitiTravel.com
3X points on air travel and other hotel purchases, at restaurants, supermarkets, and gas and EV charging stations
1X point per dollar on all other purchases

The 10X rewards rate on hotels, car rentals and attractions booked through Citi is a rather competitive offer. To compare, the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card, another travel card with a $95 annual fee, only earns 5X points on travel booked through Chase Travel℠, though that does include air travel. The Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card also charges $95 per year and offers 5X miles on hotels, vacation rentals and rental cars booked through Capital One Travel. If you’re planning to regularly book non-award travel, the Citi Strata Premier might provide superior value.

Flexible redemption options

The Citi Strata Premier Card earns Citi ThankYou points. It’s a travel credit card, so redeeming rewards for travel is typically the best choice. Specifically, you’ll likely get the most bang for your buck if you transfer your points. Currently, Citi has 18 airline and hotel transfer partners and points are worth about 1.6 cents apiece when transferred to a high-value partner, according to Bankrate valuations. Alternatively, you can book travel with Citi at 1 cent per point.

When travel isn’t a priority, you have other options for redeeming ThankYou points. Examples include redeeming for cash back as a statement credit, direct deposit or a check at 1 cent per point. This gives the Citi Strata Premier some cash back properties, adding to its flexibility.

Citi Strata Premier travel and entertainment benefits

$100 annual hotel savings benefit

If you book a hotel stay of $500 or more (excluding taxes and fees) through ThankYou.com, you’ll get a $100 discount at the time of booking. You can take advantage of this discount once per calendar year. With this perk alone, you can fully offset the card’s $95 annual fee.

No foreign transaction fees

You don’t need to worry about foreign transaction fees with the Citi Strata Premier Card. And since it’s a Mastercard, you shouldn’t have many issues with card acceptance when you travel abroad.

Citi Concierge

The Citi Strata Premier Card gives you access to Citi Concierge, which you can use when you need help with dinner reservations, vacation planning or buying concert tickets.

Citi Entertainment

Citi Entertainment provides special access to events such as concerts, dining experiences and sporting events. Note that you’ll still need to pay for tickets — but you may be able to purchase them in presale with this perk.

Citi Strata Premier security and protection benefits

Purchase protection

Purchase protection is a credit card perk that allows you to repair or replace the items you buy with your card. If an item you purchased with your Citi Strata Premier Card is damaged or stolen within 90 days of the purchase date, you can get up to $10,000 per incident (and $50,000 per year).

Extended warranty

If you buy an item with your Citi Strata Premier and it has an eligible manufacturer’s warranty of five years or less, the issuer will extend that warranty for 24 months. Additional terms may apply.

Travel insurance

Trip cancellation/interruption

This coverage can reimburse you if your trip is canceled or cut short for reasons beyond your control. With the Citi Strata Premier, you’re covered for up to $5,000 per trip and a maximum of $10,000 per account per calendar year. You must book the trip with the card for this benefit to apply. This is secondary coverage, meaning it applies after reimbursement from your airline or any travel insurance.

Trip delay

When your trip is delayed and it results in extra expenses, such as meals, transportation and lodging, your credit card can reimburse you. The Citi Strata Premier provides secondary trip delay coverage for trips delayed more than six hours — up to $500 per trip you charge to the card, and up to two claims per account per year.

Lost or damaged luggage

If you pay for your trip with the Citi Strata Premier and your checked or carry-on luggage is lost or damaged, you can get reimbursed for up to $3,000 per trip or $2,000 per bag for New York residents. You can file up to two claims per account per year. The coverage is secondary.

MasterRental coverage

MasterRental coverage is Mastercard’s version of rental car coverage. With the Citi Strata Premier, you can get reimbursed for covered losses to a rental car in case of collision with another object, overturn, vandalism, theft or other physical damage. You must decline the full collision/damage waiver offered by the rental car company and pay for it with the Citi Strata Premier to use this secondary car rental coverage.

Extra perks

The Citi Strata Premier Card is also a World Elite Mastercard, which entitles cardholders to additional Mastercard benefits. These include:

Zero liability protection
Mastercard ID Theft Protection
ShopRunner membership
$5 Lyft credit (once per month) if you take at least three rides a month
Three free months of DoorDash DashPass and $5 off your first order each month (other terms apply)
World Elite Concierge

Maximizing the Citi Strata Premier benefits

The Citi Strata Premier Card has plenty to offer — especially if you know how to maximize its value. Here are some tips to help you do just that:

Earn the welcome bonus

An intro bonus is usually the best way to earn a large amount of card rewards in a short time. With the Citi Strata Premier Card, for a limited time you can earn 75,000 bonus ThankYou points after spending $4,000 in the first three months of account opening. That’s $750 in cash back or travel rewards at thankyou.com.

Use the annual hotel benefit

When you have a card that charges an annual fee, you want to make sure you can easily offset it. The annual $100 hotel discount on one hotel stay of at least $500 booked through Citi Travel makes it a simple task for the Citi Strata Premier cardholders. This perk alone makes up for the card’s $95 annual fee.

Pay off balances

Credit card interest is expensive. The Citi Strata Premier Card, for example, charges a 20.49% - 28.49% (Variable) APR. For that reason, it’s wise to avoid carrying a balance on this card.

Transfer points to Citi partners

If your goal is to maximize your travel rewards, look into transferring your points to the issuer’s partners. This way, you can potentially boost your point value, getting more than 1 cent apiece.

Consider other Citi cards

If you’re enjoying your Citi Strata Premier Card, you might want to consider other cards from the issuer to create a combo. Pooling rewards from multiple cards within the same ecosystem can help you earn free travel — or cash back — more quickly.

For instance, the Citi Double Cash® Card earns up to 2 percent cash back (1 percent at purchase, then 1 percent upon payment) on all purchases, which you can convert to transferable ThankYou points with the Citi Strata Premier. You can also add the Citi Custom Cash® Card to your credit card strategy and earn 5 percent cash back in your top spending category each billing cycle (up to $500 spent, then 1 percent back). Neither card charges an annual fee.

The bottom line

The Citi Strata Premier is a solid option if you don’t travel regularly but are still interested in travel rewards. The card comes with a few valuable perks, including an annual hotel credit which alone is enough to offset the Citi Strata Premier’s $100 annual fee. Familiarize yourself with your card’s benefits so that you can maximize its value, both through rewards and additional perks.