Sapphire Reserve for Business℠ review: Premium benefits at a major cost

Like its personal counterpart, this card offers a ton of travel perks, potentially worth over $1,300 annually. Here’s what you’ll get: 

• $500 credit for The Edit – Chase Travel’s collection of over 1,100 hand-picked hotels and resorts ($250 semi-annually)

• Complimentary IHG One Rewards Platinum Elite Status (through December 31, 2027)

• $300 annual travel credit — one of the most flexible and easy-to-use travel credits available

• Airport lounge access for yourself and two guests, including Sapphire Lounges by the Club and Priority Pass Select membership

• One of the most comprehensive travel protection and trip insurance packages available

• $120 credit for Global Entry, TSA Precheck or Nexus application fees every four years

• $10 monthly Lyft in-app credits (through September 30, 2027)

• Access to Chase Sapphire Reserve Exclusive Tables on OpenTable, in partnership with the Visa Dining Collection 

This slate of travel perks easily rivals those offered by any other premium travel card. The annual travel credit is an especially valuable and flexible benefit since it can help cover the cost of nearly any travel purchase, which can come in handy for saving money on certain travel purchases that don't earn bonuses elsewhere. Also, the trip protection coverage remains one of the best and most comprehensive packages available on a premium card.

Meanwhile, the credit for bookings with The Edit — the new name for the Chase Luxury Hotel Collection — rivals the value of similar perks for programs like the American Express Fine Hotels & Resorts Collection. You’ll get benefits like property credits, free breakfast, and early and late checkout times — features that would make the card a winner on their own.

Your business can also get over $1,200 in annual value from an impressive slate of business-centric credits. While these may not be useful for all businesses and may be difficult to maximize for some, the potential for added value is significant. Here’s what the card offers: 

• $400 credit with ZipRecruiter ($200 semi-annually)

• $200 annual credit for Google Workspace toward AI tools for business

• $100 credit for Giftcards.com ($50 semi-annually)

• Dual credit lines: You can access a Pay in Full credit line, which must be paid in full each month, or a Flex for Business credit line, which lets you pay over time with interest.

• Free employee cards

• Purchase protection 

While semi-annual credits can be tough to maximize, it should be easy to at least use the Giftcards.com credit. You can buy gift cards for a wide variety of merchants, so there should be something for everyone. Of course, if you can use the other credits, deciding to apply for the card becomes much easier, especially if you have travel needs.

If you spend $120,000 on your card in a calendar year, you can also unlock additional benefits through the end of the next calendar year. Although you’ll need to average $10,000 in monthly spending to be on track for these perks, they can return substantial value. 

Here’s what you’ll get once you hit the spending milestone:

• Upgrade to IHG One Rewards Diamond Elite Status

• Southwest Airlines® A-List Status

• $500 Southwest Airlines credit when booked through Chase Travel

• $500 credit to The Shops at Chase, a new exclusive online shopping outlet with rotating promotions and the ability to pay using Ultimate Rewards

Not only will you get $1,000 in monetary value from these perks, the elite status can give you features like free baggage, priority boarding, bonus points or late checkout. While some may find it difficult to reach this benchmark, your business will get excellent value if it does. However, unless you are a frequent Southwest flyer or stay often with IHG One, you might not want to pursue spending solely for these benefits. 

The Business Platinum Card® from American Express is the most comparable option to the Sapphire, offering its own laundry list of travel and business credits for a slightly lower cost of $695. 

Both cards offer high rates on flights and hotels, but the Business Platinum requires booking through AmexTravel.com. This makes it much less flexible than the Sapphire Reserve Business card, which earns rewards even on direct bookings outside Chase Travel. You'll have to put in some effort to maximize the many credits offered by either card, but both can hold a ton of  value in return. Both cards have a solid set of travel partners and allow you to combine points with other cards for extra flexibility. 

The choice between these cards may come down to which business credits work best for you and whether you’ll get more value from earning Ultimate Rewards or Membership Rewards. 

The Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card is one of Chase’s less-expensive business rewards cards, carrying a $95 annual fee. If you think you'll have a hard time taking advantage of the Sapphire Reserve for Business card’s credits or don’t need all the travel benefits, you might prefer this card. 

You’ll earn 3X points (up to $150,000 in combined annual spending) on travel, shipping, internet, cable and phone purchases, as well as advertising purchases made with social media sites and search engines. The Sapphire only earns bonuses on advertising, but earns a higher rate for flights and hotels booked directly. 

The main factor to consider when choosing between these two cards is how highly you value the Sapphire’s perks and where your business spending fits best.

The best business cards offer rewards in key business spending categories, so a primary factor in a business card’s rating is its rewards value. This includes the card’s average rewards rate, estimated annual rewards earnings, sign-up bonus value and reward redemption value.

To estimate a business card’s average annual rewards earnings, we first calculate its average rewards rate based on how much it earns in different bonus categories and how closely its categories align with the average small-business owner’s spending habits. In other words, we assess whether the card earns rewards at a high rate in the most popular business spending categories. 

We researched 10 key business spending categories including dining, gas, office supplies, travel, telecommunications, insurance and more to get a sense of the average small-business owner’s spending habits. We assumed an average annual spend of around $40,000 per year based on Bankrate survey data. 

Using this data, we are able to assign a weighting to each of a card’s bonus categories. We also estimate the redemption value of points or miles from various issuer, airline and hotel rewards programs.

This weighting and rewards valuation allows us to estimate a card’s average annual rewards earnings — how many points or miles you’d earn with a given card if your spending was about average and you used the card for all of your business purchases — as well as what those points are worth. We also use point valuations to determine a card’s sign-up bonus value.

With these calculations complete, we assign each card a score based on how its average rewards earnings, sign-up bonus value, rewards rate and redemption value stack up against other business cards, factoring in the card’s annual fee.

The better these values, the higher its score will be, making it more worthy of inclusion in our list and increasing its potential ranking.

We also score business cards based on how much it costs to keep them in your wallet or carry a balance. 

To start, each business card is scored based on whether it offers an intro APR and how its ongoing APR compares to the rates available on other business cards. This is because an intro APR on new purchases or balance transfers can be a lifesaver if you need to pay down debt, finance a large business purchase or free up cash flow.  

While intro APRs are not uncommon on business cards, they aren’t a given, so cards that offer this sort of payment flexibility will score higher in our card rating system. 

Even more important to both a card’s score and its inclusion in our list, however, is how its annual fee influences its overall value. We consider a card’s annual fee in two ways — how it ranks relative to the fees you’ll find on other cards in the category and how it impacts a card’s overall rewards value.  

Cards with an annual fee will always be at a slight disadvantage in our scoring system since annual fees inherently cut into your rewards value. However, if a card offers terrific value via its ongoing rewards and perks, it can earn a high score and a spot in our list even if it carries a high annual fee. 

With this in mind, we rate a card based primarily on how its ongoing rewards value and ongoing perk value (such as annual credits or bonuses) stack up against those of other cards in the category when you subtract annual fees.

We rate each business card’s flexibility based on the restrictions it imposes on earning and redeeming rewards. 

 Flexibility factors include whether a card only allows you to earn a high rewards rate on only a small amount of spending or requires you to meet a certain earning threshold before you can redeem rewards. We also examine whether your points are worth less when you opt for some redemption options over others and whether a card gives you the flexibility to transfer rewards to travel partners. 

We also score each card’s set of features — its perks and benefits — against five tiers of features to provide a rating.  

We break down these tiers as follows: 

• Tier 1 has less than standard card features (an ultra-streamlined card that offers basic utility and next to nothing in the way of ancillary benefits. 

• Tier 2 includes the benefits you’d expect on standard Visa or Mastercard credit cards, such as free access to your credit score, car rental insurance and $0 liability for fraudulent charges. 

• Tier 3 includes “prime card” or better-than-average card features like cellphone insurance, lost luggage insurance, concierge services and purchase protection. 

• Tier 4 includes luxury features such as airport lounge access, elite status with an airline or hotel and credits for expedited security screening membership programs. 

• Tier 5 includes the sort of exemplary benefits you’ll find on top-tier luxury cards, such as high-value travel credits, cardholder memberships and other unique and valuable perks.