• Up to $300 hotel benefit each calendar year on a stay of two nights or more booked on cititravel.com
• Up to $200 Splurge Credit℠ each calendar year as statement credits at up to two brands you choose from Citi's list: 1stDibs, American Airlines, Best Buy®, Future Personal Training, and Live Nation. Exclusions apply on American Airlines and Live Nation.
• Up to $200 Blacklane® credit each calendar year for the premium chauffeur service, earned as up to $100 on purchases from January through June and up to $100 from July through December
• Up to $120 Global Entry® or TSA PreCheck® credit every four years toward the application fee
• Four Admirals Club® Citi Strata Elite℠ Passes each calendar year for access to nearly 50 American Airlines lounges, where you'll find snacks, cocktails, and travel assistance. These are single-visit passes, not a membership.
• Priority Pass™ Select membership with access to more than 1,500 airport lounges worldwide
• The Reserve by Citi Travel®, a collection of participating hotels on cititravel.com that add daily breakfast for two, free Wi-Fi, and a $100 experience credit that varies by property. Early check-in, late checkout, and room upgrades are subject to availability. You have to select a Reserve Hotel rate at checkout to get the benefits.
• The Supper Club®, with tickets available for purchase to dining events in major U.S. cities
• Death & Co® "Fashioned" platform with cocktail tutorials from fundamentals through advanced technique. Enrollment with the card is required, and it's for cardmembers 21 and over.
• Citi Entertainment® presale and event access, available to eligible Citi® credit card and Citibank® debit card customers

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[.dontreco] We don't recommend: Shopping with points or cashing out [.dontreco]You can spend points at participating merchants like Amazon, PayPal, and CVS, or redeem them for gift cards and cash at thankyou.com. Cash redemptions generally land around a penny per point, and shop-with-points and gift card rates can come in lower still. It's a useful floor to know exists, but it's the worst thing you can do with points earned on a $595 card. If cash back is your goal, you want a different card entirely.

[.sometimesreco] We sometimes recommend: Booking through Citi Travel® [.sometimesreco]Citi's portal doesn't boost your points the way some competitors do; you're generally still getting around a penny each. What the portal buys you is the 12x and 6x earning rates and access to The Reserve properties. So it earns your points well without stretching them. Compare the portal price against booking direct before you commit, and remember portal bookings can be harder to change and may not earn hotel elite credit.

[.sometimesreco] We sometimes recommend: Hotel transfer partners [.sometimesreco]Citi's hotel partners include Choice Hotels and The Leading Hotels of the World®. These rarely beat a penny per point once you run the math, and Citi has adjusted hotel transfer ratios recently. There are specific properties where it works out. Check the cash rate first, every time.

[.alwaysreco] We always recommend: Airline transfer partners, starting with American [.alwaysreco]This is the whole reason to hold this card. Citi is the only issuer with an American Airlines AAdvantage® transfer partnership, and the Strata Elite gets the full 1:1 ratio. AAdvantage is strongest on partner premium cabins, which is where points stop being worth a penny and start being worth several. Citi's other airline partners include JetBlue, Virgin Atlantic, Cathay, and EVA Air, so American is the headline but not the only good answer.

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While Citi's standout partner is undoubtedly American Airlines, ThankYou points also transfer to a number of other excellent travel partners: 

• You fly American Airlines and want a flexible currency that reaches AAdvantage at full value
• You'll actually use the hotel benefit and the lounge access
• You book travel through portals anyway, or are willing to
• You can open the account late in the calendar year and capture two rounds of credits
• You bank with Citi at a tier that earns the relationship credit

• You book travel direct and won't use Citi Travel®
• The credits don't match how you spend, leaving you paying $595 for lounge access
• You want a high base earning rate on all travel, since 1.5x outside the portal is low
• You're adding multiple authorized users at $75 each
• You don't fly American, which removes the card's main structural advantage
• You're newer to points and haven't yet earned back a fee this size

The recommended credit for this card is good to excellent.