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The Blue Business® Plus Credit Card from American Express 15K points + 0% APR for 12 months ⓘ Affiliate 15k points after $3k spend within the first 3 months + 0.0% intro APR on purchases for 12 months from the date of account opening, then a variable rate, 17.74% - 25.74%, based on your creditworthiness and other factors at account opening. (Rates & Fees)No Annual Fee Click Here to Apply This is an affiliate offer. Frequent Miler may earn a commission if you are approved for this offer Alternate Offer: Some people have been targeted for an offer in their online account for 75K points after $15K in purchases in their first 12 months. FM Mini Review: 2X rewards for all spend (up to $50K per year) with no annual fee makes this card a winner. Click here for our complete card review Earning rate: 2X Membership Rewards points on all purchases, up to $50K spend per calendar year (then 1X thereafter). Terms apply. (Rates & Fees) Base: 2X (3.1%) Card Info: Amex Credit Card issued by Amex. This card imposes foreign transaction fees. |
The Blue Business Plus card from American Express is an excellent business credit card that belongs in the pocket of just about any business owner who is a fan of American Express Membership Rewards. That’s because the card offers excellent return on spend and keeps Membership Rewards points alive and transferable with no annual fee.
In this post, you’ll find information relevant to the Blue Business Plus Credit Card from American Express.
Application Tips
Amex Application Tips
Check application status here. |
Should you apply?
Having this card in your arsenal long-term is a must if you would like to be free to open and close other Membership Rewards cards without worrying about losing your points. This card will keep your Membership Rewards points alive and transferable to airline and hotel partners. The welcome bonus is often relatively small, but the long-term value is high given the way it keeps points alive and the fact that it is a solid card for otherwise unbonused purchases.
Amex Blue Business Plus Reconsideration
If denied, call reconsideration: 877-399-3083 (new account holders); 866-314-0237 (current account holders)
How to Meet Minimum Spend requirements
Eligible purchases to meet the Threshold Amount do NOT include fees or interest charges, purchases of travelers checks, purchases or reloading of prepaid cards, purchases of gift cards, person-to-person payments, or purchases of other cash equivalents.That said, many techniques for meeting minimum spend are perfectly fine. Here are some techniques that are safe for meeting Amex minimum spend requirements (click each link for more information):
Annual Fee
- Primary cardholder: No annual fee
- Optional Authorized Users: Free
Amex Blue Business Plus Perks
- Purchase Protections:
- Damage and Theft Protection: Covers new purchases for 90 days against damage or theft up to $1000 per claim/$50,000 per account.
Redeem Points
In general, Membership Rewards points are worth 0.6c when redeemed for statement credits and up to 1 cent each when redeemed for merchandise or gift cards. Fortunately, there are three ways in which it is possible to get more value: redeem points for flights, transfer points to hotel or airline partners, or invest rewards. More on each below…
Travel
The Business Platinum Card offers a 35% Airline Bonus: Get 35% of your points back when you redeem points through Amex Travel for either a First or Business class flight on any airline, or for any flights with your selected airline.
After you receive the 35% rebate, the value works out to 1.54 cents per point. That's very good, but it does require owning this ultra-premium card.
Transfer points
The best use of Membership Rewards points, in my opinion, is to transfer points to airline and hotel partners in order to book high value awards. Your best bet is usually to wait until you find a great flight or night award before transferring points. One exception: Amex often offers 30% or higher transfer bonuses to certain programs (Virgin Atlantic and British Airways are two recent examples). If you’re confident that you’ll use the points for good value, it may make sense to transfer points when those bonuses are in effect.
For specific examples of great ways to use points transferred to airline miles, please see: Amex Membership Rewards sweet spots.
Current Transfer Bonuses
Here are the currently available transfer bonuses from Amex Membership Rewards (this table will update automatically when new offers are found):
| Transfer Bonus Details | End Date |
|---|---|
| 35% transfer bonus from Amex Membership Rewards to Marriott Bonvoy | 11/30/24 |
| 15% transfer bonus from Amex Membership Rewards to Cathay Pacific Asia Miles | 11/30/24 |
| 15% transfer bonus from Amex Membership Rewards to Avianca LifeMiles | 12/31/24 |
Points can be transferred to the loyalty accounts of the primary cardholder or any authorized user or employee on the account.
Transfer Partners
It is free to transfer Membership Rewards points to foreign airlines. For transfers to US airlines, however, Amex charges an “excise tax offset fee” of $0.0006 per point (with a maximum fee of $99). Airlines subject to this fee are noted below.
| Rewards Program | Amex Transfer Ratio | Best Uses |
|---|---|---|
| Aer Lingus Avios | 1 to 1 | Fuel surcharges are sometimes lower when booking with Aer Lingus rather than British Airways, Qatar, or Iberia. It's possible to move points (Avios) between Iberia, British Airways, Aer Lingus, and Qatar. See also: Avios Sweet Spots for Award Tickets. |
| AeroMexico ClubPremier | 1 to 1.6 | AeroMexico is a SkyTeam partner. Club Premier points can be used to book flights on AeroMexico, SkyTeam alliance members (such as Delta or Korean Air), or on select partner airlines. Unfortunately many have reported that awards are extremely difficult to book through AeroMexico so we do not recommend transferring points to this program. If you want to fly AeroMexico, look to transfer points to another SkyTeam partner (such as Air France) and then book AeroMexico with that program. |
| Air Canada Aeroplan | 1 to 1 | Redeem for Star Alliance flights and/or flights with Air Canada partners (such as Etihad). No fuel surcharges; $39 CAD award booking fee; 5,000 points to add stopover on one-way award. See: Air Canada Aeroplan: Everything you need to know. |
| Air France KLM Flying Blue | 1 to 1 | Monthly Air France Promo Awards often represent very good value. Air France miles can be used to book Sky Team awards, including Delta awards. Air France often offers very good business class award pricing between the US and Europe & Israel. |
| ANA Mileage Club | 1 to 1 | Redeem for Star Alliance flights. Multiple stopovers allowed. ANA offers many great sweet-spot awards, including flying around the world in business class for as few as 115K miles! See also: ANA - a terrific Membership Rewards gem. |
| Avianca LifeMiles | 1 to 1 | Avianca LifeMiles can be great for Star Alliance awards. They offer reasonable award prices and no fuel surcharges on awards. They also offer shorthaul awards within the US (for flying United, for example) for as few as 7,500 miles one-way. Best of all, their mixed-cabin pricing can lead to fantastic first-class award prices. See this post for details. |
| British Airways Avios | 1 to 1 | While flights on British Airways itself often incur outrageously high fuel surcharges, many BA partners charge low or no fuel surcharges. Excellent value can be had in redeeming BA points for short distance flights. It's possible to move points (Avios) between Iberia, British Airways, Aer Lingus, and Qatar. See also: Avios Sweet Spots for Award Tickets. |
| Cathay Pacific Asia Miles | 1 to 1 | Cathay Pacific has a decent distance based award chart, but they no longer allow stopovers longer than 24 hours. Cathay Pacific Asia Miles can be a good option for booking American Airlines flights with a distance based award chart, especially if other OneWorld Alliance miles aren't available. For long distance flights, it is possible to reduce the cost of a premium cabin award by adding on a lower cabin segment. See this post for details. |
| Choice | 1 to 1 | Choice Privileges points seem to be randomly valuable within the US, but dependably valuable internationally in expensive locations such as Scandinavia and Japan. Points can sometimes offer great value when used towards participating Preferred Hotels of the World. |
| Delta SkyMiles | 1 to 1 plus excise tax | Delta no longer charges change or cancellation fees on awards originating in North America. Flash award sales and flights to/from locations other than the U.S. or Canada can offer great value. See: Best uses for Delta miles. |
| Emirates Skywards | 1 to 1 | The best use of Emirates miles has been to fly Emirates itself. Unfortunately fuel surcharges can be extremely steep. One workaround is to book select routes such as JFK to Milan or Newark to Athens. See: How to find and book Emirates first class awards. |
| Etihad Guest | 1 to 1 | Etihad offers a distance based award chart for flying Etihad and another for its partners. Points may offer good value for expensive but short-distance flights. |
| Finnair Plus+ | 1 to 1 via BA | Finnair points are now "Avios" and points can be moved to/from other Avios programs. Finnair uses zone based award charts rather than distance based. As a result, Finnair sometimes has better (and sometimes worse) pricing than other Avios programs. |
| Hawaiian Miles | 1 to 1 plus excise tax | Hawaiian Miles can be converted instantly to Alaska Mileage Plan miles. Alaska Airlines offers decent oneworld award pricing, excellent short-distant pricing, and uniquely allows free stop-overs one one-way awards. Additionally, Alaska allows free award changes and cancelations (although they do have a small non-refundable partner award booking fee) |
| Hilton | 1 to 2 | 5th Night Free awards. Best value is usually found with very low end or very high end Hilton hotels. Bonus: award nights are not subject to resort fees. Note that Hilton points often go on sale for half a cent each and so its rare for point transfers to Hilton to be a good value. |
| Iberia Avios | 1 to 1 | On their own flights, Iberia offers low award prices and a very reasonable 25 Euro cancellation fee. Partner awards can offer good value under some circumstances as well, but these are usually nonrefundable. Fuel surcharges are sometimes lower when booking with Iberia rather than British Airways, Aer Lingus, or Qatar. It's possible to move points (Avios) between Iberia, British Airways, Aer Lingus, and Qatar. See also: Avios Sweet Spots for Award Tickets. |
| JetBlue | 250 to 200 plus excise tax | JetBlue points offer the most value when cheap ticket prices are available and when award taxes are high relative to the overall cost of the ticket (more details can be found here). The JetBlue Plus Card and the JetBlue Business Card offer a 10% rebate on awards, so you can get more value by holding one of these cards. |
| Marriott Bonvoy | 1 to 1 | 5th Night Free awards. Opportunities to get outsized value exist but can be hard to find. |
| Qantas Frequent Flyer | 1 to 1 | Best use is probably for flights on El Al with no fuel surcharges. Also useful for short AA flights. Qantas offers distance based award charts similar to Cathay Pacific. Both are OneWorld Alliance members. I recommend comparing award prices across both programs before transferring to either. Qantas offers round the world business class awards for only 280,000 points (but with many restrictions) |
| Qatar Privilege Club Avios | 1 to 1 | Qatar has reasonable award prices for flying Qatar itself. Points are now transferable 1 to 1 to British Airways (and from there to Aer Lingus or Iberia). It is now also possible to book JetBlue flights with Qatar Avios. |
| Singapore Airlines KrisFlyer | 1 to 1 | Use to book Singapore Airlines First Class awards (generally reserved for their own members), Alaska Airlines economy awards, or for Star Alliance awards (including United Airlines). |
| Virgin Atlantic Flying Club | 1 to 1 | Virgin Atlantic offers a few excellent sweet spot awards. See: Best uses for Virgin Atlantic points (Sweet Spot Spotlight). |
Cash back (invest with rewards)
Other options
You can also redeem points for gift cards or merchandise. At most, with this approach you’ll get 1 cent per point value, but usually you’ll get quite a bit less.
You can also use points to pay some merchants directly (Amazon.com, for example). Don’t do this. These options offer very poor value. Further, they may compromise the security of your account (i.e. if someone hacks into your Amazon account, they might spend your Membership Rewards points – causing you a headache in getting your points reinstated).
Manage Points
Combine Points
Amex automatically pools all of your points together. When you earn points with different cards, the point total shown when viewing either card is the total across cards.Share Points
Unlike Chase and Citibank, Amex doesn’t allow members to move points from one person’s account to another. That said, it is possible to transfer one person’s points to another person’s loyalty program account. The key is that the person who receives the points must be an authorized user or employee on the other person’s account. For example, my wife can transfer Membership Rewards points to my Virgin Atlantic account as long as I’m an authorized user (or employee) on any of her Membership Rewards cards.An authorized user card must be active for 90 days before it will unlock the ability to transfer your points to the authorized user’s loyalty program account.
How to Keep Points Alive
Thankfully, it is very easy to keep Amex Membership Rewards points alive. Simply keep any Membership Rewards card open. For example, if you are about to close your one and only Membership Rewards card, then open another Membership Rewards card account first in order to preserve your points. Amex offers some no-fee Membership Rewards cards, such as the Blue Business Plus and the Amex Everyday, so this shouldn't be much of a burden.Amex Blue Business Plus: Keep or Cancel?
This is an easy decision: the Blue Business Plus is a long-term keeper card. It offers solid return on purchases that wouldn’t otherwise earn category bonuses since this card offers 2 points per dollar spent on eligible purchase on up to $50,000 in purchases per year (then 1x) and since the points earned with this card are automatically pooled with the rest of your Membership Rewards points, it keeps your points alive and transferable to airline and hotel partners even if you cancel other cards.
I’m selling one of my businesses, and I have to close all MR earning cards in the process. I have another smaller business, if i open a BBP, can I keep all my MR stash after closure of the other cards?
As long as the BBP is on the same MR account, yes.
Thanks Tim
Tried transferring points to an employee account for my Amex BBP and was told points are only allowed to be transferred to the account holder ONLY. Has something changed?
The employee account has to have been active for at least 90 days in order to transfer to the employee’s loyalty accounts. Also, if you have multiple Amex cards, make sure to select the one that has the employee card linked to it when doing the transfer online.
I realize I may have dilly-dallyed when activating the card. I’ll give it a few weeks and try again
Got a $250 for $3k spend offer via an ad (either on Reddit or Instagram).
I am seeing a variety of offers for this card. 15k points for $3000 spend in 3 months, 25k points for $5000, 30k points for $6000, and 50k points for $8000. Trying different links through Google (and sometimes using an incognito window) nets different offers. The application link on this page is currently showing 50k for $8000 for me.
Looks like the offer is now 30k points for $6k spend in 3 months.
That’s targeted. Interestingly, one time when I clicked through I got an offer for 50K points after $8K in purchases in 3 months, but most of the time when I click on the link it still shows the standard 15K offer described above.
Just got an offer, when logged in, 50k for 8k spend in 3 months.
How are you getting targeted for the amex business card offers? I have a lot of chase ink cards but not amex business card so I haven’t got anything targeted. I get targeted for a ton of personal cards from amex. Do I need to open a business checking with them? Or sone way to let amex know that i have a business?
Just got an email from AMEX – You are pre-approved to apply for the Blue Business Plus card, get 75,000 points after $15K spend in 12 months. Not a bad deal, but it also says “Approval is not guaranteed and is subject to checks”
Well, I would have thought anyone would be approved to apply, but still it looks promising and seems to be a good deal. Was about to apply for a 3rd Business Platinum for 150K after $15K spend in 3 months. Wonder if I could do both …
Just signed up – wife got a popup 75k after 15k spend in 12 months. 2x points on first 50k spend per year. No annual fee.
Regarding cards that earn 1.5x, Amex Delta Business Platinum/Reserve should be added ($5k+ transactions only though, the same as Amex Platinum).
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Is the 2x up to $50,000 per year per business account or per card? For example, if there are 3 employee cards, do each card get 2x up to $50,000 per year for a total of $150,000 spending at 2x MR or is it $50,000 cumulative spending for all cards?
$50K cumulative per account — employee cards don’t get separate caps.