New: United Explorer Card 70,000 Bonus Miles

by Gary Leff

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The UnitedSM Explorer Card has an offer to earn up to 70,000 bonus miles. Earn 60,000 bonus miles after you spend $3,000 on purchases in the first 3 months your account is open. Plus, earn an additional 10,000 miles after you spend $6,000 total on purchases in the first 6 months your account is open. That’s still just an average of $1000 a month, so easily doable for most readers.

This is a nice improvement over most of the elevated offers there have been for this card. And it comes with a $0 the first year then $95 annual fee so you aren’t even paying that first year fee in exchange for the additional miles.

  • Spending earns 2 miles per $1 spent at restaurants, on hotel stays booked directly with the hotel and on United purchases. I don’t view this as a primary spend card.

  • What’s great about this card is the travel benefits when flying United. You get first bag for free when you use your card to purchase your ticket. You get priority boarding (avoid having to gate check your carry on, and indeed on a Basic Economy fare you can still bring on a full-sized carry on bag).

  • You’ll get 2 one-time United Club passes after account opening and every 12 months thereafter as long as the credit card account remains open.

  • Cardmembers get access to extra award availability at lower mileage prices that general members don’t have. Elites with the card can receive complimentary domestic upgrades on award tickets.

The card is worth getting for the miles offer at $0 the first year annual fee then $95, and worth keeping if you fly United occasionally but not enough to earn status or if you value upgrades on domestic award tickets and a little help earning status. Improved award availability for cardmembers is my favorite benefit.

There are two key things to know about getting this card.

  • If you currently have the card, or have gotten a new cardmember bonus for this card within the last 24 months, then you’re not eligible.

  • 5/24 applies, so this is a good play for you if you’ve had fewer than 5 new cards in the last 24 months.

UnitedSM Explorer Card

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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Editorial note: any opinions, analyses, reviews or recommendations expressed in this article are those of the author’s alone, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any card issuer. Comments made in response to this post are not provided or commissioned nor have they been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by any bank. It is not the responsibility of advertisers Citibank, Chase, American Express, Barclays, Capital One or any other advertiser to ensure that questions are answered, either. Terms and limitations apply to all offers.

Comments

  2. While I’m not in the market for a new card myself at current, I’d say this card seems pretty compelling for its ongoing benefits.

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