United mile up promo is garbage
 

I received an email for a 50% bonus on all activity, while my wife only got 25% offer. Needed to make a purchase and sears was a good fit. Wife's account was logged in at united and on shopping portal showed a 6x mile per dollar offer. When I logged her out and into my account, offer was 4x mile per dollar. Cleared cookies, changed browsers and every time, default was 6x until I logged in and got 4x. What a crap promo.

re
 

United promos are run by Catera...so yes you are right they are CRAP.

The solution is easy - have the wife buy all your things. Unless you think she is going to take all the miles and run off to Rio with the gardener.:D

I think the point was that the the OP was offered 50% "mile up" bonus and the wife was only offered 25%....

OP earns 4 miles per $ before the bonus. Wife earns 6 miles per $.

If wife makes the purchase, no 50% bonus.

I don't use the United shopping mall much anymore. Much better luck with Chase Ultimate Reward mall. Usually higher earning rates and the activity records and subsequent points post much quicker.

Transfers 1:1 into MileagePlus miles.

I've never gotten any mileage by doing anything but flying. The Chase card sucks so i dont have one. MP shopping & dining is just to much trouble, etc, etc.

That being said, I saw a promotion from MP Shopping & Shoes.com w 6 miles per $ spent. I was going out anyway that week to buy a bunch of VAN's tennis shoes in a bunch of colors for myself & my GF so figured I had nothing to lose trusting MP Shopping & Cartera. My first MP purchase, received my shoes in 3 days & 5200 RDM's within 10 days. I can't see why all the bad comments about Cartera

Curious why you think the Chase card sucks....Care to elaborate?

I tend to think it is one of the better cards out there for me (USA based - Chase Sapphire Preferred). Am I missing something?

The UA shopping mall can work fine. It can also be a nightmare. I have not had any awful experiences, but have had some issues with having miles post. The credits do not happen quickly and it is difficult to track.

I would expect if you used them regularly, you would start having issues pop up. And the resolution of them is not necessarily easy.

Of all the people to play the 'I did this once and it worked so what are you complaining about' card I woudln't have expected it to be you. ;)

True, I guess 1 good experience out of 1 try is not a good sample. I guess I should have said "Expecting nothing I gave MP Shopping a go, I had to buy the stuff anyway and was pleasantly surprised that it worked as advertised......I guess based on others experiences, I'll get screwed w the next purchase ;)

I actually feel that way about all American co branded cards except Amex. While they waive these large fees for many of us the first year, make no mistake about it these cards make a fortune by a) large fees & worse, the way they continue to take advantage of many customers by raising their limits in order to make sure they can't pay the balance in full every month, thus racking up huge interest charges. I love my Amex because I must pay it in full every month. I even have an Emirates branded card from my bank in Dubai but only because my fees are waived every year.

These banks are such scum, I had a Citi Bank AAdvantage MasterCard a few years ago that was cancelled by the bank. The reason? After 3 years as a customer I never paid a penny in interest. That made me & a number of others who also had their cards cancelled "undesirable" customers because we paid our bills to fast :rolleyes: This was 100% legal for the banks to do

I have had a number of cards (Chase, BofA) over the past decades, have never paid a penny of interest or fees (except an annual fee for some) and never have had a card cancelled on me, so not an universal practice.

I never understood the annual fees to be a source of revenue, the $65/yr is nothing compared to processing fees (& interest if applicable)

I thought the smaller annual fees were a loyalty gimmick - one is more likely to be loyal to a card he is paying annually for.

The Club Card and Amex Plat may be a different story, although I'm not all that sure, I get excellent service from my Amex plat, and $200 come straight back to my pocket. Perhaps enough customers don't utilize the full benefits.

Does anyone think Mypoints united mile transfer, netflix sign up bonus, and hotel point transfer will work for Mile up promotion. How united distinguishes hotel stay points from transfer points?.

It always takes posts like these on FT to make me chuckle. Where one person may describe an online shopping experience as a "nightmare", others may have nightmares about not paying bills, their children's health, etc. I do find it funny how may times the word nightmare is used to describe travel experiences. Something about this reminds me of the comedian Louis CK's rant about compaints by air travelers. :cool:

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KpUNA2nutbk

No, it's not a universal practice. In fact when my Citi Bank card was cancelled the WSJ did an article about it (not about me :), but the fact that they were canceling thousands of cards from customers who's credit never changed & paid their bills on time. Their only fault was paying their bills in full & avoiding interest charges. My feeling is the bad press a few years back w this stopped other banks from doing the same

The fact you (and I) pay our cards in full every month to avoid any interest charges makes us a very small minority. I read an article a few months back that said the vast majority of AMERICAN credit card holders do keep a balance.

Some of us live and work in the US, having a card from outside of the US does not make sense. The Chase Sapphire Preferred or the Freedom cards are actually two of the better cards out there. Visa is one of the most universally accepted cards in the world. I had an amex for quite a while, but it was getting difficult at times to actually use the thing. Many places where I lived and worked just didn't take them.
A charge card is not the same as a credit card, many of the larger banks also offer charge cards, you just might need to ask for them.

I also had a Citi card cancelled on me for the same reason. Citi also jacked up the interest rate on a card that I don't actually use because I was declined a card from Chase.

OK. Thanks for the explanation.

I do not carry balances / pay interest, which seems to be similar to many of us on FT who are using cards to augment mile earning. I am not a big admirer of banks in general, and in fact use a Credit Union exclusively for my traditional banking needs...but I will continue to take advantage of the evil banks attempt to lure me into paying them interest. My willpower is strong and my mile cravings are stronger. :D

I was worried there was a better mile-producing card out there for my circumstances that I was missing out on. Wheh !