Citi Strata Premier or Chase Sapphire Preferred: which $95 travel card fits your spending
Both cards charge $95. Citi Strata Premier scores 71 and Chase Sapphire Preferred 67 in Julia's tests, but your groceries, hotel plans and redemptions decide it.
The short answer
Citi Strata Premier and Chase Sapphire Preferred both charge a $95 annual fee, and Strata Premier has the higher Julia's Wallet Score: 71 against 67 out of 100. Strata Premier's lead comes mostly from its wider bonus categories, especially supermarkets, but the points have to be worth about a cent each for the fee to pay off.
On Julia's family budget, Strata Premier earned 52,200 points on 17,400 dollars of restaurants, supermarkets, gas and travel. If your redemption screen offers only 0.75 cent per point, that card finishes $51.50 behind a plain 2 percent card. At 1 cent per point, it finishes $79 ahead.
Chase Sapphire Preferred suits a different reader. Julia's budget for it earned 40,000 points on 14,000 dollars, and it also offers a hotel credit and Hyatt transfers. Its edge depends on booking a hotel through Chase Travel and on your groceries counting as online groceries.
Side by side
Terms checked October 6, 2026.
- Annual fee: $95 for both cards.
- Julia's Wallet Score: Citi Strata Premier 71, Chase Sapphire Preferred 67.
- Citi Strata Premier earns: 3 points per dollar on restaurants, supermarkets, gas and EV charging, air travel and other hotel purchases. Eligible hotels, rental cars and attractions booked through Citi Travel earn 10 points per dollar. Everything else earns 1.
- Chase Sapphire Preferred earns: 3 points on dining, eligible online groceries, select streaming, and gas stations and EV charging (added in the June 2026 refresh). Chase Travel earns 5, other qualifying travel earns 2, and everything else earns 1.
- Hotel benefit: Strata Premier takes $100 off one qualifying Citi Travel hotel stay per calendar year, and the stay must cost at least $500 before taxes and fees. Preferred gives up to $100 each account anniversary year on eligible Chase Travel hotel bookings.
Groceries matter most. Citi Strata Premier's 3 points apply to supermarkets. Chase Sapphire Preferred's apply to online groceries, and ordinary supermarket checkouts don't count.
Which card earns more on an everyday budget?
Julia tested the two cards on different budgets, so the totals below shouldn't be compared line for line.
Citi Strata Premier, on Julia's family budget. She spends $5,000 at restaurants, $7,000 at qualifying supermarkets, $2,400 on gas and $3,000 on flights and hotels. All of it earns 3 points, so the $17,400 earns 52,200 points. The same $17,400 on a no-fee 2 percent card earns $348, and that is the number Strata Premier has to beat.
Chase Sapphire Preferred, on Julia's budget for that card. She spends $5,000 on dining, $3,000 on gas and EV charging, and $4,000 on eligible online groceries, all at 3 points. Another $2,000 of other travel earns 2 points. The $14,000 earns 40,000 points, or $400 at 1 cent each. A 2 percent card earns $280 on the same purchases, so Preferred adds $120 before its fee. That covers the $95 fee with $25 left over.
Julia's test also shows how fragile that groceries result is. If the $4,000 is spent at ordinary supermarket checkouts, Preferred loses 1 percent on that money, or $40, and the $25 left after the fee goes with it. Preferred's online grocery category excludes Target, Walmart and wholesale clubs, and using a store's app doesn't make a purchase eligible.
Are the points worth enough to cover the $95 fee?
For Citi Strata Premier, the redemption value decides the result:
- At 0.75 cent per point, 52,200 points return $391.50. After the fee, $296.50 remains, which is $51.50 behind the $348 flat-card result.
- At 1 cent per point, the points return $522. After the fee, $427 remains, which is $79 ahead of the flat card.
- Against a no-fee food pair, Strata Premier's $427 loses. Savor at 3 percent on $12,000 of restaurants and supermarkets earns $360. Adding $108 from gas and travel on a 2 percent card brings that pair to $468, which is $41 ahead of Strata Premier.
For Chase Sapphire Preferred, the fee is covered by the extra 1 percent on bonus categories, provided those categories qualify. That is why the grocery question matters more here than any redemption screen.
When do transfer partners change the answer?
They can change it a lot, but only with a trip you would book anyway. Julia measures value by dividing what the points replace by the bank points spent, not by the partner's points.
On Citi Strata Premier, suppose the 52,200 points replaced $783 of travel after unavoidable award charges. That is 1.5 cents per bank point. After the $95 fee, the value is $688, which is $340 above the flat card and $220 above the Savor pair. Citi's current partners include American Airlines, JetBlue, Virgin Atlantic, Cathay, EVA Air and Choice Hotels, among others. Each program has its own ratio and booking rules, so a partner name doesn't guarantee your flight.
On Chase Sapphire Preferred, Hyatt transfers at 4 Chase points for 3 Hyatt points. Julia's example is a Hyatt room that costs 24,000 Hyatt points in place of a $480 room. Getting those 24,000 Hyatt points takes 32,000 Chase points, so the value is 1.5 cents per Chase point. The Hyatt points look like they are worth 2 cents each, but you spend Chase points to get them. Receiving 25 percent fewer points means you need one-third more Chase points, not 25 percent more.
Search for the award before you transfer either card's points, and compare it with a cash trip you would really buy.
Which hotel benefit actually saves money?
Neither $100 benefit is a full $100 saving. Both are only worth counting for a stay you would book anyway.
Citi Strata Premier. Suppose a hotel costs $520 through Citi Travel and $470 direct. The $100 reduction brings Citi's subtotal to $420, a $50 saving against booking direct before rewards and loyalty differences. If the matching direct room were already $420, the benefit would only bring the two prices level. Several smaller stays can't be combined to reach the $500 minimum.
Chase Sapphire Preferred. Suppose a room costs $280 direct and $310 through Chase Travel. The credit brings the portal price to $210, and that $210 earns 5 points per dollar, worth $10.50 at a cent each. The net cost is $199.50, against $274.40 booking direct on a 2 percent card. The saving is $74.90, not $100. The credit requires booking through Chase Travel. A cancelled or changed booking can reverse it, and so can closing the account within 90 days of receiving it.
Julia counts only that smaller saving, and only for a trip you had already planned.
What else separates the two cards?
- Foreign fees and protection: Citi Strata Premier has no foreign transaction fee and lists protections for qualifying trip cancellation or interruption, delays, luggage and rentals. Chase Sapphire Preferred also has travel protections. For either card, read the benefit guide for how you must pay, what is covered and the claim deadlines. Rental damage cover isn't liability insurance.
- Extras on Preferred: Preferred can reimburse up to $120 for an eligible Global Entry, TSA PreCheck or NEXUS application, but only every 4 years, so don't count it yearly. It has no general lounge membership.
- Welcome offers: Citi's current page says the new-account bonus isn't available if you have, or previously had, Citi Premier or Strata Premier. Count any bonus separately from the yearly comparison, and only after confirming you're eligible.
- What each score assumes: Julia's tests value Strata Premier's Citi Travel points at 1 cent each, though Citi's current calculator gives a lower cash value. Preferred's score uses a fixed redemption route and doesn't assume better transfer values.
Before you apply
Check the issuer's page for each card before applying. Confirm the annual fee, the current earning rates, the hotel benefit's conditions and your eligibility for any welcome offer. Terms checked October 6, 2026, and card terms and transfer ratios may have changed since.
Then run the sum with your own numbers. On your redemption screen, find what 10,000 points are worth. Add up the groceries that would really qualify, and price a hotel stay you already want. If you can't find a trip or a redemption that clears a flat 2 percent card after the $95 fee, the simpler card may serve you better.
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Terms checked Oct 6, 2026. Not financial advice.