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Limited time signup bonus
From now through 11/30, you can earn 20,000 bonus miles for opening a United Gateway℠ Card and spending $1,000 within 3 months. With this offer you can also earn up to 54,000 miles on groceries in your first cardmembership year, as described below.
Note that through 11/30, you can also earn 75,000 miles on the Chase United Business Card. You can read more about that card here.
Comparison to previous signup bonus:
This is an intro card offer. The regular signup bonus will probably be 5K or 10K miles.
Annual fee
None.
Welcome bonus terms
You can receive the bonus on this card if you haven’t received a bonus on a United Gateway card in the past 24 months and don’t currently have a United Gateway card.
You can receive the bonus on this card even if you got another United consumer or business card in the past 24 months or currently have another United consumer or business 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 benefits
- 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 before it reverts back to 1 mile per dollar. This offer is only available for new card applications, not for downgrades from other United cards.
- Earn 2 miles per dollar on United purchases.
- Earn 2 miles per dollar on gas stations.
- Earn 2 miles per dollar on transit and commuting, including ride share services, taxicabs, train tickets, tolls, and mass transit.
- Earn 1 mile per dollar on all other purchases.
- 25% statement credit for food, beverage, and WiFi purchases on United flights.
- No foreign exchange fees.
- United miles never expire, even if you close your card.
- Trip Cancellation / Trip Interruption Insurance
- Extended Warranty Protection
- Purchase Protection
Expanded award ticket availability
One of the best perks of United credit cards are that they are the only airline cards that offer expanded award ticket availability.
This increases the value of your miles significantly and in turn makes the Chase Quadfecta/Quinfecta spending strategy even more valuable.
As this card has no annual fee, it makes for a great downgrade option from other United consumer cards.
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.
ll 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.
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 a United Gateway Card?
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29 Comments On "Ends Tomorrow: Earn 20K Miles For Spending $1K+Triple Miles On Groceries With The New United Gateway Card; Expanded Award Availability With No Annual Fee!"
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If the main reason I still have my United Explorer card is for the free bags and not to have to pay for hand luggage in Basic Economy. Does this card give me these benefits without the Annual Fee?
No, those benefits require a United card with an annual fee.
Is it worth using one of the 5/24 for this – or just do a product change to the no fee version from the current fee version? Thanks!
If you don’t need the free bagages, yes makes more sense to do a product change as opposed to use a 5/24.
Good to see that the no annual fee card gives expanded award availability!
Yup!
Able to convert a United travelbank card into this ?
They should be converting automatically, but yes.
Glad to hear I might finally get some use out of it
Meaning my TravelBank card will become a Gateway card? Before that happens I can apply for a Gateway card and receive all the bonuses and temporary benefits?
I currently have the no annual fee of the United card. Can I change it to this to get the expanded award availability?
Yes.
Will my applying for this card hinder my ability to receive a larger sign up bonus if Id want to sign up for the explorer in the future?
Other than using a 5/24 slot, no.
Will this as a personal get you the annual bonus on the new United business card ?
Yes.
Foreign transaction fee?
Ah, read the post lol
No priority boarding with this card, correct?
I think this is the only chase card with no foreighn transaction fees without any annual fee
United TravelBank too.
Converted to this. And Amazon.
Does United explorer downgraded to milage plus have expanded award ticket availability?
Can i still get the 20,000 point signup bonus if i spend the $1000 in the first 3 months while I am abroad (in a foreign currency)? Or does it have to be specifically charged in USD?
You can.
Thanks
All groceries or only US groceries?
All
Approved for 2 applications. Thank you!