35,000 (can be 50,000+) United MileagePlus Explorer Card is still ALIVE!

Posted by Noob Master on Mar 30, 2012 in Bump the Bonus, Credit Cards, Mileage Plus, Miles, reconsideration, Uncategorized, United Airlines | 36 comments

Edit: The United Explorer card is temporarily unavailable

The United MileagePlus Explorer Card is a card packed with value. My wife and I each have this card and are burning our United miles on a trip to Italy later this year. Can’t wait.

TIP- Currently the best rewards card to earn United Miles with is the Chase Sapphire Preferred®. You will get 40,000 Ultimate Rewards points when you spend $3,000 in 3 months. Ultimate Rewards points can be transferred into United. You will also earn 2x points on meals and travel. Plus you will get a 7% annual dividend on all miles earned and there is no foreign transaction fee. It’s my everyday card and #1 on my sick deals page.

The United Explorer has a sign-up bonus of 25,000 United MileagePlus Miles on the first spend and 5,000 more for adding an authorized user. Legit. Plus you get 2 free lounge passes, priority boarding and free checked bags. Want another 10k miles? Well, you’ll have to spend some 25k to get that additional bonus. Bogus, but 30k is still very nice.

Apply Now: United MileagePlus Explorer Card [ I do receive a referral credit if you use my link. Only use my link if you are satisfied with the service I provide ]

But wait…

More than a few Noob readers have been successful in bumping up the bonus from the 30,000 offer to the 55,000 (including my wife and me). We talk a lot about “bumping the bonus” on the Noob, and this is a good opportunity to do just that.

There is a targeted offer out there for the United Explorer for 65,000 miles. Really 55,000, unless you can afford to spend $25k in a year on your Explorer card. But sometimes you can take advantage of targeted offers if you send in a secure message.

Chase Bank has a made a practice of honoring any sign-up bonus for a specific card within a 90 day window. Just another reason why I goo goo ga ga over Chase. For example: Last year, I signed up for the 60,000 Priority Club card and a week later there was a better 80,000 offer. I simply sent in a secure message and was granted the extra 20,000 Priority Club points.

Here’s how to execute a “bump the bonus” by secure message on the 40,000 United MileagePlus Explorer offer:

1. Apply for the 30,000 here: United MileagePlus Explorer Card
2. Add an authorized user (you can do this when you apply or when you activate your card) for another 5,000 miles.
3. Swipe your card once activating the initial sign-up bonus.
4. Once your United MileagePlus Explorer credit card shows up in your Chase account, send Chase a “secure message”. You will see the secure message tab on the top right of your Chase bank account homepage. Here is a sample email I gave 2 Noob readers recently and they both have reported success.

Hello, I just applied for the United MileagePlus Explorer and realized today that I had the opportunity to apply for the 60k offer with 50k miles coming on first spend. That’s quite a difference from the 40k miles on my application! I would really appreciate if you would bump my sign-up bonus to my current offer.

As you can see, I have been a faithful Chase customer; I have never paid a late fee on any credit card.

Thank you for your time.

Keep it short and sweet.

There is no guarantee that Chase will honor the new offer, but many Noob readers have been successful. You should be golden after that.

Why do I want the Chase United MileagePlus Explorer Card?

Here are the details and key features on this rewards card.

Earn up to 65,000 bonus award miles—30,000 after spending $1,000 in 3 months! 
Your first year is free–I love waived annual fees.
Check your first bag for free
Enjoy priority boarding privileges
Visit the United Club with two passes every year–I love this PERK!
Earn double miles on United purchases
Your miles don’t expire

Noob It UP

I know that a lot of the Noob readers already hold the Chase Sapphire Preferred and if so, this card makes perfect sense for you to apply for. Plus, United is a transfer partner of Chase’s Ultimate Rewards Program, so if you collected the 50,000 Sapphire bonus and the 50,000 United bonus, you are sitting pretty at 100,000 miles! And, if you are married or in a relationship and your S.O. applied for both cards too, you are sitting at 200,000 very valuable, easy to use, beautiful MILES. We are talking a trip of a lifetime with your loved one.

If you are new to the game and haven’t applied for more than one Chase card recently, you can get both cards at the same time. Several Noobies have applied for both and been approved. Now, the second Chase card applied for in a short period of time will always require a “reconsideration phone call“, but who doesn’t like those? Seriously, the reconsideration phone call can be painless.

I hope this helps as you are considering your next credit card application(s). Please don’t hesitate to email me with questions. I’m happy to go over the “reconsideration phone call” or the “bump the bonus”, if you go that route.

— Noob Master