For years, premium credit card issuers competed with increasingly generous welcome bonuses, airport lounge access, and travel credits.
Today, many of those perks have become table stakes. The next battleground is proving harder to copy: exclusive access.
Citi’s expansion of its Curated Table dining series, announced Thursday in partnership with Mastercard, is the latest example of how issuers are trying to transform premium credit cards into lifestyle memberships.
Rather than simply rewarding spending, banks are investing in invitation-only dinners, fashion events, Formula 1 weekends, and cultural experiences that affluent customers can’t easily buy on their own.
The strategy reflects a broader evolution across the industry.
American Express has spent years building its Experiences platform, offering access to concerts, sporting events, and culinary partnerships.
Chase has expanded beyond airport lounges into Sapphire Reserve dining events and chef collaborations at places like The Grand Ole Opry.
And Capital One has leaned into entertainment partnerships and food festivals. Increasingly, premium cards are selling access as much as rewards.
For Citi, that shift is being driven by what its customers say they value.
“What we are also seeing with our premium customers is that they are very discerning,” Prashant Sharma, Citi’s head of reward cards and loyalty for U.S. consumer cards, told Fast Company. He says that card members are looking for value, but are also looking to get access to experiences that are otherwise hard to buy—that’s where The Curated Table comes in.
From one event to three
Citi launched The Curated Table alongside its premium Strata Elite card last year and decided to expand the series after seeing strong engagement from last year’s debut.
The series returns this fall with three events tied to marquee cultural moments:
- Sept. 9, New York City: A fashion-focused evening at The Shed featuring Christian Siriano, immersive ateliers, and a dinner by chefs Michael and Bryan Voltaggio.
- Oct. 21, Austin: A Formula 1-themed experience during race weekend featuring the McLaren Mastercard Formula 1 Team, world-class dining, and a driver appearance.
- Dec. 2, Miami: An immersive event during Miami’s annual art week combining dining, music and contemporary art.
Tickets for eligible Citi Strata Elite cardmembers are priced at a very affordable $100, with an additional cost to also attend a Christian Siriano runway show at the NY event.
“We are hoping to engage our customers with these kind of memorable experiences that they then link back to Citi Strata Elite and Citi more generally,” says Sharma. “This is something that you will remember months after you’ve actually experienced it.”
He says this year’s fashion, art, and motorsport locations were picked due to them being hot cultural moments that Citi’s customer base is interested in, allowing the brand to meet its customers in places where they would already be while offering them unique opportunities they wouldn’t be able to experience without having a Citi card in their wallet.
Rewards still matter—but they’re no longer enough
The pivot toward experiences doesn’t mean traditional rewards have become less important. Instead, Citi sees the two as complementary.
“Both matter, and we feel very, very good about our ability to deliver on both ends,” says Sharma. He says that dining, in particular, is becoming a more important category than it was just a few years ago.
“I think customers seek value not only in everyday dining, which we all need to do and want to do, but also dining as an experience,” he says. “What we have tried to do, particularly with the Citi Strata Elite product, is to provide unmatched everyday value on dining.”
The card offers 3x points on everyday dining, and 6x on Friday and Saturday nights.
“Seventy-five percent of the consumers we’ve talked to say that when a card offers great rewards for dining, it changes their preference, and it also results in them usually spending more at a restaurant,” says Sharma. “I think they feel more rewarded, and they are therefore that much more likely to indulge.”
Building a brand around memorable moments
Only a small percentage of cardmembers will ever attend a Curated Table event. Citi says that’s not the point. For the brand, the series is part of a larger strategy to transform the relationship consumers have with their credit cards.
“We have stitched together this broad ecosystem,” Sharma said. “Bringing our partners together and then adding the Citi assets and expertise to it, we’re able to create value, which is hard to replicate in its entirety.”
Consumers, he argues, increasingly define value as more than just cashback or points.
“They definitely want the rational, tangible value for the fee they are paying, but they also want to feel special,” Sharma said. “They [want access] to things that are important to them.”
That shift is becoming one of the defining themes of the premium credit card market. As rewards programs become increasingly similar across issuers, banks are looking for ways to differentiate that can’t be easily copied.
Exclusive dining experiences, backstage access, and invitation-only events may ultimately prove harder for competitors to replicate than another airport lounge or another travel credit.
