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United MileagePlus Explorer Visa & MasterCard Versions
I am always amazed at how awesome Frequent Flyer University readers are.
I try to do my best on covering as much information about frequent flying and travel hacking on the site, but I am always grateful when readers submit new information to me because to be honest I am constantly learning.
Chris M. from Libertyville, IL, sent me this email this weekend. For taking the time to think about FFU while on the phone with Chase, I’ll be sending a $50 Starbucks giftcard his way.
How To Get Your Annual Fee Waived By Chase / The United MileagePlus Explorer Visa & MasterCard
Parag, I was just talking with Chase, because I was hit with annual fees on my old United MileagePlus card (the old gray visa with the $60 fee), and the British Airways card which I signed up for last year. Your readers might find this information quite useful:
- The front line phone rep doesn’t have any power to waive fees— if you want to get your fees waived, you need to ask to be transferred to a “loyalty adviser”. They are pretty quick and happy to waive the fee for you, and it doesn’t take a lot of strong-arming on your part.
- If you had the Continental OnePass MasterCard before (the entry level one with $85 fee), that card automatically switched over to a United Explorer card, but as a Mastercard. I asked the rep if it was possible to have both the old Mastercard version, and the new Visa version, and she said yes. Hopefully that means its possible to get a second sign up bonus for the Explorer card.
- The rep was able to waive the fee on the United Card, but not on the BA card. I asked if this was because I was asking for two fees to be waived at the same time, or if it was something unique to the BA card. The rep said that the Chase marketing department only budgets refunds for certain cards they are promoting. She said that the United card was one that had a budget, but the BA card did not. Either way, it was pretty painless to get the $60 statement credit.
What Does This Mean
Thanks to Chris’s due diligence, we now know some pretty groundbreaking news that really changes the game. I’ll be writing more in-depth about these topics this week, but here is a basic summary.
- You can get an annual fee waived on your Chase Cards, you just have to ask to speak to the right person and the Card has to have a marketing budget.
- There are 2 types of MileagePlus Explorers Credit Cards, a Visa and MasterCard version, which most likely means that you can get a sign up bonus for each version of the card. If anyone who has the MasterCard version, and has tried or gotten the Visa version along with the sign up bonus, please let me know.
- If you previously had the Continental OnePass MasterCard and had your card automatically switched over to the United MileagePlus Explorer MasterCard, you are still eligible for the current United MileagePlus Explorer Visa 30,000 mile offer because it is a Visa.
Overall, I am really excited about this news and I think everyone will be extremely happy if you can get a second 30,000 mile sign up bonus for the United MileagePlus Explorer Visa.
-Parag
Hello,
I am from chicago and I have the chicago card plus card which you may know is a transit cta card.
the way it works is i buy it for $$5 fee waived and then load money at transitchicago.com by setting up profile and a credit card number.
it loads $10 from your credit card number to the cta card every time your balance on transit card is below $6 or $7.
it is much more conveinent than buying the cta card at train stations or cta stations and you just swipe the chicago card plus in citi bus or in the train.
my question now is, DO I GET 2 CHASE UR POINTS PER DOLLAR for the CHASE SP CARD every time $10 is charged automatically online?
The online transactions on chse sp card shows this "CTA CHICAGO CARD QPS $10.00
888-9687282, IL 606561000 US
Online, Mail, or Telephone transaction "
@Tim Yes, you definitely get 2X points for your CTA card. I have a CTA pass and it is connected to my Chase Sapphire Preferred and every time it reloads, I get 2X points. This also holds true for Metra and monthly CTA passes.
but mine is not the cta card you buy in person at cta stations. mine is something called the CHICAGO CARD PLUS and shows online transaction on chase sp account and always in $10 every 3 days.
@Tim – That is the same card I have. You will get the 2X points, don't worry!