Update: One or more card offers in this post are no longer available. Check our Hot Deals for the latest offers.
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I’ve received lots of email over my post suggesting that it is best to not apply for the Continental One Pass card for 25,000 miles even though that card will no longer be available in a few days.
To clarify commonly asked questions
Once the Continental card converts to the United Explorer card (because Continental and United are merging), you will likely NOT be able to get the sign-on bonus for the United Explorer card.
That’s because Chase usually lets you get the sign-on bonus ONCE per card type. If Chase thinks you already have the United Explorer card (even though it was a converted Continental OnePass card), you run the risk of not getting the sign-up bonus on the United Explorer card.
The sign-on bonus on the United Explorer card has been 50,000 miles after your 1st purchase for most folks who have even 1 United mile in their account (very few unlucky ones don’t see the offer even with a few miles in their account).
This is a great deal and is one of the 12+ cards which have a 50,000 mile or more sign-up bonus in the Hot Deals tab.
So why sacrifice 50,000 miles from the United Explorer by applying for the Continental card with 25,000 miles? You’re also limited in the number of Chase cards which you can apply for in a year, so it doesn’t make sense to apply for a Chase card for only 25,000 miles.
Each credit card application has an opportunity cost, and applying for the 25,000 mile Chase Continental card almost certainly means fewer miles on another Chase application.
The only time when I’d recommend applying for the Chase Continental card is if you already have the United Explorer card and are willing to take a chance that the terms, which indicate that you won’t get the bonus on both the United Explorer and Chase Continental card, won’t be enforced.
A reader has been able to get the sign-up bonus on both the United Explorer and Continental OnePass card after July 19, 2011, but both were targeted offers.
Bottom Line: It is hard to let 25,000 miles slip by, but I suspect that most folks will benefit from waiting. Patience and planning always pay off.
@loveofpeace – Congratulations on your success! Glad to hear that my template worked out for you and hope you get all the miles posted soon!
@CanadianMillionMiler thanks for posting that template email. I was able use it to get the 25+5K matched to 50K. I’ll post again when the miles on both cards actually post to my accounts.
@loverofpeace – Thanks for sharing and letting us know and thanks to CanadianMillionMiler for posting the template.
@CanadianMillionMiler—I called Chase again after reading your comment. You are right. There is no additional 5k miles for adding an authorized user. I remember the rep saying you get 5k miles if you add an user.So I did . whatever sorry for the confusion. Thank you for writing about the secure message center. I will write to them and see what happens. I will update once I know.
Thanks.
@Steelsnow @CanadianMillionMiler @anonymous – Thanks for sharing your experience on the blog. Glad to know that you were able to get another 50K miles out of this!
@anonymous – Did you get it confirmed that you will get an additional 5K miles (adding additional user) for the United card? I called Chase and they told me that if you received 50K United Explorer offer, you are not eligible to get another 5K for adding additional user. Please advise.
Thanks!
@anonymous – Go to chase.com and log on to your account, to the right of your name you will see “Secure Message Center” and send your requestthem to match 50K Continental offer. I had posted the positivr response I got from them (refer to my previous posting on this thread). Here is what I wrote (feel free to use/modify it as you see fit:
“Yesterday I got approved for the Continental card which I
applied on February 27 with a signing bonus of 25K+ 5K
miles. However, I recently came across a few discussions
online in various forums that there is a better offer of
50K Continental miles, I would like to request that Chase
kindly offer the miles matching of 50K miles that others
have recently been able to get matched.
Thank you kindly for all your help and I look forward to
hearing from you.
Warmest regards,
CanadianMillionMiler