Citi Strata Elite: Possible Tiered Bonus Offer??

I haven’t written about the Citi Strata Elite yet, with so many rumors flying and the actual card in-branch as of Sunday. 

If you haven’t read the rumors, Doctor of Credit has it pretty well covered (includes a link to Frequent Miler) as it does seem like a Citi insider spilled an enormous amount of tea.

I stopped by a branch today to see what I could learn, given that the rumors feel incomplete to me. 

And I didn’t get too much, but I did get an interesting nugget and we’ll see if it’s true soon enough:

The bonus will be 80,000 points – UNLESS you have the Citigold relationship tier (which requires $200,000 on deposit with Citi including securities or pretty much anything else – it doesn’t need to be “cash”) in which case you’ll reap a 100,000 point bonus offer. It will indeed go live in brand on Sunday and at least in NYC, there are indeed two branches open on Sunday. I know one is Union Square, not sure about the other. The $145 Citigold relationship bonus currently on the Citi Prestige will also apply to the new Strata Elite.

It’s unclear if the card will launch for online applications on Sunday as well.

As for the card itself, well, I really hope there is more to the card than the rumors say. I love my Citi Prestige with the 4th Night free on hotels (I *really* loved it when the bookings were direct, not via portals which I discussed earlier today) and 5X on dining.

According to the rumors, all travel bonus multipliers depend on using the Citi Travel portal, which I just won’t be doing, and they also rumor that the $300 travel credit that we have for anything now on Prestige will be portal-only as well (a la Venture X). The person in-branch said he thought that you’d still get a multiplier on travel outside of the portal but didn’t know what multipliers so I’m skeptical. And at least something would need to beat the Strata Premier which is already 3X on air, hotels, and car rentals. You’d also hope for trip protection benefits.

I think that if, and that’s a big if, the card had 1:1 American Airlines AAdvantage transfers, many could be lured in on that benefit alone.

The saddest thing to me is the rumor that Citi Prestige cardholders will be forcibly product changed in. (I’m not remotely sure what will happen to Citi Chairman cardholders).

I won’t be surprised if this turns out to be true, since the Rewards+ change to Citi Strata is being forced on Rewards+ cardholders who will lose the 10% annual points rebate feature. 

Lastly, will this card in fact be a new Mastercard Legend Elite card? What ancillary benefits will the card pick up from that? And assuming that is true, will staying a Mastercard mean that the Priority Pass benefit will keep the airport restaurant option as no other mainstream card still offers, but the Citi Prestige still does? I hope so!

In short, I truly hope this card differentiates itself in at least a few ways that make it a must have, but the rumor mill has me nervous.

Thoughts?

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