United Club Infinite Credit Card Gets 5 New Benefits Including Upgrades And Hotel Status

by Gary Leff

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United ClubSM Infinite Card

The United Airlines MileagePlus premium credit card has a $525 annual fee and currently has an offer to earn 75,000 bonus miles after you spend $3,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening.

Basics Of The Club Infinite Card

The United ClubSM Infinite Card earns 4 miles per $1 spent on United purchases; 2 miles per $1 spent on all other travel and dining; and 1 mile per $1 spent on all other purchases.

Benefits with this Visa Infinite product include up to $100 Global Entry or TSA Precheck® fee credit and 25% back as a statement credit on purchases of food, beverages and Wi-Fi onboard United-operated flight when you pay with your Club Card. You receive free first and second checked bags.

New United Club Infinite Card Benefits

There are (5) new benefits added to the United ClubSM Infinite Card (HT: Chris Dong)

  1. 10% discount on coach saver awards
  2. 10,000 bonus miles for signing up for clear by June 30, 2022 (stackable with the existing $70 joining credit)
  3. IHG Rewards Club Platinum status starting in 2022
  4. Companions of cardholders with elite status traveling on a United award ticket become eligible for upgrades
  5. More potential to earn elite qualifying points from spending starting in 2022. Earn 500 Premier Qualifying Points per $12,000 spent up to 4,000 Premier Qualifying Points per calendar year. (This is an increase from 3,000 qualifying points maximum in 2021.)

The 10% discount on coach saver awards will be valuable, depending on how you spend United miles. This is for coach awards only and booked at the saver level. It’s somewhat odd to limit this to saver inventory, but that limits the discount. Nonetheless in a world where United doesn’t have award charts, it’s not clear how a member is supposed to know they’re eligible for the discount (which prices automatically when logged in).

The bonus for joining CLEAR is great, since I’m finding the security shortcut indispensable in my travels.

It’s a bit odd to offer IHG hotels elite status, and the same status offered by the IHG® Rewards Club Premier Credit Card, however Chase pays IHG for the status on that co-brand and it was probably an easy deal for them to do. Still, since United has a long-standing Marriott tie-in it’s a bit of an odd choice.

Then again Chase used to offer Hyatt status as a throw-in with its premium Continental Airlines credit card.

The companion upgrade is going to be an edge use case, but nice for those that will use it. And the ability to spend more towards status is shockingly limited in the United program even after this change that lets you max out after $96,000 spend on the card.

United elites striving for status will find this card valuable, though, and those who would pay for a club membership are better off doing so in most cases via this card’s annual fee in my view anyway. The rest of the add-on benefits are gravy.

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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Comments

  1. I find very little to pique my interest in this card, with its outrageous fee, if you only travel on United sporadically.

  2. Oh great, even less upgrades (crumbs) for silvers and possibly golds. I cleared more upgrades this year as a silver than I have combined the last couple of years as a silver. This actually disintivized me from even trying to earn status. The UA club card and economy plus subscription is cheaper than trying to earn status. At least I can choose my E+ seat with a subscription and visit any lounge with the cc access

  3. I will rather keep $525 for something else. I am still UA Silver courtesy of Bonvoy Titanium lifetime status. I do not see how much I gain from this if I only fly UA sporadically.

  4. I just got the package on this ‘rebranded’ credit card from United. What really smells is that they have now reduced the miles received for all dollars spent on general purchases – from 1.5 miles per $ to 1 mile, beginning 11/08/21. Imagine United/Chase coming up with a nifty new name for their credit card and ensuring reduced miles received for card spend! A big hand to the UA marketing geniuses!

  5. I had the older United Club card and just got the mailing about the change today, also. It sounds OK generally but the decrease in general point earning from 1.5 to 1 per dollar spent is unfortunate, as I favored this card for large purchases just because of that. Still, in hopes of future travel, I’ll keep it for a while longer. If we travel enough the savings on baggage fees will pay for it, plus having Club access is pleasant especially when there are flight difficulties. We live in Seattle now, though, which is not a major United hub, unlike where I’ve lived before (DCA/IAD and SFO).

  6. I’m in the same spot as carletonm. I have the Club card and because of the 1.5 miles per dollar I’ve been using it as go-to for my regular spend. (Yes, I know there are better spend cards, but I don’t have them.) I still like the card’s United Club access, and also the Hertz President’s Circle. As for keeping the card, I may or may not, I’ll wait till my renewal to decide. But come November 8 I’ll be using it only for car rentals – really a “sock drawer” card thereafter – in favor of my WoH Visa. And I’m a little surprised. Citi devalued the benefits on its Prestige but upped the incentive to spend. That made sense to me as a business decision by Citi. Chase (which I’d thought was a smarter company than Citibank?) is doing the opposite. Am I missing something?

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