Can’t Find Saver Award Availability? There’s One Must-Have Credit Card That Can Help You Out

Doesn’t the United club card work as well?

Dan I have the united card,last year they waved me the annual fee ,even though it was my second year holding this card,this year though I tried several times an they say that they have a new policy that they don’t give credit of the annual fee amount they charged at all.
Would you cancel the card?
Would you downgrade?
If I downgrade would it have the benefit to expend saver awared ?

Dan you mentioned United mileage plus Explorer “visa”, will it work on the master card?(old continental card that they switched to United I recently had problems because I didn’t have the visa, like bag fees etc.)

@lazer:
Yes.

@David:
Get a United business card so that you don’t lose the expanded availability in the meantime?

If you downgrade or cancel you’ll lose the expanded availability.

@Hersh:
Yes. The Mastercard is discontinued so I didn’t mention it. All of those cards will be converted over to Visa anyway.

Does the MileagePlus CLUB card come with expanded save award availability as well ?

@Regular joe:
As the post says, yes.

Why would you use United rewards? Just use Avios. Duh!

@Judah:
That’s a very ignorant statement. Each program has their strengths.

Using Avios to Israel without paying fuel surcharges is very difficult. And flying JFK-LAX would cost the same in either program, but United has nonstop options from both EWR and JFK and United allows free connections while Avios do not.

For a flight from Chicago or NYC to Toronto though, yes Avios would be much better.

Pardon my ignorance but I thought by expanded availability United/Chase meant that cardholders would have access to the XN bucket, even if they didn’t have elite status. Accordingly elites and non-elites with the Explorer card would see the same number of seats in XN. Is this right? Or are you saying Explorer cardholders would see more seats in XN than elites?

@Dan:
But The busniess will also come with an annual fee
Isn’t ?

@Ben:
Where did I imply that Explorer cardholders would have better access than elites?

They both have access to the same JN, YN, and XN award space.
Plat/1K/GS also get IN award space.
Definitions here: http://www.dansdeals.com/archives/44505

@David:
Waived for the first year.

@Dan: You didn’t imply, but you didn’t explicitly say one way or the other that I saw, so just clarifying. I don’t have the card and it would’ve been a reason to apply. (I know the upgrades on award tickets are another but I so rarely get upgrades on paid tickets it isn’t worth having to pay another annual fee). Thanks for clarifying.

If I can’t get them to waive the annual fee and I have the United Consumer card, will I lose my miles if I obtain a business version before canceling the consumer card?

@Ben:
Between the waived PDQ, the elite upgrades, and the club passes, I don’t see how an elite could not have the card.

I’ve gotten many upgrades on awards thanks to it.

@Curious:
You don’t lose your miles for closing an airline/hotel card.
http://www.dansdeals.com/archives/36701

Thank you for this post Dan. Last night I was booking seats for a late-summer trip to Europe and finding very little Saver space…I wish I had had this card.

@Miles:
Apply now and you’ll have access in a week or so.

I canceled my united credit consumer credit card at the end of may 2014. how long do i have to wait before opening a new card for bonus miles?

@shoshana:
As long as you open a new United mileage number you don’t have to wait at all to get another bonus.
You can merge your United accounts together afterwards.

So after I cancel the card my miles will expire after 18 months? Starting from cancellation or when I got them? Also, can I then get the business version to keep them going indefinitely?

My wife and I each got a targeted offer of 50K plus 5K for an authorized user, so we’re planning to each get a card with each other as authorized users. That’s 110K for a mere $4000 total spend. Can we/should we check the “are you a business owner?” box (assuming that it’s there)? What are the pros and cons? We each own a sole proprietor business.

What’s the chase United Explorer Mastercard is that and different than the Visa?

If I am an additional user on my dad’s united club card do I still have access to these benefits? Specifically the expanded awards?

@Curious:
From last activity.
Yes.

@yy:
You can.

@Eli:
See previous comments.

@Au:
No.

@Dan: Different circumstances perhaps. I fly almost exclusively transcons at popular times and there are many elites, so I was only once upgraded last year on nearly 2x month RTs. They’re always paid as I can get good rates with careful planning – $300ish – so using miles to buy them wouldn’t make sense, and even if I did, and had the Explorer card, I’d face the same unlikelihood of an upgrade. And that’s assuming I fly out of Newark, which I do with decreasingly flexibility because the rates have been better lately to/from JFK, where there is no CPU on paid or award tickets. When I do use miles, it’s for internstional travel, again no CPU. So that benefit really doesn’t matter for me.

Waived PQD I get with my existing MP card, so that isn’t a factor, and lounge passes are meaningless to me – I fly nonstops and am often last on the plane. In the luckily rare cases of delay or cancellation, it’s always dinner time, which isn’t available in the club, so I go to a restaurant or bar. I’ve actually held onto a friend’s explorer lounge pass for the last four months or so and never found a use for it. It’s hard to see the value of the club.

Individual circumstances and preferences I guess. But it has been tricky to find saver seats, which is why I asked. More saver seats is very compelling.

Have you addressed the issue of phantom availability on United. A couple of times I have planned a trip based on the availability of certain flights only to find out when I go to actually book that the flights dont exist. This only happens on partner airlines. Is there a way to avoid this outside of calling first?

Any tricks for getting free upgrades to econ+ on long int’l flights, for non-elites? I’m very tall.

Thx…..

Dan, what are options for dealing with the af after the first year! Can you downgrade to anything?

What and is there a benefit to the business card to the regular one?

If I booked a flight with a United card to get a free bag, and then canceled the the card and applied for a new one, is there a way to get the free waived bag to show up online again without having to get someone at the airport to manually override the charge? United customer service said if it doesn’t show online, I have to do it at the airport. Thanks.

How many months ahead do you think they provide this availability? I am trying to book either TLV-ORD or LON-ORD for 7/30/2015 and cannot find anything from TLV and nothing decent from LON. Am I too early or too late?

Ive recently been wondering about this, thank you very much for clarifying!

In your article you mention that you booked or were going to book a ticket for AJK to Chicago for 10,000 one way on United.

1. Isn’t there a fee for booking within 3 weeks of the trip, or is there a way of avoiding it?

2. Is not always the standard 12.5k to fly domestic?

Hey Dan is this the best cc for miles to israel? Do you recommend?

can i get the bonus from a amex starwood cad if i already got it a year ago?

Dan, you mentioned the Marriott card. I signed up at the end of August when they were offering 70,000 points for, I thought, a $1000 spend (which I made.) I didn’t receive the points and they are now saying it was a $2,000 spend which I didn’t meet. Any advice? Has this happened before? Any way of proving what the offer was back then? Thanks!

Dan:
does the 50,000 bonus points from the Marriott rewards expire?
also which is better: starwood or Marriott card?
Thank you

@Dan: What’s the advantage of the business card over the personal card?

Thanks so much Dan! This was the info I needed to book tickets to Hawaii in August 2015 for my family of 6.

I don’t have the united card but have a couple thousand miles from flying that are set to expire this month, how can I extend my miles life?
tia

max 1.5 per q for main holder including AU, or each Au can add 1.5k/ quarter?
TY

meanwhile i still have explorer MC does it same avilabity as
the visa?

10K for EWR-ORD?

@Yossi:
“Saver awards typically become available within a couple months of the flight”

@Danfan:
Both of those are answered at a DansDeals seminar 😉

@Israel:
United miles are excellent for Israel.

@dave:
http://www.dansdeals.com/archives/38407

@Yosef:
Seminar secrets 🙂

I have downgraded to the free united card is that good enough?

Dan:
I don’t think you got to my question.
Does the 50,000 bonus points from the Marriott rewards expire?
also which is better: starwood or Marriott card?
Thank you

If you downgrade to the United Mileage Plus card to avoid the annual fee from the Explorer version. Do you think you will see the additional award space?

Off topic questions.. according to “22 things you should know about Avios” you said there not to book lap child when flying domestic, just add lap child at counter free of charge. Did u notice when u actually enter lap child they “DO” charge 10% of the points?
Question #2 Can i pay for luggage with American Airlines Gift card? and will they credit me the rest?

thanks!