The launch offer on the Chase Sapphire Reserve for Business℠ has ended and, mercifully, the spending requirement has been chopped by 1/3.
Here’s the current business Sapphire Reserve offer:
Chase Sapphire Reserve for Business℠ welcome offer
Welcome offer: Earn 150,000 Bonus Points after you spend $20,000 on purchases in the first 3 months after account opening.
This bonus is earned as Ultimate Rewards points.
Annual fee: $795
My take: Large bonus, but changes to the Sapphire Reserve are a disappointment
Now that we have an idea of what the ongoing offer on the Business Sapphire Reserve is likely to be going forward, I have some more context in which to comment about this bonus.
In terms of points, you can get half as many points for only spending $8,000 on an Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card. That might be more appealing to some, but Chase has tightened up bonus eligibility rules in general, so if you’ve ever had a no-annual-fee Ink card, you might not be able to get that bonus anymore.
But let’s talk about the card generally…
The Sapphire Reserve was previously an easy choice for someone who travelled moderately often. It offered a decent number of points on pretty much all travel-related expenses, an easy way to redeem your points, best-in-class credit card travel insurance protections, and a decent lounge access program.
But during the relaunch of the Sapphire Reserve, Chase took away many of the things that made the card great. The card’s previous 3x on travel expenses meant that you didn’t need to worry about juggling cards—use the Sapphire Reserve for everything travel-related and you’re getting decent rewards AND good travel insurance. The ability to use points for 1.5 cents of value through Chase Travel provided an easy way to get good value without requiring knowledge of transfer partners.
Yes, you can now get more points on travel booked through Chase Travel and you can sometimes get better value than one cent per point when booking through Chase. But to-date, I have not seem that many compelling hotel options bookable through Chase at increased point values. And I haven’t seen any flight options that I’d actually book through Chase’s travel portal that provided more value than I could get previously.
Are you eligible to earn the sign-up bonus?
Like the other Ink credit cards, the Chase Sapphire Reserve for Business℠ has language in its terms and conditions that indicates you’ll not earn the card’s welcome bonus if you’ve ever had the card before.
Practically, the card is so new that you’re unlikely to have ever had the card before… and if you have and you’re trying to earn another bonus, there’s a good chance that you’re the type of customer that Chase doesn’t want to award welcome bonuses to. In any case, here is the text of the terms:
The new cardmember bonus may not be available to you if you have ever had this card. We may also consider factors pertinent to your business in determining your bonus eligibility.
Chase Sapphire Reserve for Business℠ offer terms
This differs from the offer terms of the Ink Cash and Ink Unlimited sign-up bonuses in that only your previous Ink Preferred card will explicitly impact your bonus. Of course the “factors pertinent to your business” gives Chase plenty of wiggle room to deny you a bonus for whatever reason they deem appropriate, so your mileage may vary.
Fortunately, there are reports over on Reddit that Chase is popping up a notification to people that it deems ineligible for the bonus. While I’m not a fan of restricting bonus eligibility, I do think that showing a pop-up when you apply if you’re not eligible and still offering the product is the most consumer-friendly way of going about it.
