ContinentalFan

The credit cards may be the biggest casualty of the changes to MP.

bocastephen

I sincerely hope so - Chase can put far more pressure on UA than any of us here.

If Chase starts losing annual fees, processing fees, interest and mileage purchases from UA, I could see them becoming very upset, very quickly. If the relationship with Chase goes south because of poor performance, I can't see Citi or Amex lining up for a United card contract without terms and conditions favorable to them.

ContinentalFan

I’ve wondered what the devaluation in redeemable miles—by all accounts, it’s a substantial devaluation—will have on customer behavior and, by extension Chase. I imagine that, if nothing else changes, card holders are likely to drop a United branded card in favor of something else. I think United would need to decrease the price of miles it sells to Chase in line with the reduction in value of those miles. I doubt Chase is willing to reduce its profit margin.

st3

I think, for the legacy cards at least, that is by design. They stopped offering them years ago and I am sure they would love to get everyone off of them, even if it doesn't mean another co-branded card.

For the MPE and Club Card I think you will see some people switch to the travel bank card if they want to avoid an annual fee but otherwise they still offer some value.

Kacee

They do, but I assume Chase has seen a significant drop in interchange over the past year or so, as UA miles have been substantially devalued. I've basically stopped using my Explorer for purchases and am pretty sure I'm not the only one.

stimpy

What card do you use?

If I get a Lufthansa EU card is there a benefit there given that I will credit the miles flown to UA? I guess probably not.

fumje

If they really want to get everyone off of them, why not just end the cards?


I think most (informed) US-based people have moved toward Chase or AMEX, since they are much more flexible and have equal or better reward rates. I'm not familiar with products for EU residents.

TomMM

No, for those you have to provide your Miles and More service card number.

st3

Could be? Or maybe an influx in people transferring Chase UR to MP? Without any of the proprietary data from Chase (and UA) it is difficult to say either way. I think a bigger drop will come after Jan 1 because the PQP "waiver" is going to be pretty much useless for most people. But if I switch my spend from the Club Card to the CSR Chase still gets the $$$

IANAL, but can they really do that? My only direct experience personally is a Visa that I had about 15 years ago where the issuing bank was bought out by Citi. Citi converted the card to an Amex but transferred over the balance, payment history etc. Something like that seems more likely, or what they have been doing in prior years of watering down the benefits and jacking up the AF on the legacy cards to "encourage" the cardholders to switch to a different product or walk away altogether.

Kacee

For airfare I mostly use AMEX Plat. Sometimes CSP. Occasionally Chase Hyatt. I keep Explorer for upgrades on awards.

zombietooth

I had a favorable UA card in the 90s that they just cancelled and converted one day. They gave me some miles as I remember, but my history was not transferred over.

porciuscato

I doubt that many people are transferring UR points to MP miles. It just doesn't make sense.

Assuming a MP mile is worth 1.5 cents, a 1K member is getting a 16.5% discount by purchasing a ticket through the Chase portal and collecting the RDMs -- vs. converting to MP miles and getting an award ticket. That's not even to mention the advantages of earning PQDs & etc. that count toward status and the upgradability of the ticket.

Bottom line: UR points are worth about 1.76 cents when you book directly and only 1.5 cents (and probably a lot less) if you convert to MP.

The only scenario where it makes sense to convert the UR points to MP is if you really want the ability to cancel or change a ticket.

jsloan

While increasingly rare, there are still some redemptions that are far better than 1.5 cents (or 1.76 cents).

Kacee

There are; I continue to get over 3 cpp on last minute domestic saver. But I still place overall value somewhere around 1.2 or 1.3 cpp.

jsloan

I suspect last-minute domestic saver will drop well below 3 cpp any day now, as November 15 approaches.

And, I agree, overall, UR points are much more valuable, but that doesn't mean that it is never a good idea to transfer UR->MP, which is what was being implied, just that you should only convert when MP provides outsized value.