United Club Card

Rewards by category

Our take

The United Club Card is the $695 top of Chase's United lineup, and the headline number needs decoding first: the advertised 11x on United flights is 6x MileagePlus member miles that any flyer earns on the fare, plus the card's own 5x — and that 5x is what SwipeCaddy ranks. It is still the strongest United card earn in the family, ahead of the Quest's 4x and the Explorer's 3x, but the $695 is due in full from day one, with no first-year waiver.

Read the fee as a United Club membership with a credit card attached. Lounge access is the perk the $695 actually buys, and the rest of the stack serves the same heavy United flyer: free first and second checked bags for you and a companion, Premier Access travel services, Visa Infinite benefits, and no foreign transaction fees. The welcome offer is 80,000 MileagePlus miles after $5,000 in purchases in the first 90 days — the largest bonus of the three United consumer cards.

Beyond United itself, the earning is thinner than the marketing suggests. The other 5x is portal-only: prepaid Renowned Hotels and Resorts bookings made through Chase Travel — book the same property directly and the stay earns 2x. Everything else travel-shaped settles at 2x, including other airlines, hotels off the portal rate, transit, taxis and rideshare, and dining with takeout and eligible delivery is 2x as well. All remaining spend earns 1x, so this is not an everyday-spend card.

In a wallet, the decision is about the lounge door, not the earn table. If you are not walking into a United Club several times a year, the Quest keeps most of the flying value at $350 — 4x on United, $200 in TravelBank cash every year, a 10,000-mile award-flight discount each anniversary and PQP earning — and the Explorer covers the occasional flyer at $150, waived the first year, with 3x on United. Choose the Club card only when you would buy the membership anyway; then its job is simple: top of wallet for United purchases at 5x, with a flat-rate card underneath for the 1x everything else.

The math

Run $250 a month of hotels through this card and you're earning about $165 a year at our conservative valuations. Against the $695 annual fee, that top rate needs roughly $1,675 a month of hotels spend before it beats a no-fee flat 2% card.

Store bonuses

• United Airlines5x

Key benefits

• United Club membership (lounge access)
• Free first and second checked bags for you and a companion, Premier Access travel services
• Visa Infinite benefits

Common questions

Does United Club Card have an annual fee?

Yes — $695 per year.

What does United Club Card earn on hotels?

5x on hotels (book via renowned hotels and resorts via chase travel).

What rewards does United Club Card earn on everything else?

1x on all other purchases, in United MileagePlus.

Is the United Club Card worth the $695 annual fee?

Only if lounge access is the point. The $695 is effectively a United Club membership with a card attached, and there is no first-year waiver to soften it. The earn rates alone — 5x on United, 2x on other travel and dining — will not cover the fee for most spenders; the membership, plus free first and second checked bags for you and a companion, is what has to carry it.

What does the advertised 11x on United flights actually mean?

It is a marketing composite: 6x MileagePlus member miles that the fare earns for any program member, plus the card's own 5x. SwipeCaddy ranks the 5x, because that is what the card itself adds — still the highest card earn in the United family, ahead of the Quest's 4x and the Explorer's 3x.

Should I choose the United Club, the United Quest, or the United Explorer?

Decide by how often you would use a lounge. The Club at $695 is the only one whose fee includes United Club membership, alongside the family-best 5x on United and an 80,000-mile bonus after $5,000 in 90 days. The Quest at $350 skips the lounge but adds $200 in annual TravelBank cash, a 10,000-mile award-flight discount each anniversary and PQP earning; the Explorer at $150 — waived the first year — earns 3x on United and fits the occasional flyer.

Related reading

• How we value points and miles (and why our numbers are lower than everyone else's)SwipeCaddy ranks cards by reward rate × a conservative cash value per point: 1¢ for cash back and transferable points (Chase, Amex, Citi, Capital One, Bilt), 1.1–1.3¢ for airline miles, 0.4–1.4¢ for hotel points, and 0.8–0.9¢ for store currencies. Optimistic transfer values are recorded for context but never ranked, because most people never achieve them.