IainC

I fit into the second category, i.e. lived in SAN for 15 years and then returned to SYD. As a resident of Australia, I have maintained a Chase UA MP Signature card and a US bank account for the past 10 years using a relative's address in the US for the Chase cc. In all that time I have had no problem with this arrangement which has been incredibly useful, especially when booking UA award tickets which has saved a ton on taxes and other charges (much higher in Australia). Hopefully there will be no problems as UA moves to the US co-spend requirement for MP status....

Fredrik74

I have had problems buying tickets on united.com with a foreign credit card. You will need to buy from the foreign site with, I assume, different availability and pricing.

lhrsfo

Presumably because they have no sensible cc offerings outside the US, so they couldn't offer an equivalent exemption. They probably also took the view that the MP program is already less competitive for those outside the US and they didn't want to increase the problem.

The more interesting question is whether the exemption will remain in future years. The oddest thing about the latest changes is the effective downgrading of Star Alliance: UA used to use the Star Alliance extensively to maintain a pretence that it has a significant global network, and marketed that heavily. By limiting relevant spend to what appears on UA's ticket stock, they have summarily destroyed a significant portion of the benefits of Star Alliance. I take from this that they are no longer as interested in being a global airline but instead retreating to Cleveland or Houston or wherever.

chinatraderjmr

UA may have no CC offerings outside the US but almost every major airline WORLWIDE is tied up w at least one CC from the home country. I can't imagine it would be difficult for UA to negotiate some kind of seal w banks in Japan or the UK. Granted, the big banks are already tied in with airlines like BA, JL, NH etc but there are plenty of other banks who would probably jump at a deal. I imagine UA may have some kind of deal w Chase prohibiting this

5khours

It's the same thing at DL. I suspect it's some kind of legal issue.

UA does have credit card partnerships in other countries.

If you want to use a foreign credit card, you sometimes have to select the country the credit card is issued in top right corner of the website.

jason8612

OK so what it seems here is those who already have Chase MP CC and then move their MP accounts abroad is that there are no issues. Good to know. Regarding the pricing in foreign currency, why then not just book the ticket somewhere else? Other than the loss of some few extra miles, it'll be much easier than playing the currency game (though I do think by changing the billing address it will reprice it out in USD then)

Supersonic Swinger

You don't need to use a US address for the credit card. I still have 2 US credit cards opened when I lived there and both have my Australian address.

rankourabu

It is not a problem purchasing tickets in whatever currency on any united.com version.
But there are cost differences - check out pricing ex-Australia in AUD, and in USD, there are times, it doesnt match up. I tell Australians to make sure to check the USD version. There is however nothing stopping them from buying on the USD site.

Before TCVA vouchers would convert currency, one had to buy tickets in USD to use them, and it was never an issue with a Canadian card.

UA will probably get smart, and if you are a foreign registered account, you will not be able to accrue miles and use the benefits of a US-issued card.

flyingbrick

Dunno about SHARES, but based on past experiences with non-US addresses, I would not be overly surprised if:

1) You could never check-in online
2) You sometimes were required to show the purchase cc at check-in
3) Sometimes have online purchase issues if your MP address and cc address don't match
4) TSA Pre may be a distant memory.

chinatraderjmr

lhrsfo

It is very well established that the purchase of the ticket, and the traveller identity, are completely separate. Companies often buy tickets for individuals, often individuals in a different country. Individuals often use a travel agent and UA would never see the credit card used in that case. Companies often use Travel Agents.

There has never been any concept that the same person has to buy the ticket and travel on it. I cannot see how they could implement such a thing.

Separately, I also dunno about SHARES, but I wouldn't be too surprised if UA had a few system glitches that did not envisage certain multi-national scenarios (although, to date, new UA seems to handle this better than pmUA). But they do absolutely understand that the person travelling might not be from the same country as the person paying.

Shareholder

On the old UA site (i.e. before migrating to the CO site) I had cc problems using the US site with a Canadian cc unless I faked the state and ZIP code (but kept everything else legit). There was no real time confirmation with the cc issuer so I could use CA (California) and just add a postal code from that state (90210 frequently came to mind) and the booking would go through. The CO site always accepted Canadian ccs and addresses, so there is not an issue currently in this regard.

I expect UA would have installed an alert on the Change of Address routine, capturing any changes since yesterday from US to another country, and begin auditing and requesting further proof of foreign residence. IIRC DL has done that, though not sure what is accepted as proof.

1. From time to time, having a Canadian address in my UA/MP profile, I cannot get an advance boarding pass using OLCI but this is more to confirm the passport and other ID on file from time to time when flying into the US. However, I have been able to get my OLCI boarding passes for most flights, even transborder, so this is not a major issue.

4. I am registered under the NEXUS/GE program and show the PreCheck symbol when I am originating at a US airport where this is offered, so this too is not the case.

Fredrik74

I think it means that alliances are not as relevant anymore and it's not just for US carriers. Think Qantas.

Brituchenite

So, if we legitimately have homes in two countries and citizenship in two countries, we can technically change our MP account address to our overseas address and avoid the spend requirement?

How would that work with the PresPlus MC? If we have that and the billing address is in the US, but our MP address is in the UK, wouldn't it kick out the charge because the addresses don't match? Would we need to change our address back to the US address, make the booking, and then change it back to the overseas address once the booking has ticketed?

I want to be able to avoid the $10k spend requirement for 1K because I fly on cheap tickets all the time, and probably would never be able to get to $10k spend.

lhrsfo

I legitimately have UK and US citizenship, with a domestic address in both countries. I have a credit card in sterling with my UK address on it and a personal credit card in dollars with my US business address on it (but it's a personal card, not a business card in any way). To date, since the CO takeover, it has made no difference as to which card I use when. Generally, I use the US card for award bookings (because they always quote the extras in $), the UK card for revenue bookings (but sometimes the US card if it's cheaper to do so) and the US card for incidentals. It really doesn't appear to make the slightest difference.

As to the question of auditing the account, I simply don't know how they intend to establish what address should be used - are they going to have residency rules as complicated as tax authorities (who still allow many people to slip through the cracks)? I think that they will rue the day they start down that route. Anyhow, 99% of people simply can't produce a credible address in a foreign country - and I should imagine they'll leave it at that.