Card with actual benefits for an authorized user?
 

I have the UA MP Explorer card, and my wife is an authorized user. It's our primary family card, and we like having one shared account for ease of budgeting etc. However, we both travel a lot for work, and apparently only I get the United benefits of the card, as primary cardholder - priority boarding, free checked bag, upgrades on award tickets, etc. My wife as authorized user gets none of this when she travels without me. Which is, of course, bull--why the arbitrary distinction between users, especially since either of us could have filled out the application materials?

So my question is whether there are any cards out there that grant their full travel benefits to both the primary cardholder and an authorized user (or that allow spouses to both be primary cardholders)? Could be an airline, hotel, or any other type of card. Thanks.

No card that I'm aware of grants all the same benefits to an authorized user. Plenty grant a portion of benefits... such as the Amex Platinum card, where additional card members still get some key benefits like as lounge access.

Keep in mind you're likely paying an annual fee for these benefits. If you wanted all your authorized cardholders to have the benefits, the fee would have to rise too. Rather than doing that, the primary cardholder gets all the benefits and additional cardholders might get a subset. Nothing stops your spouse from getting the same card if they want full benefits.

Can't answer your question but can give you some advice: have your wife apply for her own UA MP card and she'll get 50K miles or 55K if she adds you as an AU. Even though she is an AU on your card she can apply for her own. Details on our Chase forum.

Not bull at all. You pay $95/yr for the card, and you get the benefits. Your wife pays nothing. Why should she get the same benefits? People would just add lots of AUs for their whole family. This makes perfect sense, really. Have her apply for her own card. Get the 55K miles and all the benefits. She doesn't have to use the card once the minimum spend is met, so you can keep sharing your card for budgeting purposes. If she travels twice a year with checked bags, the AF more than pays for itself--plus the other benefits you listed.

How quaint! In reality, we pay the annual fee, and we should get the benefits. It's an artificial restriction on UA/Chase's part based on which one of us happened to fill out the application form. And we don't want two accounts - I prefer having one account to track all of our spending. I'd rather pay double the annual fee for one account so we can both get full benefits.

But if the answer is that there aren't any cards out there that provide equal benefits to all users on the account, then so be it. Anyone else know of one?

The fact that there aren't really any cards that do that should be an indication of something. It is not UA/Chase, it's every airline/hotel/bank I can think of. The only ones I can think of are the Citi Prestige card and the AMEX Platinum cards, and they're still limited benefits, and the AF for the primary is very high, and there's a discounted AF for each AU (hence the limited benefits).

I don't mean to be adversarial, but your name, social, and income went on the application. That means you alone are financially liable for the charges on the card, and you alone are a benefactor of the rewards it offers. Chase does understand that to an extent, which is why the baggage waiver and boarding priority apply to the primary cardholder + companion travelling with him. I'm in the same boat with my wife. She's flying next month without me, and she doesn't get the benefits of my AA Exec card, even as an AU (AC access, baggage waiver). As I said before, you do not have to use both cards. If it really is just a matter of tracking spending, put her card in a sock drawer after MSing the minimum spend. As long as she has a UA MPE card open/linked to her FF account, she gets all the benefits. You're just paying a double AF like you wanted, and the first year free and 55K miles is an added bonus.

To be sure we understand correctly, in your household you have only one payment card account?

I know. Only last week I went to a theme park with one ticket for my entire family. I tried to explain to them that "we pay the [ticket cost], and we should get the benefits" but they wouldn't let us all in with a single ticket. What is the world coming to.

/s

Yeah, my wife is trying to figure out why they won't let her in my gym even though my membership fees are paid on a credit card that is paid from our joint checking account.

At least get the analogy right when you go for snark. If the amusement park or gym membership had allowed you to add your wife as an authorized user on your pass, and then didn't let her in when she went without you, I bet you'd start looking at alternatives too.

Banks make it easy to add authorized users because it increases likelihood of spending or overspending on the card, generating them more processing fee or interest revenue. It's definitely not out of the goodness of their hearts, nor out of any desire to give more than they get. It's not a Chase or UA thing; it's an industry-wide policy. Some businesses give full benefits on memberships for the primary + spouse (Costco), or discounted rates for a spouse or family member (some gyms). Businesses are in no way obligated to do that, though, and with the rampant abuse of the CC system (myself included) through churning cards and manufactured spend, there's no business/bottom-line benefit to granting full benefits to AUs, and it would definitely get heavily abused.

I really don't see how this is a benefit anyone could feel entitled to. Sure, I'd love my wife to have AC access from my AA Exec card without me, but I totally get why she doesn't.

It's not an arbitrary distinction. You do not have a joint account, one of you is the primary cardholder, the other is an authorized user, and some benefits are offered only to the primary cardholder. You chose who would be the primary cardholder, and the benefit terms were clearly disclosed on the application.

American Express Platinum does give substantially all benefits of the primary card to the additional cardholders, but the additional cards are not free, and some benefits are capped on a per account, rather than per card, basis. (The Platinum Card does not provide free checked bags nor priority boarding on any airline.)

As others have noted, the solution to the problem is for your wife to get a UA card in her name. If you can't handle one more credit card account, then you're in the wrong forum.

And to be honest, I think it is quite generous for Chase to tie the benefits to one's FF# without requiring that the card be used to purchase the flights.