The Citi Strata Elite℠ Card is a good credit card for big spenders with good or excellent credit who like to travel and don’t mind booking accommodations through Citi Travel. It’s worth the $595 annual fee if you earn the 75,000-point initial bonus, use the $300 annual hotel credit, and pay your bill in full every month. After all, Citi Strata Elite has good rewards, but the ongoing earning rates are no match for the card’s high APR. 

What I Like About Citi Strata Elite 

75,000-point initial bonus

You can get 75,000 points for spending $6,000 in the first 3 months. Those points are worth up to $750, based on our research – more than enough value to cover the card’s first membership fee.  

This is one of the biggest bonuses that Citi offers right now, providing a lot more points than the normal Strata Card starts you out with. It may not be quite as good of a deal, though. The catch is that it requires a higher spending threshold to earn the bonus. But if you’re going to spend enough anyway, this offer can help lessen the sting. 
 

1.5 - 12 points per $1

It’s clear from this rewards-rate range that you can earn a lot of points with the Citi Strata Elite℠ Card, and that’s the part I like. You can earn up to 12 points per $1 spent, and the minimum rewards rate is higher than average, according to our latest Credit Card Landscape Report. 

More specifically, cardholders earn:
 

• 12 points / $1 spent on hotels, car rentals, and attractions booked on cititravel.com
• 6 points / $1 spent on airfare booked on cititravel.com
• 6 points / $1 spent at restaurants, including delivery services on CitiNights℠, every Friday and Saturday from 6 p.m. to 6 a.m. ET
• 3 points / $1 spent at restaurants, including delivery services, any other time
• 1.5 points / $1 spent on everything else

The more you expect to spend in the bonus-point categories, especially the 6-12 point categories, the better the Citi Strata Elite℠ Card will be. 
 

$300 annual hotel benefit

If you book a hotel stay for two or more nights through cititravel.com with this card, you can get up to $300 off. The best part is, this isn’t a one-time benefit. You can claim it once per calendar year. The downside is, you won’t earn points on the credited portion of your purchase. 
 

Up to $400 more in annual credits  

First of all, you can get a total of $200 in statement credits each year for purchases at one or two eligible retailers. Your options include:
 

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

Just make sure to activate this deal and choose your retailers before you start shopping. 

In addition, you can get up to $200 per year for chauffer services from Blacklane. Up to $100 is available during the first half of the year, then another $100 is available to close the year out. 
 

Airport lounge access

Cardholders get a complimentary Priority Pass™ Select membership, good for access to 1,500+ airport lounges, plus four passes per year to Admirals Club® lounges. This could save you a lot of money if you’re currently paying for lounge access.  
 

No foreign transaction fees

You won’t pay extra for making online purchases through merchants in other countries or for traveling abroad yourself. This is the norm for travel rewards cards, as you might expect, but it still beats the alternative, all else being equal. 

What I Don’t Like About Citi Strata Elite 

$595 annual fee

Getting your money’s worth from the Citi Strata Elite℠ Card is harder than it is with most credit cards because the bar you need to clear is just so high. At $595, the Strata Elite Card’s annual fee is about 21 times more expensive than the average in our database of 1,500+ credit card offers. 

If you want a cheaper option, consider the Citi Strata℠ Card or the Citi Strata Premier® Card instead. 
 

20.49% - 28.49% (V) APR

When you’re paying so much just to own a credit card like this, you probably don’t want to add expensive interest charges to the mix. But that’s exactly what you’ll get unless you pay the Strata Elite Card’s balance in full monthly. The card’s APR could be anywhere from 20.49% to 28.49% (V), depending on your overall credit profile, and even the low end is pretty high. 
 

Complicated rewards

The earning rates are high, but this is far from the most straightforward rewards structure. A lot depends not only on what you buy, but also where and when you buy it. This can get confusing for cardholders and make the card difficult to manage strategically.

Plus, the minimum rewards are nothing special. Plenty of other cards offer 1.5% - 3% back at a lower price point.  
 

Not easy to get 

You need good credit or better to get the Citi Strata Elite℠ Card. That may put the card out of reach for a lot of potential applicants. If you’re not sure about your situation, you can check your free credit score here on WalletHub to find out.