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Citi Strata PremierSMCard
Citi Thank You points are an important part of the points and miles universe. So why don’t we hear more hype for a card that guarantees 3x points on air travel, hotels, supermarkets, dining, gas purchases, EV Charging stations with travel portal categories up to 10x with just a $95 annual fee?
- Note…this card is basically just a rebranded Citi Premier® and is bound by Citi’s 48 month rule – see below
I think this program is often overlooked because ( aside from JetBlue ) it doesn’t have any US carriers or hotel partners. But Citi Thank You points have tremendous value if you know how to use them. The program provides access to some cool partners like Turkish and Qatar, but has the ability to transfer into programs like Avianca, Air France, Emirates, and Virgin which are partners of many other programs. This makes it easier to combine points for a specific award booking.
Having the ability to transfer into more programs means increases the probability that you’ll land the redemption you desire. This is the goal I have for you, and anyone I’m trying to help by illustrating all of the wonderful ways points and miles make travel dreams a reality.
If you don’t have any exposure to Citi’s Thank You program this is a great time to jump in.
Table of Contents
The Citi Strata PremierSM Card benefits:
- 75k bonus Thank You points after spending $4k in the first 3 months
- This has a 48 month rule in effect
- Bonus ThankYou® Points are not available if you have received a new account bonus for a Citi Premier® or Citi Strata Premier℠ account in the past 48 months
- This has a 48 month rule in effect
- 3x points on
- Air Travel
- Hotel
- Supermarkets
- Dining
- Gas
- EV Charging
- 10x points on
- Earn 10x Hotel, Car Rentals and Attractions booked through Citi Travel℠
- Access to Mastercard World Elite benefits
- Once per calendar year, enjoy $100 off a single hotel stay of $500 or more, excluding taxes and fees, when booked through Citi Travel℠
- No foreign Transaction fees
- $95 annual fee *See rates and fees
The Citi Thank You system has incredible transfer partners
Citi Thank You also overlaps many of Amex, Bilt, Chase, and Capital One partners. This is fantastic news because it means you can diversify your transfers and stay very agile when it comes time to redeem for the optimal trip. Most of these partners listed in the pretty picture below are 1:1 transfer partners
Some of these partners may be unfamiliar to you, but many of them have incredible sweet spots hidden within them. For instance, Etihad, who is famous for their insane premium cabins, has one of the best charts for flights on American Airlines. In fact, you can still fly to Asia for just 50k miles if you use Etihad to book AA business class. That’s phenom.
Is this the best offer we’ve seen?
The Citi Strata Premier is technically a new card; however, it’s nearly the same as the CIti Premier® which has been around for many years and had an 80k after $4k spend in 3 months as the best offer we had ever seen. We saw it in 2021 and 2022 for several months each year.
You also get extended Purchase Protection
The Citi Premier® Card offers an extension of the original manufacturer’s warranty up to 24 months, and it offers the ability to return items up to 90 days for a full refund. This is valid on items with a manufacturer’s warranty that is 5 or less years and $10k per item. Check out the details
Create Citi Virtual credit card numbers for increased privacy.
We wrote an entire article on Virtual numbers here that you can read.
What are the rules for Citi welcome offers?
- 1/8 and 2/65 rules
- 1 card application every 8 days
- This applies to personal and business
- 2 two card applications in a 65-day window.
- 1 card application every 8 days
- Only 1 business card every 90 days.
- 24 month rule
- if you’ve gotten the bonus in the past 24 months, or closed the card in the past 24 months, you’re ineligible
- this is still showing up on some cards, but not all
- 48 month rule
- if you’ve gotten the bonus in the past 48 months you’re ineligible, but there is no language pertaining to closing
?
Citi has compiled a great list of partners, but many of them may be unfamiliar to you if you’ve been focused on US based airlines. Let’s take a look at just a few of some really cool redemptions you could do with Citi Thank You points.
Avianca LifeMiles is a great way to hop to Europe or South America
You can fly in business class for 63k or first class for 87k from the US to Europe or South America. Amazing price imo.
Here are some great business class/First Class redemptions:
- Swiss Business Class
- United Polaris Business Class
- Lufthansa Business Class
- Lufthansa First Class
Asia Miles
This is the loyalty program of Cathay Pacific and it has come awesome redemptions, namely flying in business class to Asia starting at 70k miles, and First Class for 110k.
You can read about them here
- Cathay Pacific Business Class
- Cathay Pacific First Class
Qatar Airways Privilege Club
One of the coolest ways to fly in the world is Qatar Airways QSuites. One of the standout redemptions is to fly on QSuites from the States to Doha for just 70k miles, or the Maldives for 85k. That is a stunner of a deal. My family had the opportunity to fly QSuites in 2019 and it was everything we’d hoped for. You can read about our experience here. I also flew them for my Honeymoon!
Singapore Airways
Singapore has some really cool redemptions, but much of their flight network has been grounded. Fingers crossed those A380s and US routes get back up and going because they offered some incredible redemptions options.
Singapore Airlines Business Class from Houston to Manchester for 72k points
Or in Suites from JFK to Frankfurt for 86k miles. You can also fly this intra Asia for just 53k miles. Note…these A380s aren’t currently in operation, but hopefully will be by end of year
Air France
You can fly in Virgin Atlantic Upper Class for 72k Flying blue miles and a couple hundred in taxes and fees ( much less than Virgin would charge you for the same flights.
Or fly on KLM or Air France business class starting at around 50k points and $200
Emirates has amazing sweet spots as well
- 108k roundtrip One Way to Milan or Athens in Business Class
- 102k one way in first class
EVA to Asia one way for 75k or 80k in EVA business class
Opinions, reviews, analyses & recommendations are the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, endorsed or approved by any of these entities.
Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card
Welcome Offer
Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.
Annual Fee
$95
Points Earned
Transferrable Chase Ultimate Rewards
- 5x on all travel purchased through Chase Travel℠
- 3x on dining, including eligible delivery services for takeout & dining out
- 3x on select streaming services
- 3x on online grocery purchases
- (excluding Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs)
- $50 Annual Chase Travel Hotel Credit via Chase Travel℠
- The begins immediately for new cardmembers and after your account anniversary for existing cardmembers
- 2x on all other travel
- 10% Anniversary Bonus
- Every year you keep the card, your total spend will yield a 10% points bonus. If you spend $10k in a year, you’ll get 1k bonus points
- Chase Sapphire Preferred continues to redeem at 1.25c in the Chase Travel℠ and the slew of other benefits remain in tact including Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver ( primary ), purchase protections, etc.
- Points are transferrable to 14 Ultimate Rewards partners
- Redeem in Chase Travel℠ for 1.25 cents per point
- No foreign transaction fees
- Suite of Travel and Purchase Coverage
- Auto Rental Collision Damage Waiver is my favorite
- Get complimentary access to DashPass which unlocks $0 delivery fees and lower service fees for a minimum of one year when you activate by December 31, 2027.
- $95 Annual Fee
We keep an up to date spreadsheet that lists the best ever offers: You can find that spreadsheet here.
Historically 80k is a very, very good offer and hit in both 2022 and 2023. In 2021, we saw the offer hit an all time high of 100k. Who knows if that will ever come back.
Main Cast:
Cards that earn flexible points and should be used on the bulk of your purchases.
Supporting Cast:
Cards that earn fixed points in the currency of the airline/hotel and can not be transferred at attractive rates. These cards yield benefits that make it worth keeping, but not necessarily worth putting a lot of your everyday spend on.
The Chase Sapphire Preferred® is exceptional starter card and offers transferrable Ultimate Rewards, and pairs well with other Chase cards.
If you carry this card alongside Chase’s cashback cards like the Chase Freedom Flex® and Chase Freedom Unlimited® or the business versions: Ink Business Cash® , Ink Business Unlimited® you can combine the points into Preferred account and transfer into hotel and airline partners
Annual fee is quite low at $95 a year + you get a 10% anniversary bonus on points + $50 hotel credit in Chase travel.
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