MILES&POINTS: 55k United miles offer for signing up for the Chase United Explorer Credit Card is live! + $50 statement credit

Chase & United Airlines are back with a great sign-up offer for the Chase United Explorer card: 55,000 United miles after completing the sign-up offer, PLUS a $50 statement credit AND your first year’s annual fee is waived! That’s good enough for a ROUNDTRIP ticket from the United States to Europe or Asia via Economy on an United Saver Award!

I have personally flown from San Francisco to Montreal, Canada and San Francisco to Bangkok, Thailand on 65,000 United miles for economy roundtrip; after paying tax, it only comes out to $60 roundtrip for one of those flights! What a steal considering normal economy tickets are normally $1,200!!

I also have flights booked from San Francisco to Frankfurt, Germany for this June and those are only costing me 30,000 miles each way via saver awards! As you might imagine, these United miles are worthwhile and that this sign-up offer is pretty sweet. Certainly, it may not be as sweet as the 65k offer they had back in spring of 2012 when they were first really pushing for this new credit card product, but I suspect this is as good as an offer will come for the United Explorer credit card for some time now.

If you don’t already have a Chase United Explorer credit card, now is the time to apply. (Note: If you have had one in the past 24 months, you are most likely not eligible for the sign up promotion.)

Here is how you can get the 55k offer to show up. (Normally it is only 30k right now.):

• You need to sign into your United MileagePlus account (or sign up for one if you don’t have one). If you don’t log in, you will probably see the link for the 50k offer, but don’t click that one because you may not get the $50 statement credit.
• Supposedly you will need RECENT activity on your mileageplus account in order to see 50k offer. Otherwise, you will see only 30k. If you don’t have any recent activity–or if you just created your United MileagePlus account, that’s ok. Just read my post about the free 1,000 United miles (worth $20) that you can get from bckstgr.com. The miles posts instantly (or within a few minutes)!
• Go to the promotional page link here: https://www.theexplorercard.com/MPYoureIn50k50AFWIC.aspx
• Try the link above again and confirm that you see BOTH the 50k offer and $50 statement credit.
• Most are approved instantly. If you are not, you may check the status of the application by calling the reconsideration number 1-888-245-0625. If you are not approved, make sure you call the reconsideration line to see if there’s anything they can do. Usually personal charm is all you need to push it along. 🙂
• 50,000 bonus miles after you spend $1,000 in the first 3 months your account is open. 5,000 bonus miles after you add an authorized user to your account and make a purchase with your card during the first 3 months as a Cardmember. 10,000 bonus miles every calendar year you spend at least $25,000 on your Card. (Yeah, the last bonus miles for the annual spend is hard to reach.)