Can’t Last: New United Card 100,000 Mile Bonus Offer

by Gary Leff

I receive compensation for content and many links on this blog. Citibank is an advertising partner of this site, as is American Express, Chase, Barclays and Capital One. Any opinions expressed in this post are my own, and have not been reviewed, approved, or endorsed by my advertising partners. I do not write about all credit cards that are available -- instead focusing on miles, points, and cash back (and currencies that can be converted into the same). Terms apply to the offers and benefits listed on this page.

New United QuestSM Card

The new United QuestSM Card is positioned between the primary consumer UnitedSM Explorer Card ($95 annual fee) and the premium United ClubSM Infinite Card ($525 annual fee, comes with United Club access).

The $250 annual fee United QuestSM Card has launched with a temporary offer of up to 100,000 bonus miles:

  • 80,000 miles after $5,000 in purchases in the first 3 months after account opening
  • 20,000 additional miles after you spend $10,000 in the first 6 months

The initial 80,000 miles is a great offer on its own, but rounding up to the full 100,000 makes sense since $10,000 over 6 months is just $1667 per month so hardly insurmountable.


United Polaris Business Class

Earning with the card is strong for an airline product, too, with 3x on United purchases and 2x on all other travel as well as restaurants and select streaming services. They’ll even bonus spending with other airlines at 2x. Most will be better off with Chase’s own Ultimate Rewards cards for mileage-earning, but I’m still impressed compared to other airline co-brands.

The interesting piece that makes the card a keeper is:

  • $125 credit on United purchases each account anniversary year
  • 5000 mile rebate on each of your first two United award redemptions each cardmember anniversary year, starting with your first anniversary (up to 10,000 miles total each year)

I view these two benefits as worth the annual fee on their own for those who fly United. And those who use United but not enough to earn status will benefit from,

  • first and second checked bags free for the cardholder and for one companion on the same booking
  • Priority boarding
  • 25% back on United inflight purchases

The card also comes with up to $100 Global Entry or TSA PreCheck® fee credit. And as a premium Chase rewards card it comes with ancillary benefits you don’t always find from other issuers: trip cancellation and interruption; lost luggage and baggage delay; trip delay; primary car rental collision; purchase protection; extended warranty.

Chase generally won’t approve new cardmembers who have had 5 or more new cards in the past 24 months (“5/24”). Card-specific rules are they won’t approve someone who already has this card or has received a new cardmember bonus for it in the past 24 months – but since the United QuestSM Card is brand new that doesn’t exclude a lot of people.

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 »

More articles by Gary Leff »

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

  1. 100k just isn’t an exciting bonus anymore as much as United has devalued the program. Double it and I’ll be interested.

  2. Hmmmm for those that still have the legacy UA “Select” I wonder if Chase will retire the card for all users like they are doing with the “Platinum” card. The 3X on UA purchases and 2X on *A back in the day was a game changer – not so much anymore.

  3. @Adam All those Select & Platinum card holder have already been moved to the Quest minus the 100K bonus of course.

  4. The introduction of the incomparable CSR card stole the thunder of all such subsequent offers…

  6. @Gary – kind of amazed that you just blew over the ability to earn 3,000 PQP (as those of us w/the legacy UA Plat Visa have done for a couple years now post-PQP launch). Esp. given the high end UA Club Card only allows for 1,000 PQP.

    @DCS – we get it…you like the CSR, and tout it ad nauseum. I and many others like it too. But if you want the shortcut to UA 1K, the Quest card is your best bet given the PQP earning.

  7. Interesting… But personally, I’ll stick with the new no-annual-fee United Gateway card. Incredible benefits for a $0 fee card.

    Your mileage, however, may vary.

  8. …..and in 3 weeks, it will cost you 75,000 each way to get from ORD to STL in basic economy.

  9. @ Gary — The “Wow!” seems like overkill for something that is old news…

  10. This card is great if you spend a lot on united flights. Not so good otherwise.

  11. I got an offer for 100K Skymiles and 10K MQM after 3K purchase. Is it better than this UA card? I am a Delta Skymiles Gold, and the 10K MQM will only get me to Silver next year, which is not much w Delta. However, Delta has large presence in my home airport (SEA) and potential of adding up miles after business travel is restored by Fall – hopefully.

  12. I think the Explorer card may still be more compelling. $0 first year for 65% of the bonus miles. Many of the benefits are the same, but you don’t get the $125 credit or the two 5,000 mile awards and mileage earning is slightly lower. However, the free (first year) Explorer comes with two Club passes, so that tips the scale for me.

  13. Soon United will require 100K miles for a domestic one-way coach ticket..
    Nothing to see here. Keep moving.

  14. this is a business class cabin with aristocratic status it is very nice and fully equipped and very luxurious to ensure the passengers in this compartment

  15. What’s the point? Look at YYZ – NYC one way. UA wants 100k for a business ticket.

  16. How does this offer compare to the 100k british airways signup bonus for 5k spend? Is it better to invest in united or BA for someone based on east coast US that tends to fly international premium.

  17. Projecting myself (rolled eyes) I think ‘a lot of people’ are over Chase 5/24 YMMV (winked eye)
    Lol

  18. Uuuh Bill. Good point. UA or BA at home international airport IAD
    BA 1st on DreamLiner is lovely
    UA NS AMS but been there done that- nice. Tulips!
    Also can fund Lufthansa and Etihad – super nice on favorite planes DreamLiner and B747-8i InterContinental
    Waiting for ANA Windows 1st @IAD. Did 90K VA miles 4 ANA n 1st RT super. IAD NRT IAD

  20. @CHRIS and Alan: I just spoke with Kirby. He chuckled that you both missed a “0”. It should be 750,000 and 1M miles for any one-way award flight less than 500 miles. He said that he did keep his promise “Costly MORE for passengers”.

  21. The timing is to early to risk as many Fully Vaccinated people are re-ingefected with the CoVid-2 variants, where vaccines are barely effective !
    Just looked at World Wide large cities as a new fierce 4th wave are new ” Hot zones”.

  22. I feel that the UA Quest card falls short. No club access or at least if it offered E+ or a 50% discount on E+ I would consider… For me either the Explorer is great or the club.

  23. I could see putting $5k for 80k but $10k on this card is a lot for that product. I guess when you add in the earnings of the spend it’s worth it but the airlines have devalued so much it’s like Hilton awards these days.

  25. I think I have enough credit cards already. Chase is a good credit card company and should be preferred over competitors that offer less.

Comments are closed.