The Citi Strata Elite℠ Card is right here — and its American Airways advantages have me severely fascinated with ditching my Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Choose® World Elite Mastercard®.

Launched on July 27, 2025, this new premium journey card with a $595 annual price affords a number of beneficial perks. Most significantly, it provides you the power to switch factors earned to American Airways. That’s a profit you received’t discover on normal journey playing cards from different main issuers.

Positive, you received’t get free checked luggage or the power to board early. However in the end, I’d doubtless be capable of get extra worth out of the Citi Strata Elite℠ Card than I presently do with my Citi® / AAdvantage® Platinum Choose® World Elite Mastercard®, which has an annual price of $99, waived for the primary 12 months.

Right here’s why I’m planning to use for the Citi Strata Elite℠ Card and make it my main card for flying American Airways.

After I search for a brand new bank card, I at all times attempt to cowl many of the annual price with assertion credit on purchases I’m already going to make. Despite the fact that the Citi Strata Elite℠ Card’s $595 annual price is absolutely hefty, I’d simply be capable of recoup $500 of that with simply two assertion credit:

If you guide at the very least a two-night resort keep via Citi’s journey portal, you’ll get a $300 assertion credit score to cowl the associated fee. Resort assertion credit have turn into normal on premium journey bank cards. However usually, these resort assertion credit solely apply to a curated record of very costly inns, the place a pair hundred {dollars} received’t go very far.

Citi’s, however, can be utilized on any resort booked and pay as you go via Citi. So if you happen to booked an eligible resort on cititravel.com for $150 per night time (together with taxes and costs), this credit score would cowl the whole keep.

The Citi Strata Elite℠ Card additionally comes with a Splurge credit score that you should use at as much as two distributors: American Airways, the web luxurious market 1stDibs, Greatest Purchase, Future Private Coaching and Stay Nation.

I couldn’t care much less about most of those distributors. However American Airways is a big perk, particularly since you should use it on flights and never simply incidentals.

Cardholders could have 4 day passes to American Airways’ Admirals Membership lounges. 4 passes isn’t so much, and it’s a far cry from the limitless lounge entry you’ll get with the Citi® / AAdvantage® Govt World Elite Mastercard®. However since I’m not an American Airways loyalist and have limitless entry to Centurion Lounges and Precedence Move lounges, I doubtless wouldn’t use greater than that every 12 months.

Truthfully, the Citi Strata Elite℠ Card doesn’t have the perfect ongoing rewards. Its sibling card, the $95-annual-fee Citi Strata Premier® Card, affords superior ongoing charges in broader classes, akin to sure sorts of journey, supermarkets, gasoline stations and eating places. In the meantime, the Citi Strata Elite℠ Card solely earns elevated rewards on journey booked via Citi and at eating places.

However the Citi Strata Elite℠ Card is a transparent winner for individuals who go to eating places on weekend nights. You’ll get 3 factors on eating all through the week and 6 factors on Fridays and Saturdays between 6 PM and 6 AM. That’s a staggering fee — and twice as a lot as I’d be incomes with any of my different bank cards.

For the reason that Citi Strata Elite℠ Card’s reward construction form of falls flat outdoors of eating, my long-term plan is to use for 2 different Citi playing cards:

• The Citi Double Money® Card earns 2 factors on each buy (1 level while you make a purchase order and 1 level while you pay it off).

• The Citi Customized Money® Card earns 5 factors in your high spending class on as much as $500 in spending per billing cycle. Classes embody grocery shops, eating places, gasoline stations, streaming companies, drugstores, dwelling enchancment shops, health golf equipment, choose journey, choose transit and reside leisure.

Neither of those playing cards have American Airways as a switch associate. However Citi lets cardholders transfer factors between playing cards, so this may give me the choice of incomes a further 2 to five factors again on purchases whereas nonetheless with the ability to switch factors to American Airways.

In case you’re chasing American Airways standing otherwise you at all times verify a bag, this card received’t substitute the perks on the airline’s suite of bank cards. Additionally, if you happen to’re planning on visiting an Admirals Membership continuously, the Citi® / AAdvantage® Govt World Elite Mastercard® will in all probability be a more sensible choice.

However if you happen to’re largely on the lookout for a approach to earn miles quick and go to Admirals Membership lounges sometimes, like I do, the Citi Strata Elite℠ Card far outpaces any American Airways-branded card.