Credit card couponificaiton continues with the new Chase United Explorer card changes that launched today. The card now offers some big spend bonuses and a number of coupons. However, the annual fee has increased and the flexibility of a key perk has changed for the worse.
New Offer & Key Card Details
| Card Offer and Details |
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80k miles ⓘAffiliateThis is an affiliate offer. Frequent Miler may earn a commission if you are approved for this offer 80K miles after $3K spend in 3 months (Offer Expires 5/7/2025)$0 introductory annual fee for the first year, then $150 This card is subject to Chase's 5/24 rule (click here for details). Information about this card has been collected independently by Frequent Miler. The issuer did not provide the details, nor is it responsible for their accuracy. FM Mini Review: Decent perks such as enhanced access to United saver level economy awards makes this a keeper for some. Earning rate: 2X United ✦ 2X restaurants ✦ 2X on hotel stays Card Info: Visa Signature issued by Chase. This card has no foreign currency conversion fees. Big spend bonus: $100 Travel Credit after spending $10,000 in a calendar year ✦ 10,000-mile award flight discount after spending $20K ✦ Earn up to 1,000 PQPs per calendar year: 1 PQP per $20 spend Noteworthy perks: ✦ Improved economy saver award availability ✦ Free first checked bag for primary cardholder and one travel companion when you pay with the card ✦ Up to $100 in credits for United Hotels ($50 each on your first two bookings per cardmember year) ✦ Up to $60 per year in rideshare credits (up to $5 per month) when using your card to pay for rideshare services.(requires annual enrollment) ✦ Up to $50 in Travel Credit for Avis or Budget car rentals per cardmember year ✦ One $10 Instacart credit per month when you have Instacart+ membership ✦ Unlocks complimentary elite upgrades on award tickets ✦ Priority boarding ✦ No foreign exchange fees ✦ 2 United Club passes per year on you anniversary ✦ One year of complimentary Dash Pass (Must activate by 12/31/27) ✦ Primary auto rental collision damage waiver ✦ Up to $120 Global Entry,TSA Pre-check or Nexus credit ✦ 25% back as a statement credit on purchases of food, beverages and Wi-Fi on board United-operated flights and on Club premium drinks when you pay with your Explorer Card ✦ Up to $100 statement credit for purchases with JSX |
90K Miles + 500 PQPs ⓘAffiliateThis is an affiliate offer. Frequent Miler may earn a commission if you are approved for this offer 90K miles and 500 PQPs after $4K spend in the first 3 months (Offer Expires 5/7/2025)$350 Annual Fee This card is subject to Chase's 5/24 rule (click here for details). Information about this card has been collected independently by Frequent Miler. The issuer did not provide the details, nor is it responsible for their accuracy. Earning rate: 5X Renowned Hotels & Resorts for United Cardmembers ✦ 3X United ✦ 2X restaurants including eligible delivery services ✦ 2X on all other travel ✦ 2X select streaming Card Info: Visa Signature issued by Chase. This card has no foreign currency conversion fees. Big spend bonus: Earn up to 18,000 PQPs per calendar year: 1 PQP per $20 spend ✦ Earn an additional 10,000-mile award flight discount after $20K in purchases in a calendar year ✦ Earn 2 Economy Plus seat upgrades after $40K in purchases in a calendar year Noteworthy perks: Up to $200 in statement credits for United purchases each cardmember year - terms apply ✦ Up to $150 in statement credits per cardmember for Renowned Hotels and Resorts ✦ 10K award flight discount per cardmember year ✦ First and second checked bag free for cardholder and one companion when you purchase your tickets with the card and include your Mileage Plus number ✦ Up to $120 Global Entry, TSA PreCheck or Nexus reimbursement ✦ Up to $100 in rideshare credits per year (up $8 per month January to November and up to $12 in December, re-enrollment is required annually) ✦ Up to $80 in Travel Credit for Avis or Budget car rentals per cardmember year ✦ One $10 and one $5 Instacart credit per month when you have Instacart+ membership ✦ Up to $150 statement credit for purchases with JSX ✦ 25% back on United inflight or Club Premium drink purchases |
What’s new and changing?
At a high level:
- Changes:
- Annual fee increased to $150 (was $95)
- 2 United Club passes awarded annually will now require the primary cardmember or an authorized user to be present when redeemed
- Big spend bonuses:
- One $100 Travel Credit after spending $10,000 in a calendar year (details below)
- One 10,000-mile award flight discount after spending $20K in a calendar year (details below)
- Coupon-like credits:
- Up to $100 in statement credits for United Hotels ($50 each on your first two bookings per cardmember year)
- Up to $60 per year in rideshare credits (up to $5 per month) when using your card to pay for rideshare services. You must enroll in this benefit and re-enroll annually to receive the credits.
- Up to $50 in Travel Credit for Avis or Budget car rentals per cardmember year. This is up to $25 on your first and second rentals of a minimum of 2 days booked through cars.united.com and paid for with your MileagePlus Explorer card.
- One $10 Instacart credit per month when you have Instacart+ membership
- Up to $100 statement credit for purchases with JSX each cardmember year
Analysis of the changes
The long-term annual fee is increasing to $150. Whether the card is worth an additional $55 per year over the old fee likely comes down to whether you can make use of the new coupon credits and how badly the change to United Club passes hurts your use case.
Unfortunately, the card’s 2 annual United Club passes are becoming more restrictive. Whereas they were previously giftable, they will now only be able to be used when the primary cardmember or an authorized user is traveling (the primary cardholder or an authorized user must be present when they are redeemed). This means that, for example, if your spouse is not an authorized user, they would not be able to use one of your United Club passes unless you are traveling together. That change is obviously meant to increase breakage by making the passes slightly more difficult to use.
In terms of coupon credits, United MileagePlus explorer cardholders can now earn a $100 United Travel Credit that gets awarded as a TravelBank credit after spending $10,000 within a calendar year. This Travel Credit will be valid for 12 months from the date of issue and can not be combined with future flight credit or other travel certificates, but it can be used in conjunction with other TravelBank credit. That’s obviously not quite as good as cash, but at full face value it would represent an additional 1% in return on spend. However, given that the credit is only valid for United purchases (keep in mind that TravelBank credits can not be used for award travel taxes or for travel on partner airlines) and it is only valid for 12 months, you should value this based on how much you’d be willing to pay for a restrictive United credit rather than its full face value.
The United Hotels credits could be useful for those who don’t mind booking through an online travel agency, just keep in mind that bookings made through United Hotels likely will not qualify for elite benefits / credits nor will they likely earn hotel points. Furthermore, corporate discount codes, AAA discounts, etc, are usually not applicable through online travel agencies.
Cardholders who continue spending on the card can now earn an annual 10,000-mile award flight discount after spending $20,000 on purchases within a calendar year. That could certainly be useful if you know you’ll be redeeming miles.
The other numerous coupony credits are kind of annoying.
The rideshare credit requires re-enrollment annually, which means that after enrolling and receiving the credits for the rest of this year, you’ll need to remember to re-enroll in January or you won’t receive credits next year. That seems designed to maximize breakage.
The Travel Credit for Avis or Budget purchases require a minimum 2-day rental and must be booked through United’s car rental engine (and then those are earned as United TravelBank credit, so keep in mind the points above about the restrictions that exist there). I’m sure that the JSX statement credit will be welcomed by those who would already consider booking with JSX, given their route network is mostly limited to the western US, many cardholders probably won’t find this useful.
I can’t say that this is a net loss over the increase in annual fee, but neither are these changes a slam dunk win. If you will easily use the hotel, rideshare, and Instacart credits, this is probably a net win. I imagine others will find that the increase in annual fee does not justify the mental gymnastics required to come out ahead.
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The only thing that could improve the OTP changes is if they no longer restrict usage to them in the clubs. Everytime I enter a United Club it seems like there’s a sign saying no OTPs are accepted, I’d have been furious if I signed up for the card and expected to use them. I get the feeling that nothing will change and the passes will still be mostly useless and are now just more annoying to use. If they’re worried about resellers at least let them transfer to family members that you pre-register in your account since I’m sure that’s probably where most legit gifting goes to.
The new “benefits” are completely useless to me, and certainly not worth the hefty 57% increase in the yearly membership fee. And it’s just cringe-y when a company masquerades a rate hike as a value-add. Why not add benefits that actually improve the flight experience, like seats with more legroom, free seat choice, or free WiFi.
The United Club passes were already difficult to use. Over the past few years I have seen the club being filled and getting turned away, they won’t accept paper passes, and a long line to get in. I can’t imaging that the new change will improve matters.
It’s not worth it to use this as my primary card. I only keep it for the free bags on flights for myself and a companion, but they are eroding that benefit with the annual fee hike. It’s probably calculated to be just enough of a hike to keep people from cancelling the card, but I will look around before January to see what competing credit cards offer.
I’d everyone overlooking that you now have to spend $10k in a year to get “cardmember pricing” on awards? That’s the single biggest devaluation for me. Basically a 25% or more deval in United miles.
Wrong page. That’s on the Traveler card, not the Explorer.
https://frequentmiler.com/new-chase-united-gateway-card-offer-card-changes/
Ah you’re right. That’s what I get for reading emails on my phone.
Only good news from Chase email : With the addition of these benefits, the annual fee for your United Explorer Card will increase from $95 to $150 with your next annual fee renewal occurring on or after January 1, 2026.
This is a year I will likely qualify for Marriott Titanium, which means UA Silver which makes it much easier to decide to downgrade or even cancel the UA cobranded.
As an EWR flier when I fly UA, the lounge passes are basically the only benefit that just having Silver wouldn’t duplicate.
Is the gifting of lounge passes ending immediately or at renewal? I can’t imagine the system will be great at being able to track the difference.
I use Uber/Lyft enough for the rideshare credit to actually be useful for me, but given that I have an Explorer card, a Quest card, and some AmEx cards that give uber credit, it seems like I’m going to have to remember to switch my payment method three times each month to get all the credits, ugh.
The last two years they’ve given me a $100 retention offer to keep the Quest card but next time I’m not sure I’d even take that.
Also, does anyone know when the rideshare credit benefit goes live? Doesn’t seem possible to activate it yet in the app.
Its live today 3/25/25. And yes you have to activate in app, not on the website.
I saw another comment somewhere that currently you can only activate it in the Android app but not the iOS app so that’s why I was confused, I wasn’t seeing it on my iPhone. Fortunately I had an Android phone available to use so I was able to activate it by using the Android app.
Another thing I’m not clear on is whether the credit will work during these last few days of March or if it won’t work until 4/1. I guess we’ll see.
will drive more hub captives to the explorer card and encourage the rest to get out to a more pan-travel currency card.
This is much, much worse than Amex. I can combine Plat, Gold and Bonvoy credits for a $50 Uber Eats meal every month (which I can pick up and save the delivery fee). I can use Dunkin credit at my local Baskin Robbins. Delta Reserve and Delta Plat give you $200 and $150 for a hotel room, which can cover the entire cost of the room. FHR will give me $200 to play with and pass along my Hyatt, Hilton and Marriott status. Plenty of Resy restaurants nearby, and I can combine Delta Reserve and Delta Plat for $30 off a meal once a month (and once every six months, I can combine it with $50 more from Amex Gold). Amex airline credits work with Travel bank, and I can always buy a Hilton Gift Card.
What Chase is providing with United Explorer is pretty much unhackable for me, since (a) I am not going to go out of my way to cover only a fraction of the cost of a hotel room twice a year with no status privileges, (b) never use Uber and as far as limos and taxis, Sappire Reserve gives back 3x while United gives back 1x, (c) don’t rent with Avis since I get a much better deal elsewhere, (d) never use Instacart, and (e) must be nice to fly JSX but not in my plans. Also, they really had to make the travel credit expire after 12 months–ugly for those of us who mainly travel on points. So, for me, absolutely negative in all respects.
The rideshare credit is so low that it is not very useful. Costco regularly sells Uber gift cards at a 25% discount, which do not expire at the end of each month, can be used at any amount, etc. So if your total charge is $20 or less, the $5 credit is better, but otherwise I doubt I would even use the card.
not advisable most of the time as uber prices higher with uber cash credit balance on account vs not.
Eh, the jury is really still out on that one. At a 25% discount, I am definitely going the Costco/Uber route.
I just got this card. Will I get these new benefits immediately, or will I have to wait until after renewal? Thanks!
Also the no fee Gateway card will not see all the Saver awards unless you spend 10k a year. I have a lot of United miles to use and might have to upgrade just to see the award space. I can use the rideshare credits and JSX flies out of Carlsbad where I live to Phoenix where I have a home.
Not happy about the changes but at least United lounges might be less crowded.
If my annual fee increases from $95 to $150, I think I’ll product change and downgrade to the no fee gateway. It will suck, but I don’t think it’s worth it.
the no fee Gateway card will not see all the Saver awards unless you spend 10k a year.
I think it’s net loss. Those credits are worth very little, IMO. For example, the car rental credits (in TravelBank cash, BTW) not only restrict you to Avis/Budget but you also have to book thru UA, which would likely cost more than booking thru Costco or Kayak. The hotel credits have similar requirements, so they may not save you any $. The rideshare credits are not only tiny but they’re also likely unusable when you pay with Uber/Lyft cash, which can be bought at significant discount. The same with Instacart credits.