I applied and was approved for both of these cards yesterday. I had been thinking that I would use the CSP primarily for Food and Travel and the Explorer card for most everything else up to $25K to get the 10K point bonus each year. At that point I would shift primarily to the CSP card. I know I have more reward options with the CSP but I guess I was thinking the 10K bonus each year was suprior. Looking for feedback on this and if I am thinking about this incorrectly? Thanks all.

Why not just get the Freedom Unlimited and spend the $25K there instead? You get back 37500 UR points instead of 35000 United miles. And you don't have to spend exactly $25K.. can stop early or go past that.

I am not following with your comment on getting back 37500 UR points by using the Freedom Unlimited instead? Also why would I pick the Freedom Unlimited over the normal Freedom? I do agree with having the more flexible UR points vs the United miles.


As a side note my previous go to card has always been my AMEX blue cash preferred but I am looking to obviously start playing the points game so will be moving off this card. I sure do appreciate the reply!

EDIT: I see where you got the points from...

Also, I guess I am going to need to wait the 30 days before I try to get the freedom unlimited card since I just got the other 2 chase cards yesterday.

Are you currently an UA elite member and an U.S. resident (for UA purpose)?

If no, then it is a waste to spend on the M+ Explorer.

Thanks for the replies guys. I was looking at all of this again last night. I think this is what I am going to do below...

CSP - Use for specific purchases
Explorer - Shelve once reaching min for rewards then possibly cancel 12M

Sapphire - Have had this card since 2010, change into a Freedom card and use.

This should still keep me at 2/24 with Chase. I also have a BoA card I rarely use and keep around due to it being my oldest card.

After I hit the minimum's for the new CSP and Explorer I will look into my next card, possibly an Ink card.

Yes. That is what I'd recommend as well. I now have all 3 of those cards and I only use the CSP for travel and dining.
The United will get all spend until spend needed it hit.
Freedom gets all my everyday spend and especially bonus category spend.

I guess my Sapphire was older than I thought, I went ahead and converted that into the Freedom Unlimited card. Need to decide what to do with BoA and AMEX and if I should keep them for history or not. Not sure if loosing BoA history would matter since the Chase card is over 10 years as well. Thoughts?

What kind of spend per year are we talking? I ask because I face a similar dilemma. Although I have the Club card which doesn't give 1.4 only on 25K spend. After 5 months and 42K spend, I'm at 63K M+ miles (total spend only as some of it is UA-based which is 2x). If I charged that on the Explorer, it would be 52K if my math is right. That doesn't make up for the huge difference in the annual fee but over the next 7 months, I'm hopeful that I'll realize enough for it to be worth it.

The fly in the ointment is the Freedom Unlimited which is 1.5x UR for a $0 annual fee card provided I have the CSP. This destroys the Club card in almost every way except benefits and UA spend. I now have 8 months to see if I'll stay with this course or come up with a mishmash of others cards to accomplish a similar outcome.