Update: This offer is expired.

Chase has officially increased the sign-up bonus on the Chase United MileagePlus Explorer credit card from 30,000 bonus miles to 50,000 miles. This offer was always unofficially available via “Secure Message“,  but is now available through September 2nd as a public offer.

In order to get the 50,000 mile sign-up bonus, you will need to spend $2,000 within the first 3 months after account opening.

You’ll also get an additional 5,000 bonus miles when you add a free additional user card on your account. All in all, after the minimum spend and additional user card, you’ll have 57,000 miles!

Additionally, you’ll also get a $50 statement credit to boot, after your first purchase!

Official perks:

• Limited Time Offer: Start with 50,000 bonus miles after you spend $2,000 in the first 3 months
• Earn an additional 5,000 miles when you add an authorized user and make a purchase in the first three months
• Check your first bag for free – save up to $100 per roundtrip
• Enjoy priority boarding privileges and visit the United Club with two one-time-use passes every year
• No foreign transaction fees
• Earn double miles on tickets purchased from United, and 1 mile per $1 on all other purchases
• Your miles don’t expire as long as you’re a Cardmember, with no limit to the number of miles you can earn
• $0 intro annual fee for the first year, then $95

Other benefits of this card include:

• Primary CDW insurance on car rentals
• 10,000 bonus miles when you spend $25,000 per year
• Miles won’t expire, as long as you have this card.

Most credit cards offer free collision insurance (CDW) when renting a vehicle, but their insurance is usually secondary to your regular insurance coverage. With this card your coverage is primary (as long as you decline the rental agency’s CDW), which means that if you are in an accident, it won’t affect your insurance rates and you won’t need to file any paperwork with your insurance company.

Award Chart: Some sample uses with United miles include a round trip ticket to Europe on United for 60,000 miles, a round trip to Israel for 85,000 miles. A Domestic round-trip is 25,000 miles, unless if it’s a short-haul flight, which is up to 700 miles, in which case it’ll be 10,000 miles each way.

Of course there are other options as well. You can view United Airlines full award chart, here.

With United miles, you are allowed a free “stop-over” and a free “open jaw”. An “open jaw” means entering one city and departing from another. A stop-over is only considered a stop-over if the stop is over 24 hours. A stop less than 24 hours will not use up your free stop-over.

With this in mind, you can potentially see 2 European countries for 60,000 miles round-trip if you utilize your free stop-over. For example, you can book a ticket to Switzerland via Paris, stop in Paris for a week, utilizing your free stop-over, and then continue onto Switzerland. You can also utilize your free open-jaw, by flying into Paris, and then continuing onto Switzerland from London.

Besides for redeeming your miles to fly on United Airlines itself, you can also redeem for flights on United Airlines partner airlines.

United has 36 partners, including: Adria Airlines, Aegean Airlines, Aer Lingus, Air Canada, Air China, Air India, Air New Zealand, ANA, Asiana Airlines, Austrian Airlines, Avianca Airlines, Azul Brazilian Airlines, Brussels Airlines, Copa Airlines, Croatia Airlines, Egyptair, Ethiopian Airlines, EVA Air, Germanwings, Great Lakes Airlines, Hawaiian Airlines, Island Air, Jet Airways, LOT Polish Airlines, Lufthansa, Scandinavian Airlines, Shenzhen Airlines, Silver Airways, Singapore Airlines, South African Airways, Swiss International Airlines, TAP Portugal, THAI and Turkish Airlines.

Bear in mind that some of these airlines will not show up when booking award travel on United.com and will have to be booked over the phone. These airlines include: Air India, Brussels Airlines (Brussles will occasionally show) Cape Air, Copa Airlines, Great Lakes Airlines, Jet Airways, LOT Polish, Shenzhen and Singapore Airlines.

Award redemption’s on partner airlines will generally cost more miles than when redeeming for travel on United itself. You can view United Airlines Partner chart, here and award chart, here.

United does not charge any fuel surcharges.

Also Available In A Business Version

This card is also available in a business version. The business version does not offer the $50 statement credit or the 5,000 extra miles for an additional user card, but it does offer the same 50,000 miles after spending $2,000 within 3 months.

To find this offer, on the application landing page on the lower right side, under “Are You A Business Owner” you should see the link to the business version. Note: That if the 50,000 offer doesn’t show, you may need to try in a different browser, in in-private browsing or you can try signing up from United.com while logged into your account.

If you are denied for the personal version of the Chase United MileagePlus Explorer, you can call Chase Reconsideration at 1-888-245-0625

If you are denied for the Business version, you can call Chase Business Reconsideration at 1-800-453-9719

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Another awesome card with a nice signup bonus is the Barclaycard Arrival Plus World Elite MasterCard! Besides for this card being one of the best cash-back credit cards out there, this card is also especially good if you don’t want to deal with the hassle of redeeming miles and trying to find saver award availability for your trip.

Rather than accumulating traditional miles, this card offers bank points. It gives you 2 points for every dollar spent, which is 2% cash back + upon redemption you get another 10% back, which in essence is equivalent to 2.27% cash-back on everything!

This card offers a 40,000 point sign-up bonus once you spend $3,000 within the first 3 months of account opening! Plus every time you redeem points you’ll get 10% back so essentially, you’ll be earning $506 after signup bonus, initial spend and the 10% back!

You can redeem the points for full value on travel related expenses. Any time you charge travel to your card you will have the option of paying for the travel with your points at 1 cent value per point (+ you’ll get the 10% back). The redemption process is very simple. Once the charge shows up on your account, you have 120 days or 4 months to simply go online to your Barclays account and request that the purchase be refunded using your points.

Travel expenses include: airlines, hotels, motels, timeshares, campgrounds, car rental agencies, cruise lines, travel agencies, tourist attractions, discount travel sites, trains, buses, taxis, limousines, and ferries. there are no blackout dates or seat restrictions. (Though of course you can always just buy a refundable ticket to cash out your points.)

For example if you spend $460 dollars on a plane ticket and have 46,000 points from the bonus from opening the card and spending the $3,000, you’ll be able to get a $460 cash refund. Plus, you’ll also get 4,600 points redeposited to your account worth another $46.

Other perks include:

• No foreign transaction fees!
• FREE real FICO score
• Miles don’t expire as long as your account is open
• Annual fee is waived for the first year, then $89

After the first year is up, if you do not want to pay the $89 annual fee, simply call up Barclays and downgrade to the no annual fee version of the BarclayCard Arrival World Mastercard. The main differences between the Annual fee version and the no annual fee version is that the no annual fee version only gives a 20,000 point signup bonus and you only get 2 points on travel and dining purchases. The no annual fee version also gives a 10% point refund with every redemption and has no foreign transaction fees. When downgrading you don’t lose your points and the points do not lose value.

Also a nice perk about Barclays, is that they generally only pull from Transunion no matter which state you are located in, as opposed to Chase, Amex or Citi. That mean’s that Chase, Amex or Citi will not see the credit pull from Barclays or vice versa. Though do bear in mind that Barclays will see all of your recently opened cards if they are over 30 days old even if they don’t pull from Experian or Equifax. Another great thing about this is that if you are maxed applying for cards from Chase or Amex here’s another great offer you can take advantage of. You can check  your real Transunion FICO score here.

If you applied for this card and were denied, you can call Barclays reconsideration at 1-866-408-4064.

View Additional Limited Time Offers here!