There’s a new all-time best offer for the Continental Airlines Mastercard, 50,000 miles after first purchase and no fee the first year. (HT: Rick.)
Continental and United have merged. Next year the frequent flyer programs will be combined. So there’s no reason to wait for a better offer for the Continental card. You can usually only get the signup bonus for each Chase credit card only once, if you haven’t had a Continental Mastercard before now is certainly the time to get one because the product will cease to exist in less than a year.
And of course your Continental and United mileage balances are going to be merged, so even if you’re just a United person you should consider grabbing these 50,000 miles because they’ll be added to your Mileage Plus balance down the road.
Now, you may not want to do this for about a week!
If you wait until February 1st when Continental’s Mile-a-thon offer begins (registration required), you’ll earn credits for that by applying for this card. That’s the strategy I used a year ago when I signed up for a Continental Mastercard, it netted me an extra 5000 miles.
I’ve actually kept the card, I rather like it, in fact it’s my go-to card for online shopping. That’s because Continental Mastercard holders earn double miles on all shopping done through the Continental Onepass shopping portal. Drugstore.com becomes 10 miles per dollar instead of 5, FTD (based on current earning, sometimes this changes) becomes 50 miles per dollar insead of 25. Just for a few examples.
I’ve got this card too…CO doesn’t fit my travel patterns but I use it for Star Alliance upgrades from biz to first on my LH flights to Europe (only 40K on CO vs 50K with LH M&M).
The offer is really attractive right now for new cardholders because I just received a flyer in snail mail today that states CO is giving double miles on all retail, entertainment, and dining purchases from 6-Jan-11 to 6-Mar-11 (obviously it was mailed late or has been sitting around at the post office). And you can get another 10K miles if you rack up $25K in charges within a year.
Gary.
Based on my personal experience you go not have to use this card to get double miles when shopping through Continental portal. Just FYI.
Love your blog.
My wife got this card last year and added me for the additional 5000 miles
Do u think I would get this bonus if I applied as a primary cardholder now
Or can I quickly cancel the old one and apply once deb rolls around?
The main reason I’m reluctant to consider a Continental or United card is the uncertainty of what will happen to it when the programs are combined. If I get a CO Mastercard, will it become a UA Visa? Or will my UA Visa become a Mastercard? I really don’t want to go through the hassle of having to change card numbers/information on the various automatic payments I have set up.
I have a vague recollection that, in the recent past, you could get a new CO credit card sign up bonus each year. I presume that is no longer the case, and that existing Continental Chase cardholders can’t get this bonus?
iahphx, I think you’re recalling the CO/Chase *debit* card, which could be churned annually. As to credit cards, Chase put the hammer down about 2-3 years ago & began denying signup bonuses to anyone except first-time applicants for a given card product.
Several people who got the 25+5K offer recently have been told Chase will add adjust the bonus if the prior card was within the past 3 months. Possibly add the entire additional 25K. No one has confirmed approval yet.
Worth calling the csr # on card and also sending secure message through account page.
edit above- I received secure message notice I would get the additional 25K CO miles about 15 minutes after I called this morning. My CO card was 2 months old.
Tomdc
I just called the CO CSR and they said NO! That I took adavantage of the previous offer and there was nothing they could do!
Should I call back (yes) but do they make notations about my phone call in my account? will they know that I just called 2 minutes ago (time notations)
Does anyone out there know the answer to this kind of stuff. I will try to go the secure message route next
Has anyone managed to persuade Chase to adjust the bonus on a card under the 25k promo? If so, what did you say in your letter/call to Chase?
How do u secure message them??? What email do u use??? Help!!
Just called CO Chase customer service and asked about the retroactive bonus miles for <3 month cardholders. I signed up for this card 2 months ago when the deal was 25k bonus miles. Rep told me that she submitted some of my info to the "relevant dept", and I should receive some type of literature/documents within the next week. Not sure what this means, but she didn't tell me "no" when I asked if I would get the extra 25k, so I'm hopeful at least…
Back here to confirm that I got a secured letter back from Chase today, saying that because I was within the 60 day window of previously opening up this card, they will grant me the additional 25,000!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! yippeee!
@Emil I just told them that I just opened up the card and that now they sent me an email for a 50,000 ff bonus and I asked if there was any consideration they could give me!
I got 25k on my Dad’s card which he got in October just for asking.
Got mine today, 2500 miles boost from the mileathon, very nice! Thanks for the tip to wait until 2/1 to do this. The only thing better would have been to create a new onepass account, since my current account had 0 miles in it…
I signed up for a Continental Chase debit card recently – would this prevent me from taking advantage of this offer?
I signed up for this 50k offer. I’ve never had a CO card before, so I’m definitely a first time user. However, I just received an e-mail congratulating me on receiving my 25,000 miles (!)
Have other people had this problem of them changing the number of bonus miles? Who should I talk to about that?
Thanks!
Does anyone know if it stays mastercard or turns to visa??thanks