My thoughts on the United credit card changes

March 28, 2025: I just got done updating our guide to the United credit cards in response to United and Chase’s updates to the United credit card product line. Now that I’ve had some time to digest the changes, here are my thoughts.

Annual fee changes: Massive increases

Let’s start with annual fees. Both in absolute terms and relative terms, the cards are a lot more expensive than they were before. Here are the changes:

Existing cardmembers won’t see their fees jump immediately. In Chase’s press release, they mention that the new annual fees will go into effect for card renewals after August 1, 2025 or for Explorer Card renewals after January 1, 2026.

Of course, a price increase isn’t bad, if it is accompanied by an increase in real value that a product delivers. And Chase and United would have us believe that we are getting a lot of extra value in their refreshed products.

First, I want to give credit where credit is due. Here are the changes that I think are unquestionably positive for cardmembers.

• The award flight discount on the United Quest card is now 10,000 miles instead of the previous two 5,000 mile discounts. This is easier to use and will likely provide more value to cardmembers that redeem miles.
• More ability to earn Premier Qualifying Points across the board. The United Club cards now both let you earn up to 28,000 PQPs per year for spending and the United Quest and United Club personal cards give you PQPs just for being a cardmember.
• The TravelBank credit on the Quest card is now $200 instead of the previous $125. This is a benefit that should be easily usable by cardmembers and is a pure value add.

On balance, I’d say that the United Quest Card might have come out ahead with these changes. But it doesn’t get much better from here…

Coupon book credits: Big numbers, hard to use.

The balance of the positive changes to the United cards are what a lot in the miles and points space call “coupon book” credits. (I credit Frequent Miler with coming up with this term.)

These types of credits are designed to increase perceived value. On United’s marketing page, they are now heavily promoting the maximum possible credit amounts. The Explorer card—get up to $400 in benefits annually. The United Club Business Card—Unlock over $725 in partner credits annually.

In reality, vanishingly few, if any, cardmembers will get this much value from the credits. Either because they don’t naturally spending, or they’ll eat up all of the value of the credits. Make no mistake: These credits are designed to be hard to use and the number-crunchers at Chase and United are surely well aware of this.

Additional perks for spending

Some of the other apparently positive changes to the cards come in the form of perks for putting spending on your card.

You can now get two coupons for checked bags by spending $10,000 on year on the no-annual-fee United Gateway card, you can earn an award flight discount on most of the personal cards after spending $20,000, and the Quest and business cards allow you to earn Economy Plus upgrade certificate.

Clearly, these perks are designed to incentivize spending on the card. But the problem with this is that airline cards usually offer sub-par rewards for spending. In the video I made covering the United credit card changes, I point out that your alternative to putting $20,000 of spending on the card is using a 2% cash back card and earning $400.

Biggest downgrade: Change to United Club access

A few of the cards’ perks have been minimally downgraded. The United Club passes you used to get with the Explorer cards, for example, are now no longer giftable—they can only be used when the cardmember or an authorized user is present. But for United Club and United Club Business cardmembers, the biggest downgrade is the change to United Club membership.

Previously, United offered one tier of lounge membership. And that United Club membership included access for two adult guests or one adult guest and children under 21. It also included access to Star Alliance lounges.

Now, you’ll only get the option for that second adult and Star Alliance lounge access with an “All Access” membership. The “Individual” membership, which is the tier that you get for holding the United Club or United Club business cards, doesn’t include these perks. Additionally, dependent children now only includes children under 18.

Despite the increase in annual fees, to get an all-access membership, which offers less than you used to get just for having the card, you now have to spend $50,000 on the card in a year, or get United Premier Gold or higher status.

Why not find ways to increase value?

Part of the magic of loyalty programs is that they offer ways to increase value to customers at minimal cost and drive customer behavior.

Chase and United certainly get the driving customer behavior part—they’re trying to get you to use your cards for spending, spend with their partners, and book hotels through their portal. All of these things generate merchant fees and hefty commissions for them. But they seem to have forgotten the part about creating value.

The additional perks on the Chase United cards seem to be explicitly designed so that the majority of the value goes to breakage. There are plenty of ways that an airline can create value at a lower with customers that are willing to engage in its loyalty program, but I don’t see much of that in these changes.

My overall take: Increased prices, devalued benefits

Chase has dramatically increased the prices of the United credit cards without a corresponding increase in the real value delivered by the same cards. Ultimately, the cards are still worth getting for some, though I think that existing cardmembers should seriously consider whether the card is worth holding on to. Sure, it can still make sense to grab a United credit card sign-up bonus from time-to-time, but on an ongoing basis, the benefits you’re buying just got more expensive.