Dear UA Visa card gurus,

I'm sorry if this has been asked/noted/answered already (search is down).

Firstly. I used to get 5,000 joining bonus + 2,500 "renewal" bonus immediately upon upgrading a card to gold class. It appears this is no more. Thus, is it true that there's no longer any practical difference between the "secret" 20,000 bonus link for a regular card, and the 20,000 miles publicly offered to everyone for a gold class card in this month's Hemisphere's magazine?

Secondly, what do you make of this new language in the T&C:

"Bank One's sole obligation concening the award and redemption of mlies shall be to make a valid request ot United to award miles to the cardmember's assocaited M+ account. Bank One disclaims liability or responsibility for United's failure to award or redeem miiles to the cardmember's associated M+ account..." Wow. Given our credit card agreement is with Bank One (not United), there's no reason why United must credit us 20,000 miles just because Bank One writes a friendly e-mail requesting it. Perhaps bonus miles often do arrive as expected, but nobody accepts responsibility if they don't.

"If your account is not open for at least six months, United and Bank One reserve the right to deduct the bonus miles from your M+ program account." HAS THIS ACTUALLY HAPPENED TO ANYONE?

Thanks for any thoughts or experiences with these peculiar rules

Starjunkie.

They probably added that last bit about the 6 month minimum to prevent those cheapos from flipping accounts once the miles post in 6-8 weeks. It's easy to forget about chores when you put it off for 6 months.