Mother’s Day brought a surprise to Citi Premier cardholders who logged into their accounts. There, they found that they no longer had the old Citi Premier card, but now had the new Citi Strata Premier. The Strata Premier is almost identical to the Premier, but with a few minor enhancements. The most notable enhancement is that the new card has travel protections. It has long seemed bizarre to me that Citi had removed travel protections from their travel cards and so its great to see that back for what may be the best travel card they offer.
Citi’s landing page for the Strata Premier card (found here), shows the following new benefits:
- Travel Protection Benefits: “Help stay protected with travel insurances, including Trip Delay Protection, Common Carrier Trip Cancellation and Interruption Protection, Lost or Damaged Luggage, and MasterRental Coverage (car rental insurance)”
- Earn 3x on EV Charging Stations: “Earn 3X points per $1 on Air Travel and Other Hotel Purchases, at Restaurants, Supermarkets, Gas Stations and – newly added – EV Charging Stations. Earn 1X point per $1 on All Other Purchases.”
- 10x Citi Travel now an ongoing benefit: “Now an ongoing benefit! Earn a total of 10 ThankYou® Points per $1 spent on Hotel, Car Rentals and Attractions booked through CitiTravel.com.”
My Take
I’ve long thought that the Citi Premier card was one of the best points & miles cards on the market, especially when paired with the Double Cash (2x everywhere), Rewards+ (10% back when redeeming points, up to 10K back per year), and the Custom Cash (select 5x categories, whichever you spend the most, up to $500 per billing cycle). The one Achilles heel was that the card didn’t have travel protections. How could a travel card not have travel protections?! Anyway, it’s awesome to see that this issue has now been addressed!
We’ll publish more about the Strata Premier soon.
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