1.5 United Miles Per $1 Spent On United MileagePlus Explorer Card

Typically I forget to check my physical apartment mailbox because it is usually just full of junk mail, but the last 2 days, it has been an absolute goldmine!

Yesterday I opened my mailbox to find that Chase had mailed both Emily and I, our 2 United Club lounge passes.

These lounge passes are part of the standard annual benefits for having the United MileagePlus Explorer Card, however I was under the impression that you only get these after you pay your annual fee.

Nevertheless, I am not complaing and was pleasantly surprised to see them.

We are going to Washington D.C at the end of July, so these 4 United Club passes will come in extremely useful during our trip.

The best part is that each United Club pass (we got 2 each), would cost us $50 per a pass if we were to buy them from United.

We got 4 of them, so that is $200 in free benefits right there!

I was pretty happy with that yesterday, but then today I got an even better surprise.

Chase sent Emily an offer that allows her to earn 1.5 United Miles per $1 spent on her United MileagePlus Explorer Card from July 4 – September 4.

Additionally, she can earn 3 United Miles per $1 spent on tickets purchased from United.

Unbelievable!

The United MileagePlus Explorer typically only earns 1 United Mile per $1 spent, so by Chase offering 1.5 Miles per $1 spent, they are effectively increasing the earn ratio by 50% which is insane!

The only other Card that comes close to this ratio is the United Club Card. It also earns 1.5 United Miles per $1 spent, but also comes with a cool $395 annual fee while the United MileagePlus Explorer has the $95 annual fee waived for the 1st year.

Targeted Or Not

I know the question on everyone’s mind is if this United MileagePlus Explorer Card promotion is targeted.

Unfortunately at this time I am not sure.

I wish I had a better answer but after reading through all the fine print, I didn’t see anything explicitly saying that it was targeted. However there was 1 sentence that said the offer is non-transferable.

Since our mail typically comes together, I am guessing if they sent this offer out to everyone then I also would have gotten my offer today.

CSI: United MileagePlus Explorer

In the event that this offer is in fact targeted, I am fairly certain I know why Emily got the offer and I did not.

For those of you that signed up for the Chase Sapphire Preferred Card this year, you may remember that the Card earns a 7% annual dividend and has the ability to transfer your points to any of the Ultimate Rewards Partners like United, Hyatt, British Airways, etc.

When the United MileagePlus Explorer 65,000 Mile offer + $50 Statement Credit was available, I told Readers about my plan to use the Card only once because there was no minimum spend requirements, so once you got the 55,000 United Miles, you could literally put it in the drawer and forget about it.

The reason for this is because the United MileagePlus Explorer Card only earns 1 United Mile per $1 spent, while the the Chase Sapphire Preferred earns 1.07 points per $1 spent when you include the annual dividend. The Chase Sapphire Preferred also has the flexibility to not only transfer your points into United Miles but also into any of the other Ultimate Rewards partners which makes it more versatile.

So if you had both the Chase Sapphire Preferred and the United MileagePlus Explorer, which would would you use on a daily basis?

THE CHASE SAPPHIRE PREFERRED!

The reason why I did not get this offer from Chase is most likely because I already downgraded my Chase Sapphire Preferred to the Chase Sapphire regular since the annual fee was coming due.

So now I don’t earn the 7% annual dividend any more, taking how much I can earn on the Chase Sapphire back down to 1 Mile per $1 spent which is the exact same as the United MileagePlus Explorer : (

Regardless, hopefully I am wrong about this being targeted and it in fact is open to anyone with the United MileagePlus Explorer Card. If you got the offer in the mail, feel free to comment below.

If you are interested in signing up for the Card, there is currently a 40,000 mile offer below.

Link To United MileagePlus Explorer

-Parag