Building Mileage and Points Balances Quickly: United

Building Up Mileage and Points Balances Quickly: Introduction

Building Up Mileage and Points Balances Quickly: United

Building Up Mileage and Points Balances Quickly: American Airlines

Building Up Mileage and Points Balances Quickly: Delta

Bulding up Mileage and Points Balances Quickly: US Airways

Update (5/1/2013): It seems that the 50K United Mileage Plus Explorer offer is no longer available anywhere. That’s too bad – adjust your strategies accordingly.

I thought I’d start this series with my favorite mileage currency out there: United Miles. As I stated in the introduction, United has lots of partners and great award rules (one stopover and TWO open jaws), giving a lot of flexibility and options. The good news is, there are a lot of cards out there to help build a balance in United Mileage Plus quickly. The bad news is, everything revolves around Chase credit cards, meaning it will take a little bit of time.

High Sign Up Bonus Cards, United

Chase United Mileage Plus Explorer – up to 56,000 miles ($95 annual fee, waived 1st yr)

The Mileage Plus Explorer card has benefits like a free checked bag, but this post is focused on getting miles as fast as possible. The best offer out there is 50,000 miles after $1000 of spending in three months, although the offer is targeted. If you log in to your United Mileage Plus account, look for a banner ad offering 50,000 bonus miles. If you click on that offer, you also should see that you will receive 5000 more miles for adding an authorized user. Along with the spending, you can net 56,000 miles in United with this card.

What if you don’t see the offer in your Mileage Plus account? You have two options. First, you could transfer some miles into United. A lot of people don’t see the offer when they only have 0 miles in the account. Then you could wait to see if you get the offer later. Or, alternatively, other people have had success asking Chase to match the 50,000 mile offer via secure message (the public offer is 30,000). Chase is pretty good about stuff like that, so it’s always worth a try.

Chase Ink Bold and Chase Ink Plus – up to 55,000 miles ($95 annual fee, waived 1st yr)

The next best option for getting United miles are the Chase Ink Bold and Ink Plus cards. Currently, they are both offering 50,000 Ultimate Rewards points after $5000 of spending in three months. The spending is definitely high, but there are ways to meet it. The two cards are essentially the same, except Bold is a charge card, meaning you need to pay your balance off in full every month. But you’re doing that anyway, right?

Both these cards will give you Ultimate Rewards points, which are transferable to United. It’s a fairly simple process, and 55,000 miles (including the 5000 UR points you earn meeting the spending requirement) is a good amount. Even though these are business cards, you can still get this card – many people own and operate small businesses without even knowing it. Just apply as a sole proprietor using your social security number.

Chase Sapphire Preferred – up to 43,000 miles ($95 annual fee, waived 1st yr)

The Chase Sapphire Preferred is essentially the personal version of the Ink Plus and Ink Bold. The sign up bonus is a little lower, as is the spending requirement. You receive 40,000 Ultimate Rewards points after spending $3000 in three months. Just make sure you apply for the Chase Sapphire PREFERRED, not the vanilla version (no annual fee, but can’t transfer to United either).

Building United Miles Quickly

If you are looking to build United miles, the above four cards are what you should be focusing on. Remember, you should only apply for one business and one personal card from the same bank on one day, and then wait 91+ days to apply again. Depending on where you want to go and in what class, you have a bunch of options.

Megapoint Strategy – 209,000 miles in 3+ months

The most aggressive way to build up your United balance is as follows:

1) Apply for United Mileage Plus Explorer (50,000 mile offer) and Chase Ink Bold on the same day

2) Meet minimum spending requirements on both

3) After 91 days from first application, apply for Chase Sapphire Preferred and Chase Ink Plus on the same day

4) Meet minimum spending requirements on both

Depending on how fast you can spend $7000 in #4, you could net over 200,000 United miles in around four months (points for Chase generally post after the statement closes). Now, I don’t really recommend this strategy, especially if you have no current credit cards with Chase. Why? Well, even though it’s okay to apply for a personal and business card on the same day, it still will draw a red flag. You’re likely going to have to call a reconsideration line for at least one of the four cards. And, you’ll have to have a reason to explain why you need two business cards. All this without blurting out “I want POINTS!” I don’t think this is something a rookie should do – but if you are comfortable, you could end up with enough miles for two people to fly to Europe in business class.

Which brings me to my next point – if you and a friend/partner/spouse want to fly to Europe in business class, there is no need for one person to apply for all four cards. You can apply for two, and the other person can apply for the other two. Same number of miles, but spreading out the burden. One thing to note about that – a friend of mine just did something similar for he and his wife. The second two applications were flagged because they were from the same address. It’s a good idea if you are working with a partner who lives at the same address to spread out applications (like I apply, then my wife applies 45 days later) for reasons like this. Plus if you’re married/together, it’s easier to spread out the spending anyway.

Solid, Lower-risk Point Strategy – 140,000 miles in 3+ months

Alternatively, you could:

1) Apply for Chase Sapphire Preferred

2) Meet minimum spending

3) Apply for Mileage Plus Explorer and Ink Bold OR Ink Plus

4) Meet minimum spending

In this scenario, you can switch around any of the cards in #1 or #3. I like this a little better because after Step 1, you’ve established a relationship with chase and then in Step 3 you can build on that relationship. You might need to call again, but you look less desperate for credit (read: safer) to the bank. 140,000 miles is enough to get two people to Europe/South America in coach, one person to Europe in first, or one person to Asia in business. And of course, you and your spouse could both do this and have enough for both to go to Asia in business!

Conservative Point Strategy – 90,000 – 100,000 miles in 3+ months

If you don’t want to apply for more than one card at a time, this conservative strategy is more for you:

1) Apply for Mileage Plus Explorer

2) Meet minimum spending

3) Apply for Chase Sapphire Preferred OR one of the Ink cards

4) Meet minimum spending

This is more conservative because you are only applying for one card at a time and you only need to meet one minimum spend at a time. For a minimum of $4000 you can still net 94,000 miles (Explorer card plus Sapphire Preferred plus minimum spending). You can even get another 5,000 miles for adding an authorized user. That’s almost enough for business class to Europe. As always, you can do double duty with a spouse/partner/friend and each get enough miles to go.

Final Thoughts

These are just some of the options for getting United miles. The nice thing is that getting United miles is fairly straightforward. You can mix and match whatever cards you like, just remembering to apply for only one personal and one business at a time and spacing out your applications by 91+ days. Write me a PM or send me a comment if you need help, and if you’re having trouble putting the miles to good use once you get them, I can help with that too!