That's a good idea that I hadn't thought of. The club card is cheaper than straight-up membership because straight-up membership would cost $450 + $50 for an initiation fee. But I suppose I could get the club card for a year, and then if I feel the club is worth it, cancel and use my AMEX card to renew at only $250. I do use some of the $200 annual credit already, but probably not the whole thing, so then I'm still looking at $300 for UC membership.

It's weird that they discount the club membership, but not the credit card for elites. Even the paltry $60 annual credit seems to have disappeared. United clearly wants me to get the card given how much junk mail they send me, but I'm very disincentivized to pay $450 for a bunch of benefits that I mostly already have.

I supposed if I didn't have Citi Prestige it might make sense to get the credit card as a thing to make purchases with, for the miles. However, I currently earn way better benefits with ThankYou points--8% back on all travel purchases. (3 points per dollar on travel, 3 matching flight points I'm grandfathered into from my Chairman card, and each point is worth $0.0133 towards travel on United. Most critically, I earn PQMs on my free travel, and without those I'd lose 1K.)