New United Visa Offer – Up to 40,000 Bonus Miles

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There’s a new United Visa offer, here are the salient details:

  • first year free,
  • 20,000 bonus miles with first purchase (note, no requirement for minimum spending)
  • 10,000 bonus miles for spending $10,000 on the card in six months (if you hit the $10,000 spending threshold, it amounts to earning double miles for your first $10k in spend)
  • 10,000 bonus miles on your first anniversary with the card (which will imply paying a $60 fee)

Chase, the card issuer, is clearly trying to incentivize two things: getting new cardholders to start putting their spending on this card rather than existing cards, and getting those cardholders to keep the card a full year rather than pocketing the initial bonus and cancelling befor ethe fee comes due.

For those who just want the quick mileage fix, then the offer of 25,000 bonus miles after spending $250 on the card with first year fee waived is a better choice.

But if you actually want to put spending on the card and keep it, then this could net you 40,000 miles.  And now that it’s no longer possible to churn the card, there’s reason to consider being in it for the long-haul.

Meanwhile, I’ve seen references on Flyertalk to another United Visa offer which comes with immediate ‘Premier Associate’ status .. which basically entitles you to priority checkin and boarding as well as economy-plus seating. I don’t have a link to the offer, so if you do consider mentioning it in the comments or email me.

About Gary Leff

Gary Leff is one of the foremost experts in the field of miles, points, and frequent business travel - a topic he has covered since 2002. Co-founder of frequent flyer community InsideFlyer.com, emcee of the Freddie Awards, and named one of the "World's Top Travel Experts" by Conde' Nast Traveler (2010-Present) Gary has been a guest on most major news media, profiled in several top print publications, and published broadly on the topic of consumer loyalty. More About Gary »

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