While we’ll mark this as “developing” for now, it sounds like Citi is planning on launching a new premium credit card in the near future…
Citi Strata Elite Card launching Q3 2025
During its Q2 2025 earnings presentation, Citi revealed plans to launch a new premium credit card in Q3 2025 (so by September 30, 2025), which will be known as the Strata Elite.
The bank states that this product “rounds out our family of proprietary rewards cards designed to meet the evolving needs of affluent consumers.” Those are all the official details that we have as of now.
Of course premium credit cards are all the rage nowadays, with American Express, Capital One, and Chase, all having such products. In the Citi ThankYou ecosystem, the Citi Strata Premier Card is currently the mid-range product, so it sounds like this new product will be positioned above that.
Back in the day, there was the popular Citi Prestige Card, which was probably the closest competitor to the current premium cards on the market. That card closed to applicants back in 2021, though existing cardmembers continue to be able to use this card. We’ll see if the Citi Prestige Card ends up automatically being product changed to the new card, or how this plays out.
I’m curious to learn the details of this new product!
As of now, there’s just speculation out there about what kind of benefits this card will offer. In general, premium cards offer some sort of unique bonus categories on spending, some sort of lounge access perks, some number of credits to help offset the annual fee, etc.
I’m always happy to see more cards introduced, as it’s great for the competitive landscape. Unlike American Express, Capital One, and Chase, Citi doesn’t have its own proprietary lounges in the United States, so I’m curious to see how that’s handled.
Could Citi try to differentiate itself by including restaurant credits as part of the Priority Pass membership? Or could Citi work out some sort of a deal for American Admirals Club access? Keep in mind that American and Citi are strengthening their partnership, and the hope is that this will have significant upside for both parties.
It looks like American AAdvantage may eventually become a Citi ThankYou transfer partner, so thinking there might be a lounge tie-up doesn’t seem like that much of a stretch either. Funny enough, back in the day, the Citi Prestige offered Admirals Club access, so perhaps that can come full circle.
Bottom line
Citi is planning on launching the Strata Elite in Q3 2025. We don’t officially know anything beyond that, but presumably this is Citi’s long awaited new premium card offering, since the Citi Prestige closed to new applicants in 2021. I’m looking forward to learning the details, and here’s to hoping the card is worth applying for.
What would you like to see from the new Citi Strata Elite?
