United Explorer 60,000 Bonus Miles Targeted Offer
Note: We are not offering this card on this site. However, the card is available on Chase site and in your Mileage Plus account
United has been targeting certain Mileage Plus members through snail mail with a 60,000 bonus miles offer the last couple of months. You get 50,000 after the first spend and then an additional 10,000 miles if you spend $25,000 within one year. I knew of this because my neighbor has the old United Visa and she keeps telling me that she has been getting mail after mail with the 60,000 offer.
But recently, it appears that United have expanded their targeting to more people from their Mileage Plus website. There are already a few threads on the web about this. But the way to find out if you have been targeted is to simply log on into your United account. Here are the precise steps.
1. Go to United.com
2. Under the top navigation, under Mileage Plus, go to My Mileage Plus and sign in. (you should get your United Mileage Plus number in front of you).
After, you sign into your account, there will be a credit card offer on the right side of the page. If you have been targeted for the 60,000 offer, you will clearly see it there. If you have not been targeted, then you will see the standard 40,000 bonus miles promotion that is going on now. From reading comments on other forums and sites, it appears that you need to have some United miles in your account to receive the targeted offer. But even that is not a sure thing. So I decided to check my account and my neighbor’ account and show you folks some screen shots.
But first, here is a screen shot of a reader who has got the 60,000 offer.
1. United Account With No Miles But Continental OnePass Gold Member – One of our readers got the 60,000 offer when she logged into her account. Her background is that she is a Continetal OnePas Gold member and has close to 50,000 OnePass miles in her account. Her Mileage Plus account has no miles. She does not have either the Continental or United card. When she logged into her Continental OnePass account, you got the 40,000 offer. But in her United account she got the 60,000 offer.
Here is the screen shot of the 60,000 bonus miles offer:
2. United Mileage Plus Account With No Miles – My United account has no miles. I last flew with United to Hawaii with my family a few years ago and I told myself I’ll never fly United again. I think their service in economy class is really the worst (that’s just me). So my account has zero miles. And true enough, I was not targeted for the 60,000 bonus miles offer. Instead, I was targeted for the regular 40,000 bonus offer.
3. United Account With Miles and Snail Mail Offer but No Online Offer – My neighbors’ account was interesting. She had over 100k miles (see screen shots). She flew United to Hong Kong and used their miles for free tickets (coach class). What was interesting is that she has been receiving the 60,000 offers in the mail was did not really bother. She is only interested now because I mentioned it to her! But when she logged into her account, there was no 60,000 targeted offer even though she has a lot of miles in her account and she already received the offers in snail mail.
She then called United to see if she could apply online and get the 60,000 offer. But she was told that she needed the “unique code” that was in her mail offer letter to sign up!
Others Have Had Success – Despite the two examples here, there has been lots of folks who have said they have received the 60k offer. Some have just a few miles in their account and are not elite members.
Should You Sign Up For This? – They key question is whether you should apply for this if you are targeted. All I would say is that 60,000 miles is a good sign up bonus and even if you do not intend to spend the $25,000 on the card for the first year, 50,000 United Mileages is plenty. Because United is a member of Star Alliance, savvy folks will be able to get some good deals for international flights. As a best practice, please print the 60,000 sign up screen on your computer when you apply for the card (as proof should things go awry).
Personally, I could not be bothered because I have no plans to go abroad any time soon. My next sign up bonus card will probably be the Ink Bold® Charge Card (also 50,000 but with 25,000 points after first purchase and additional 25,000 points with $10,000 spend within three months). There are also other great deals like the Chase Sapphire Preferred(SM) Card with 40,000 bonus sign up so it’s not like it is the only mega deal around.
If you are not targeted and want to get this Card, then you have two choices. You could get the standard United MileagePlus® Explorer Card with 40,000 sign up bonus or wait until the 60,000 offer becomes available to everyone. If you already have a Continental One Card, that might complicate things if you apply for a United card now (check this post about Continental United Card strategy).
If you do not have any miles in your Mileage Plus account and want to try your luck, you could transfer some Continental Miles over (if you have a OnePass account) or transfer from your Chase Ultimate Rewards account (if you have the Chase Sapphire Preferred or Ink Bold). That might just do the trick and trigger the targeted offer.
Lastly, I would like to thank readers who have tipped me on this and also to say that I’m contacting a few friends of mine who are Continental or United members and to see if they have got the 60k offer. And if they do, I hopefully will be able to provide more screen shots. Please also share your stories regarding this offer.
