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What a year 2025 is shaping up to be for premium rewards credit cards. And as a fan of these products, I love the competition.
First, the Chase Sapphire Reserve® (see rates and fees) underwent a top-to-bottom transformation, and Chase also launched its first-ever premium business card — the Chase Sapphire Reserve for Business℠ (see rates and fees). We also know that The Platinum Card® from American Express is on the verge of undergoing its own refresh later this year, and that Bilt Rewards just announced it will be offering a three-tiered assortment of new cards — including a premium card.
If you are keeping count, and you love these cards and their perks as much as I do, you might start to wonder what Citi might have up its sleeve as the other major players actively compete for wallet space in the lucrative premium card market.
Thanks to Citi’s recent earnings call, we now have at least one clue as to its next move.
Citi to launch an all-new premium rewards credit card
At some point this quarter (so by Sept. 30), Citi will launch a new premium credit card, the Citi Strata Elite, according to remarks made on the bank’s July 15 earnings call.
The new Citi Strata Elite card is said to be joining Citi’s group of rewards products at some point in the coming months in order to appeal to “affluent customers.” So while Citi has not shared the exact annual fee that will come with this card, it feels safe to assume it is likely to be in the range of the annual fees of other premium cards, which are largely now in the approximately $400-$800 range.
And while details about the card’s benefits were not released, we do know that this is not Citi’s first foray into the world of premium rewards credit cards.
Looking to Citi’s premium card past to inform its future
The Citi Prestige® Card, which is no longer available to new applicants, is a premium card that earns Citi ThankYou Rewards points. It was available through 2021 — though existing cardholders have been able to keep it in their wallets.
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It has some rewarding bonus categories — such as 5 points per dollar spent on airfare, restaurants and travel agencies — offers a cool fourth-hotel-night-free perk, a $250 annual travel credit and Priority Pass membership.
While the card certainly had its fans, especially those who could maximize that fourth-hotel-night-free perk, it was missing a few key perks compared to other major players in the premium card space, such as American Express, Chase and Capital One. Namely, it didn’t offer any proprietary lounge access and was more limited in its unique transfer partners within the Citi ThankYou Rewards lineup.
The information for the Citi Prestige and Citi Strata Elite Card have been collected independently by The Points Guy. The card details on this page have not been reviewed or provided by the card issuer.
What I hope to see from Citi’s new premium credit card
Naturally, as with any new credit card, I’m hoping for a big welcome bonus. For reference, the bank’s mid-tier $95-per-year Citi Strata Premier® Card (see rates and fees) is currently offering 60,000 points with $4,000 in spending in the first three months, so I hope the bonus for this all-new card will come in higher than that.
But beyond that, I’d love some uniquely rewarding bonus categories that aren’t already offered on the long list of other rewards cards. For example, the last thing I need is another card offering 2 or 3 bonus points per dollar spent on dining and travel.
To help offset the annual fee, I’d like to see a limited number of high-value but easy-to-use credits that don’t require a lot of thought and effort (as in, not a complicated “coupon book” approach).
And while it might be a tall order, I’d really love Citi to now address some of the gaps that it had last time it had a proprietary premium rewards card.
Namely, it would be great to see the card offer some sort of unique lounge access and/or transfer partners that are hard or impossible to replicate elsewhere. Access to new or additional airport lounges — and even their grab-and-go younger siblings — is always great news, so I’d love to see Citi offer unique lounge access beyond the Priority Pass benefit it had with its previous premium card.
Additionally, the Citi ThankYou Rewards program itself is a step behind competitors, especially for those who like to lean into U.S.-based airline and hotel programs. TPG’s July 2025 valuations have Citi ThankYou Rewards points at 1.85 cents per point, which places it behind Chase Ultimate Rewards, American Express Membership Rewards and Bilt Rewards. The vast majority of its partners also work with other banks.
There was a brief moment in time when Citi had American Airlines as a transfer partner, and the bank touted its “wonderful relationship” with American Airlines in its recent earnings call. In addition, a Citi spokesperson offered TPG the following statement in December 2024, when it was announced that the bank would become the exclusive issuer of American cobranded cards (emphasis ours):
“The expansion and extension of our relationship with American Airlines will positively impact our existing and new customer base as we introduce new products and benefits in the future and produce expanded loyalty and rewards offerings for AAdvantage® members and Citi-branded cardmembers. We are not sharing specifics at this time. Stay tuned.”
Finally, implementing some sort of unique hotel perk or new travel benefit that other premium rewards cards don’t offer would also help carve out a differentiated space for the Citi Strata Elite.
Bottom line
Citi is gearing up to launch a new premium card — the Citi Strata Elite — sometime in the coming months. Details are scant, but given the issuer’s previous premium product, we have hopes based on how the card might be able to carve out its own niche in the hot premium card space.
Stay tuned to TPG, where we will update you as soon as more details become available.
