Chase United Explorer questions

[NRB525]

There is a generally available 50k miles United SUB that expires March 15. I am trying to decide whether to app that now. 

I am right at 5/24, with my oldest app from March 11, 2016, then I am 4/12, meaning it will be another year, March 2019 before the next oldest card drops off again. My next app needs to be well thought through. 

After holding the United Card, has anyone gotten other spend bonus offers on it? For example I used the Chase Hyatt for the $30 after $300 Grocery/Pharmacy spend in Feb. My Citi AA has been offering an additional 1,000 American miles on $300 spend for 6 months now. Any similar little promos on the United Card?

Any updated rumors on the Chase / AMEX Marriott / SPG Card offerings? I have the Chase Marriott and AMEX SPG, waiting to see what might be interesting out of the next release. 

The Freedom Unlimited 15,000 UR offer is the only other Chase Card I currently am monitoring, but at 4/12, and with a well-aged Slate that could be PC, those 15k seem like they are not enough incentive to go for an app.

I just got the CSP, will probably PC that to CSR in January to roll to the higher earning, better benefits at that time. 

My Chase Freedom is the Best Card Ever with a CL of $1,500 and the highest value earnings at 5 UR on Apple Pay I will not be PC’ing or asking for CLI.  

I am also considering getting the Barclay AA card for both the American miles and to try my luck with the resulting Barclay AA

Any other Chase cards I should be considering?

Does the United card have a $0 AF PC option? 

[UpperNwGuy]

I have had the Explorer card for six years and have never gotten any offers beyond the initial signup bonus.  However, United sometimes offers discounted award tickets.  In late 2016, I was able to fly to Europe and back for 45,000 miles instead of the usual 60,000 miles.

There is a standing offer on this card:  if you earn 25,000 miles in a year, you will be given a bonus of 10,000 miles.  In my opinion, this, along with the perks (miles don't expire, additional award seat availability, first bag free, early boarding, and two one-time lounge passes) make this a better card than either of the two counterpart American cards.

Yes, you can downgrade from Explorer to a no-fee United card.

[NRB525]

Thanks for the details. Each of the major airline cards seems to have enough perks to make them worth having.

Most of my travel is on Delta since it is a preferred airline for my work, but of course the value of a mile is greater on the other airlines. The 60k to Europe is a big draw here, 45k would be very nice.

[Anonymous]

If you can justify to yourself starting a sole proprietorship or if you already have a business, you should consider the chase ink preferred. Otherwise PCing your slate to the FU has you covered on 5/24 cards Imo. Besides that it's the United, Southwest, and Marriott cards. Personally, I skipped all 3. I'm going for the Citi AA Platinum (for sign up bonus, and downgrading to Dividend in year 2, I also fly out of their main hub), Spirit Airlines MC (I can avoid their fees and fly out of their 2nd largest hub so Spirit gives me lots of options and their MC gives exceptional mileage rates), and the Citi Prestige and Amex Platinum (4th night hotel benefit and Hilton/SPG status benefit from these cards are justifiable alternatives to cobranded hotel cards imo).

As for the Freedom Unlimited, if the Spirit MC doesn't make sense for you, you should also consider the PayPal trick wherein you link the business debit with the PayPal cash back cc as the backup funding source, which will effectively give you 3% CB everywhere. 1.5 UR is great but unless you know you'll be able to get more than 2 cpp for your UR points then 3% CB beats it...either way 3% CB is a reasonable alternative to 1.5x UR. Also as I understand you'd still get 2% CB on transactions that are ran as debit.