milesmuncher

Quick Background: I've already received the Chase CO 50K deal, and the Chase Marriott Rewards 50K deal and am now trying to decide between the Sapphire 50K deal and the UA 50K deal (only available to UA/CO elites, as I understand it).

I was leaning toward the UA card, thinking that it could get merged with the CO card in the near future, and then I might lose eligibility for a new card due to my CO card "turning into" a UA card. However, I know people are pretty excited about the Sapphire offer right now as well. I AM planning to do both - but since neither one has an obvious expiration, just trying to figure out which should come first, and which one to wait 30 days for.

Any strong opinions, or is it basically a wash?

Dr Jabadski

Depending on how long you plan to keep it and use it, and how easily you achieve status with UA, the UA card could be the clear winner as it offers 1 EQM per $ spent at UA.com. I also recall earning EQM for UA onboard purchases but that was 2 or 3 years ago and I’m unsure if that’s still true.

(I recently received some EQM for a ticket I purchased at UA.com with the card and then had refunded within a few hours. Been wondering if that's a churn opportunity. Hmmmm. Sorry for any thread hijack.)

Igor718

hmm, my opinion ..... go for UA. By the way ..... care to share a link??? CO and UA will combine soon so I would suggest UA first. Then go for Saphire. Good thing about Chase is ... if you get denied, you can call them and most likely they'll approve your application.

milesmuncher

I only see the link when I'm logged into my UA account, so not sure if it'll work for those without UA status - but here it is: https://www.thatsaplus.com/MPSignature50KAFWP.aspx

Dr J - I don't see any mention of the EQM for spend at UA.com, maybe that's no longer a feature of the card? (I also remember seeing this card promising 3 miles / $ for spend on UA/CO, but that doesn't seem to be the case anymore either...)

Dr Jabadski

IIRC, I got my Chase UA card last fall by way of a targeted Email and I don't recall the exact details of that promotion.

Your link didn’t work for me, try this one. link It’s the UA.com page that lists the 3 different Chase UA cards available. The first 2 offer EQMs that can be earned in different ways.

infamousdx

The OP's link goes to the 50k bonus but it is the lowest card from UA (Visa Signature). The next one up (Visa Select) is the one that merits up to 5k in EQM for spending on united.com

I'd rather have the one that gets me EQM

lwildernorva

Sapphire. United's not going away, but Continental is. You can transfer Sapphire points, all 50K if you want, into Continental for merger later into United's program. There are also transfer options to BA and a number of hotel programs. United will continue to offer some sort of card after Continental goes away, and I wouldn't be surprised to see a large mileage bonus offer after the merger is complete.

That's entirely my speculation, but it seems that United/Chase is laying awfully low with bonus offers to the general public at 25K to 30K at a time when American/Citi's running 75K to 100K, Amex is running 50K to 100K, and BA/Chase just closed out a 100K and is now offering only (?) 50K. A 25K to 30K offer doesn't feel like a worthwhile offer in the current climate, but I could see United/Chase holding back until the right moment after the merger is complete and then making a 50K to 100K offer. And I don't see anything on the horizon that would suggest that United/Chase is likely to pull back the current offers and put out a card offering a 10K to 20K bonus.

I wouldn't take the EQM bonus as much of a reason to devote a chunk of spending to these cards. If you're going to spend $5000 at United.com, the 5000 EQMs for the Mileage Plus Select are probably OK, but spending $375 for a Mileage Plus Club card, $35,000 for 5000 EQMs, and $50,000 more for 5000 more EQMs? If you're regularly, maybe exclusively flying United, it might be a good strategy, especially because the Club card includes an RCC membership, but if you're flying other airlines, I think you'd find better ways to spread $85,000 worth of spending amongst a lot of other cards offering mileage or point bonuses to meet their spending requirements.

milesmuncher

That's what I figured as well - what I was worried about was my CO card being counted as a UA card when that announcement comes, thus precluding me from ANY UA sign-up bonus.

Not sure if that's how it typically works - anyone have experience with a similar situation in the past (NW/DL cards maybe)?

freezone

Not going to happen. Most 1 time card deals will always say "for 1st time card members only" and since you did a CO card and not UA then it should be ok to apply later.

For my vote, do the Sapph. now and then wait for a better offer with UA perhaps after the merger.

tassojunior

Depends on whether full merger will occur in under 30 days but that targeted UA offer won't last.

I agree the CO card will obviously become a UA card after full merger.

LongviewTX

Why do you guys keep saying that MileagePlus will be a surviving FF program after the merger. Has it been officially confirmed? The mere fact of the merged airlines getting United name (but Continental's CEO) doesn't automatically moves OnePass to the graveyard.

Officially this merger is a merger of equal and chances are that either OP or MP will survive (or neither of them to that extent - it may all evolve into a brand new FF program with a brand new credit card).

lwildernorva

I don't have experience with that, but since you've already got the CO card, Chase/UA can use that excuse anyway. Since I had jumped in on the Chase/BA offer, I waited right up to the 5/16 deadline to apply for the CO card, am now waiting to apply for the Sapphire, as no deadline for that deal has yet been announced, and then intend to apply for a United-branded card. I figured that between the CO and Sapphire deals, I could transfer in 50-75,000 CO miles to United.

I'm not a heavy United flyer so I'm unlikely to get targeted for the offer you received. I'm trying to decide whether I would cancel the CO card (I very much like the rental car insurance coverage, which appears better than my Amex Plat, so I might not) before the merger is final, to avoid conversion to a UA card later. If I hold onto the CO card and any conversion doesn't preclude me from making an application for a UA card, I would then see if a big offer was made this fall. Even if my speculation is incorrect, I figure there's nothing wrong with spacing my CO/UA applications as well as the CO, Sapphire, UA sequence of applications.

I may look at some of the historical threads to see if there's any information about cards issued during the NW/DL merger. Delta's had a tight relationship with Amex for awhile and I don't know which card company was associated with NW. I'm almost certain it was not Amex, however, so the situation with CO/UA is probably going to be a bit different since they share a common history with Chase.

MDtR-Chicago

I recently signed up with a Visa Select offer (the cheaper card with EQM) at a 50K bonus. It was on the website, targeted to me as an elite.

The link is gone now, since I have the card, but it does exist, somewhere out there.

Happy

Exactly my thought. Everyone automatically assumes CO is folded into UA ... Let's look at WHO runs the merged airline now? It is CO's CEO calling the shot. And look at whose planes are painted over? They are UA's.

This is the similar scenario as what happened when Bank One and Chase had a "Merger of Equals" back in 2004 - it was Bank One's CEO who called the shot... They just used JP Morgan Chase name because it was a much more wellknown name than Bank One. Ditto as the merger of National Bank and Bank of America. The latter even lost the HQ in SFO and now is based in Charlotte, NC where National had its HQ before the merger.

The 2 FF programs are now getting aligned one aspect at a time. It will be 2012 before the 2 programs fully meshed together. Until then all the speculation of CO card will go away or turn into UA card is premature speculation.

Unless you are very keen on the EQM, otherwise the Sapphire care would be a better option. lwildernorva have given an excellent analysis on this topic.

jjmiller69

I had the NWA card and it turned into the Flexperks card. I was able to get Amex Delta card no problem. The only problem I see is the CO and UA cards are both Chase. I'm going to cancel my CO Chase card the 1st of Nov. Figure that way after the 1st of the year I'll apply for a UA card.