Quote from Savings Beagle on November 10, 2020, 2:04 pm

Chase is back with an increased sign-up bonus for the United MileagePlus Explorer Card.  

Chase United  MileagePlus Explorer credit card - 60,000 United MileagePlus miles after spending $3,000 within 3 months from card approval. Another 10,000 miles after spending $6,000 total in the first 6 months.

The $95 annual fee is waived the first year.

The card earns 2 United MileagePlus miles per dollar spent on United purchases and at restaurants and hotel accommodations (when purchased directly with the hotel).

The card earns 1 United MileagePlus mile per dollar spent on all other purchases.

You'll also get 2 United Club one-time passes after account opening and on each card anniversary.

As with most co-branded airline cards, your first checked bag on United will be free as long as you hold the card.

You can click the card link above to see more cardmember benefits.

This is a good sign-up bonus, but to get the extra 10,000 miles you'll likely need to use the card on at least a semi-regular basis.  

I've found, pre-Covid, United miles are better than other domestic carriers' miles for finding overseas award availability, and about as good to slightly better than American and Delta for finding domestic award availability. 

Keep in mind, the days of a set amount of miles for a specific itinerary are gone, replaced by variable award pricing based on a variety of factors.  Which means it's hard to nail down exactly what the 60,000 (or 70,000) MileagePlus miles will get you. 

I will say that late last year I redeemed 72,000 United miles to fly Lufthansa business class, one-way, from Germany to the U.S., a ticket that at the time of booking would have cost approximately $5,000.  This sign-up bonus might get you close to a one-way business class (saver level) flight to/from Europe...or a roundtrip saver level economy ticket from the U.S. to Europe, depending on what things look like when traveling returns. 

And, depending on the variable pricing, one to many saver level economy class tickets for flights within the U.S.

For those Miles and Points hobbyists, this card/sign-up bonus is a great opportunity to add to your miles balance...but obviously not an everyday card to use past meeting the sign-up bonus requirements.  Many other Chase cards fill that role.

And, you need to keep Chase's 5/24 rule in mind.  If you've been approved for 5 or more credit cards from any bank in the past 24 months, Chase will not approve your application.

Additionally, per Chase, "This card product is not available to either (i) current Cardmembers of this credit card, or (ii) previous Cardmembers of this credit card who received a new Cardmember bonus for this credit card within the last 24 months."

This offer ends January 13, 2021.

If there aren't any other Chase cards in which you're interested, this might be a decent offer to jump on.