Frequent Miler's latest team challenge, Million Mile Madness, is almost done! The last two weeks Greg, Nick, and Stephen competed to earn 1 Million SAS miles by flying 15 airlines. But who completed the challenge with the most Speed, Affordability, and Style?
We recently reported changes to the benefits on the Citi AAdvantage World Elite Mastercard (See: New Citi American Airlines benefits & bonus coming soon). Chase is now getting in on the act, revamping the benefits on the Chase United MileagePlus Explorer card. Bonus categories are being added and some key benefits are being eliminated.
Beginning June 1st, the Chase MileagePlus United card will carry the following new benefits both for new applicants and existing cardholders:
- Earn 2x at restaurants and hotels (new)
- $100 Global Entry / TSA PreCheck statement credit (new)
- 25% off in-flight purchases (new)
Unfortunately, Chase is eliminating the following benefits:
- Bonus 10,000 miles after $25,000 spend in a calendar year
- Removal of return protection / price protection
Other benefits like free checked bag, priority boarding, 2 annual United Club passes, and more will be unchanged. See our Chase United MileagePlus Explorer page for full card benefits.
While it’s nice to have some bonus categories, these categories are of limited use for many readers. It is already possible to get 2x at restaurants and hotels for the same annual fee with the Chase Sapphire Preferred or 3x with the Sapphire Reserve – and you would have the benefit of transferring those points 1:1 to United or a host of other partners. The Global Entry / TSA PreCheck benefit is nice if you don’t have other cards that offer it, though that type of credit has become very common.
On the other hand, if you strongly value other card perks like free checked baggage and expanded award availability and you don’t have a CSP or CSR, the card may still provide a good value proposition for you and you might be just as happy to earn 2x at hotels and restaurants. The free checked bags could certainly add up for a family traveling together, and if you are traveling regularly and paying for Wi-Fi or food/beverages on-board, the discount there could be a nice perk. While I have put $25K spend on a United card for the 10K bonus miles in the past, it doesn’t make much sense to do so these days if you can use a Freedom Unlimited (1.5x everywhere or 3x everywhere for a year with the current offer if you intend to spend more than $10K) and combine with a Sapphire Preferred or Reserve account – so the elimination of that benefit won’t be significant for many readers.
The loss of return protection and price protection don’t seem like a big deal until you need them, and it’s too bad that Chase is dropping that benefit on many cards.
Again, these changes will affect both current cardholders and new applicants, so whether you have the card, apply now, or apply after June 1st these changes will apply to you.
Note that this card is subject to 5/24, so it won’t be available to those readers with 5 or more new accounts in the past 24 months.
H/T: View from the Wing
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Can I get these benefits for my spouse? I already have the card and would like to get the TSA Pre-check using the $100 credit. Would I need to add them as an addition user or can I use this benefit for them even though they don’t have the card? Also, I assume the the 2 lounge passes are limited only to the primary user and cannot get 2 additional with the addition of my spouse. Correct?
Primary card benefits can only be used by the primary cardholder and are not typically extended to authorized users. So you would only get 1 Global Entry/Pre-check credit and two lounge passes.
PS – you can in-fact use your Global Entry/Pre-check credit on anyone. All that Chase is looking for is a charge for between $75-100 USD on your statement and applying an automatic credit. Chase has no idea who the application was for. That makes sense because it’s unlikely the US Government would share that with Chase. I have also used the credit on my Chase Saph. Reserve card for my sister and it worked without an issue.
My advice would be for you to have your spouse sign up for their own United credit card so that they can earn the GE/TSA Credit, two lounge passes and the 40k+ bonus miles. But only if you can hit the spend to earn them on both cards and can pay off both cards. I would value the first year of those benefits well in excess of the annual fee and sometimes you can get this card with first year AF waived. I would then cancel one or both cards after 11 months depending on your card portfolio and needs.
I just received my notice letter from United MileagePlus card and it is true that they are removing the 10k boost miles after $25 K spend. I spend about 75k a year on this Chase card and the 10k boost is nice but since this benefit is being removed I’ll be dropping my chase card and moving my spending to my Amex Platinum for boost miles and MQM qualification.
Good question on the $25,000 spend. I have been starting to put spend on my personal card, but not heavily since I am concentrating on another mega spend goal. If you just make the spend by 6/1 but your card month is after that will you still get the bonus 10,000?
For the $25000 spent, 10000 miles bonus…will that be extended until the end of the year or the $25000 need to be spent before june?
I imagine they would honor it this year, but I don’t know for sure.
I’m happy to see another card offering Global Entry credit since I’d like to get Global Entry for everyone in my family of 5. This makes that goal a little easier without shelling out for the ultra-premium cards.
GE is a good thing But my bag was the last one on a 747 !!!!!!!!!!!!
Global Entry has nothing to do with Chase, United or obtaining status benefits from United. Your bag still will come out with the rest of non-Premier Access eligible bags even with Global Entry, which is a program to speed you up through US Customs boarder entry. You can buy Premier Access per trip or earn it from United Credit cards or Premier Status of at least Silver.
Thinking of re-applying for this card mostly for the increased award availability.
My understanding is that that’s just applicable for *Economy* awards, right?
And though I guess the card also offers free as-available award upgrades from Economy –> Business class, my guess is that being out of SFO I’d never ever see these, agreed?
You know, I’ve never actually looked for increased business class availability, so I just ran a test search…and I can’t exactly answer your question.
When I searched without logging in, I saw no saver availability at all on an example date – June 9th for an example route. When I logged in, I saw the calendar view showed saver economy and business for that date. Clicking on it, there were 10K economy class seats (it was a short route I looked up) that said they were available to me exclusively as a cardholder. There was also a mixed-cabin saver business itinerary (for 25K one-way) that did not show up when I wasn’t logged in, but also was not marked as being part of expanded Chase cardholder availability. I guess having the card made the difference in finding that itinerary? For what it’s worth, it was a 3-segment mixed-cabin itinerary that was certainly the log way to get from Point A to Point B.
I don’t know what upgrade inventory is like for elite members, so I’m no help there.
Hmm… okay, definitely seems inconclusive, but thanks for tryin’ to suss things out 🙂
Are these changes for the business card as well?
These changes are just on the personal card as far as I know. I haven’t heard about any changes to the business card.
Can you do a direct comparison with the business card features?
New Chase United MP Explorer personal card offer is 40K Miles for $2k spend / $0 AF 1st year, Business Explorer is 50K Miles for $3k spend $0 AF 1st year. Get both and ditch the one with lesser benifits after the first year. 😉