Which Business Card Benefits Can Your Employees Access?

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Managing business expenses doesn’t have to be a juggling act. Issuing your team with employee credit cards streamlines company spending, simplifies accounting and unlocks valuable rewards that can directly benefit your bottom line.

Whether you’re running a small LLC or scaling an enterprise, understanding how employee cards work and which benefits extend to your team can help you make smarter financial decisions while maintaining control and oversight.

If you play your cards right, you can unlock complimentary lounge access, elite hotel status and rental car benefits for your team, among other perks, streamlining their travel experiences while earning your business additional rewards.

Here’s a breakdown of employee cardholder benefit entitlements and restrictions, organized by card issuer.

Employee Cards: What You Need to Know

Issuing your employees with their own credit cards comes with a number of benefits.

The first benefit is that all your company spending can be connected to a single account. Instead of having your employees pay for travel and other miscellaneous expenses using their own cards and then requiring them to submit receipts for reimbursement, you can issue them a company card to cover all business-related expenditure.

By doing so, accounting becomes far easier, and unnecessary back-and-forth is reduced.

As the primary account holder, you also can set individual spending limits for each employee card that you issue, allowing you to stay in control of company expenditure and give certain employees greater spending freedom than others.

In addition to these benefits, all employee expenditure earns rewards—points, miles or cash back—that is credited directly to your account. You can then use these rewards to offset your LLC’s operational costs in other aspects, be it to cover overhead or pay for employee travel. This is effectively free money that every business owner should be utilizing to reduce their outgoing expenses.

That said, it’s important to keep in mind that you, as the primary cardholder, remain responsible for paying off all charges made to your account. This is where trust and spending limit controls come in handy.

Which Card Benefits Can Your Employees Access?

Employee benefit entitlements and restrictions vary widely by both the card issuer and specific card you hold.

Here’s an issuer-by-issuer breakdown of the main employee benefits and limitations for each of the major small business credit cards offered.

American Express

American Express has a strong portfolio of business credit cards with benefits for employee cardholders to match. Amex offers the following small-business credit cards:

• Amazon Business Card (see rates and fees)
• Amazon Business Prime Card (see rates and fees)
• American Express® Business Gold Card (see rates and fees)
• Blue Business Cash™ Card (see rates and fees)
• Business Green Rewards Card from American Express
• Delta SkyMiles® Gold Business Card (see rates and fees)
• Delta SkyMiles® Platinum Business Card (see rates and fees)
• Delta SkyMiles® Reserve Business Card (see rates and fees)
• Marriott Bonvoy Business® Credit Card (see rates and fees)
• The Blue Business® Plus Credit Card (see rates and fees)
• The Business Platinum Card® from American Express (see rates and fees)
• The Hilton Honors American Express Business Card (see rates and fees)
• The Plum Card®

Business card families such as the Amazon Business and Blue Business allow you to add up to 99 authorized users at no additional cost. By doing so, your employees’ spending will accelerate your cashback or Membership Rewards points earnings and enable you to track all company spending under a single account.

Your employees’ spending will also be eligible for any spending and travel protections offered by each card.

Similarly, both The Hilton Honors American Express Business Card and the Marriott Bonvoy Business® Credit Card allow you to add employee cards for free but don’t extend any benefits to employees beyond protections and bonus category rates.

Co-Branded Delta SkyMiles Business Cards

For co-branded Delta business cards, you can add additional cardholders to the Delta SkyMiles Gold or the Delta SkyMiles Platinum business card accounts at no extra cost.

If you want to add additional cardholders to your Delta SkyMiles Reserve Business Card account, you’ll pay $175 for each additional employee card (see rates and fees). However, employees enjoy a much wider range of privileges on the high-end Delta SkyMiles Reserve Business Card compared to the $0 SkyMiles Gold and Platinum employee cards.

All Delta Business employee cards receive the same 20% rebate, issued as a statement credit, on in-flight purchases made onboard Delta-operated flights.

Delta SkyMiles Business Reserve employee cardholders also receive the following exclusive perks:

• Complimentary access to Escape Lounge – The Centurion® Studio Partner locations when flying on a same-day Delta-marketed or Delta-operated flight
• Complimentary access to The Centurion® Lounge when flying on a same-day Delta-marketed or Delta-operated flight that was booked with a U.S.-issued American Express Card. Your employees can bring up to two guests at a per-visit rate of $50 (or $30 for children aged 2 through 17) per person who also must be traveling on a same-day Delta flight.
• Fifteen complimentary visits to Delta Sky Club® locations per year. This 15-visit allotment is per card rather than per account, meaning that each employee receives 15 complimentary visits—a powerful perk for additional cardholders.
• Ability to receive unlimited access to Delta Sky Clubs when $75,000 is charged to the card account within a calendar year

If these perks align with your business’s travel habits, they can easily offset the additional employee cardholder annual fee.

Keep in mind that regardless of the co-branded Delta Business credit card you hold, the free checked bag perk is exclusive for the primary cardholder. Similarly, any Delta card statement credit perks are shared across each account rather than being issued per card.

Business Platinum and Business Gold Card

For The Business Platinum Card from American Express and the American Express Business Gold Card, you have two options when it comes to issuing employees with their own cards: employee cards vs. employee expenses cards. Here are the fees for each option:

• The Business Platinum Card from American Express (see rates and fees):
  • Employee card: $400 per card
  • Employee expense card: $0 per card
• American Express Business Gold Card (see rates and fees):
  • Employee card: $95 for the first five cards and then $95 per card thereafter
  • Employee expense card: $0 per card

As you can see, employee expense cards are $0 annual fee additional cards that offer an alternative to paid employee cards.

Employee expense cards come with limited benefits and typically offer the same bonus spending category rates and protections offered by the primary card. Employee expense cards are therefore ideal if your main goal is to keep your business’s expenses aligned under a single account and to leverage your employees’ expenditure to earn you rewards.

In contrast, paid employee cards offer access to a wider range of benefits that help to offset their additional annual fees.

In the case of the Amex Business Gold Card, its main perks are statement credits and flexible bonus spending categories. However, Amex Business Platinum additional cardholders can receive the following benefits:

• Complimentary access to Escape Lounge – The Centurion® Studio Partner locations when flying on a same-day Delta-marketed or Delta-operated flight
• Ten complimentary visits to Delta Sky Club locations per year. This 10-visit allotment is per card rather than per account, meaning that each employee receives 10 complimentary visits. Ability to receive unlimited access to Delta Sky Clubs when $75,000 is charged to the card account within a calendar year.
• Complimentary access to The Centurion® Lounge when flying on a same-day Delta-marketed or Delta-operated flight that was booked with a U.S.-issued American Express Card
• Complimentary access to Priority Pass Select lounges
• Complimentary access to Plaza Premium Lounges
• Complimentary access to Lufthansa Lounges when flying with a Lufthansa Group airline
• Complimentary access to other lounges within The American Express Global Lounge Collection
• Access to exclusive benefits with Fine Hotels + Resorts® program and The Hotel Collection
• Access to Global Dining Access program by Resy
• Complimentary Hilton Honors Gold status
• Complimentary Leaders Club Sterling status
• Complimentary Marriott Bonvoy® Gold Elite status

These are heavyweight perks that can easily be offset by employees who travel frequently.

Bank of America

Bank of America’s small-business credit cards often fly under the radar. Yet, Bank of America offers a select number of cards with high rates of cash back for Preferred Rewards members as well as a lucrative co-branded airline business card.

Here’s an overview of the small business cards on offer:

• Atmos™ Rewards Visa Signature® Business Card
• Business Advantage Customized Cash Rewards credit card
• Business Advantage Travel Rewards credit card
• Business Advantage Unlimited Cash Rewards credit card
• Platinum Plus® Mastercard® Business card

It’s free to add employees to any of your Bank of America business card accounts. This enables you to accelerate your cashback earnings, particularly on lucrative cards such as the Business Advantage Customized Cash Rewards credit card.

Employees are entitled to the same bonus spending category rates and spending protections as primary cardmembers.

When it comes to the Atmos™ Rewards Visa Signature® Business Card, you’ll pay an annual fee of $25 per employee card issued in addition to the primary card annual fee of $70.

However, depending on your company’s travel habits, this could be worthwhile because employee cardholders enjoy many of the same benefits as primary cardmembers.

For example, both primary cardmembers and employee cardholders receive a free checked bag and preferred boarding benefits when their Atmos card is used to purchase Alaska Airlines or Hawaiian Airlines tickets. These benefits extend to up to six travelers on the same reservation.

This not only means that employees can plan and pay for their own travel, but they also can benefit from preferred boarding and a complimentary checked bag without needing the primary cardmember to accompany them.

Similarly, employees benefit from a 20% discount on in-flight purchases with Alaska and Hawaiian, issued as a statement credit.

If you have employees who travel frequently with Alaska or Hawaiian, these are neat ways to give them an added bit of luxury.

One notable exception is the $100 discount on an annual Alaska Lounge+ membership purchased with your card, which is exclusive to the primary cardmember.

While Bank of America’s small-business credit card portfolio may not compete with heavyweights like American Express and Chase, it still offers a number of lucrative ways to offset your business’ travel spend and operational costs.

Capital One

Capital One offers a number of business credit cards, including those that earn cash back and those that earn Venture Miles or Spark Miles. These include the following cards:

• Capital One Venture X Business Credit Card
• Capital One Spark Miles for Business
• Capital One Spark Cash Plus
• Capital One Spark Cash
• Capital One Spark Miles Select
• Capital One Spark Cash Select
• Capital One Spark Classic

As the primary cardholder, you can add employee cards to your Capital One account for no extra annual fees. This is a major benefit of Capital One’s business card line-up and applies to all of its cards, including the premium Venture X Business card.

All employee spending is subject to the same bonus category multipliers as the primary cardholder receives. That allows your employees to rack up thousands of extra miles or cash back at the same rates, all of which will be credited to your account.

All employee spending receives the same protection as primary cardholder spending, such as extended warranty protection.

Similarly, employees receive access to complimentary elite status with Hertz, including Hertz President’s Circle® status for Venture X Business authorized users and Hertz Five Star® status for all other employee cardholders. This is a major plus point for your employees, allowing them to enjoy additional benefits with Hertz when renting for business travel.

Where employee and primary cardholder access privileges vary is with regard to premium perks offered by the Venture X Business card.

Firstly, the $300 annual credit for Capital One’s travel booking site and the statement credit toward Global Entry or TSA PreCheck membership are issued per account, not per card. While these credits could still be used to cover spending on an employee card, it’s important to understand that employees don’t receive their own additional credits.

Secondly, lounge access privileges are curtailed for employee cardholders.

Currently, additional cardholders receive complimentary access to Capital One Lounges, Capital One Landings and Priority Pass Select lounges. However, effective from Feb. 1, 2026, additional cardholders will be required to pay an annual lounge access fee of $125 to maintain access privileges to Capital One Lounges, Capital One Landings and Priority Pass lounges.

Additional cardholders who pay the $125 annual lounge access fee can bring guests into Priority Pass lounges at a rate of $35 each per visit. If you manage to charge $75,000 to your Capital One card account, your additional cardholders will be able to bring up to two complimentary guests into Capital One Lounges and up to one guest into Capital One Landings.

This additional lounge access fee and spending requirement is a significant drawback, particularly if you plan on issuing multiple Venture X Business employee cards. However, given that there’s no annual fee to add employees to your Venture X Business account, this is a comparatively low price to pay for your employees to gain access to a wide lounge network.

Chase

Chase offers some of the most lucrative business credit cards that can help your LLC rack up thousands of points or dollars-worth of cash back. These include the following business credit cards:

• Sapphire Reserve for Business℠
• Chase Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card
• Chase Ink Business Unlimited® Credit Card
• Chase Ink Business Cash® Credit Card
• Chase Ink Business Premier® Credit Card
• IHG One Rewards Premier Business Credit Card
• Southwest Rapid Rewards® Performance Business Credit Card
• Southwest Rapid Rewards® Premier Business Credit Card
• United℠ Business Card
• United Club℠ Business Card
• World of Hyatt Business Credit Card

Chase allows business owners to add employee cards to their primary account at no additional cost, regardless of the credit card you hold. This makes it easy to leverage your employees’ spending to earn you Ultimate Rewards points or cash back faster as well as track company spending under one account.

Employees receive the same bonus spending category rates as well as the same spending and travel protections as the primary account holder does.

However, when it comes to premium cards such as the Sapphire Reserve for Business℠, employees have restricted access to many of their perks.

For instance, Sapphire Reserve for Business employee cardholders don’t receive complimentary access to Priority Pass Select lounges nor to Chase Sapphire Reserve Lounges by The Club. Instead, they can access these lounges only by accompanying the primary cardholder as a guest. Similarly, employees don’t have access to The Edit℠ program benefits and don’t receive complimentary IHG One Rewards Platinum Elite status.

When it comes to statement credit perks on Chase business cards, employees don’t receive separate credits—rather, these credits are shared among all account members. That means that perks such as the Sapphire Reserve for Business card’s $120 Lyft credit or $300 annual travel credit can be used by any account member, but only once per account, not per card.

That said, one exception to this rule is for Sapphire Reserve for Business employee cardholders who receive their own complimentary DashPass membership, for use with both DoorDash and Caviar, through Dec. 31, 2027.

Chase also offers a number of co-branded airline and hotel business credit cards, including with United Airlines, Southwest Airlines, InterContinental Hotels Group and Hyatt. Just like with the Sapphire Reserve for Business, access to premium perks on these cards is generally restricted for employees.

For example, United Club Business employee cardholders don’t receive a separate complimentary United Club membership. Likewise, perks such as free checked bags and complimentary United Premier upgrades are generally exclusive to the primary cardholder, unless the employee is travelling with them on the same reservation.

That said, there are a few notable exceptions to these rules:

• United Business and United Club Business employee cardholders receive 25% back (issued as a statement credit) on in-flight food, beverage and Wi-Fi purchases, and on premium drink purchases at United Clubs.
• Primary account members of the United Club Business Card who unlock United Club All Access membership and add a minimum of one authorized user will receive four one-time guest passes for United Clubs. These can be used for employees, provided that the primary cardmember is present.
• Primary account members of the World of Hyatt Business Credit Card receive five Discoverist Upgrade Awards that can be gifted to five employees, giving them Discoverist status for the remainder of the calendar year in which the benefit is given plus the next 14 months.

Overall, Chase’s lucrative range of business cards allows employee spending to accelerate your rewards earning potential and easily manage company spending under a single account.

In most cases, employees won’t be able to enjoy the full range of benefits offered by mid-tier and premium Chase cards, unless they are travelling with the primary cardmember. However, given that it’s free to add employee cards to your Chase account, this restricted access to premium-level perks is to be expected.

Citibank

Compared to other card issuers, Citibank has a more limited business credit card portfolio, with only the following two cards on offer:

• Costco Anywhere Visa® Business Card by Citi
• Citi® / AAdvantage Business™ Card

You can add additional employee cardholders to the above Citi business card accounts at no extra cost.

Employee spending will earn you additional cash back or AAdvantage miles (depending on the card you hold) and will be subject to the same spending protections enjoyed by the primary cardmember.

Similarly, additional employee cardholders will receive a 25% rebate, issued as a statement credit, for eligible in-flight purchases onboard American Airlines-operated flights.

This is the extent of the benefits offered to employee cardholders—all other premium perks are exclusive to the primary cardholder.

Final Thoughts

Employee cards are strategic financial tools that drive efficiency and multiply your business’s rewards.

American Express offers the most premium perks for your team, but at a higher cost per card. In contrast, issuers such as Bank of America, Capital One and Chase offer limited access to card perks but with a more affordable price tag.

By selecting the right card issuer and setting clear spending controls, you can empower each member of your team to manage business expenses confidently while ensuring every dollar spent works harder for your company.