Originally Posted by
Sykes
As a Lifetime United Club member, you used to be able to get the Presidential Plus MasterCard for $100/year. I haven't seen any reports of that applying to the new United MileagePlus Club card that replaced it, but you may want to call Chase to see if that option is available. The earning rate for miles on that card is decent (especially for spending categories which don't earn at bonus rates on other cards), and the secondary benefits such as Hyatt Gold Passport Platinum, Avis President's Club, and others, make it an excellent option if it is available for the reduced rate.
If not, the Explorer is an excellent card as well if you're mostly just looking for front-of-line benefits.
Well, here is a C&P about that one card which would do everything we need but the $395.00 will not be approved by the wife.....
If you do not have a Presdiential Plus card, the replacement is the United Club Card. It is nearly identical except 1) it no longer earns elite qualifying miles, and 2) it earns 1.5 miles per dollar spent instead of the basic 1 mile per dollar spent of the old Presidential Plus. Read a full review here.
Features
Annual fee: $395
Intro Bonus: $95 statement credit after first purchase. (Note: Some people are reporting an offer with the first year completely free)
Earning: 1 mile per dollar spent
Foreign Exchange Transaction Fee: Waived
Miles can be used for travel with: Continental Airlines, United Airlines, US Airways, Virgin Atlantic, Lufthansa, Air Canada, Air New Zealand, ANA, Asia Air, BMI, Singapore, South African, Qantas, Emirates, Swiss, Thai, and many more.
Other benefits:
Airport Club access: The card gives you access to all Continental, United, and US Airways airport lounges, in addition to hundreds of Star Alliance parnter lounges worldwide when travelling on a Star Alliance ticket. Typically this access alone can cost you $400 or more per year.
Earn 1,000 Flex Elite Qualification Miles (Flex EQMs) for every $5,000 in purchases. These miles are valid to use for 3 calendar years. You can use them toward the first 75,000 qualifying miles in any given calendar year. [No longer available to new card accounts - only those with Presidential Plus cards prior to the launch of the United Club credit card have this benefit]
First *and* second checked bag fee waived: A savings of up to $120 per roundtrip on BOTH United and Continental, for up to 2 people in your reservation.
PremierAccess Benefits: Priority boarding on all United flights and priority security access at airports with PremierAccess lanes. United priority benefits are also now active.
If I could get something like it for a quarter of the price.....it would be great. Also, the Avis perk would not go over very well since we get Hertz employee discounts.....
