Compare the Features and Benefits of IHG One Rewards Traveler Credit Card and
The Business Platinum Card® from American Express

The IHG Rewards Traveler Credit Card is IHG’s no-annual-fee credit card. As such, it doesn’t offer the excellent perks that come with the IHG Premier Credit Card — like a free night each account anniversary, automatic Platinum Elite status, and other travel perks.

However, the IHG Traveler Card still offers surprisingly good benefits for a no-annual-fee card. You’ll get IHG Rewards’ intro level Silver Elite status, fourth night free on rewards stays, and a 20% discount on purchases of IHG Rewards points.

Silver Elite status doesn’t offer too many perks — 20% bonus points at IHG hotels and resorts, a shot at late checkout, and not having to worry about point expiration. Cardholders can spend $20,000 in a calendar year to upgrade to Gold Elite status. Gold Elite status includes 40% bonus points at IHG hotels and resorts.

In addition to the sign-up bonus, IHG Rewards Traveler Credit Card cardholders will earn bonus points on IHG hotel stays, dining, gas stations, select streaming services, and utility monthly bills. Cardholders earn 2 points per dollar spent on all other eligible purchases. Considering the IHG Rewards point value is only around 0.4 cents per point, that’s not the best possible return on your other purchases.

So, you might just want to limit using your IHG Traveler Card to IHG hotels and resorts. By charging IHG hotel stays to their IHG Traveler Card, cardholders will earn a total of at least 17 points per dollar spent:

• 5 points per dollar spent by charging the IHG hotel stay to their IHG Traveler Card
• 10 points per dollar spent as an IHG Rewards member.
• 2 bonus points per dollar spent at as Silver Elite (or more if you have a higher tier of IHG Rewards elite status)

For those unfamiliar, the IHG Rewards loyalty program includes a wide range of hotel brands. On the luxury side, you can earn and redeem IHG points at InterContinental Hotels, Kimpton, Hotel Indigo, Six Senses, and Regent Hotels. On the flip side, you can earn and redeem IHG points for stays at Holiday Inn Express, Holiday Inn, Holiday Inn Club Vacations, Candlewood Suites, and Staybridge Suites. That range of earning and redemption options is truly impressive.

💳 This card earns American Express Membership Rewards points. American Express often runs transfer bonuses where you can get even more points when you transfer to airline or hotel partners at designated times. Transfer bonuses are awesome. Get 20%, 30%, 40% or more bonus miles when you transfer points at the right times. But they are easy to miss!

You can see all past Transfer Bonuses from American Express Membership Rewards here.

Even better? Get notified when a new transfer bonus comes out and again before it ends (either or both, your choice). Sign up for free alerts right here. 🔔

The Amex Business Platinum is the one of the most expensive travel rewards cards on the market today. However, while its annual fee might be a bit on the higher side, the perks that come along with it are second to none, both from the business perspective as well as the travel angle.

For small business owners that hit the road (or skies) regularly, there really isn’t another card quite like this one.

On the travel perks side of things, the Amex Business Platinum has a laundry list of embedded extras from hotel status (Hilton Gold, Marriott Gold, Leaders Club Sterling) and rental car elite statuses to complimentary access to airport lounges through the Global Lounge Collection, including the popular Centurion Lounges, Priority Pass, and limited access to Delta SkyClubs when flying Delta. (See the key features and benefits above for details.)

There is also a $600 Hotel Credit where you can get up to $300 in statement credits semi-annually for up to a total of $600 each calendar year on prepaid Fine Hotels + Resorts® or The Hotel Collection bookings through Amex Travel™ using the Business Platinum Card (two-night minimum stay with The Hotel Collection) at more than 3,100 handpicked hotels. Fine Hotels + Resorts® include not just potential upgrades, on-property credit, and complimentary breakfast, but is also the only major issuer hotel program that offers a guaranteed 4pm late check out. That can come in very handy when you have a flight later in the day!

However, this is a business card, after all, and where this card shines is in its business statement credits.

If you have business expenses that are with specific merchants, such as Dell, Adobe, and Indeed, the Business Platinum can tangibly help cut reduce costs.

In addition, card holders get an extra point per dollar (2X) on eligible purchases at U.S. construction material & hardware suppliers, electronic goods retailers and software & cloud system providers, and shipping providers, and purchases of $5,000 or more everywhere else, on up to $2 million of these purchases per calendar year. 2X can be huge, spanning a wide variety of business categories (capped at $2 million).

The perk of $50 in quarterly statement credits (enrollment required) at Hilton properties – up to $200 a year – adds real additional value as well.

When you want to redeem points, you can take advantage of the ability to transfer to any of the American Express Membership Rewards airline or hotel partner programs. If you want to keep it simple, the Business Platinum card has a very unique feature to get 35% points back after using Pay with Points for flights booked through Amex Travel with one of nine selected qualifying airlines, up to 1,000,000 points back per calendar year.

(Note: You choose your airline once per year for your $200 airline fee credit and then you can additionally get the 35% rebate on flights booked through Amex Travel using points on that one chosen airline in any class of service.)

The Amex Business Platinum isn’t a card for everyone — that’s for sure. But for high-spending business owners who travel often (either for business or pleasure), this just might be the card for you.

We recommend that you also consider pairing this card with the American Express® Business Gold Card, which has a wide array of bonus categories that complement what you receive on the Business Platinum.

Rates and fees for The Business Platinum Card® from American Express