If you collect points and miles long enough, every new premium card starts to look the same: big annual fee, big welcome bonus, and a bunch of credits you may or may not use.
When the Citi Strata Elite℠ and the Atmos™ Rewards Summit Visa Infinite® cards came out, I mentally filed them under “interesting” and moved on. I knew the basics but hadn’t really dug into how either one would work for us.
That changed when I realized I had some upcoming spend that could line up nicely with a new welcome bonus. Instead of just grabbing the shiny new card, I finally sat down and did what I always tell other people to do: walk through how each card fits with the cards we already have, where we actually spend money, and how we really redeem points.
This isn’t a full review of either card—think of it more as a peek at how I decide whether a new card earns a spot in my wallet, using Strata Elite and Atmos Summit as examples.
Where We’re Starting From: Our Citi & Atmos Setup
Right now, between my wife Sharon and me, we’re already pretty deep into the Citi ecosystem:
- We both have Citi Strata Premier, which is a great value at $95 with strong everyday bonus categories like groceries and gas (plus travel and dining).
- We also have Citi Double Cash and Citi Custom Cash, which quietly rack up a lot of basic ThankYou points in the background.
The important piece is how Citi handles point transfers:
To turn those Double Cash and Custom Cash points into transferrable ThankYou points, you need at least one “premium” Citi card—something like Strata Premier or Strata Elite.
We’ve already got that covered. In fact, we probably don’t need both of us paying for a $95 Strata Premier forever.
On the Atmos side, I still have points from when I signed up for the Hawaiian Airlines credit card. They’re nice to have, and Atmos does have partner airlines where you can use them, but when I look at where I’m actually redeeming, ThankYou points see a lot more action than Atmos points.
Citi Strata Elite: Citi’s Big Swing at a True Premium Card
Citi Strata Elite is Citi’s new attempt at a fully loaded premium travel card. It comes with a higher annual fee, more perks, and a stack of credits that can make or break the value depending on how you travel.
The headline number is a $595 annual fee. That sounds steep, but the way I look at it, the value lies in a few core benefits that either work for your life or they don’t.
How It Earns (For Our Purposes)
Strata Elite has elevated earning through the Citi Travel portal on things like hotels, rental cars and flights, plus solid multipliers in other categories. I’m not planning to rebuild my entire spending strategy around the portal, but it’s nice to have for the right bookings.
More importantly, Strata Elite is another full ThankYou-transfer card, so it keeps all of our Double Cash and Custom Cash points fully upgradeable to airline miles. That matters, because I already use ThankYou transfers a lot and like having the flexibility.
Credits That Actually Work For Us
This is where Strata Elite went from “interesting” to “OK, this might really make sense” for us:
- Up to $300 Annual Hotel Credit each calendar year for a 2+ night hotel stay booked through Citi Travel.
- Up to $200 Annual Splurge Credit℠ each calendar year with select merchants, including Live Nation.
- An annual credit for Global Entry or TSA PreCheck every few years.
- Additional credits and offers (like Blacklane rides) that are nice-to-have but not central to my math.
The key is that these aren’t hypothetical for us:
- I can easily book one 2-night stay a year through Citi Travel without forcing anything.
- We go to enough concerts that using the Splurge Credit with Live Nation is basically guaranteed.
Just those two pieces are $500 in value against a $595 annual fee.
So in our world, the rough math looks like this:
- $595 annual fee
- minus $300 hotel credit on a stay we’d book anyway
- minus $200 Splurge credit on shows we’d go to anyway
= about $95 “net” cost.
At that point, Strata Elite effectively costs about the same as keeping another Strata Premier—but with more perks and better long-term flexibility.
Travel Perks
On top of the credits and earning structure, Strata Elite adds the kind of benefits you’d expect from a premium travel card, such as:
- Airport lounge access through a Priority Pass-style membership.
- Admirals Club access in the form of limited-use passes each year.
- Stronger built-in travel protections for things like trip delay, trip interruption and rental cars.
Those aren’t the reason I’d get the card, but when the credits already bring my effective cost down to around $95, they’re very nice extras.
Atmos Rewards Summit: Great If You’re Living in the Atmos World
The Atmos Rewards Summit Visa Infinite card is a very different animal. Instead of being a general premium travel card, it’s built specifically around the combined Alaska + Hawaiian Atmos Rewards program.
It comes with its own annual fee (lower than Strata Elite’s), and most of the value is tied to how often you fly Alaska Airlines and Hawaiian Airlines and how invested you are in Atmos as your main airline program.
Earning & Airline Perks
Broadly speaking, Atmos Summit is designed so that:
- You earn extra points on Alaska and Hawaiian flights.
- You earn bonus points on some everyday categories like dining and certain travel or foreign purchases.
- You get classic airline-card perks like a free checked bag, priority boarding and a discount or cashback on inflight purchases.
- There’s also some form of lounge access or lounge day passes built in.
All of that is genuinely valuable if you’re regularly flying on Alaska or Hawaiian and want to make Atmos Rewards your home program.
Companion Awards & Status Earning
Where Atmos Summit really leans in is on companion travel and status:
- It offers companion award benefits that can knock down the cost of bringing someone with you on certain itineraries.
- It can help you earn extra Atmos status credits each year, both just for holding the card and from your spend.
Put together, that means the card doesn’t just earn points, it helps you climb the Atmos elite ladder faster and stretch the value of your Atmos miles—including when you redeem with Atmos partner airlines.
If you live in a city where Alaska or Hawaiian dominates, or you’re flying to and from the West Coast or Hawaii all the time, Atmos Summit could be a very strong choice.
Why I’m Leaning Toward Citi Strata Elite (For Now)
On paper, both cards make sense. The real question for me isn’t which one is “better” in a vacuum—it’s which one fits better with our current setup and planned spend.
A few things tip the scales toward Strata Elite for us:
- We already earn and redeem ThankYou points a lot.
- Double Cash and Custom Cash are constantly feeding that ecosystem.
- We can easily use Strata Elite’s $300 hotel credit and $200 Live Nation Splurge credit every year without changing our behavior.
- Alaska and Hawaiian aren’t our primary airlines, and we don’t live in one of their biggest hub markets.
Because of that, Atmos Summit would mean paying another premium annual fee to deepen an ecosystem we only use occasionally, while Strata Elite strengthens a system we already lean on heavily.
It’s also important to note that I was never considering product-changing into Strata Elite. If I get it, it will be as a new application, so I can:
- Line up the welcome bonus with upcoming spend.
- Stack that bonus with the first year of hotel and Splurge credits.
- Decide later which existing Citi card (most likely one of the Strata Premiers) gets downgraded or closed.
So in the “which card should I go for next?” showdown between Strata Elite and Atmos Summit, Strata Elite is the one I’m targeting first, and Atmos moves to the “maybe later” list.
So Which Card Is “Best”? Your Mileage May Vary
For us, Citi Strata Elite wins because it’s basically a net ~$95 upgrade to a more powerful version of something we’re already using: a premium ThankYou setup.
But that doesn’t mean it’s automatically the right choice for everyone.
When Citi Strata Elite Probably Makes More Sense
Strata Elite is likely the better fit if:
- You already earn a lot of ThankYou points from cards like Strata Premier, Double Cash and Custom Cash.
- You like having flexible points that can transfer to multiple airline partners.
- You can realistically use:
- a 2+ night hotel stay each year through Citi Travel, and
- the $200 Splurge credit with merchants you’d use anyway (like Live Nation).
- You want a general premium travel card with lounge access and strong overall benefits, not something tied to just one airline program.
When Atmos Rewards Summit Might Be the Better Call
On the other hand, Atmos Summit can absolutely be the smarter choice if:
- You’re deep into Atmos Rewards and want to build your flying around Alaska and Hawaiian.
- You live in or frequently fly through their West Coast or Hawaii hubs.
- You care about elite status and like the idea of a card that helps you earn extra status credits.
- You’ll make good use of:
- the card’s companion award benefits,
- its lounge access or passes, and
- classic airline perks like free checked bags and priority boarding.
- You’re happy earning in a single-airline ecosystem that still has useful partner airlines where you can redeem your miles.
For someone who’s flying Alaska and Hawaiian all the time, the math could flip completely, and Atmos Summit might be the obvious first choice.
For us, with our current travel patterns and how much we rely on ThankYou points, Citi Strata Elite is the premium card I’m most likely to apply for next. Atmos Summit isn’t off the table forever—it just needs our flying habits to catch up before it earns a spot in the wallet.
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