{"id":280,"date":"2015-10-14T06:00:08","date_gmt":"2015-10-14T10:00:08","guid":{"rendered":"http:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/?p=280"},"modified":"2016-04-16T14:16:40","modified_gmt":"2016-04-16T18:16:40","slug":"the-united-mileageplus-explorer-card","status":"publish","type":"post","link":"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/the-united-mileageplus-explorer-card\/","title":{"rendered":"The United MileagePlus Explorer card"},"content":{"rendered":"

\"united\"<\/a><\/p>\n

One way we keep our vacation costs down is to leverage frequent flyer miles to get free flights to our destinations.\u00a0 The cost of the flight to your vacation can comprise a large portion of your overall budget — why not have that cost covered for you?<\/p>\n

One of our favorite ways to obtain frequent flyer miles is through signup bonuses on credit cards.\u00a0 Credit card companies will often hand out a large signup bonus of airline miles in order to acquire you as customer.\u00a0 They are hoping you will overspend on the card and pay them a great deal of interest.\u00a0 As long as you pay the card off every month, you can leverage that card for free airline tickets.<\/p>\n

United Airlines has partnered with Chase bank to offer the United MileagePlus Explorer Card<\/a>.\u00a0 In exchange for spending a certain amount within a specific time frame (usually $1000-$2000 in the first three months of opening the card), Chase will give you anywhere from 30,000 to 50,000 miles (depending whatever the current promotion is).\u00a0 Additionally, if you spend $25,000 within a calendar year, Chase will give you a 10,000 mile bonus.\u00a0 You also earn 2 miles for each dollar spent on United Airlines transactions and 1 mile for each dollar spent anywhere else.<\/p>\n

So, you sign up for the card and meet the spending requirement in order to receive the initial bonus.\u00a0 United flights to anywhere within the continental United States (over 700 miles in distance) can be redeemed for 25,000 miles round trip at the saver award level.\u00a0 Flights of less than 700 miles (like from Washington DC to Jacksonville, FL) can be redeemed for 20,000 miles round trip.\u00a0 These saver level awards aren’t hard to find if your travel dates are a bit flexible. Plus, United opens up additional award space specifically for holders of the United MileagePlus Explorer Card.<\/p>\n

The United MileagePlus Explorer Card also offers a free checked bag each for the card holder and one companion on the same reservation in addition to priority boarding.\u00a0 The card holder will also receive two free United Club passes per year.\u00a0 The United Clubs, which are available at select airports<\/a>, can provide a nice way to pass time before a flight or during a long layover.<\/p>\n

The annual fee on the card is $95, but is waived for the first year.\u00a0 Whether you keep the card or not is up to you, but the card has to be active in order to get the free checked bag.\u00a0 There are lots of other benefits to the card that can be found on the United MileagePlus Explorer Card website<\/a>.<\/p>\n

You can only receive the sign up bonus if you haven’t received one in the last 24 months.\u00a0 So, if you have the card open for 18 months and cancel it, you could receive the bonus again only if you waited an additional 6 months to sign up again.\u00a0 I would warn you against over churning the card, as Chase might view that action in a negative light.\u00a0 Having said that, we have each received two sign up bonuses of 50,000 miles (for a total of 200,000 miles).\u00a0 We tend to keep the cards for at least two years when we sign up for them because we fly United enough that the free checked bags offset the annual fee.<\/p>\n

So, for one credit card sign up bonus of 50,000 miles, you and your traveling companion can travel anywhere round trip within the 48 states.\u00a0 Got a family of four?\u00a0 Just have you and your partner sign up to take the whole family round trip!<\/p>\n

If you are considering getting this card, please contact me<\/a> for a referral link or make a comment on this post.\u00a0 I’ll send you a signup link and I’ll get some miles for you signing up and it won’t cost you anything.<\/p>\n

Be sure to checkout our main site, BackToTheMouse.com<\/a> for more great money saving vacation tips!<\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"

One way we keep our vacation costs down is to leverage frequent flyer miles to get free flights to our Continue Reading<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"author":1,"featured_media":0,"comment_status":"open","ping_status":"open","sticky":false,"template":"","format":"standard","meta":{"advanced_seo_description":"","jetpack_seo_html_title":"","jetpack_seo_noindex":false,"jetpack_seo_schema_type":"","ngg_post_thumbnail":0,"_jetpack_newsletter_access":"","_jetpack_dont_email_post_to_subs":false,"_jetpack_newsletter_tier_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paywalled_content":false,"_jetpack_feature_clip_id":0,"_jetpack_memberships_contains_paid_content":false,"footnotes":"","jetpack_publicize_message":"{title}\n\n{excerpt}\n\n{url}","jetpack_publicize_feature_enabled":true,"jetpack_social_post_already_shared":true,"jetpack_social_options":{"image_generator_settings":{"template":"highway","default_image_id":0,"font":"","enabled":false},"version":2},"_wpas_customize_per_network":false,"jetpack_post_was_ever_published":false},"categories":[12,15,6],"tags":[],"class_list":["post-280","post","type-post","status-publish","format-standard","hentry","category-credit-cards","category-flight-cost","category-travel-cost","no-post-thumbnail","no-read-more-tag","no-sticky","use-excerpt","entry"],"jetpack_publicize_connections":[],"jetpack-related-posts":[{"id":4380,"url":"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/united-mileageplus-explorer-card-updated\/","url_meta":{"origin":280,"position":0},"title":"United MileagePlus Explorer Card – Updated","author":"Joseph","date":"July 11, 2017","format":false,"excerpt":"One way we keep our vacation costs down is to leverage frequent flyer miles to get free flights to our destinations.\u00a0 The cost of the flight to your vacation can comprise a large portion of your overall budget -- why not have that cost covered for you? One of our\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Credit Cards"","block_context":{"text":"Credit Cards","link":"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/category\/credit-cards\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"united","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/backtothemouse.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/united-1.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":942,"url":"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/free-flights-to-europe\/","url_meta":{"origin":280,"position":1},"title":"Free Flights to Europe","author":"Joseph","date":"March 10, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"Recently, a co-worker told me he's planning to visit family in Europe in 18-24 months.\u00a0 We had previously discussed credit card rewards, so he was interested in reducing his costs for the flights.\u00a0 His lodging expenses will be covered since he's staying with family.\u00a0 He is taking his wife and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Credit Cards"","block_context":{"text":"Credit Cards","link":"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/category\/credit-cards\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"united","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/backtothemouse.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/03\/united-1.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]},{"id":297,"url":"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/planning-a-trip-to-hawaii-part-1\/","url_meta":{"origin":280,"position":2},"title":"Planning a trip to Hawaii – Part 1","author":"Joseph","date":"November 27, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"Planning 1 | Planning 2 | Planning 3 | Travel | Disneyland\u00a0 (Day 1 - Day 2 - Day 3 - Day 4) | Arrival | Surfing | Aulani | Excursion | Hyatt This will be a three part discussion on planning a future trip. After much family discussion (and\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Credit Cards"","block_context":{"text":"Credit Cards","link":"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/category\/credit-cards\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"","width":0,"height":0},"classes":[]},{"id":330,"url":"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/citibank-american-airlines-card\/","url_meta":{"origin":280,"position":3},"title":"Citibank American Airlines Card","author":"Joseph","date":"November 23, 2015","format":false,"excerpt":"We've talked before about keeping your travel costs down by using credit card sign up bonuses for free flights.\u00a0 With this strategy, you can reap the benefits of a $500 flight per person and a free flight.\u00a0 The problem we've seen is that credit card companies want to hand out\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Credit Cards"","block_context":{"text":"Credit Cards","link":"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/category\/credit-cards\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"citi-aadvantage-platinum","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/backtothemouse.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/citi-aadvantage-platinum.jpg?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/backtothemouse.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/citi-aadvantage-platinum.jpg?resize=350%2C200 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/backtothemouse.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/citi-aadvantage-platinum.jpg?resize=525%2C300 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/backtothemouse.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2015\/10\/citi-aadvantage-platinum.jpg?resize=700%2C400 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":10100,"url":"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/08-14-2019-alaska-cruise-part-1-planning\/","url_meta":{"origin":280,"position":4},"title":"08-14-2019 Alaska Cruise, Part 1: Planning","author":"Joseph","date":"December 27, 2019","format":false,"excerpt":"\u00a0 For the summer of 2019, we had originally decided on a 10-night Mediterranean cruise on the Disney Magic.\u00a0 As we got into the Summer of 2018, we came to the conclusion that we couldn't make the cruise work with our schedule and our budget.\u00a0 We already had a few\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Royal Caribbean"","block_context":{"text":"Royal Caribbean","link":"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/category\/royal-caribbean\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/backtothemouse.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/map3.gif?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1","width":350,"height":200,"srcset":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/backtothemouse.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/map3.gif?resize=350%2C200&ssl=1 1x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/backtothemouse.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/map3.gif?resize=525%2C300&ssl=1 1.5x, https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/backtothemouse.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2019\/09\/map3.gif?resize=700%2C400&ssl=1 2x"},"classes":[]},{"id":1270,"url":"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/earning-and-burning\/","url_meta":{"origin":280,"position":5},"title":"Earning and Burning","author":"Joseph","date":"August 3, 2016","format":false,"excerpt":"It has been a quiet month here at Back To The Mouse.\u00a0 What have we been spending our time doing?\u00a0 We took a few trips, but basically have been earning and burning our airline and hotel miles. Here is what we earned since the beginning of 2016: SPG\u00a0 - We\u2026","rel":"","context":"In "Credit Cards"","block_context":{"text":"Credit Cards","link":"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/category\/credit-cards\/"},"img":{"alt_text":"spg","src":"https:\/\/i0.wp.com\/backtothemouse.com\/wordpress\/wp-content\/uploads\/2016\/06\/spg-300x189.png?resize=350%2C200","width":350,"height":200},"classes":[]}],"jetpack_sharing_enabled":true,"jetpack_likes_enabled":true,"jetpack_shortlink":"https:\/\/wp.me\/peu3ZL-4w","jetpack_featured_media_url":"","_links":{"self":[{"href":"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280","targetHints":{"allow":["GET"]}}],"collection":[{"href":"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts"}],"about":[{"href":"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/types\/post"}],"author":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/users\/1"}],"replies":[{"embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/comments?post=280"}],"version-history":[{"count":9,"href":"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280\/revisions"}],"predecessor-version":[{"id":1227,"href":"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/posts\/280\/revisions\/1227"}],"wp:attachment":[{"href":"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/media?parent=280"}],"wp:term":[{"taxonomy":"category","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/categories?post=280"},{"taxonomy":"post_tag","embeddable":true,"href":"https:\/\/backtothemouse.com\/index.php\/wp-json\/wp\/v2\/tags?post=280"}],"curies":[{"name":"wp","href":"https:\/\/api.w.org\/{rel}","templated":true}]}}