Is the Citi Strata Premier Annual Fee Worth It?

• Written by Jasmin Baron, CCC™
  

  Jasmin Baron, CCC™

  Credit Cards, Travel Rewards, Loyalty Programs, Family Travel, Credit Building, Credit Scores

  Jasmin Baron is a NACCC Certified Credit Counselor™ and CardCritics’ senior editor, responsible for editing and writing credit cards, travel rewards, loyalty program, and other credit-related content. She is passionate about personal finance education and enjoys sharing tips and tricks for making the most of credit card points and miles with her readers. Her expertise in maximizing credit card travel rewards originated from over two decades of aviation industry experience, including 18 years working as a pilot and college professor/flight instructor in her native Canada. Her work has appeared on sites such as CNN Underscored Money, Business Insider, The Points Guy, and point.me. When she’s not planning her next trip with credit card rewards, you’ll probably find her tinkering around in the kitchen, hanging out with her three kids, or playing with her dog, Benji.

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• Edited by Emily Gadd, CCC™
  

  Emily Gadd, CCC™

  Credit Cards, Personal Finance, Health and Wellness

  Emily Gadd is a NACCC Certified Credit Counselor™, editor and personal finance expert responsible for writing about personal finance and credit cards. She got her start writing and editing at Healthline. She is passionate about creating educational content that makes complex topics accessible. Emily holds a credit counselor certification, accredited by the National Association of Certified Credit Counselors (NACCC). She lives in Seattle with her husband and two cats.

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• Last Updated Jan 13, 2026

If you’re in the process of choosing a travel credit card, you’ve likely encountered the Citi Strata Premier® Card, an advertising partner. It’s one of the best travel credit cards on the market, competing with other popular options such as the Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card and Capital One Venture Rewards Credit Card.

The Strata Premier Card is a compelling choice for earning a high rewards rate in useful everyday categories, such as dining, gas and groceries. Plus, it offers an excellent welcome bonus: Earn 60,000 bonus ThankYou® Points after spending $4,000 in the first 3 months of account opening, redeemable for $600 in gift cards or travel rewards at thankyou.com.

Although it charges a $95 annual fee, the Citi Strata Premier Card offers a range of benefits that can easily justify the cost if you maximize them. Let’s take a closer look to help you decide if the Citi Strata Premier annual fee is worth it for you.

Elevated Earning Rates

I’ve held the Citi Strata Premier Card for many years. While I don’t relish paying the $95 annual fee each year, I continue to do so because, for me, the card is a points-earning powerhouse.

With the Strata Premier Card, you’ll earn:

• 10x points on hotels, car rentals and attractions booked through Citi Travel
• 3x points on air travel and other hotel purchases, restaurants, supermarkets, gas stations, and EV charging stations
• 1x points on all other purchases

These categories are uncapped, so there’s no limit to the amount of points you can earn. I value the Citi ThankYou® points the card earns highly, and I love that it earns bonus rewards on purchases I often make for my family — particularly dining, groceries and gas. 

Suppose you spend a total of $6,000 annually across the card’s 3x bonus categories (an average of $500 per month — not hard to do between supermarket, restaurant and gas spending). You’d earn 18,000 Citi ThankYou points, worth $180 in travel booked through Citi — and more than enough to justify the annual fee.

Welcome Bonus

New Strata Premier cardholders can earn 60,000 points after spending $4,000 on purchases in the first three months of account opening.

You can redeem these points for $600 in gift cards or travel at thankyou.com. However, it’s possible to get even more value from Citi ThankYou points when you transfer them to airline and hotel partners and book award travel.

Transfer Partners

When you have the Citi Strata Premier Card, you unlock the ability to transfer points to Citi’s airline and hotel partners, usually at a 1:1 ratio (with a few exceptions). Some other Citi credit cards also allow points transfers, but in most cases, the ratio is inferior.

Here’s the full list of Citi transfer partners, with transfer ratios specific to the Strata Premier Card:

Loyalty Program	Transfer Ratio	Minimum Transfer Amount
ALL Accor Live Limitless	1:0.5	1,000 points
Air France-KLM Flying Blue	1:1	1,000 points
Aeromexico Rewards	1:1	1,000 points
American Airlines AAdvantage	1:1	1,000 points
Avianca LifeMiles	1:1	1,000 points
Cathay Pacific	1:1	1,000 points
Choice Privileges	1:2	1,000 points
Emirates Skywards	1:0.8	1,000 points
Etihad Guest	1:1	1,000 points
EVA Air Infinity MileageLands	1:1	1,000 points
JetBlue TrueBlue	1:1	1,000 points
Leading Hotels of the World Leaders Club	1:0.2	1,000 points
Preferred Hotels & Resorts I Prefer Hotel Rewards	1:4	1,000 points
Qantas Frequent Flyer	1:1	1,000 points
Qatar Airways Privilege Club	1:1	1,000 points
Singapore Airlines	1:1	1,000 points
Thai Royal Orchid Plus	1:1	1,000 points
Turkish Airlines Miles&Smiles	1:1	1,000 points
Virgin Atlantic Flying Club and Virgin Red	1:1	1,000 points
Wyndham Rewards	1:1	1,000 points

Transfers to partners are my favorite way to redeem Citi ThankYou points. I’m especially a fan of the 1:2 transfer ratio to Choice Privileges, the loyalty program for Choice Hotels, which includes family-friendly brands such as Comfort Inn, Quality Inn, and Country Inn and Suites. 

That ratio means that for every 1,000 Citi ThankYou points you transfer, you get 2,000 Choice points, which is an excellent deal. Choice award stays start at just 6,000 points per night, or with this transfer ratio, just 3,000 ThankYou points.

$100 Annual Hotel Savings

The Strata Premier Card comes with a benefit that can make the annual fee worth it. Once each calendar year, cardholders receive $100 off a single hotel stay of $500 or more (excluding taxes and fees) when booked through cititravel.com or by calling 833-737-1288. The discount is automatically applied to eligible bookings.

The Reserve by Citi Travel

Cardholders get access to The Reserve by Citi Travel, a curated collection of luxury hotels. The Reserve hotel bookings offer elite-like benefits, including:

• Room upgrades, early check-in and late checkout (subject to availability)
• $100 experience credit
• Complimentary daily breakfast for two 
• Free Wi-Fi

Travel Insurance

Credit card travel insurance can be a lifesaver if you run into issues while traveling. The Strata Premier Card offers a respectable range of travel protections, including:

• Trip cancellation/interruption insurance: When you pay for travel with the card, you can be reimbursed for nonrefundable tickets up to $5,000 per trip and $10,000 per account per 12-month period if your trip is canceled or interrupted for a covered reason.
• Car rental insurance: Pay for your rental with the card and decline the rental agency’s collision/damage waiver (CDW), and you can be covered for vehicle theft or damage (some types of vehicles are excluded). Coverage is secondary in the cardholder’s country of residence and primary otherwise. 
• Trip delay insurance: If you paid for your ticket with the card and your travel is delayed by more than six hours, you can be reimbursed up to $500 for reasonable expenses such as meals, accommodations, toiletries and medications. There’s a maximum of two claims per account per consecutive 12-month period.
• Lost or damaged luggage reimbursement: Pay for your travel with the card and if your checked or carry-on bags are lost or damaged during a covered trip, you could be reimbursed up to $3,000 per covered trip, with a maximum of two claims per account per consecutive 12-month period.

As with any of the best credit cards with travel insurance, there are exclusions and restrictions for each of these protections. Be sure to read the card’s guide to benefits before you rely on this coverage.

Purchase Protection and Extended Warranty

The Strata Premier Card can give you peace of mind when you use it to buy pricey items:

• Purchase protection: This benefit covers up to $10,000 per claim if an eligible item bought with the card is damaged or stolen within 90 days of purchase. There’s a maximum of $50,000 in coverage per year per account.
• Extended warranty: Pay for eligible items with the card to extend the manufacturer’s warranty by 24 months. Coverage is limited to up to $10,000 per item.

No Foreign Transaction Fees

The Citi Strata Premier Card is among the best credit cards for international travel, in part because it doesn’t charge annoying foreign transaction fees. Some cards charge up to 3% on purchases made outside the U.S., so this perk can translate to significant savings if you frequently go abroad.

For example, if you spent $3,000 on an overseas trip and didn’t use a card that doesn’t charge foreign transaction fees, you could be on the hook for an additional $90 in fees ($3,000 x 3%). That’s no fun to come home to.

When Is the Citi Strata Premier Annual Fee Not Worth It?

If you don’t spend a lot in the card’s bonus categories and don’t find Citi’s transfer partners useful, the annual fee on the Citi Strata Premier Card may not be worth it for you. Similarly, if you don’t think you can take advantage of other perks, such as the annual $100 hotel savings and travel protections, you may want to look elsewhere.

Alternatives to the Citi Strata Premier

Be sure to compare the Strata Premier Card to other travel credit cards at the same price point. These are some of our top picks:

• Chase Sapphire Preferred Card: This traveler favorite offers a hefty welcome bonus, earns valuable Chase Ultimate Rewards® points and comes with excellent travel protections. It also offers an annual hotel credit of up to $50 when you book through Chase Travel℠, but unlike the Strata Premier Card, there’s no minimum purchase required to earn the credit. Chase’s transfer partners are typically more useful to U.S. travelers, too. Here’s our comparison of the Citi Strata Premier vs. Chase Sapphire Preferred Card.
• Capital One Venture Card: The Venture Card shines for its simplicity, earning 2x Capital One miles on most purchases, and offering transfers to airline and hotel partners. While it doesn’t offer a hotel credit, it does come with up to $120 in statement credits to reimburse the Global Entry or TSA PreCheck application fee, once every four years. 
• Bank of America® Premium Rewards® credit card: If you don’t want to fuss with transfer partners, the Premium Rewards credit card is as straightforward as it gets. Its annual fee is easily justified by a single perk: Cardholders receive up to $100 per year in airline incidental fee credits to cover things like seat upgrades, baggage fees, in-flight purchases and airport lounge passes.
• Wells Fargo Autograph Journey℠ Card: The Autograph Journey Card is another heavy hitter on the earning side, offering 5x points at hotels, 4x points with airlines, 3x points on restaurants and other travel, and 1x points on everything else. Cardholders can transfer rewards to a handful of Wells Fargo travel partners, plus take advantage of a $50 annual statement credit with a minimum $50 airline purchase.

Bottom Line

The $95 annual fee on the Citi Strata Premier Card is worth it if you can make the most of the card’s benefits. I primarily keep the card for its elevated earning rates and points transfers. When you consider other perks, such as the annual $100 hotel savings and travel protections, it’s even easier to come out ahead.