Update: DEAD! Don’t miss it if this becomes alive again. Sign up for deal notification alerts here!
Update: The mall lounges are now open.
Please write about your experience if you check one out or if you trade toys for airport club passes!
Originally posted on 11/11.
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-NJ location: The Mall at Short Hills, located on the first floor next to Macy’s and adjacent to Guest Services. November 22 – December 24, 11:00 am until mall closing.
-SF location: The Westfield San Francisco Centre, Dome level near Bloomingdale’s. November 24 – December 24, 11:00 am until mall closing.
-The VIP Lounge is open to all Chase United Credit Card members and features complimentary gift-wrapping, coat and bag check, and snacks and beverages, including fresh baked goods, packaged snacks, soda, bottled water, and coffee, plus café-style seating and flat screen TVs.
-Football Sundays: Check out live game-day action every Sunday. All TVs in the VIP Lounge will be tuned to local and national pro football games on Sundays.
-Toys for Tots Tuesdays: Cardmembers may bring a new, unwrapped toy in its original packaging, on the following Tuesdays, December 2nd, December 9th and December 16th and you will receive one United Club pass. Bring two toys and receive two United Club passes. Minimum retail value of the toy must be $15.
-For entry, present your valid Chase United Credit Card and a valid ID.
-Each Cardmember may bring up to three guests.
-If you have recently applied for a United Card you may bring your application confirmation page to the lounge, and you will be granted access for the entire duration of the VIP Lounge.
It’s obviously not worth getting a United Explorer card for a mall lounge but there are some really nice perks of the card besides for the signup bonus (30K for spending $1,000 and 5K for adding an additional user):
-It is the only card that gives expanded award ticket availability. 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). You can read about examples of expanded availability in this post. You can learn more about searching for those classes in expert mode in this post.
-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 and first class awards when there’s only saver coach available. Based on DDF reports and my own experience people have better than 95% odds of being seated in business class on a Plan B redemption. Read more about Plan B in this post. No airline besides United offers a Plan B redemption.
-The United and Chase Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card® Card cards are among the only cards that come with primary rental car CDW insurance. Almost every other card only has secondary coverage when you rent a car in your home country. This means that if you damage your rental vehicle you must file the claim with your own personal insurance policy first, and only if they won’t cover the damage will the credit card cover the damage. Even additional cardholders get primary coverage when they rent.
With primary rental car CDW insurance you will not have to file anything with your own insurance company. Chase will cover the entire bill for any damage to your rental car. Just be sure to decline the rental agency’s CDW coverage. This primary coverage applies in every country in the world.
-The United Explorer card gives 2 free United Club passes every year for being a cardmember.
-The United Explorer card gives a 10K mileage bonus every year in which you spend $25K. That means you’ll earn at least 1.4 miles per dollar spent everywhere if you spend $25K in a year. Spending $25K in a year also waives the requirement to spend $2.5K on United flights to get Silver status, $5K on United flights to get Gold status, and $7.5K on United flights to get Platinum status. You only need to fly the 25K, 50K, or 75K miles like in the good old days.
-Your miles will never expire as long as you are a United cardholder even if you don’t have any activity.
-A massive benefit for United elite members is that they can get free upgrades on coach award tickets on upgrade eligible routes if they have a United card.
Plus United is the only airline that assigns elite benefits to people that you redeem awards for. That means people you book for have access to benefits like Economy Plus, lounge access, and more.
Other card benefits:
-No foreign exchange fees
-Double miles on United purchases.
-Priority boarding so that you’ll have space for your carry-ons.
-First checked bag is free.
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25 Comments On "Chase United Mall Lounges Are Back"
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Is this lounge considered using one of my passes or i can go any time unlimted amout of times as long as i have the card?
@zack:
You have unlimited free access to the mall lounge. You don’t need any pass, just your card or a printout of the confirmation of application to the United card.
Thanks Dan. This is pretty cool. We will definitely be visiting the one in NJ
Think the Basily 28oz Infuser Water Bottle could be considered a Toy for Tot?
Hah! I wish. Would get all the United passes possible!
Is there a United lounge in Tel Aviv or Rome? I don’t see any listed directly under United-but I was wondering if you can use the pass in the Dan lounge in Tel Aviv?
Free Glatt kosher meals in Short Hills?
What kind of food will they have at the lounge?
A Hanukkah trip
I give them a toy worth $15 for two passes and they take the toy as a donation or just going to wrap it for me? I mean the value of two passes is $100 I guess it’s still great since I used the two I received with the card already
Do you know if they swipe the card or just look at it like they did at the superbowl VIP lounge last year. I have a cancelled Mileageplus club card that has an expiration date of 09/15/
Do flown miles on UA count as elite-qualifying, even if you register them with a different FF plan?
Hey Dan,
Do you think an authorized user card would be able to count as a different card and therefore 2 more passes per day?
Can they tell?
@Alissa:
The pass won’t work there.
But if you have a United Club card you would have access there.
@chaim:
Donation.
@Anonymous:
Probably would work.
@Joetraveler:
No.
@Justin M OShea:
Probably would work, YMMV.
Doesnt the united club card also offer expanded award ticket availability?
@David:
Of course. It has all the benefits of the Explorer except the 10K bonus and the 2 annual passes.
Was excluding other airline cards.
Dan:
FYI
I believe the Chase Fairmont card also offers primary auto insurance…
Keep up the great work!
How do i become an elite United member?
I had the united card 2 years ago and 107K miles in my account. I kinda forgot about them and now they took them away. They told me I can reinstate them for $200 if I sign up for the credit card. Just wondering if it makes sense to do it or just start from scratch with the 35K miles you get from just signing up? thanks!
i just transferred ultimate rewards points to my united account. i noticed this:
“If we suspect that you’ve engaged in fraudulent activity related to your credit card account or Ultimate Rewards, or that you’ve misused Ultimate Rewards in any way (for example by buying or selling points, moving or transferring points with or to an ineligible third party or account, or repeatedly opening or otherwise maintaining credit card accounts for the sole purpose of generating rewards) we may temporarily prohibit you from earning points or using points you’ve already earned. If we believe you’ve engaged in any of these acts, we’ll close your credit card account and you’ll lose all your points.”
I’ve just started opening accounts to generate points. is anybody concerned about ultimate rewards closing down accounts and confiscating points for opening and closing credit card accounts?
@Chanan:
107K miles are worth over $1,500.
You do the math!
@idan:
Nope.
Not unless you do UR-UR transfers that they shut people down for.
Toys R Us is having a sale on toys on their website.
Might be good for this!
@Alissa: I don’t think it’d accepted anymore
Hi Dan,
I checked out the Short Hills VIP lounge yesterday. They did not swipe my card at all; they just checked that it matched my photo ID. The VIP Lounge is pretty nice, with the free food and drinks. It was also packed with people (although that might be because it was a Sunday afternoon). The lounge did not have an exclusive feel to it. They have kosher pretzels and chips, bottled water and soda, and a row of Keurig coffee machines with kosher K cups. They also serve fresh pastries (not kosher). There are a bunch of couches and TVs throughout the lounge. The lounge bathrooms are private and large (room for a carriage). Overall, if you are already visiting the mall ($$$!), it’s a nice perk. Not worth driving out just to visit the lounge though.
Dan
I have a united mileage plus card does that have the same benefits as the explorer card how about the benefits of the sapphire card?
Also I own both sapphire and mileage plus which one should I book my flight to Israel with ?
Thanks for this wonderful site