Chase United 55,000 miles +$50 Statement Credit

HT-  Physixfan via Doctor of Credit





Update: As pointed out from a comment from Lantean on Doctor of Credit, the offer might be on the front page of the United site (I was able to see the ad when I went to United.com).  No dummy booking necessary. The link from the front page does not include the $50 staintment credit. 


Chase United credit card is offering 50,000 mile sign up bonus for spending $3,000 in 3 months.  Add an authorized user for another 5,000 miles.  You also earn a $50 statement credit.

To get the offer, just log in to your United account and start making a dummy booking, you will then be offered the card at the increased sign up bonus rate.

There is another 55k offer without the $50 statement credit available for both Personal and Business cards.  The only benefit is that the spending threshold is $2,000 instead of $3,000.  You need to sign into your account to see if you are eligible.


This is an increase from the regular 30,000 + 5,000 offer, but the offer is often available.  If you need United miles, it is a good time to apply, but based on history, I assume this will come back again at some point.

If you applied within the last 90 days, you can ask Chase to match the bonus via secure message.

You are eligible for a new Chase bonus every 24 months as long as you don't have the card currently.



A similar 50k offer is also available on the United Business Card as well.


https://www.theexplorercard.com/50kAFW

Chase United Business 50K Miles Sign up Bonus

Chase has upped the sign up bonus for the United Explorer Business card. You will get 50,000 miles for spending $2,000 in the first 3 months, instead of the usual 30,000 miles.  The United personal card is only offering 30,000 miles right now, but you may be able to get a 50,000 mile offer from this link or at the airport.  (HT Mile Nerd for the possible personal 50k offer).




As always with this card, you will get a bonus of 10,000 miles for spending $25,000 in any calendar year.



No annual fee the first year, $95 the second year. 

2 free passes to the United Lounges




What does 50,000 miles get you? A round trip ticket for NY to Tel Aviv is 85,000 miles so you are getting almost 60% of the way there with just one card.   You can also get 2 round trip tickets from New York to Los Angelos.

New Softcard Promotions - 4,000 United Miles and $150 of Amazon Gift Cards

Softcard is a mobile payment system that works on certain smartphones.  Check out eligibility here.

They have been and are being quite aggressive in recruiting new usage.  They have two new promotions that just started at the beginning of November.

1) 4,000 United Miles

This is the more appealing promotion to me due to its relative ease:

Add a Chase United Credit card to Softcard.  Add your United Frequent Flyer Number to the account by following the steps in the link.

Once your card is added, you will get 2,500 bonus miles for your first purchase with the Chase United in November using Softcard.

For every month afterwards until the end of February that you use make one purchase with the Chase United using Softcard, you will get another 500 bonus miles for a total of 4,000 bonus miles.

Terms and Conditions*Receive 2,500 United MileagePlus Miles (“Miles”) on your 8 -digit United MileagePlus Program Account (“Account”) by: (i) provisioning your United MileagePlus® Credit Card issued by Chase Bank USA, N.A. (“Eligible Card”) to Softcard; (ii) registering your Account number for the offer; and (iii) completing a transaction with your Eligible Card using Softcard (“Eligible Transaction”) between November 1, 2014 and the expiration of the offer on February 28, 2015 (the “Offer Period”). Receive an additional 500 Miles for each subsequent calendar month of the Offer Period in which you complete an Eligible Transaction. Maximum award of 4,000 Miles per Eligible Card under this offer. Award Miles will generally be credited to your Account within 6-8 weeks after the end of the calendar month in which the Miles were earned. Offer expires on February 28, 2015, but offer is subject to change or cancellation at any time. Chase Bank USA, N.A. is not responsible for the provision of or the failure to provide the promotional offers. Miles will post directly to your United MileagePlus account and will not appear on your Chase statement.
Miles accrued, awards, and benefits issued are subject to change and are subject to the rules of the United MileagePlus program, including without limitation the Premier® program (the “MileagePlus Program”), which are expressly incorporated herein. United may change the MileagePlus Program including, but not limited to, rules, regulations, travel awards and special offers or terminate the MileagePlus Program at any time and without notice. United and its subsidiaries, affiliates and agents are not responsible for any products or services of other participating co mpanies and partners. Taxes and fees related to award travel are the responsibility of the member. Bonus award miles, award miles and any other miles earned through non-flight activity do not count toward qualification for Premier status unless expressly stated otherwise. The accumulation of mileage or Premier status or any other status does not entitle members to any vested rights with respect to the MileagePlus Program. All calculations made in connection with the MileagePlus Program, including without limitation with respect to the accumulation of mileage and the satisfaction of the qualification requirements for Premier status, will be made by United Airlines and MileagePlus in their discretion and such calculations will be considered final. Information in this communication that relates to the MileagePlus Program does not purport to be complete or comprehensive and may not include all of the information that a member may believe is important, and is qualified in its entirety by reference to all of the information on the united.com website and the MileagePlus Program rules. United and MileagePlus are registered service marks. For complete details about the MileagePlus Program, go to www.united.com.

2)  Up to $150 in Amazon Gift Cards

This is less exciting to me since it requires many more purchases, but it still can be lucrative.


Use any participating credit card through Softcard 5 times before the end of December and you will get a $10 Amazon Gift Card for each 5 purchases, up to $30 of Amazon Gift Cards, which is a total of 15 purchases for the $30.

Up to 5 separate credit cards are eligible for the $30 of Amazon gift cards for a total of 75 purchases and $150 of Amazon gift cards.





HT: Dansdeals, Doctor of Credit and Frequent Miler

Chase United Explorer Credit Card - 55,000 Miles + $50 Statement Credit

Chase has upped the sign up bonus for the United Explorer card.  You will get 50,000 miles for spending $2,000 in the first 3 months, instead of the usual 30,000 miles.  You also will get a $50 statement credit.

If you sign up an authorized user who makes one purchase in the first 3 months you will get another 5,000 miles for a total of 55,000 miles.


As always with this card, you will get a bonus of 10,000 miles for spending $25,000 in any calendar year.



No annual fee the first year, $95 the second year.  This deal will expire on September 2, 2014




What does 55,000 miles get you?  A round trip ticket for NY to Tel Aviv is 85,000 miles so you are getting 65% of the way there.  



Hat Tip: Doctor of Credit

Don't Give Up!

During my App-O-Rama, I applied for the Chase United Credit Card, among others.  I had previously gotten the sign up bonus for that card a couple years ago, but based on reports I had read on the internet I should not have trouble getting the bonus again.


I signed up for a 30,000 mile bonus.


Over the phone I confirmed with a rep that I would be getting the bonus.  Then I asked the rep about getting qualified for a 50,000 mile bonus with a $50 statement credit which I had already successfully gotten for my wife.


She said it wasn't her department, but Chase will contact me in 10 business days.


10 days later I got letter in the mail saying that I won't be getting any miles because I had previously gotten this bonus!  I was quite perturbed to say the least.




So, I sent a secure message to Chase without alluding to the letter I received.  Here is the message:

After I signed up for the United 30,000 mile sign up bonus 

I noticed that there was a 50,000 mile sign up bonus with  

a $50 statement credit. Can I please be matched to that  

offer? Thank you very much.

In a couple of days, I got the following message back from Chase:

Dear Oren, 

Thank you for contacting Chase regarding your United MileagePlus® credit card account. 

We are pleased to inform you that we have honored your request and issued a $50.00 statement credit and 20,000 additional miles. The credit and miles will be reflected on your next billing statement. 

If you have any further questions, please reply using the Secure Message Center. 
Thank you, 

Later that month, my $50 statement credit and miles posted to my United account and all was good in the world again.

Credit Card Application Status - Part 3

Related Posts

Part 1 - App-O-Rama Intro

Part 2 - Picking The Right Cards

Part 4 - Avoiding annual fees

Part 5 - Affect on your credit score


I finally applied this past week for my App-O-Rama and here are my results so far.

Chase United - 35,000 mile sign up bonus with authorized user.  I will try to get matched to 55,000 and $50 statement credit.

• Approved instantly!

Chase Ink Bold - Currently 50,000 points, but I hope to be matched to the 60,000 bonus offer.  

• Pending.  I called the Business reconsideration number (800-453-9719) to get a decision expedited and increase my chances for approval.  The agent told me I have to wait until I get a decision in the mail.  I will call again on Monday to see if I get a different answer.
• This is the only one I am concerned about at this point.

Citibank AA Mastercard -  40,000 miles.  

• Pending.  I moved recently.  Citibank wanted me to mail them proof of my address for security reasons.  Still waiting to hear from them.  I will probably call on Tuesday to make sure they got it if they don't call me on Monday. 
• I assume I will be approved once address verification is done.

Barclays US Airways - 40,000 miles.  I chose this over the NFL card because the NFL card bonus was expired.

• Approved after quick conversation.

PenFed American Express Travel Rewards  -  $200 sign up bonus towards my next round trip flight and 5% back on Airline purchases.

• Approved instantly.
• Another great feature:  This is an American Express card with no annual fee that is not through americanexpress.com  This means that I can get $25 free on Small Business Saturday.  American Express limits the number of credit cards you can have at one time to 4 (no limit on charge cards).  If the cards isn't issued by American Express, even though it is processed as an American Express card it doesn't count towards the limit.  Another examples is the Fidelity American Express.

Once these cards come, the spending can begin!

Secure Messaging Your Way to More Miles

I signed up for the Chase United MileagePlus Explorer credit card for my wife a couple months ago.

The current sign up bonus, which is the one I signed up for was 30,000 United Miles if you spend $1,000 in the first 3 months.

In addition, you get another 5,000 miles if you add an authorized user within 3 months for a total of 35,000 miles

I had read online that there was an offer for the same card with a 50,000 mile bonus (55,000 when you add an authorized user), but I hadn't signed up for it.  I also read about possibly getting a $50 credit as well.  Not surprisingly, when I spent $1,000, 30,000 miles were credited to my wife's United account.

I wanted the extra miles so this is what I did and you can do it too whenever there has recently been an available offer that's higher than your bonus.  I have done it with Chase and Citibank.  I don't know if it works with American Express.

Send a Secure Message

• Log in to your account at Chase.com
• Click on "Secure Message Center"

• Then Click on "send a secure message"
• Choose the credit card and the category of message you want to send and send you message.

It doesn't need to be complicated.  This is what I sent:

After I signed up for a 30,000 mile sign up bonus I noticed that there was a 50,000 mile sign up bonus with a $50 statement credit. Can I please be matched to that offer? Thank you very much.

I got the following response from Chase within 1 business day:



         Thank you for contacting Chase regarding your United 

MileagePlus® credit card account.

We are pleased to inform you that we have honored your 
request and added an additional 20,000 bonus miles and a 
$50.00 statement credit to your account to match our 
latest offer. These adjustments will be reflected on your
next billing statement.

If you have any further questions, please reply using the 
Secure Message Center. 

It only takes a minute and your results can be great.  As you see, I didn't even send a link or a screen shot of the available offer.

Chase United Visa Mileage Plus Credit Card

Edit: The Chase United Visa Mileage Plus Credit Card rules say that you will two get two free passes  a year to the United Club at the airport starting in the second year (after you have paid the annual fee). I received my two free passes this past week and it has been less than a year so I can cancel my card without paying the annual fee and still get my Club passes (they expire at the end of next year).

I can't promise that this will be true for everyone, but this was my experience

Chase Visa Unite Airlines Mileage Plus Credit Card

I normally am not a fan of cards that have an annual fee but this is a card that has signup bonus that is  hard to beat.

The card is the Chase Visa United Airlines Mileage Plus Credit Card

Keep in mind that I have just applied for this card so I haven't used the benefits and I can't verify it from personal experience.  As with everything else, please read the terms and conditions carefully from their website.

Advantages -


1) $1,500 of Gift Cards at Restaurant.com -You get 30,000 miles just for signing up, making one purchase and adding an authorized user within two months of signing up.  If you can't add an authorized user you can still get 25,000 miles for signing up and making one purchase.  You can redeem 2,000 points for 4 separate $25 gift cards at restaurant.com for a total of $100.  30,000/2,000 = 15.  This means that you can redeem 2,000 points 15 times for a total of $1,500 at restaurant.com!  For those who eat kosher they do have a few kosher restaurants in Manhattan, like Wolf and Lamb.

2) Annual Fee ($95) is waived the first year - I sent Chase an email regarding how long you have to keep the card open and they said that if you keep it open for 6 months they won't take your points away for closing the account.  This means that you can cancel the account between 6 months and the end of the first year without incurring any penalties.

Downsides


1) There is an annual fee after the first year that is pretty expensive ($95) so make sure to cancel the card after 6 months (set up a reminder on your calender for 7 months after you officially have the card).

United Airlines - 3 Hours Is Not Worth It

United Airlines - A Lesson in Awful Customer Service 

My good friend's wife gave birth this past Thursday and his son's bris is this Thursday.  I decided that I would try to come in to New York to make it.

A few months back, I signed up for the Chase United MileagePlus Explorer Credit Card.  I got 30,000 miles for my first use of the card and adding an authorized user within 2 months.  There is an annual fee to the card, but it is waved for the first year and I figured I would use the miles and then cancel the card.  The flights were $400 roundtrip and I still had 26,000 miles left so I decided to try to use the miles.

I found flights that "cost" 25,000 miles and $80.  I booked them and only realized later that I must have clicked the wrong button because my email conformation says that my tickets cost over $600.  It was the same day so I called up and figured I could change it pretty easily.

This is where the fun begins:

I called up and was told that there would be a 3 minute wait time.  No big deal.  I put my cell phone on speaker phone and went on with my day.  After about 35 minutes, I was starting to get annoyed.  I don't care much if I am told that it will be 20 minutes and I have to wait 25, but if I'm told it's only going to be 3 minutes, I expect a very short waiting time.  After 57 minutes, someone got on the line to answer my call.

I was annoyed, but I told her that I wasn't angry at her, I was angry at United Airlines.  I was hoping that by waiting so long and saying I was annoyed I might get something for free.  She pretty much ignored my complaint.

After about 30 minutes of getting my conformation numbers, cc numbers, billing address etc, she put me on hold so that she can cancel my current flight and get me the same flight but for miles instead of money.

Another 15 minutes passed and someone new came on the line and asked "How can I help you?"  At this point, I was angry.  I had spent the last hour and 45 minutes changing my ticket and I was about to start over.  They said they don't know who my last agent was so they couldn't transfer me back so I had to start over.

They put me on hold for another 30 minutes (I had to now recharge my phone after I had already charged it the previous night) while they were once again canceling and rebooking my flights.  After 3 hours total (thankfully it was the weekend so unlimited minutes on the cell :), I was done.  The ticket was successfully changed, but I wanted to speak with their manager.  There was no way I was going to leave empty handed from this fiasco without a fight.

The manager apologized profusely for how horrible United's customer service is.  He told me that everything is recorded and he would  listen to the tapes and make sure this will not happen again.  I told him that it was unacceptable.  My time is valuable and I cannot imagine using United Airlines again if it will take me 3 hours for a simple change to my ticket.  His response was that he could give me a credit to my card or miles as an apology.  I said that I certainly don't want miles after what happened, but I would take a credit.  Phew, at least I didn't completely waste my time.

While I certainly would not have signed up for a credit and have to go through the aggravation and time I wasted, but it's better than no credit at all.

The important lesson is that large companies are often willing to give you something for free if they mess you over and all you have to do is ask.  You hope they don't mess you over, but unless you ask.

The next time a big company wastes your time or your money, tell them you and your time are important and that you deserve something for the way you are being treated.  You would be surprised what you might get in return.