@Kree wrote:
@iced wrote:
@Kree wrote:
Top two airlines to and from Hawaii, United and Hawaiian Air.
Both star alliance partners.
I would recommend one of the United cards, the club card offers free seat upgrades on all flights, plus free club loungue access and double miles on star alliance purchases. Plus first two bags free for member and 1 guests (up to a 120 dollar value per flight).
The Club card does not offer free seat upgrades. It offers the ability for existing Premier members who use the card to pay the fees on an award ticket to get in the CPU queue as if they had bought the ticket in the lowest non-Basic fare bucket. This is also the first I have heard of double miles on *A. Can you clarify what this perk is, because I’m very likely owed it several times over by now.
I thought the club card also gave you premiere access, with free economy plus upgrades without fees. It should also allow economy plus upgrade awards to be used to get into business. And the double miles, I meant 2x per dollar spent on travel.
Premier Access != Premier Status. Premier Access means you get to stand with what's effectively half the flight now in boarding group 2. Everyone from a CC holder all the way up to Gold gets tossed into that group now. It also lets you in the Premier Access security line, but these days Pre-Check is going to win every day and twice on Sundays - do that instead. Free E+ seats don't start until Silver (and that's only at check-in, which often means only middle E+ seats are available) or Gold for unrestricted E+ selection.
The 2x is only on United purchases. Everything else is 1.5 miles/dollar. There's really only two reasons to get the MP Club:
1. You fly frequently enough to make good use of the lounges.
2. You want United miles and are willing to pay a premium for the extra .5 earning power. Note that if you spend $25,000 on the Explorer, you get a 10,000 mile bonus for the year, which means at $25,000, the two cards are basically a wash (35,000 on the $95 Explorer vs 37,500 on the $450 Club), but if you spend significantly more, the Club starts to run away. If one's spend is heavily toward dining/travel though, the CSR will earn far more miles for the same AF, though.
For other cases, I'd recommend the Explorer instead as you get most of the same benefits (including the PQD waiver for $25,000+ spend, which is probably the most valuable perk on the Explorer card IMO) with a significantly less AF.
The Club is really the card for the established United frequent flier who does a lot of domestic flights and hits the lounge 30 times a year or the frequent *A traveller who doesn't have status and doesn't buy premium cabins but wants international lounge access. It's the cheapest way, regardless of status, to purchase Club membership in those cases.
