Two of the most talked-about business cards are on completely different ends of the spectrum — the Amex Business Platinum at $695/year and the Chase Ink Business Preferred at $95/year. One is a luxury travel card with a list of perks longer than your arm; the other is a lean, efficient points machine. Choosing wrong costs you hundreds of dollars a year. Here's how to think about it.

The Quick Verdict

Factor	Amex Business Platinum	Chase Ink Business Preferred
Annual Fee	$695	$95
Welcome Bonus	150,000 MR points (after $20K spend in 3 months)	90,000 UR points (after $8K spend in 3 months)
Best For	High spenders, frequent flyers, luxury perks	Most small businesses, versatile earning
Points Currency	Amex Membership Rewards	Chase Ultimate Rewards
Point Value (travel)	~1.8–2.2¢ per point	~1.5–2.5¢ per point
Airport Lounge Access	Yes (Centurion + Priority Pass)	No
Foreign Transaction Fee	None	None

If your business spends less than $150K/year and you don't fly frequently, the Ink Preferred almost certainly wins on pure value. If you fly business class 6+ times per year and can extract real value from the Amex perks, the Business Platinum can pull ahead.

Welcome Bonuses: The First-Year Math

The Amex Business Platinum currently offers 150,000 Membership Rewards points after spending $20,000 in the first 3 months. That's a high bar — not every business can comfortably put $20K on a card in 90 days.

At 1.8¢ per point (a reasonable travel redemption value), that's $2,700 in value from the welcome bonus alone.

The Chase Ink Preferred offers 90,000 Ultimate Rewards points after $8,000 in spend in 3 months — a much more accessible threshold. At 2.0¢ per point (Chase often delivers stronger transfer value), that's $1,800 in travel value.

First-year net value:

Amex Business Platinum: $2,700 bonus – $695 fee = $2,005 net (if you hit spend)
Chase Ink Preferred: $1,800 bonus – $95 fee = $1,705 net (very achievable spend threshold)

The Amex lead evaporates if you can't hit $20K in spend. The Ink Preferred's $8K threshold is achievable for most small businesses.

Earning Rates: Where Each Card Shines

Amex Business Platinum Earning Structure

5x points on flights and prepaid hotels booked through Amex Travel
1.5x points on purchases over $5,000 (up to 1 million bonus points/year) and on purchases in select categories (electronics retailers, shipping, etc.)
1x points on everything else

The 5x on Amex Travel sounds great until you realize booking through portals can sometimes mean worse itineraries and loss of airline status benefits. The 1.5x on big purchases is genuinely useful for capital-intensive businesses.

Chase Ink Business Preferred Earning Structure

3x points on the first $150,000/year in combined purchases on:

- Travel (flights, hotels, rental cars, taxis, trains)

- Shipping

- Advertising on social media and search engines

- Internet, cable, and phone services

1x points on everything else

For most modern businesses, the Ink Preferred's 3x categories are incredibly well-matched. If you're spending on Google Ads, Meta, shipping, phone bills, and business travel — you're earning 3x on most of your meaningful expenses.

Example: A business spending $3,000/month on Google Ads earns:

Ink Preferred: 9,000 UR points/month (3x)
Amex Business Platinum: 3,000 MR points/month (1x, since it's not a $5K+ purchase)

The Amex Business Platinum Perks: Worth $600?

The annual fee gap is $600. To justify the Business Platinum over the Ink Preferred, you need to extract at least $600 in additional value from its perks. Here's what's available:

Statement Credits (Up to $1,090/year in potential value)

$400 airline fee credit — select one airline; covers incidental fees (bag fees, upgrades, seat selection). Hard to use the full $400 without specific airline purchases.
$189 CLEAR credit — covers a CLEAR membership for biometric airport security. Useful if you fly frequently from CLEAR-enabled airports.
$150 Adobe credit — Adobe Creative Cloud subscriptions; useful if you're already paying for Adobe.
$120 wireless phone plan credit — $10/month toward Verizon, AT&T, or T-Mobile wireless. Easy to use if you have business lines.
$100 Global Entry credit — covers Global Entry (which includes TSA PreCheck)
$179 Dell credit — $179 toward Dell business purchases. Less useful if you're not buying from Dell.

Realistically, most business travelers can extract $450–$650 in annual statement credits without dramatically changing their behavior.

Airport Lounge Access

Centurion Lounge access — Amex's flagship lounges in 15 US cities (including NYC, LAX, SFO, MIA, LAS) plus international locations. Widely considered the best domestic lounges available.
Priority Pass Select — access to 1,300+ lounges globally

If you fly 6+ times per year through major hubs with Centurion Lounges, this benefit alone can be worth $300–$500 (based on day-pass pricing at comparable lounges). The Ink Preferred has no lounge access.

Travel Benefits

35% airline points rebate — when you use Membership Rewards to book through Amex Travel in business or first class (or economy on your selected airline), you get 35% of your points back. This is where the 5x earning gets really powerful — effectively making it 3.25x on redemptions.
Fine Hotels + Resorts — access to 1,500+ luxury properties with automatic room upgrades, late checkout, breakfast, and $100 experience credits
Hotel status — automatic Hilton Gold and Marriott Gold status

The Chase Ink Preferred has no equivalent luxury travel perks. It has solid travel insurance (trip cancellation/interruption, trip delay, lost luggage) and the Chase Travel Portal at 1.25¢ per point — useful but not luxury.

Points Currency: Which Is Actually More Valuable?

Both Membership Rewards and Ultimate Rewards are transferable point currencies — the gold standard in rewards.

Amex Membership Rewards Transfer Partners

Airlines: Air Canada Aeroplan, ANA, Air France/KLM Flying Blue, British Airways Avios, Delta SkyMiles, Emirates Skywards, Etihad Guest, Hawaiian Miles, Iberia Avios, JetBlue TrueBlue, Qantas, Singapore KrisFlyer, Virgin Atlantic

Hotels: Hilton Honors, Marriott Bonvoy (via Marriott, not direct)

Best sweet spots: Transfer to ANA for Star Alliance business class (~88,000 miles roundtrip US-Japan vs. $6,000+ cash), or Flying Blue for transatlantic deals.

Chase Ultimate Rewards Transfer Partners

Airlines: Air Canada Aeroplan, Air France/KLM Flying Blue, British Airways Avios, Emirates Skywards, Iberia Avios, JetBlue, Korean Air, Singapore KrisFlyer, Southwest, United MileagePlus, Virgin Atlantic

Hotels: Hyatt, IHG, Marriott

Best sweet spots: Transfer to Hyatt (1:1 ratio) — World of Hyatt is considered the best hotel program for value. Transfer to United for Star Alliance partners. Transfer to Korean Air for SkyPass sweet spots.

Chase's partnership with Hyatt is a significant advantage — Hyatt points are worth 1.7–2.5¢ each in many redemptions, and Chase is the only major card that transfers to Hyatt at 1:1.

Who Should Get Each Card?

Get the Amex Business Platinum if:

You fly business or first class at least 4–6 times per year
You regularly travel through airports with Centurion Lounges (NYC, LAX, SFO, etc.)
Your business has significant purchases over $5,000 (construction, equipment, etc.)
You book through Amex Travel and can leverage the 35% points rebate
You can realistically use $400+ of the statement credits
You want elite hotel status automatically (Hilton Gold, Marriott Gold)

Get the Chase Ink Business Preferred if:

Your business spends heavily on advertising (Google, Meta, etc.), shipping, telecom, or travel
You want the strongest points per dollar on everyday business expenses
You prefer Ultimate Rewards for Hyatt transfers or United Miles
You're a small business owner who doesn't fly frequently enough to need lounge access
You want a high-value card without a $695 annual fee commitment

The "Both" Strategy

Many serious points collectors hold both cards as part of a Chase + Amex ecosystem strategy:

Chase Ink Preferred — earn 3x on advertising, shipping, telecom, and travel (up to $150K/year)
Amex Business Platinum — use for purchases over $5,000 (1.5x), book Amex Travel when it makes sense, and extract lounge + statement credit value

With both cards, you're covering every major spending category at an elevated rate while accessing perks from both ecosystems.

If you're planning international travel, Faroway can help you figure out which destinations make the most sense for a specific redemption — for example, if you've built up 150,000 Chase points, Faroway can build an itinerary around what those points can realistically unlock (business class to Tokyo via Aeroplan, or a week of Hyatt properties in Southeast Asia).

Applying: Timing and Approval Tips

Chase 5/24 rule applies to the Ink Preferred — if you've opened 5+ cards in the last 24 months (across all banks), you'll likely be denied. Apply for Chase business cards before reaching 5/24.
Amex "once per lifetime" rule — you can only earn the welcome bonus on each Amex card once. Make sure you haven't previously held the Amex Business Platinum.
Minimum spend timing — both cards have large minimum spend requirements. Time applications around large planned business expenses (equipment, advertising pushes, quarterly tax payments via PayPal/Plastiq).

The Bottom Line

The Chase Ink Business Preferred wins for most small businesses — it's a $95/year card that earns 3x on the categories that matter most and transfers to an excellent points ecosystem. The math is simple and the value is straightforward.

The Amex Business Platinum wins for road warriors who fly frequently, value lounge access, and can methodically use its statement credits to offset the $695 fee. At that point, the travel experience improvements and points on large purchases can justify every dollar.

When you're ready to plan your next business trip or personal travel redemption, use Faroway to map out an itinerary that makes the most of whichever points currency you're building.

Amex Business Platinum vs Chase Ink Business Preferred: Which Card Wins for Business Travelers?