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.
Amex Blue Business Plus Current Welcome Offer
| Card Offer |
|---|
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, 18.49% - 26.49%, based on your creditworthiness and other factors at account opening. (Rates & Fees)No Annual Fee |
Amex Blue Business Plus Review
The Amex Blue Business Plus is a terrific long-term keeper card and one that almost any fan of the Amex Membership Rewards program should have in their lineup. That’s because the card earns a valuable return of 2 Membership Rewards points per dollar spent on the first $50,000 in purchases per year (then 1x), allows the cardholder to transfer points to Amex’s airline and hotel transfer partners, and has no annual fee. This can be a great “everywhere else” card for spend that does not earn any category bonus with other cards and since it keeps points alive and transferable with no fee, it can be a great way to keep your Membership Rewards points flexible even as you open and close other cards.
- Annual Fee: None
- Authorized User Annual Fee: Free
- Foreign Transaction Fee: 2.7%
- What points are worth: The Amex Blue Business Plus card earns American Express Membership Rewards points. Our current Reasonable Redemption Values pegs their value at 1.55 cents each. Redeeming for cash is not a good value: Redeemed for a statement credit, points are typically worth 0.6c per point. If you have an Amex Business Checking account, you can redeem points at a value of 0.8c per point. Business Platinum cardholders with a Business Checking account can redeem at a value of 1c per point. Points are only worth 0.6 cents each towards statement credits, though they can be worth as much as Schwab Platinum cardholders can redeem for Schwab brokerage deposits at a value of 1.1c per point.
- Best Use for Points American Express Membership Rewards points can be transferred to travel partners at a 1:1 ratio and this will usually yield the most value. See American Express Membership Rewards sweet spots for more details.
- Earning Categories:
- 2X on all eligible purchases up to $50,000 in purchases per year (then 1x)
- 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.
- Who’s this card for? Anyone who wants to collect Membership Rewards points and transfer them to airline and hotel partners. If you prefer cash back, this card wouldn’t be a great fit since you’ll get such poor value from the points for cash redemptions unless you also have the right Platinum card.
- Is the Blue Business Plus a keeper? Yes, it absolutely is.
Blue Business Plus Pros and Cons
Pros
- Earns 2x Membership Rewards everywhere on up to $50K in purchases per year (then 1x)
- Great transfer partners, especially for folks looking for international awards booked through foreign airline partner programs
- Points are automatically pooled with those earned on all of your Membership Rewards cards where you’re the primary cardholder (this is based on your Social Security number)
- Unusually for a fee-free card, this card offers the ability to transfer to airline and hotel programs
Cons
- Foreign transaction fee
- Transfers to US-based programs like Delta, JetBlue, and Hawaiian Airlines incur a fee (this fee is not charged when transferring to foreign programs). Note that this is a feature of Membership Rewards, not specific to the Blue Business Plus
- Not great for cash back redemptions since you’ll only get 0.6c per point unless you have a Schwab or Morgan Stanley consumer Platinum card or a Business Platinum card and business checking account
Amex Transfer Partners
| Rewards Program | Capital One Transfer Ratio | Best Uses |
|---|---|---|
| Aer Lingus Avios | 1 to 1 via BA | Fuel surcharges are sometimes lower when booking with Aer Lingus (Avios.com) 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 | 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 | 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 | 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 steep. See: Emirates Sweet Spot Awards - First class from 30K miles round trip. |
| 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. |
| Hawaiian Miles | Hawaiian Airlines’ award prices tend to be quite high, but there are some not-terrible uses: fly to neighboring islands for 7.5K miles, fly first class round-trip from Hawaii to South Pacific islands for as few as 95K miles, fly first class round-trip from Hawaii to Australia for as few as 130K miles, or use miles to upgrade paid flights. | |
| Hilton | 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. | |
| Iberia Avios | 1 to 1 via BA | 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 | 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 | 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 via BA | 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 great sweet spot awards including US to Europe on Delta One business class for 50K points one-way. See: Best uses for Virgin Atlantic points (Sweet Spot Spotlight). |
Related Cards
American Express Membership Rewards Consumer Cards
| Card Offer and Details |
American Express Membership Rewards Business Cards
| Card Offer and Details |
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Wow that transfer partner table needs some work! Says Capital One, some ratios missing entirely.
Can I downgrade the Amex green business to it?
What’s been the best publicly available bonus for this card? I’ve never been eligible for the 50k or 75k offers.
The best public available bonus is the 15,000 MR points for $3,000.
All other bonus are targeted.
I was targeted for the 75K bonus , I believe it helps me that I opened and actually use their Business Checking account
I once got 25k publicly for P2. So it’s def been better than 15k at some point. I also have a Biz checking account on P1, but never been targeted there.
Lee, I still think it’s better than the Bilt!
Ha. All good.
The BBP is a great card. I have it as well. Each serves a purpose under Heaven.
For some, that $50k cap is a big detractor.