Chase is launching a Sapphire Business Reserve card – so many questions

There have been rumors abounding in recent weeks of upcoming changes to the Chase Sapphire Reserve card, from the annual fee increasing to the introduction of coupon book benefits and much more.

It sounds like an announcement regarding that is imminent, but there’s also a new piece of news as of yesterday. The Instagram account for Chase Sapphire posted this:

Yep, a business version of its popular Sapphire Reserve card will be launching this summer. That image is all the information they’ve provided about the card though, so there’s a lot we don’t know. Here are just a few (well, more than a few) questions that I – and I’m sure many of you will – have.

What will the welcome offer be?

One of the considerations at the forefront of many people’s minds will be how large the welcome offer will be.

The consumer Chase Sapphire Reserve card debuted almost 10 years ago with an – at the time – incredible welcome offer of 100,000 Ultimate Rewards points when meeting the minimum spend requirement. Given the buzz they seem to be trying to generate with the revamp of the personal card and launch of a business card, the fact that they’ve offered 90,000 transferable Ultimate Rewards on some Ink Business cards, and that it’s been possible to earn 100,000+ Membership Rewards on both Amex Gold and Platinum consumer cards for some time, I’d have to assume Chase will launch its new Sapphire Business Reserve card with the ability to earn a bonus of at least 100,000 Ultimate Rewards. Anything less than that will feel lackluster and will wipe some of the sheen from its new card. That said, depending on the card’s annual fee and benefits, I’m sure many people would still apply even if the bonus was only 75,000 or 90,000 points.

How much will the annual fee be?

Many of the rumors regarding the revamped consumer Sapphire Reserve card suggest its annual fee will be $795 going forward. If that’s the case, I imagine the business card will come with a similar annual fee.

What will the card be called?

Will the new card be a Sapphire Reserve Business card? Or a Business Sapphire Reserve? Or a Sapphire Business Reserve? Or something completely different, perhaps including ‘Ink’?

Given the naming convention of its lineup of Ink Business cards, my (Monopoly) money is on Chase calling it a Sapphire Business Reserve card.

Will you be able to refer from existing business cards?

If you have an Ink Business card, you can refer from that to Chase’s suite of other Ink cards, even if you don’t hold those other types of Ink cards. Will Chase let you refer from, say, an Ink Cash card to the new Sapphire Business Reserve card? We can only hope.

When will it be launched?

Chase’s Instagram post only states that the new card will be launched in summer 2025. Miles Earn And Burn posted this morning that the changes on the personal card would be occurring next month, but then he changed that to a date next week.

On the one hand it would make sense for them to introduce the revamp of the personal card and launch the new card on the same day. However, perhaps Chase is wary of cannibalizing coverage of both cards by doing that. We could therefore see one occurring before the other in order to lengthen the coverage the bank’s cards get.

Will there be family language regarding the welcome offer?

In addition to the 5/24 rule, Chase has other rules for some cards. For example, if you have the Sapphire Preferred or Sapphire Reserve card, you can’t get another welcome offer for one of those cards if you already have one of those cards, nor if you’ve earned the bonus from a welcome offer on one of those cards in the last 48 months.

Seeing as this new business card will be part of the Sapphire family, will those same family rules apply? My guess is that it won’t, so if you have a Sapphire Preferred or Sapphire Reserve consumer card, that would allow you to get the new business version.

The reason I think this is because of Chase’s current stance towards other personal + business card lineups, albeit on cobranded cards. For example, if you have a consumer World of Hyatt credit card, you can get its business counterpart. Similarly, you can get both an IHG Premier and IHG Premier Business card despite no longer being able to get an IHG Premier card if you already have the old IHG Select credit card.

Will it be a credit or charge card?

Most Chase cards are credit cards, but the relatively new Ink Business Premier card is a charge card which, while earning Ultimate Rewards points, has an inferior version of those points as they can’t be transferred to travel partners.

Will the new Sapphire Business Reserve card be a credit card or charge card? My money is on it being a credit card.

Will Chase’s 5/24 rule be enforced?

Seeing as the card hasn’t been launched yet and Chase hasn’t provided any information about it, we don’t yet know if the 5/24 rule will apply.

Understandably, the 5/24 rule plays a massive factor in many people’s considerations when deciding whether to apply for a new credit card, no matter whether that card is issued by Chase or any other bank.

I imagine that Chase is going for a splashy launch, so having many people declined for the card might not be beneficial for that. We’ve also seen them not enforce the 5/24 rule for some cards in the past, so it would be lovely if there’s an easing of the underwriting rules for this new card. Doing so would also generate a lot more buzz for the new card, so it would be a win-win. That said, Chase initially took a huge hit when the original Sapphire Reserve card came out based on the welcome offer, cost of the card benefits, etc., so perhaps they’re not looking for such a huge influx of new cardholders.

What will the card earning rates be?

The main earning rates on the consumer Sapphire Reserve card have long been 3x on dining and travel, although it has also been possible to earn 5x-10x in other select categories, particularly when booking travel through the Chase Travel portal.

One of the rumors on the revamped consumer card is that those earning rates and categories will be getting updated. I wouldn’t be surprised if we see the business version of the card matching the consumer card’s earning categories fairly closely and that dining and travel will still be two key categories. It would be fantastic if other business-related categories get bonused too, so maybe 3x or 4x at electronics stores such as Best Buy. Perhaps office supply stores would be another seeing as that’s been a 5x category on Ink Plus (no longer available for new applications) and Ink Cash cards for some time.

What will the card benefits be?

The card will almost certainly come with some kind of Priority Pass benefit, but how comprehensive it’ll be remains to be seen. Given the fact that the new Sapphire Business Reserve card will likely have a hefty fee, hopefully it’ll include access to Priority Pass restaurants and other non-lounge locations. However, the consumer Sapphire Preferred card lost access to Priority Pass restaurants a year ago, so I wouldn’t hold out too much hope on that front, but perhaps it’ll be another point of differentiation between the two cards.

The consumer Sapphire Reserve card has an easy-to-use $300 travel credit. If that’s maintained or increased on that card once it’s revamped, the business card would presumably get something similar. A credit for Global Entry/TSA PreCheck is almost a given, as is a credit for CLEAR.

Will there be some unique benefits though? Perhaps some kind of hotel and/or airline status? High level rental car elite status that’s not available on other premium cards?

Will benefits be coupon bookified?

There’s been an increasing trend over the last few years for credit card issuers to provide coupon book-style benefits. American Express is the primary offender lover of doing this, but Chase has increasingly been doing it with features like DoorDash benefits.

I therefore wouldn’t be surprised if this new business card also gets a whole host of coupon book-style benefits. Perhaps things like a $10 monthly credit for Google Workspace, a $50 Facebook Ads credit, a $100 credit when spending $500 at Upwork, etc.?

What will the fees & benefits be for authorized users/additional cardholders?

On the consumer Sapphire Reserve card, you can add authorized users for a $75 annual fee which gets them Priority Pass access, rental car coverage and more. The business card will therefore presumably have a similar setup, although perhaps the cost for an additional cardholder will be different and benefits might be slightly different.

Capital One recently announced upcoming changes to its lounge access rules for additional cardholders on its Venture X and Venture X Business cards. They’ll now need to pay a $120 annual fee, so hopefully the Sapphire Business Reserve card doesn’t charge that much for additional cardholders to get lounge access, if that’s even a benefit in the first place.

Will one or more transfer partners be added?

Over the last few years, Bilt and Citi have both done a great job with adding transfer partners, making their programs even more appealing than they once were. In recent years, there’s been very little movement in the number of Chase partners, although that hasn’t mattered so much for many Ultimate Rewards collectors due to the ongoing ability to transfer to Hyatt.

There’s no particular reason to think this will happen, but it would be great if part of the showy launch of a new product involved the unveiling of one or more new transfer partners.

New transfer partners that wouldn’t be too surprising given their promiscuity with other transferable points currencies include Avianca LifeMiles, Cathay Pacific Asia Miles, Etihad Guest and Qantas Frequent Flyer. On the hotel front, if they added Choice on a 1:2 basis that could potentially be interesting, as would Accor Live Limitless (ALL) on a 1:1 basis seeing as other transfer partners of ALL are on a sub-1:1 basis.

How heavy will the card be?

This isn’t at all important in the grand scheme of things, but I’m curious how heavy Chase will make the new Sapphire Business Reserve card. US Credit Card Guide keeps track of different card weights which you can find here. The Ritz-Carlton card was once a whopping 28g, but they’ve since slashed it to “only” 12g which is still significantly heavier than most credit cards.

Chase Sapphire Reserve and Preferred cards both weigh 13g, but that’s still a fair bit lighter than other popular premium cards like Amex Platinum cards (17g) and Capital One Venture X cards (17g). It wouldn’t be surprising to see Chase make the new card – and the revamped Sapphire Reserve card – slightly more weighty to try to enhance its premium feel. The JP Morgan Reserve card is a hefty 27g, but I highly doubt anything approaching that is on the cards (quite literally) for the Sapphire Business Reserve.

Will this new card be worth staying under 5/24 for?

Given the lengthy list of unknowns listed above, it’s hard to say for sure whether it’ll be worth trying to stay under 5/24 in order to apply for the new Sapphire Business Reserve card. Seeing as we’ll likely learn more details about the card in the coming weeks, it hopefully won’t be too much longer before you can make a properly informed decision.

I’m due to fall below 5/24 next month for the first time in many years, while my wife will drop below a few months after that. We’ll therefore be holding off on applying for any more personal cards until we have a better idea as to whether we want to get a Sapphire Business Reserve for our household, or possibly even one each.

Question

Are you excited for this new business card? What benefits would you like to see on it? Will you be applying? Let us know in the comments below.

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