United Gateway Card Review

Full Review of United Gateway Card

Pros Explained

• 2 Miles Per Dollar on United Purchases: Earn two miles per $1 spent on United purchases, at gas stations and on local transit and commuting. Earn one mile per $1 spent on all other purchases. The two miles earning rate is equivalent to 4.38 cents per dollar spent, based on our valuation of 2.19 cents per mile.
• MileagePlus Miles Have a Relatively High Value Per Mile: United’s MileagePlus miles earned with this card are worth 2.19 cents per mile, according to our valuations. This is one of the highest mile valuations we’ve seen for hotel and airline loyalty programs. When you combine that with multiple miles per dollar spent in certain categories, it adds even more value.?
• No Annual Fee: Many airline cards charge annual fees, but this one does not. While this card doesn’t come with premium benefits, the earning rates are decent considering the MileagePlus miles’ value.
• Valuable One-Time Bonus: ?Earn 30,000 bonus miles after you spend $1,000 on purchases in the first 3 months your account is open (offer ends 1/24/2024). This bonus is relatively robust for a no-annual-fee credit card that requires only $1,000 in spending to earn it.

Cons Explained

• No Elite Status or Priority Boarding With Card Membership: The only airline-specific benefit you get with this card is a 25% discount on certain in-flight purchases. It won’t help you earn elite status or other benefits, such as priority boarding. These features are typically reserved for cards with annual fees which this card does not have.
• No Free Checked Bags: This card doesn’t offer a free checked bag, either. Again, this benefit is more common on credit cards with annual fees.
• Permanent Bonus Mile Categories Are of Limited Value: While grocery store purchases were once a great bonus miles category, that category expired at the end of September 2021. The ongoing bonus mile categories, including select United purchases, gas, local transit, and commuting, may not add up to a lot of spending for some people.

Who This Card Is Best For

The United Gateway Card is one of several United credit card offerings. United fliers who want to earn miles for award flights but don’t travel frequently or don’t care about United perks might find this card attractive, especially because it doesn’t charge an annual fee. Its 30,000 miles one-time bonus is relatively generous, and it should be possible to earn an award flight in a fairly short period.

United Gateway Card One-Time Bonus

You can earn 30,000 bonus miles after you spend $1,000 on purchases in the first 3 months your account is open (offer ends 1/24/2024). According to our valuations of 2.19 cents per mile when redeemed for airline awards, this one-time bonus is worth up to $438. Compared with other no-annual-fee cards, that's a relatively good bonus with a reasonable spending requirement.?

To earn the bonus, you can’t currently have this credit card or have had it and received a new cardmember bonus within the last 24 months. The bonus miles may take six to eight weeks to post to your account.?

For the bonus miles to post, your account must be open and not in default. To keep the bonus, your account must remain open for at least six months. Otherwise, Chase and United reserve the right to deduct the miles from your MileagePlus Program account.?

Rewards Earning Details

The United Gateway Card offers two miles per $1 spent on United purchases, at gas stations, and on local transit and commuting. Earn one mile per $1 spent on all other purchases.

Chase automatically transfers miles earned to United at the end of each billing cycle. You can lose any miles that haven’t yet been transferred if your card account status changes or your card is closed due to fraud, program misuse, failure to pay, bankruptcy, or certain other reasons.?

Currently, United MileagePlus miles do not expire. United says there are no blackout dates or other award restrictions, but seats must be available for sale on a flight to book an award flight. That said, awards on partner-operated flights may have limitations and restrictions.

Rewards Redemption Details

United allows you to redeem your MileagePlus miles in many ways, including:

• Air awards
• Upgrade awards
• Hotel awards
• Cruise awards
• Car awards
• Merchandise awards
• Apple products
• Gift cards
• Experiences
• United Club membership
• United Wi-Fi
• TSA PreCheck
• Donation of miles to partner charities

Overall, you’ll get the best value by redeeming your miles for air awards that provide the highest value per mile. We found redeeming miles in this way results in a typical value of 2.19 cents per mile. You can redeem your MileagePlus miles for flights on more than 35 airlines worldwide in addition to United.

Non-flight redemption options normally result in a lower value per mile. Even so, redeeming your miles in that way may make sense if you don’t plan to fly United in the near future and you want to unlock the value of your miles.

Transferring Miles

The MileagePlus program allows members of MileagePlus Premier or higher status levels to transfer up to 50,000 MileagePlus miles per calendar year to the Marriott Bonvoy program on a one mile to one point basis. We value Marriott Bonvoy points at 1.43 cents per mile, so this transfer generally isn’t a good value unless you’re topping off your Marriott Bonvoy points or don’t plan to fly anytime soon.

How to Maximize Your Rewards

At 2.19 cents per mile, United’s MileagePlus miles are one of the more valuable reward currencies. Even if you’re just getting one mile per dollar spent, this card outearns a simple 2% cash back credit card—as long as you use your miles to book air award tickets that provide that much value or more per mile.?

When you earn two or three miles per dollar spent, the value increases that much more. For these reasons, it would make sense to put all of your purchases on this card unless you have a premium rewards credit card that offers an even higher value per dollar spent.?

When redeeming your rewards, you can generally get the most value by booking premium award tickets, such as business class awards. These tickets typically cost much more when paying with cash, resulting in a better value per mile in many cases.

For example, a round-trip flight from Indianapolis, Ind., to Panama City, Fla., in economy class would cost 25,000 miles plus $11.20 in taxes and fees, or $197.20 in cash, a value of 0.744 cents per mile. However, a round-trip flight from Indianapolis to Paris, France, in business class would cost 120,000 miles plus $160.85 in taxes and fees, or $6,312.35 in cash, a value of 5.126 cents per mile.

United Gateway Card’s Outstanding Benefits

Auto rental collision damage waiver: When you charge the entire rental cost to this card and decline the rental company’s collision insurance, the card will provide primary coverage.

Trip cancellation and trip interruption insurance: You can be reimbursed up to $1,500 per person and $6,000 per trip for prepaid, nonrefundable passenger fares if your trip is canceled or shortened by covered situations, such as sickness or injury.

Standard Benefits

• 24/7 Visa concierge
• 25% back as a statement credit on food, beverage, and Wi-Fi purchases on United-operated flights when paying with your card
• Extended warranty protection
• Purchase protection

Cardholder Experience

Chase, which issues the United Gateway Card, scored 809 out of 1,000 points in J.D. Power’s 2020 U.S. Credit Card Satisfaction Study. The national issuer average was 810.

Chase offers a mobile app that you can use to manage your credit card account. You can also call 800-537-7783 to reach the dedicated customer service representatives for this card.

Security Features

This credit card offers a secure, contactless payment option. It also provides the ability to lock and unlock your card within the Chase mobile app in case you misplace the card. Otherwise, the security features on this card are standard for the industry.

Fees to Watch Out for

If you plan to transfer a balance or use the cash advance feature, watch out for the related fees. Cash advances cost $10 or 5% of the amount of each transaction, whichever is greater. Balance transfers cost $5 or 5% of the amount of each transfer, whichever is greater.

Our Verdict

The United Gateway Card won’t appeal to frequent United fliers who are looking for a card with a lot of benefits. However, infrequent United fliers who want to earn miles toward award flights can find value in the one-time bonus and MileagePlus’ fairly high value per mile. Since this card doesn’t charge an annual fee and MileagePlus miles don’t expire, you can build your miles over time until you have enough for the flights you want.