Last Chance To Earn Up To 150,000 Miles With Bonus Offers On 6 Chase United Cards That Have My Favorite Airline Card Benefit! Plus, Updated Comparison Chart

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• Update: The following limited time offers will end on 9/22 at about 4:59pm ET:
  • Chase United Business Card: Up to 150,000 miles.
  • Chase United Quest Card: Up to 100,000 miles.
  • Chase United Explorer Card: Up to 75,000 miles.
  • Chase United Gateway Card: Up to 30,000 miles.

United card offers

United has limited time offers available on 6 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, an incredible perk that no other airline card offers! Plus you can pay yourself back for the annual fee at an excellent value of 1.5 cents per mile!

• Chase United Business Card
  • Limited time offer: Earn up to 150,000 bonus miles. Earn 75,000 bonus miles after spending $5,000 in the first 3 months of card membership and earn another 75,000 bonus miles after spending another $15,000 in the first 6 months of card membership.
  • This card previously offered 60,000 bonus miles for spending $5,000 in the first 3 months of card membership.
  • $99 annual fee. You can currently redeem 6,600 United miles to pay for the card’s annual fee thanks to a value of 1.5 cents per mile towards refunding the annual fee!
  • 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 75,000 bonus miles after spending $5,000 in the first 3 months of card membership.
  • This card previously offered 50,000 bonus miles.
  • This card has a hefty $450 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 30,000 United miles to pay for the card’s annual fee thanks to a value of 1.5 cents per mile towards refunding the 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.
  • 2 free checked bags worldwide 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.

• Chase United Gateway Card
  • Earn up to 30,000 bonus miles. Earn 15,000 bonus miles after spending $1,000 in the first 3 months of card membership and another 15,000 bonus miles after spending another $2,000 in the first 6 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 2 miles per dollar on United purchases, gas stations, transit and commuting, including ride share services, taxicabs, train tickets, tolls, and mass transit.

• Chase United Explorer Card
  • Earn up to 70,000 bonus miles. Earn 60,000 bonus miles after spending $3,000 in the first 3 months of card membership and earn another 10,000 bonus miles after spending another $3,000 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.

• Chase United Quest Card
  • Earn up to 100,000 bonus miles. Earn 80,000 bonus miles after you spend $5,000 on purchases in the first 3 months, plus an additional 20,000 bonus miles after you spend another $5,000 in the first 6 months.
  • $250 annual fee. You can currently redeem 16,667 United miles to pay for the card’s annual fee thanks to a value of 1.5 cents per mile towards refunding the annual fee!
  • Earn 3 miles per dollar on United purchases.
  • Earn 2 miles per dollar on travel, dining, and streaming
  • Cardholders get Global Entry/Pre-Check for free.
  • Get a rebate up to $125 every cardmembership year, equal to the amount spent on United tickets, upgrades, seat assignment fees, WiFi, inflight food and beverages, baggage fees, or other United charges. This will also work for United Travel Bank funding valid for future United flights with a minimum 5 year validity!
  • Get a rebate of 5,000 miles, up to 2 times per cardmembership year starting with your first card anniversary, for a total of up to 10,000 miles per year, when the primary cardholder flies on an award that includes at least 1 United flight segment. You’ll get the 5,000 mile rebate even if the award cost less than 5,000 miles! You’ll want to redeem 2 one-way awards as those will each trigger a 5,000 mile rebate.
  • 2 free checked bags worldwide 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.
  • Earn 500 PQPs towards elite status for every $12K/year spent on the card, up to 3,000 PQPs for $72K/year spending. PQPs from multiple cards can stack together.

• Chase United Club Infinite Card Card
  • 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 thanks to a value of 1.5 cents per mile towards refunding the 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.
  • 2 free checked bags worldwide 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.
  • Earn 500 PQPs towards elite status for every $12K/year spent on the card, up to 3,000 PQPs for $72K/year spending. PQPs from multiple cards can stack together.

Comparison chart

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.

If you do have the exact same card you can change to another United card, wait 3-4 days, and apply for that card again.

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 4 United consumer card products:

• Chase United Gateway Card (No annual fee)
• Chase United Explorer card ($99 annual fee)
• Chase United Quest card ($250 annual fee)
• Chase 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)

Pay yourself back for the annual fee:

You can redeem United miles to pay yourself back for the annual fee at a rate of 1.5 cents per mile!

You can pay back all or part of the annual fee at that rate.

You have 90 days from when the fee is billed to pay yourself back and you can do so even after paying the annual fee.

You can use miles from the card’s signup bonus or you can transfer points from Ultimate Rewards to United to pay back the annual fee.

Card benefits

In addition to the benefits listed above, all 6 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

United Cards As Part Of A Chase Quinfecta Strategy

All of the United cards have unique benefits, so which should you get?

That depends on which benefits you value and how much they would cost you otherwise.

It’s worth noting that you can get the signup bonus for each United card as long as you didn’t get the bonus for that exact card within the past 24 months and don’t currently have that exact card.

If you have a United consumer card you can change to any currently offered United consumer card and if you have a United business card you can change to any currently offered United business card. After waiting 3-4 days you can apply for that card again.

It certainly makes sense to have a United card on top of a Chase Quinfecta strategy as just having the card makes your points more valuable. That consists of:

1. Sapphire Reserve or Sapphire Preferred or Ink Preferred for mileage transfers and bonus value on points.
2. A no-fee Freedom Unlimited or Ink Unlimited for 1.5 points per dollar everywhere.
3. A no-fee Freedom Flex for 5 points per dollar in rotating categories.
4. A no-fee Ink Cash for 5 points per dollar on wireless and office supply stores, including gift cards to stores like Amazon and hundreds more.
5. Having a United card on top of the cards above creates a Chase Quinfecta as your United miles (and by extension your Chase points) become more valuable thanks to expanded award availability.

Here is a summary comparing what the currently available United cards have to offer:

• If you just want expanded award availability, go for the no-fee United Gateway Card. However you should get a premium consumer card with a higher signup bonus and downgrade the card after your first year as the higher signup bonus will more than offset the first year’s annual fee. Plus you can redeem miles to directly cover the annual fee and still come out ahead.
• If you also want to be able to get a free bag and bypass onerous basic economy restrictions, go for the United Explorer Card or United Business Card.
• If you will be able to take advantage of the Quest card’s $125 and 10,000 mile rebates, then the United Quest Card will effectively be cheaper than the Explorer card, plus you’ll get 2 free bags to boot!
• If you can meet a big spending threshold in 6 months, the 150,000 bonus miles offered on the United Business Card is very compelling.
• If you want United Club access, go for the United Business Club Card (Click on apply now to reach this card application) or if you want a consumer card, the Chase United Club Infinite Card Card
• Grandfathered cards like the old United Presidential Plus card (good for earning more PQPs towards United elite status) and the old consumer United Club card (similar to the current United Business Club card) can’t be had anymore, so think twice before you close those.

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.

If you’re not a United cardholder, there are just 5 dates with saver award space nonstop from Newark-Tel Aviv in February-March:

If you are a United cardholder, there are 31 dates with saver award space nonstop from Newark-Tel Aviv in February-March:

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:

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:

You can also hack the excursionist perk for even more value.

You can use the multi-city search to book 2 flights within a single region and then you can book a free one-way within any other region sandwiched in between your flights.

For example if you book a round-trip from Cleveland to Chicago for 6,240 miles you can add in a free Excursionist Perk flight anywhere else in the world in between your flights, such as onboard the United Island Hopper from Palau to Kosrae via Guam, Chuuk, and Pohnpei, a flight that costs $598 or 12.5K miles on its own:

Or if you book a one-way flight from Cleveland to Chicago and then Chicago to Kansas City for 6,240 miles you can add in a free Excursionist Perk flight anywhere else in the world in between your flights, such as Johannesburg to the Seychelles, a flight that costs $473 or 19.5K miles on its own.

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

Business card information:

Some of these are business cards, but you may already have a business that needs a card to keep track of expenses. For example if your name is Joe Smith and you sell items online, or if you have any other side business and want a credit card to better keep track of business expenditures you can open a business credit card for “Joe Smith” as the business. You don’t need to file any messy government paperwork to be allowed to do that. Just be sure to select “Sole Proprietorship” as the business type and just use your social security number in the Tax Identification Number field.

It’s important to just write your own name as the business name if you are just applying for your own small business as a Sole Proprietorship that doesn’t have any business paperwork.

If you’re like me and you run more than one business, you can signup for multiple of the same card for each business to manage each businesses expenses separately.

Business cards from most banks, including Chase business cards, do not get added to your 5/24 count of recently opened cards. That’s because business cards from most banks don’t show up on your personal credit report and the 5/24 count is based off of your personal credit report. That means that applying for Chase business cards won’t “hurt” your 5/24 count.

Another benefit of business cards not reporting on your personal credit report is that when you spend money on personal cards your credit score will be hurt even if you pay your bill on time. A whopping 30% of your credit score is based on credit utilization. You can pay off your card bill before your statement is generated to avoid that, but that takes effort and laying out money well before you have to. Additionally it’s good to have the statement close with a couple dollars to show the card is active and being paid every month. On an business cards from banks like AMEX and Chase it’s just not reported, so you can wait until the money is due without it having a negative effect on your score. That also means if you close the card, it won’t have an effect on your credit score.

Will you signup for one of these cards? Which United cards do you have?