UA credit card questions

[bigrick]

I'm looking at the United credit card options. I have enough UA miles already that the 30,000 mile bonus for a new card would get me to Europe for free next year. My wife's account with her own 30,000 mile bonus still needs more miles to reach 60k.

If she got the Select Visa and I got the Visa Signature, could I transfer miles to her to make up her shortage?

Any suggestions on how to optimize earning miles for her?

 

[JeffW]

I'm not sure if you can always transfer miles. In the airline emails I get, it seems like it's an occasional offer. Even if it is all the time, there is a transfer fee to do it. You might check on the United website, I think you can buy additional miles outright, for perhaps not too much more than what the cost to transfer miles is.

Do you have any expenses you can easily charge on the card? I just put about $5500 on my wifes MP card paying out auto and homeowners insurance bill.

Jeff

 

[Dave M]

Yes, you can transfer your Mileage Plus FF miles to your spouse. However, it's very costly to do so - 1.5 cents per mile transferred, plus a $35 transaction fee. Thus, if you transferred 20,000 miles, it would cost $335.

Here is the UA explanatory link.

Transferring miles costs less than buying miles - 3.225 cents per mile, plus a $35 transaction fee.

 

[bigrick]

I have a relative who has a UA credit card. Also he's the only one in his family with a mileage plus number. He uses his miles to obtain free flights for his family members (at no charge I believe). He always purchases his flight in order to acquire more miles to be used by others.

Is his scenario better for him because he tends not to fly unless it's a once-a-year vacation?

P.S. I gave up on 'vacations' several years ago. My wife and I just take 'trips' or 'travel' now. 'Vacation' has too much job stigma for me. 'Vacation' sounds too limited.

For us travelers, since both of us are flying places, it may make more sense to have 2 FF numbers and 2 credit cards. How do you balance your credit card miles in multiple FF accounts?

 

[JeffW]

...For us travelers, since both of us are flying places, it may make more sense to have 2 FF numbers and 2 credit cards. How do you balance your credit card miles in multiple FF accounts?

It really depends on what your travel & spending look like. Once you have FF miles in your account, you can get award tickets for anyone, for no additional cost. In this case, the ideal arrangement would be to have all your miles in one common account, where you collectively have enough miles to redeem for awards. British Airways has this in "household" accounts, were you can link 4 (I think) accounts together, and redeem from that pool.

If all of your mileage earning was via credit cards, then the better approach would be to get a card linked to one MP account, and spend on it. You can get additional cards for spouse/family members, for no additional charge, which also earn miles for that account.

For regular purchases, this works well. However, when you factor in signup bonuses, which can be 25k or more miles per person (account), one can make a good arguement that it's worth getting separate card for both / all people. Even if you keep the card for one year, the annual fee for the card ($50+) is usually well worth in, considering the 20k+ miles you get for it.

If you fly on the airline, each person earns their miles separately. If you don't travel far (thus not earning a lot of miles), it's not necessarily bad to "orphan" those miles in an account. However, if you take lots of trips, or longer ones (ie. East Coast to Hawaii is about 10k roundtrip), then you have an appreciable amount of miles. In this case, it might make more sense to get a separate credit card linked to that account, so you can earn enough miles to get that account to an amount sufficient to redeem an award.

Jeff

 

[Judy]

I'm looking at the United credit card options. I have enough UA miles already that the 30,000 mile bonus for a new card would get me to Europe for free next year.

Before you commit to a new credit card for the specific purpose of earning an award trip to Europe next summer, be sure that United has the awards you want available. They could disappear between the time you apply for the card and when the miles are deposited in your account, but at least if you check award availability on united.com now, you'd have some idea.

 

[HatTrick]

Yes, you can transfer your Mileage Plus FF miles to your spouse. However, it's very costly to do so - 1.5 cents per mile transferred, plus a $35 transaction fee. Thus, if you transferred 20,000 miles, it would cost $335.

Here is the UA explanatory link.

Transferring miles costs less than buying miles - 3.225 cents per mile, plus a $35 transaction fee.

Just got an e-mail from United offering miles now through the end of the year for 2.5 cents per mile. The excise tax and transaction fee still apply... of course! There's a special link in the e-mail, so I guess one has to receive the invitation in order to participate.

 

[bigrick]

Before you commit to a new credit card for the specific purpose of earning an award trip to Europe next summer, be sure that United has the awards you want available. They could disappear between the time you apply for the card and when the miles are deposited in your account, but at least if you check award availability on united.com now, you'd have some idea.

I checked and they are available. Thanks for the tip. I still need a couple of months before the free miles via the sign-up bonus appear. Hopefully, the flights I want will still be available then.

 

[bigrick]

It really depends on what your travel & spending look like. Once you have FF miles in your account, you can get award tickets for anyone, for no additional cost. In this case, the ideal arrangement would be to have all your miles in one common account, where you collectively have enough miles to redeem for awards. British Airways has this in "household" accounts, were you can link 4 (I think) accounts together, and redeem from that pool.

If all of your mileage earning was via credit cards, then the better approach would be to get a card linked to one MP account, and spend on it. You can get additional cards for spouse/family members, for no additional charge, which also earn miles for that account.

For regular purchases, this works well. However, when you factor in signup bonuses, which can be 25k or more miles per person (account), one can make a good arguement that it's worth getting separate card for both / all people. Even if you keep the card for one year, the annual fee for the card ($50+) is usually well worth in, considering the 20k+ miles you get for it.

If you fly on the airline, each person earns their miles separately. If you don't travel far (thus not earning a lot of miles), it's not necessarily bad to "orphan" those miles in an account. However, if you take lots of trips, or longer ones (ie. East Coast to Hawaii is about 10k roundtrip), then you have an appreciable amount of miles. In this case, it might make more sense to get a separate credit card linked to that account, so you can earn enough miles to get that account to an amount sufficient to redeem an award.

Jeff

This is kind of what I was thinking. I applied for 2 cards. I'll see what our use patterns are over the next 12 months.

We've used multiple airlines over the years. Now that we are using an airline cc I'll have to track this too.

I needed another project to track in 2010!

 

[Jimster]

transfer

Any time you pay to transfer your own free miles, I regard that as a losing proposition. Maybe if I needed 1k miles to complete an award I would consider it. As for CC there are a variety of options and a variety of Chase CC's to apply for so be sure to examine all of them before making your selection. Chase is also being very picky lately about approving cards even with very good credit scores. Your best chance is probably a personal and a business card. To make my point, anything you read about acquiring cards that is over 2 months old is probably out of date. The process has definitely changed. As for availability, that can change in an eye blink and the airlines aren't particularly helpful any more since they often do not put tickets on hold (UA stopped that a while back).

 

[bigrick]

I received my card but not my wife's. She'll be 8k miles short whenever her card and bonus miles arrive.

We called to ask what the hangup was for her card. They only know it's in the works! "No one" has access to the cause of the delay they say. That certainly makes no sense!

I asked United for help, telling them I want to use her card to purchase a flight in March. Nada.

Any suggestions for expediting the issuing of her credit card?