New 60,000 Bonus Miles United MileagePlus Explorer Card

Towards the end of 2011, many United elite members were offered a 60,000 miles sign-up bonus for the new MileagePlus Explorer card from Chase. Unfortunately, those of us with no status were left out in the cold. Well it looks like just a few days ago, United started making the 60,000 miles offer available to almost all Mileage Plus members, with or without status.

There appears to be a few kinks in the system still, but once you log into your Mileage Plus account, you should see the 60,000 miles offer on the front page. If you still see the general 40,000 miles offer, it could be because your account has a zero balance. One solution is to transfer some of your Continental OnePass miles over if you have any. Transferring miles is easy and can be completed here. If you still cannot see the 60,000 miles offer, try logging off of your account, clearing your history and cache, logging back in, and clicking on this link. A FlyerTalk member seems to have found this workaround for those who continuously have trouble accessing the 60,000 miles offer page.

While the offer is good for 60,000 bonus miles, technically it is really for 50,000 bonus miles after your first purchase (which is pretty amazing already). The last 10,000 bonus miles requires you to spend $25,000 within your first calendar year of cardmembership. Other benefits include:

• Annual fee waived for the first year, a $95 value
• First checked bag is free for you and a companion when you fly on United/Continental-operated flights
• Priority boarding privileges
• Two complimentary United Club passes every year
• Earn 2 miles per dollar on United/Continental purchases, and 1 mile per dollar everywhere else

This offer will expire February 29, 2012, but my personal feeling is that another 60,000 bonus miles promotion will most likely make an appearance again sometime later in the year.