Chase United cards sending targeted & stackable offers

Some Chase United cardholders have been receiving targeted spending offers over the last few days. Some cardholders – myself included – have received two or more of these offers and, provided the terms overlap, they’ll stack with each other.

The Deal

• United is sending targeted spending offers to cardholders including:
  • Earn 3x at wholesale clubs, restaurants & department stores
  • Make at least 10 purchases & spend $850 per month to earn 850 bonus miles. Spend $850 in each month from November-January & earn 400 additional bonus miles

Key Terms

• Registration required.

Quick Thoughts

I received an email from United last Friday offering me 850 bonus MileagePlus miles if I spend $850 in November on my United Gateway card, another 850 miles if I do the same in December and another 850 miles if I do that in January. If I spend $850 per month on my Gateway card in all three months, I’ll earn an extra 400 bonus miles. If I did max out the earnings on this offer, it works out to be a 2.16x return. That’s not bad, but I wasn’t originally planning on pursuing it.

However, the following day I received an entirely different email from United, offering me an additional spending offer. That one offers a total of 3x miles for every dollar I spend at wholesale clubs, restaurants and department stores with no limit on the number of bonus miles I can earn.

That’s a much more intriguing concept, especially because these two offers will stack – to an extent. This 3x spending offer is only valid in November and December, so I’d still have to spend $850 in January at 1x (unless I receive another spending offer) if I want to earn the final batch of 850 bonus miles plus the additional 400 miles.

Let’s say I spend $850 in the 3x categories in November, then do the same in December, then spend $850 at 1x in January. That would mean I’d spend a total of $2,550 on my United Gateway card and earn a total of 8,900 miles – a return of 3.49x.

The better approach would be to spend $850 in both November and December. That would earn a total of 4x per dollar – 3x from those eligible categories, then an additional 850 miles per month (an effective 1x extra) from that initial spending offer.

It wouldn’t surprise me if there are different types of spending offers being sent out, so be sure to check the terms of your offer(s) and don’t forget to actually register for the spending promotion. Also check if you’re targeted for any of these other spending offers for Q4 if you hadn’t done that last month when they first launched.

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