U.S. Bank Business Altitude Connect Visa Signature Card

Rewards by category

Our take

The Business Altitude Connect is U.S. Bank's travel-and-fuel card for a company card program: 4x points on purchases made directly with travel providers — airlines, hotels, car rentals, cruise lines. U.S. Bank's travel-provider list also names taxicabs, limousines and passenger trains, which SwipeCaddy does not yet rank — the card shows its base rate on transit pages — and 4x at gas stations and EV charging stations. Restaurants, fast-food spots, bars and cellphone service earn 2x with no maximum, and everything else earns 1x. U.S. Bank points are worth about a cent apiece, so the 4x rates read as roughly 4%.

The number to know is the cap, and it is a business-sized one: the 4x applies to the first $150,000 of travel, gas and EV charging spend combined during each account calendar year, and every dollar past that earns 1x. Two carve-outs come with it. Fuel bought at wholesale clubs and discount stores or supercenters does not count as a gas station, and prepaid hotel and car reservations booked in the U.S. Bank Travel Center earn 5x but are explicitly not classified as travel-provider transactions — so the portal rate replaces the 4x rather than stacking on top of it.

The fee is $0 for the first 12 months and then $95 for the account owner, with employee cards free, and there are no foreign transaction fees. U.S. Bank states plainly that no U.S. Bank account or other banking relationship is required, which is unusual in business cards. The current welcome offer is 75,000 bonus points after $6,000 in eligible net purchases within 180 days of opening the account. Note that this is not the consumer Altitude Connect in a business wrapper: the consumer card adds 2x on groceries and streaming, which this one does not have, and its fuel cap is a much smaller quarterly one.

The math

Run $250 a month of hotels through this card and you're earning about $150 a year at our conservative valuations. Against the $95 annual fee, that top rate needs roughly $275 a month of hotels spend before it beats a no-fee flat 2% card.

Key benefits

• $0 introductory annual fee for the first 12 months, then $95 for the account owner
• No annual fee for authorized employee cards
• No foreign transaction fees

Common questions

Does U.S. Bank Business Altitude Connect Visa Signature Card have an annual fee?

Yes — $95 per year.

What does U.S. Bank Business Altitude Connect Visa Signature Card earn on hotels?

5x on hotels (book via u.s. bank travel center).

What rewards does U.S. Bank Business Altitude Connect Visa Signature Card earn on everything else?

1x on all other purchases, in U.S. Bank Rewards.

How does the $150,000 cap on the 4x rate actually work?

It is one shared bucket, not one per category. Travel-provider purchases, gas stations and EV charging all draw on the same $150,000 of spend per account calendar year, and once you pass it those purchases earn 1x for the rest of the year. The 2x on restaurants, fast food, bars and cellphone service sits outside that bucket and has no maximum.

Do U.S. Bank Travel Center bookings earn 5x on top of the 4x travel rate?

No. The terms say prepaid car and hotel reservations made in the Travel Center are not classified as travel-provider transactions, so they are not eligible for the additional travel points. You get 5x on those bookings instead of 4x, not 9x, and the rate only applies inside that portal — the same stay booked directly with the hotel earns 4x.

Related reading

• How we value points and miles (and why our numbers are lower than everyone else's)SwipeCaddy ranks cards by reward rate × a conservative cash value per point: 1¢ for cash back and transferable points (Chase, Amex, Citi, Capital One, Bilt), 1.1–1.3¢ for airline miles, 0.4–1.4¢ for hotel points, and 0.8–0.9¢ for store currencies. Optimistic transfer values are recorded for context but never ranked, because most people never achieve them.