Chase Increases United Business Card Annual Fee To $99 (From ($95) & Adds 4 New Benefits (5,000 Mile Bonus, $100 Credit – Both With Requirements & More)

Update: This is actually a new card.

Chase has increased the annual fee on the United Business card to $99 (previously $95). They have also added four new benefits:

  • $100 annual United travel credit after 7 United purchases over $100
  • Receive 5,000 bonus miles each card anniversary when you have both the United Business card and a personal United credit card
  • Get 25% back on United inflight purchases
  • Earn 2 miles per $1 spent on local transit and commuting, including taxicabs, mass transit, tolls, and ride share services

I’m not sure why you’d ever really wanted both a personal and business United card, but there are undoubtedly people with both. The $100 travel credit is great for frequent flyers, but most readers probably don’t have seven United revenue flights annually. The other benefits are OK, but probably won’t be used much either. My gut reaction was that these were all huge positive benefits and for some this will be true but I think for the average cardholder you won’t really get much increased benefit. Obviously the annual fee has only been increased by $4, but you really need to determine if the card is worth keeping for $99 long term with all the benefits rather than if the marginal value has increased by more than $4. There is also an increased bonus of 100,000 points currently as well.
    William Charles
  • On January 23, 2020, 04:19

View Comments (36)

  • Between the 5k annual bonus miles, the 2 lounge passes, and free bags, this card's a keeper now.

  • Isn't this a separate product?
    Chase seems to have kept the united explorer business card as well, and keeping the fee on the business explorer at $95.
    Am I wrong?

    • I think it's a separate product but I've also read that it's the same product and Chase is simply marketing it as a separate product. At any rate, it looks like Chase updated their site last night / this morning and you can no longer apply for the "old" MPE biz.

      • It seems they rebranded the old mileage plus biz, but you still can apply for this card and the United business explorer card

  • United keeps up their streak of lame credit card benefits with these two new ones both applying in only very specific circumstances and not being very lucrative. And they wonder why people like the non co-branded Chase cards better...

  • $100 travel credit seems misleading as terms appear to only include incidentals, not airfare: “United flight travel-related purchases include seat upgrades; Economy Plus®; inflight food, beverages and Wi-Fi; baggage service charges or other United fees.” I can’t see spending $100+ in one shot x7 on anything listed except maybe upgrades.

    • United flight airfare counts. Did 7 United airfare purchases recently, and $100 united credit showed up.

    • that's a question i have been asking too but apparently all bloggers are too busy touting the benefits instead of actually researching and verifying this

  • "Receive 5,000 bonus miles each card anniversary when you have both the United Business card and a personal United credit card"

    Wow! I think this is the first bonus of this type. Kinda encourages churning!

    • Agree, I'm shocked by this.

      I always assumed that it would be suspicious to have both biz + personal of the same card - that it would ID you as a churner. Chase is saying, "naw, it's cool." Very un-Chase-like.

      I know the UR trifecta generally means the more cards you have, the more valuable the ecosystem is, but this is a lot more explicit.

      • Why? You should actually have two if you fly for both business and personal travel, since business expenses should go on the business card and personal should not. Sounds like they are trying to encourage proper use of the products... and pocket an extra AF at the same time!

    • Citi's American Airlines card policy was kinda like that only more extreme, and look how well that worked out...

      • That's a good point. It encourages you to get multiple and keep them open (as opposed to churning per se).

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