New United Explorer Card

[Anonymous]

Yay or nay?

Contemplating applying for it. Usually fly United 3-5x a year. Now that they do 2x hotel/dining it’s alittle more intriguing. Although right now I have the Venture/Uber for daily spend.

[coldfusion]

How would you use the accumulated miles? If you fly 3-5 times a year (unless they're mostly TPAC) you're low on the status pole so odds of using them for upgrades would generally not be good.  Can you at least be occasionally flexible with travel plans or commit to travel several months in advance, where award bookings would be an option?

There are soft benefits with the card like boarding with Zone 2 (so need to gate check is rare) and free 1st checked bag for you + companion,  so if you fly UA 3-5x/year I'd say yay.

You also get 2 United Club passes per year, the clubs are mostly just OK but are useful if there are irregular ops and if there is a problem with your flight the lounge dragons are usually better at helping rebook/reroute than staff at the customer service desks.

[UpperNwGuy]

For me, the $95 per year Explorer card pays for itself.  I value the lounge passes at $25 apiece (which is the hypothetical amount I would be willing to pay in cash to enter the lounge for an hour -- and yes, I know United charges more than that, but their price isn't worth it to me), the Group 2 boarding at $20 per flight (because I need to find a safe overhead space to store a fragile CPAP machine), and the extra award seat availability at $20 a year.  I usually fly United to Europe twice a year (using miles), so each year I get $50 of value from the lounge passes, $80 from the Group 2 boarding, and $20 from the extra award availability.  That totals to $150 in value for a $95 annual fee.  The only real spending I do on the Explorer card is to pay the taxes and fees on those award flights.  The miles I use for those award flights were all earned on the Chase Sapphire Reserve and transferred over to United.

[Anonymous]

So this card is really only useful for me people who book in advance and say do extensive international travel?

[UpperNwGuy]

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@Anonymous wrote:
So this card is really only useful for me people who book in advance and say do extensive international travel?

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It could also be useful for those who have substantial domestic travel on United.  My domestic travel is to destinations where United does not have nonstop flights, so I use Jet Blue or American for those trips.  In general, however, international awards are better value (and have better seat availability) than domestic awards on all three major US carriers (American, Delta, and United).  Booking in advance is wise for any kind of air travel no matter what the airline, the length of the trip, or whether the fare is paid with cash or with frequent flyer miles.

[coldfusion]

For someone like you the value is more in the perks (which would be worth more than $95/yr) than the miles, unless you're going to use the card as your daily driver and routinely put over $2500/month spend on the card + PIF.

[Anonymous]

I would use it for all dining/hotel for the 2x

[Anonymous]

bump

[UpperNwGuy]

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@Anonymous wrote:
bump

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Why are you bumping?  You asked a question, and several members have provided information to enable you to figure out your own answer.  You need to take this information, examine your own circumstances and decide YAY or NAY.  We can't do it for you.

[NRB525]

nyy, did you app yet?