I don't use UR for booking travel, but I do encourage anyone considering using United for their points redemption do so as quickly as possible if not already mentioned earlier. While corporate customers like Chase might force Expedia to make a United deal, it is very possible that United will not be available on the portal. Expedia could also subcontract with another OTA (seems most feasible such as Priceline/booking.com or another) for United access, but again, unclear on that aspect. Yes, I know Chase and United have a relationship, but that is not too relevant at the moment for the outsourced travel portal (aside from the possibility that Chase might switch vendors again to manage the UR portal). I also would not depend on the 9/30 stated deadline.

One of the big advantages for using Expedia I've noticed is they have extensive availability of opaque and private fares for many hotels because of all of their umbrella contracts (hotels.com/hotwire) even with no points accrual on the third-party bookings for most chains. They just re-signed a deal with Marriott that includes opaque inventory. Although, this just means the margin on the room rate listed via Expedia might be much higher than what Chase/Expedia actually pay for the room. However, Expedia is not getting much love on the airfare distribution side as seen by the United dispute.

https://skift.com/2019/05/02/expedia...-to-the-table/