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Table of Contents
Limited time offers
United has limited time offers available on 4 credit cards. The United cards have some of the best perks for travelers out of all the airline cards, making them a must have for anyone flying on United. All of these United cards offer expanded saver award availability, a perk that no other airline card offers!
- United Gateway℠ Card
- Limited time offer: Earn 20,000 bonus miles after spending $1,000 in the first 3 months of card membership.
- This card previously offered 10,000 bonus miles for spending $1,000 in the first 3 months of card membership.
- No annual fee.
- Earn 3 miles per dollar on grocery purchases through 9/30/21. The triple miles can be earned on a maximum of $1,500 in grocery spending per month.
- Earn 2 miles per dollar on United purchases, gas stations, transit and commuting, including ride share services, taxicabs, train tickets, tolls, and mass transit.
- United℠ Explorer Card
- Limited time offer: Earn up to 65,000 bonus miles. Earn 40,000 bonus miles after spending $2,000 in the first 3 months of card membership and earn another 25,000 bonus miles after spending another $8,000 in the first 6 months of card membership.
- This card previously offered 40,000 bonus miles for spending $2,000 in the first 3 months of card membership.
- $0 intro annual fee, then $95
- Earn 2 miles per dollar on hotels and dining as well as on United purchases.
- Cardholders get Global Entry/Pre-Check for free.
- A free checked bag for the cardholder and a companion, even on basic economy fares.
- A free carry-on bag for the cardholder and companions, even on basic economy fares.
- Priority boarding for the cardholder and companions, even on basic economy fares.
- The ability to use online checkin and get a boarding pass in advance on basic economy fares. United does not allow online checkin on basic economy fares unless you have elite status or a United card with free bags.
- 2 free United Club passes every year for being a cardmember.
- Primary rental car CDW insurance in every country.
- Cardholders with United elite status get free upgrades on coach award tickets on upgrade eligible routes.
- If you spend $12K/year on the card it will give you 500 PQPs and if you spend $24K/year you’ll get 1,000 PQPs. PQPs from multiple cards can stack together.
- United Club℠ Infinite Card
- Limited time offer: Earn 75,000 bonus miles after spending $3,000 in the first 3 months of card membership.
- This card previously offered an annual fee waiver with no bonus miles.
- This card has a hefty $525 annual fee, though that’s cheaper than even top-tier United elite members pay for a Club membership, which is included with the card. You can currently redeem 35,000 United miles to pay for the card’s annual fee.
- Full United Club membership: Bring your entire family, or you and 2 guests, to enter hundreds of United and partner lounges worldwide when flying United or Star Alliance airlines.
- 4 miles per dollar on United purchases, including tickets, upgrades, WiFi, inflight food and drinks.
- 2 miles per dollar on all other travel and dining and 1 mile per dollar elsewhere.
- Cardholders get Global Entry/Pre-Check for free.
- Cardholders get a 25% rebate on inflight WiFi, food, and drink purchases.
- 2 free checked bags for the cardholder and a companion, even on basic economy fares.
- A free carry-on bag for the cardholder and companions, even on basic economy fares.
- Premier Access: Priority check-in, security screening, boarding, and baggage handling privileges.
- Hertz Gold Plus Rewards President’s Circle Status
- The ability to use online checkin and get a boarding pass in advance on basic economy fares. United does not allow online checkin on basic economy fares unless you have elite status or a United card with free bags.
- Primary rental car CDW insurance in every country.
- Cardholders with United elite status get free upgrades on coach award tickets on upgrade eligible routes.
- If you spend $12K/year on the card it will give you 500 PQPs and if you spend $24K/year you’ll get 1,000 PQPs. PQPs from multiple cards can stack together.
- Lost Luggage Insurance
- Trip Delay Reimbursement
- Baggage Delay Reimbursement
- Travel Accident Insurance
- Return protection
- Chase United Business Card
- Limited time offer: Earn 75,000 bonus miles after spending $5,000 in the first 3 months of card membership.
- This card previously offered 60,000 bonus miles for spending $5,000 in the first 3 months of card membership.
- $0 intro annual fee, then $99
- A free checked bag for the cardholder and a companion, even on basic economy fares.
- 2 miles per dollar on United, restaurants, gas stations, office supply stores, local transit, taxis, tolls, mass transit, and ride share services.
- 5,000 bonus miles every card anniversary if you have this United business card and any United consumer card.
- $100 annual statement credit if you make 7 United purchases of $100 or more on the card.
- 25% statement credit for food, beverage, and WiFi purchases on United flights.
- A free carry-on bag for the cardholder and companions, even on basic economy fares.
- Priority boarding for the cardholder and companions, even on basic economy fares.
- The ability to use online checkin and get a boarding pass in advance on basic economy fares. United does not allow online checkin on basic economy fares unless you have elite status or a United card with free bags.
- 2 free United Club passes every year for being a cardmember.
- Primary rental car CDW insurance in the US when renting for business purposes and in every other country for any rental purpose.
- Cardholders with United elite status get free upgrades on coach award tickets on upgrade eligible routes.
- If you spend $12K/year on the card it will give you 500 PQPs and if you spend $24K/year you’ll get 1,000 PQPs. PQPs from multiple cards can stack together.
- Chase United Business Club Card (Click on apply now to reach this card application)
- Earn 50,000 bonus miles after spending $3,000 in the first 3 months of card membership.
- $450 annual fee.
- Full United Club membership: Bring your entire family, or you and 2 guests, to enter hundreds of United and partner lounges worldwide when flying United or Star Alliance airlines.
- Earn 1.5 miles per dollar everywhere and 2 miles per dollar on United purchases.
- Cardholders get a 25% rebate on inflight WiFi, food, and drink purchases.
- 2 free checked bags for the cardholder and a companion, even on basic economy fares.
- A free carry-on bag for the cardholder and companions, even on basic economy fares.
- Premier Access: Priority check-in, security screening, boarding, and baggage handling privileges.
- Hertz Gold Plus Rewards President’s Circle Status
- The ability to use online checkin and get a boarding pass in advance on basic economy fares. United does not allow online checkin on basic economy fares unless you have elite status or a United card with free bags.
- Cardholders with United elite status get free upgrades on coach award tickets on upgrade eligible routes.
- If you spend $12K/year on the card it will give you 500 PQPs and if you spend $24K/year you’ll get 1,000 PQPs. PQPs from multiple cards can stack together.
Welcome bonus terms
You can receive the bonus on each of these cards if you haven’t received a bonus on the same exact card in the past 24 months and don’t currently have the same exact card.
5/24
All Chase cards are now subject to 5/24 restrictions. That means it will be hard to get approved if you have been approved for 5 or more consumer credit cards in the past 24 months. Read more about that here.
Card convertibility
You can change a consumer card between all 3 United consumer card products:
- United Gateway℠ Card (No annual fee)
- Chase United Explorer card ($99 annual fee)
- United Club℠ Infinite Card ($525 annual fee)
You can change a business card between both United business card products:
- Chase United Business Card ($99 annual fee)
- Chase United Business Club Card ($450 annual fee)
Card benefits
In addition to the benefits listed above, all 4 cards offer:
- No foreign exchange fees.
- A 25% rebate on inflight WiFi, food, and drink purchases.
- Exclusive cardmember access to auctions that allow you to use your miles for once-in-a-lifetime experiences. A few years ago I used 25K miles for 4 field box seats to an Indians game along with the right to run onto the field before the top of the 7th inning and swipe 2nd base right off the field. Nobody could believe it as I walked around the ballpark with 2nd base. I even got it signed after the game by the Indians wining pitcher that night, Justin Masterson, who was equally shocked that I actually had 2nd base.
- United miles never expire, even if you close your card.
- Trip Cancellation / Trip Interruption Insurance
- Extended Warranty Protection
- Purchase Protection
Expanded award ticket availability
The reason the United cards are the best airline cards you can get isn’t for the spending benefits, it’s for the perks. And they are awesome.
The United cards are the only airline card that offers expanded award ticket availability.
All 4 of these cards offer this benefit.
This increases the value of your miles significantly and in turn makes the Chase Quadfecta/Quinfecta spending strategy even more valuable.
Cardholders have access to expanded saver coach award availability (XN class), last seat standard coach award availability (YN class), and last seat standard business/first class award availability (JN class).
It’s not just slightly expanded. There is a world of difference between the availability that cardholders can access and the availability for non-cardholders.
Read more about this in the United Expert Mode post.
This availability differential applies to all domestic and international routes and makes it crucial to be a United cardholders.
Expanded Plan B availability
As you have better access to saver coach awards you’ll also have better ability to do Plan B awards.
Plan B allows you to redeem for saver business class awards when there’s only saver coach available! Read more about Plan B in this post.
No airline besides United offers a Plan B style award redemption.
Discounted awards for cardholders
United runs promotions offering discounts on award flights for cardholders.
They have offered these discounts for travel to Tahiti, Ski destinations, Hawaii, Mexico, The Caribbean, and more.
Here Is United’s Hidden Award Chart
United no longer publishes an award chart, but rates for United flights found in their old award chart are still correct.
United does charge a close-in mileage surcharge and they can be found in the chart below. Note that the you’ll want to book travel as 2 one-ways to avoid paying the surcharge on the return leg when it wouldn’t apply when booked separately. However if you do that you would lose your ability to take a free stopover.
Partner award rates have gone up and they can be found in the unpublished award chart below with one-way rates for flights to/from the mainland US:
United flights | Partner flights | |
---|---|---|
Close-in surcharge within 7 days | 2.5K-3K miles | 1K-3.5K miles |
Close-in surcharge 8-21 days in advance | 2K-2.5K miles | 1K-3.5K miles |
Mainland US/Canada | 12.5K Coach 25K Business 35K Premium Business | 14K Coach 27.5K Business |
Alaska | 17.5K Coach 30K Business 40K Premium Business | 19.5K Coach 33K Business |
Hawaii | 22.5K Coach 40K Business 50K Premium Business | 25K Coach 44K Business |
Mexico | 17.5K Coach 30K Business | 19.5K Coach 33K Business |
Central America | 17.5K Coach 30K Business | 19.5K Coach 33K Business |
Northern South America | 20K Coach 35K Business | 22K Coach 38.5K Business |
Southern South America | 30K Coach 60K Business | 33K Coach 66K Business |
Europe | 30K Coach 60K Business | 33K Coach 77K Business 121K First |
Africa | 40K Coach 70K Business | 44K Coach 88K Business 143K First |
Middle East | 42.5K Coach 75K Business | 47K Coach 93.5K Business 154K First |
Central Asia | 42.5K Coach 75K Business | 47K Coach 93.5K Business 154K First |
South Asia | 40K Coach 75K Business | 44K Coach 99K Business 154K First |
North Asia | 35K Coach 70K Business | 38.5K Coach 88K Business 132K First |
Japan and Oceania | 35K Coach 70K Business | 38.5K Coach 88K Business 121K First |
Australia and New Zealand | 40K Coach 80K Business | 44K Coach 99K Business 143K First |
Excursionist Perk
While American and Delta have eliminated free stopovers, United continues to offer a free excursionist perk as described in this post. Just use the multi-city award search on United.com to piece it together.
You can read this post for more about hacking excursionist perks.
A round-trip to 2 Hawaiian Islands is just 45,000 miles round-trip thanks to the free excursionist perk:
A round-trip ticket to 2 European or South American cities is just 60,000 miles round-trip thanks to the free excursionist perk:
A flight to 2 of my favorite cities in Asia, Hong Kong and Chiang Mai, Thailand is 80K miles thanks to the perk:
You’re even allowed a free open jaw in addition to the perk to really maximize your travel. For example this itinerary includes travel to London, Paris, and Zurich. You can take a train or use 4.5K BA Avios to get from London to Paris to fill the hole in the open jaw:
Of course the free stopover isn’t just useful from the US.
You can stopover in NYC and LA when flying from Tel Aviv to the US:
If you find yourself in Japan you can fly on the island hopper to 2 cities in Micronesia (I’ve been hankering to get back to Palau since the moment I left) for 30K miles:
Partner airlines
United has dozens of partner airlines which means lots of great award opportunities. It can be worth checking for award space on partner sites like ANA or Aeroplan.com to search for award availability and then call United to book if you don’t see availability on United.
Partners airlines include:
- ANA
- Aegean Airlines
- Aer Lingus
- Air Canada
- Air China
- Air Dolomiti
- Air India
- Air New Zealand
- Aeromar
- Asiana Airlines
- Austrian Airlines
- Avianca Airlines
- Azul Brazilian Airlines
- Brussels Airlines
- Cape Air
- Copa Airlines
- Croatia Airlines
- EVA Air
- Edelweiss
- Egyptair
- Ethiopian Airlines
- Eurowings
- Germanwings
- Hawaiian Airlines
- Island Air
- Juneyao Airlines
- LOT Polish
- Lufthansa
- Scandinavian Airlines
- Shenzhen Airlines
- Silver Airways
- Singapore
- South African Airways
- Swiss International Airlines
- TAP Portugal
- THAI
- Turkish Airlines
Will you signup for one of these cards? Which United card do you have?
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28 Comments On "Earn Up To 75,000 Miles With Limited Time Bonus Offers Available On 4 Chase United Credit Cards, With My Favorite Airline Card Benefit!"
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The expanded award availability is not for business saver award, correct?
Correct, that’s reserved for higher tier elites.
If I previously got the card feb 2019 and bonus April can I apply now and hit the bonus in April? Or I need to wait until April to apply?
Which card?
Does the gateway no annual fee card also has an expended award availability?
Yes.
Can you get the Gateway card (and the bonus) if you currently hold the consumer Explorer card?
Yes
Do you get the 2 checked bags (on the cards that have that) for just having the card or only if you bought the ticket using the card?
United requires that you use the card.
Is there anything you can do after the fact? Obviously i can cancel my ticket and rebook, but i have a ticket from Israel to America next week that i bought for very cheap a couple months ago, so it probably wouldnt be worth it to do that.
Do you get the 2 free bags (on the eligible cards) also for international flights?
Yes
Can you downgrade two consumer cards with the same name(United club and United explorer) to the gateway no annual fee card?
Yes
just to clarify
if i have now the Chase United Explorer Card and got the bonus about a year ago can i still get the bonus on the Chase United Club Infinite Card Card?
thanks dan
Yes.
great !
is that new ? i always knew that you can only get bonus on one personnel/business in 24 months
They are different products.
Do AU’s also get global entry with the United Club℠ Infinite Card?
No
Between the sapphire reserve & the United Club that both are the same annual fee, which on is more worth it?
sapphire reserve
only if you fly united a lot then maybe United Club
Can I get the free carryons on basic economy if I applied for the card after I purchased the ticket with another card?
So even the business card is subject to 5/4 rule ?
Can you transfer points from multiple accounts into one account including from a business card account to a consumer card account?
the explorer card says free checked bag, if my fare entitles me to a free checked bag(nyc to tlv) , does this mean ill get a 2nd free checked bag?
If my card offers one free bag will I get 2 free bags on international flights, one that comes with the flight and one for the card?