United Gateway Card Review: No Annual Fee & Up to 40K Bonus Miles

You now lose access to cardmember award redemption pricing unless you spend 10k a year. That was previously the reason to have this card.

@ Peter -- I'm curious, I don't see that in the marketing bullets or terms, regarding getting this for $10K of spending. Is there something I'm missing?

Ben,
With all of the changes to the Chase/UA collections of cards - including many that are undesirable (increased annual fee) and questionable (junk coupons and credits) - what are your thoughts on the 5/24 rules and cycling of cards to get SUB and most collective bang-for-buck approach over several years?

thanks

Peter is right, this was emailed out with the recent changes. The card is gaining the checked bags for $10k spend, but is now restricted to only getting the card award flight availability after spending $10k as well. This change will take place starting in August.

Ben I’ve heard that a United 1k member was denied entry to United Club for a flight to Canada with the agent saying “your flying domestic, the 51st state”. Curious to see how the company is going to respond to this complaint…

Does a Premier Silver member get the same mileage ticket discount as a United Explorers card member ?

From the email-

Other card changes

Beginning August 1, 2025, Cardmember pricing on award travel redemption will only be available after spending $10,000 in purchases each calendar year.

If you have not yet met the $10,000 spend goal in 2025, your 2024 spend could also earn the benefit for 2025. Once you reach the yearly spend goal, you will receive the benefit for both the current year and the following year.

I have this card but I'm dumping it. I had it for several years because there was no fees but I could claim ual member rates on award redemption. But now they won't offer that perk unless you spend $10k. Ditto with checked bags. I used to get 1 free check bag but now I get certificates of I spend $10k. So that makes this date completely pointless. Which is fine since that frees up one chase card slot for me.

Agree that you should apply for a bigger-bonus, annual-fee card first, and then downgrade to this one.

Or if, like me, you are a United fan and already have this card, keep it as a cameo - but don't place any spend on this beyond having it as your "credit card on file" for United in-flight purchases.

Just got a notice that effective 7/27/25, the annual fee for this card is $695. WTF! This is a card with essentially no benefits, so who in their right mind would pay $700 a year for it? I'll be cancelling mine.