CApreppie

Thank you very much. I saw it online. Much appreciated for the direction.

emcampbe

SuperFlyBoy

jsloan

The report on spending is intended to be a guide to achieving the PQD waiver for Silver, Gold, and Platinum status. Since you already have a PQD waiver as an international member, I'm not surprised that it wouldn't be displayed.

drewguy

Wanted to put down a note from experience - I received RDM credit for purchases after cancelling the card, including for the final billing period. I didn't receive the bonus miles Chase was offering for spending over a certain threshold, though. Spend was already above $25k and not needed in the end to qualify, so no info on whether that would have remained (I cancelled in November).

illinoisguy

If I apply for United Explorer Card today, how soon will I have the miles to be able to spend? Could I book flights now, and then apply the miles once I receive them? We have booked a trip to Maui at the end of July and found a non-stop flight (from Chicago) but would like to save some money using miles. Thanks!

fumje

Are you thinking of miles from a bonus or the normal miles awarded for spend?

Normal spend gives miles at the end of each statement period, and for most cards the first statement closes about a month and a half after approval. I think any bonus would post at the end of the statement period in which the spend target was reached, but I'm not certain of that.

For United, there's no points advance-type reservation, so you need the miles when you book an award flight.

illinoisguy

Thanks! From what I read, I would receive 40,000 miles for opening the card (my wife could open a card also). Could I book the flights now (4 of us going) then cancel and re-book once I receive the points (I am worried about the flight filling up)? What is the cancellation charge? I believe that each round trip ticket is around 87,000 points....is it possible to use points towards tickets and pay the charge the rest of the balance?

fumje

You wouldn't do yourself much good by booking now for cash and cancelling later. There's no reason to expect the award inventory would open up when you cancel a revenue ticket. Change / cancellation fees are around $300 (+/- $100?), depending upon the fare you purchase, and typically the value remaining comes with restriction on use.

There's no way to split payment between cash and award miles, also. You can buy miles now, but I don't find that to be typically good value; they cost you typically around 2 cents per mile, and economy awards are hard to redeem for more value than that.

How many days out are you from flight time? Fares often don't start going up rapidly until within 30 days. [edit: just re-read your first post. For July travel, I think you could probably apply for the card and get the bonus in time to redeem an economy award, which is what I think 87k sounds like. You might find a saver award open later, even.]

illinoisguy

Thanks! Trip is from July 19 to 26th. If my wife and I each applied for a card, is there a way to combine our miles? We have to also spend $2k each (we could charge our the condo stay we booked)to get the miles so I'd assume we'd get some extra miles for that. I have 850 miles on the standard miles program.

ajGoes

You don't receive the miles until after you've spent $2,000. The miles don't post immediately after you cross that threshold — after all, you could return goods and drop your total spend below it again. I can't remember how long they took to post but I'd give it at least thirty days after your first statement showing you've met the spending requirement.

fumje

There is an option to combine, but the fees make it not economical. If you can find saver awards, which may be easier if you can flex your dates, you could each book one direction of travel (for 45k). Nominally that requires you to spend about $4k each to make the balance.

ajGoes

You get at least one mile per dollar so yes, you'll get at least 2000 miles in addition to the 40,000. You can't combine miles, but you can transfer them for a fee. The fee usually makes transfers uneconomical.

findark

The bonus miles post within a couple of business days after the statement cuts containing the minimum spend. If you subsequently try to chargeback the minimum spend, I imagine you'll get a nastygram from Chase and potentially face some sort of clawback.

illinoisguy

Would it make sense to apply for the Explorer card now and use the free bag charges? From what I read I would get two free bag checks each way (so a total of $120).