You need to try it again. I was able to open both personal and business accounts for all of my family members in SAN and LAX.

But did you get the CO debit cards and used the coupon for the 25k bonus?

If you want them, try again. I went to a branch in Santa Monica last Saturday and had no problems opening the exact accounts (personal and business) that I wanted. Even got printed confirmations of the miles I should expect. Ended up being 27,500 per account instead of 25,000. ^

I'm also in California. If you have a link that brings up a Chase offer for a PERSONAL account that will work in California, can you please post that?

I tried using the link that I'm finding in this thread, which is:
https://www.chase.com/index.jsp?pg_n..._Consumer_9939

On the page that comes up, it very clearly says:
Account is subject to approval. Chase CheckingSM is available only at Chase branded branches, excluding branches in California.

I was able to open a business checking account. But the banker at the Chase branch I went to saw that fine print. He called some Chase main office. Bottom line: I was told that I could not open a personal checking account for Continental miles using this offer.

Do you have a URL for this offer that doesn't specify (in the small print) "excluding California?" Or did you just luck out and the banker failed to read the fine print? Or perhaps I was unlucky and got a guy who was a real stickler to detail?

Exactly what I'm afraid of. Even if they give you a receipt for the miles, they can later on deny the miles because of the fine print. Citibank is notoriously known for that, and I don't want to start chasing chase...

The answer is yes.

Little confused about how the debit card works into the mileathon. For the debit card page:

A. Get 10,000 bonus miles when you open a Chase CheckingSM account and make 5 debit card purchases or set up direct deposit.

B. Get another 15,000 bonus miles after your first qualifying purchase if you open a Chase Continental Airlines Preferred Debit Card (annual fee applies)

C. For the mileathon page:
Acquire a Continental Airlines Debit Card from Chase":
"First purchase must be made by Nov. 30, 2009, to earn Mileathon credit"

My interpretation seems to be:

1. Open Checking account (nothing else) - no bonuses at all
2. Setup direct deposit - 10k bonus

(A) says if you do 5 debit purchases, you can also qualify for a 10k bonus. But then (B) talks about opening a debit card (fee applies). Is the debit card in (A) different from in (B)? If not, does that mean that 1 debit purchase would get me 15k miles, then after 4 more, I get another 10k?

How quickly do you get your debit cards? Just wondering, with 16 days to go before the end of Mileathon, do I have time to apply, receive the cards (assume they are sent out, and not handed to you at a branch?), and make a purchase, within 15 days?

Also, can someone summarize the fees (initial and ongoing) to do all of this? I see for the debit card, there's a $65 anual fee for the Preferred debit card, $25 annual fee for the regular card. Is there any fee to open or maintain the checking account? I thought I read that you can save money by asking for just the handful of starter checks, and not having them order (and charge you for) a full set of checks.

For what it's worth, if I'd qualify for the debit card offer, it would get me an extra 5k mileathon miles.

Thanks.

Jeff

I went to my local branch here in LA and had no problem opening both accounts. There was a slight problem getting my Onepass # entered for the biz account. She made a call to their dept that handles these promotions and was able to get it resolved. I got the confirmation pages showing the miles to be deposited. While setting up the accounts, her system showed I was preapproved for a Chase Continental credit card with 25K bonus. I said sure and it was instantly approved. Took about an hour, but I left with $75K Onepass miles (OK – once I make the actual purchases).

My thought is that since this offer was setup in July (says offer valid July 1 - Dec. 31, 2009), that California branches were originally excluded because their systems had not yet been integrated. Maybe now that the integration is complete, the bank forgot to remove the exclusion from the wording.

I went in early nov and signed up for this, I was only given a tracking page/number for the 10,000 miles, not the 15,000 miles. I was happy till I reread this thread and saw some people were gipped out of miles and knew instantly that I would be one of them :(

I can't get to the bank branch again till Friday, but hasn't anyone else successfully argued for the right miles when the banker messed up?

I have already done both the 5 debit transactions and direct deposit, so holding my breath that this can be fixed.

The cards come fairly quickly from past experience; about 4 business days for me. You could still do it at this point but it is getting tight.

I think the confusing part here is the way the checking account needs to be set up to qualify. You can either do Direct Deposit OR have at least 5 debit card purchses each month. This is for the 10K alone. Note that with DD, you could do this for only the 10K and not have a debit card at all.

So in your example above, the debit card could be the same for A & B. It is just that in B they are saying that you need to get the card and use it once.

Yes this is all very confusing but maybe this helps??

does opening a checking account involve a Credit Check?

Your question is not clear. "Credit Check" is not a formal term in the credit business. Credit Pull, Credit Score, and Credit Report are formal terms. Hard Credit pulls are significant (vs. soft credit pulls). There are good wikis on credit reports, etc.

Most banks use Chexsystem to open a new checking account, which is not considered a credit pull (EQ, TU, or EX). I opened five Chase checking accounts this year and none resulted in a hard pull.

I hope this helps.

I signed up before but chose the debit card for normal one (less annual fee $25), only received 15k CO miles so far.

Well, tried again at a different branch. First agent tells me that Continental debit card doesn't exist... Got a second agent who was happy to open the account with the 25k coupon :)

At the end of the process I got 2 seperate receipts, one for 15k for the debit card and one for 10k for direct deposit (to waive the $6 monthly fee you have to have either direct deposit or 5 debit card purchase monthly).

Hi everyone,

I opened a Chase Checking account near PSP and received my bonus miles today. I used the minimum $100 deposit and chose the $25 debit card.

10/30 Opened Account

11/18 Chase Checking Bonus 10,000
11/18 Continental Debit Bonus 12,500

It appears I'm still due 2,500 from Chase per the terms on the two receipts I received.

Thanks to everyone for continually updating this thread and providing these great mileage earning opportunities!