nomad420

I will have to disagree. While I don't really have to use them for "perks" as I have been 1K for years and now GS I definitely do use my card. I don't buy a stick of gum without throwing it down. I have accumulated nearly a million miles in my account and that is with using my account heavily. Having said that, given what I perceive as devaluation (time will tell) I will probably dump my UA Chase card at the end of this year and that is a card I have probably held (in one form or another) for over 25 years. Let me add that I NEVER carry a charge on the card, the rates typically are not competitive.

VegasGambler

I don't understand why you'd buy that $1 stick of gum on the UA card and get 1 UA mile, when you could instead buy that stick of gum on a Chase UR card (eg, CSR, CSP) and get 1 UR pt, which you have the option of converting to 1 UA mile whenever you want... OR converting to something else if that gives you more value at that time.

Even more obviously, I don't understand why you would buy a ticket on UA with a card that gives you 2 miles / dollar, when you could buy it on the CSR, get 3 UR pts per dollar (which, again, you have the option of converting to UA miles, or to something else if you can find better value). At worst, it's 50% more miles. Oh, and you get free travel insurance with the CSR too -- even if you only use it to pay taxes and fees on an award ticket.

I have the explorer card -- I just haven't had a reason to use it since I got the signup bonus. I have to decide if it's worth keeping for the benefits (probably not, but I'm not sure yet) I do use MileagePlus X pretty heavily, so the 25% bonus is nice there.

nomad420

I have the Club Card so some benefit there. It indeed does have travel insurance which WAS with Chubb and was great (have used it). Baggage and boarding benefits are useless to me. As to your issue of miles to $$$ spent I now agree and will indeed be moving on as I stated. Remember you do/did get some benefits with holding the UA card and using the miles such as CPU eligibility, more discounted available flights, no/low change fees, etc.. (see wiki). But with the probably deterioration of these benefits I will probably now move over to AmEx Plat but still looking/shopping.

chavala

My very first flight: People's Express BUF-NYC $19 : )

Boraxo

VegasGambler

You paid 26x the econ fare to sit in F??? High Roller!

uastarflyer

flyme2

As a matter of personal curiosity. Do you ever get upgraded BOS-SFO?

phkc070408

I admit that there are benefits to the flexible currency, but we stick with the UA card. First, we only intend on flying UA, because there are other ways of earning UA miles that we are just as obsessive about as using the Explorer Card for $1.69 coffee at Wawa. The MPX App, MP Shopping, and MP Dining come to mind. In fact, we accumulate about half of our miles from these non-credit card activities. Since we are basically committed to United because we will be using close to 1 million miles at once for a family trip in the future, which will basically wipe us out, we chose the Explorer Card for the UA specific benefits that the other cards don't have.

halls120

I'm switching from the Chase Club Card to Chase Sapphire Reserve today. I get access to lounges through my Amex Plat card and *A gold status, get free bags and boarding priority with my lifetime 1MM status, so no loss there, and with Sapphire Reserve I will have more point flexibility.

GrayAnderson

There's a bit of both in the mix. The Aeroplan affair comes to mind (where you almost had an FFP without an airline), and I swear there was at least one case where due to a bankruptcy the FFP was valued as a large portion of the value of the airline. Ideally there's a symbiotic relationship where the program both provides direct business via being an inducement and also provides other forms of support to the company (the sale of miles providing a cash flow source, for example).

bernyx

anybody have any idea how the upcoming award chart removal will affect business class flights from USA to SE asia?

luckypierre

This has been my general response to the whole dynamic award pricing phenomena...Really makes travel planning on more exotic destinations problematic..sympathy for the businessman who has loyally flown a particular carrier, accumulating miles in hopes of surprising the family with a Maui vacation, goes to pull the trigger and suddenly the trip is not 250K miles but 600K

jrpallante

I realize I often respond in a groggy state just before bedtime, but did I ever make "a blanket assertion that ANY domestic ticket can be purchased for less than $475?." That would be an absurd claim by any metric. If I ever made such a statement, then I willingly retract it. However, with 2 weeks notice, I could find flights from AUS to most major markets for well below $475. The whole point of this discussion was to demonstrate that it is imprudent to purchase miles from United at 1.88 cents per point, and I still believe that is a no-brainer. Even at TPG's conservative valuation, this is a very poor exchange rate.

I could not agree more. I always chuckle that WN continues to maintain a reputation as a low-fare carrier, when I seldom find them competitive on the routes I need. Traveling from DEN, I make lots of trips to Texas, but it is rare when I cannot find a better price on AA or UA. I still luv WN as a company, and I have been a stockholder for many years, but I rarely fly them. I do not hold status with UA, but I have a ton of UA miles, so I appreciate that they are eliminating the FU fee for close-in bookings. On domestic flights, the $80 in fees usually quelled any prospects for last-minute bookings. However, coupled with (presumably) reduced redemption rates on shorter or less popular routes, it may soon be possible to find some bargains on domestic awards. Historically, I have used my miles almost exclusively for international travel in biz class, which I could not (would not) buy with cash.

It sounds like your are using miles for business trips? I never do that, because business trips are deductible, which diminishes the effective exchange rate for the miles, so I find it more beneficial to pay cash for business travel. In some cases, I do allow my contractors to use their own miles when a particular route is very expensive, and I will reimburse them at the prevailing price for that route. If they can use 25,000 of their own miles instead of buying a $1,000 ticket, then more power to them!

I realize that complaining is a favorite American past-time, but many of these posts are completely contrary to my personal experience. I am certainly not an apologist for United, but I do fly them most often because a) my home airport is DEN, and b) I can easily generate about 300,000 UA miles per year through credit card bonuses, plus another 100,000 through spending. While I fly 2-3 times per month, this is not enough to earn significant status on UA or any other airline.

With any airline, if you expect to book a decent award flight in the next week or two at "saver" levels, then you have simply set your expectations at an unreasonable level. Regardless of how an airline describes their program or methodology, the obvious and logical goal of any airline is to place award travelers on those flights with the lightest loads. (As a stockholder in several airlines, I expect nothing less.) In many cases, this means 2 layovers en route to Europe, instead of 0-1. Historically, I have used my UA miles for international travel in Biz class, because that is where I earn the greatest yield for my points, consistently around 3-4 cents per mile, and sometimes 5 cents or more. For personal travel abroad, I am usually planning several months in advance, and I always find ample availability on United or Star Alliance partners. In some cases, the routing is not what I might get with a cash ticket, but that is exactly what I expect for an award redemption. However, nearly every flight booked several months out will necessitate some itinerary changes before the travel date, and I can usually take advantage of these changes to negotiate a better route. For example, I recently booked a saver award in biz for DEN-ORD-NRT-AKL. Obviously, this was not a very attractive routing, as it backtracks over the US. However, when the timing for one segment was changed, UA had to accomodate me, and they rebooked my on DEN-NRT-AKL. In addition to eliminating one segment and refunding 7,500 miles, UA gave me a saver award seat on DEN-NRT, which is something they do not normally release. I spent 90,000 miles for a biz class seat to New Zealand, which I consider a major score. (Another 85,000 AA miles brought me home in Qatar's fantastic Qsuites, but that is another story.)

I have no doubt that the recent changes will result in a net devaluation of UA miles. However, part of the fun of frequent flier miles is playing the game to your best personal advantage. This means finding the sweet spots based on your own travel needs. With the elimination of the close-in FU fee and potentially lower pricing on some domestic routes, I envision using my UA miles on domestic routes, which I have never done in the past. Two weeks ago, I hopped around the country to visit 5 colleges with my daughter, and most segments were on AA or DL at 6,000-7,500 miles each. On UA, each segment would have been at least 12,500 miles, so I did not even consider using my UA miles. Under the new system, some of these short hauls might have been priced at lower levels, and I might actually have used UA miles. As Monty Python taught us, "always look on the bright side of life...."

zombietooth

^Smart choice.

One of the things I love most about this card is the fantastic rental car insurance. You'll never need supplemental insurance again.

In addition, it has pretty good Medevac coverage. Something I worry about as I get older.

I generally agree that you should never use miles for deductible business trips. However, 1.3-2K rt to a podunk airport in Y (vs 25K miles, worth $500-) is a little more than I can stomach, from a value-seeking perspective, when the net effect on your taxes is, at most, 25% of the decreased expense amount (i.e. $10,000- in increased expenses only results in a $2,500- reduction in taxes paid), and it also allows me to monetize my miles at a very high rate-i.e. more cash in my pocket for further business ventures since I am self-financed.