We fly United a lot. With this in mind, I was not able to pass up the 30,000 mile bonus offer from Chase for getting the Chase United MileagePlus Explorer Visa. I got this card the first time about 2 years ago and received the bonus shortly after, once I met the minimum spend requirement. After that, I never really used the card because my other Chase credit cards, the Chase Sapphire and the Chase Freedom earn me valuable Chase Ultimate Rewards points that I can transfer to United Airlines anyway. So in my opinion, I would only apply for this card after you obtain one of the other Chase credit cards that yield Ultimate Rewards points.
Along those same lines, when the time came for me to pay the $95 annual fee, I tried to get Chase to waive it but they refused. (Some credit card companies will waive or negotiate with you to keep you from canceling, not Chase. Read more about this in my separate post Getting Started, Number 7). So I canceled my card! Don’t forget, canceling a card has a small impact on your credit score as long as other positive financial factors are in place. You can read about the effect of canceling a card on your credit score here.
Guess what–I just got the card again, and I got a 55,000 miles bonus offer! I will earn 50,000 United MileagePlus bonus miles after making $2,000 in purchases within the first 3 months and an additional 5,000 bonus miles when Rob, an authorized user, makes any purchase within the first 3 months. The $95 fee is waived the first year. Unfortunately, this offer expired 9/2/14. But look out for it again.
Despite the fact that I don’t use this card on everyday purchases (in fact I will likely cancel it again when it is time to pay the annual fee), this card does have some attractive features. You can read about them here.