BOA Premium Rewards vs. United Explorer -- which to keep?

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28fe6
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BOA Premium Rewards vs. United Explorer -- which to keep?

Post by 28fe6 »

Normally I don't do cards that have annual fees. I am only an occasional traveler, but I always wanted to get the United credit card for the miles bonus, luggage, other other travel benefits. I figured I could save the $95/year annual fee on luggage fees alone by having the United card.

For a long time I was restricted from getting any new Chase cards, so I couldn't get the United card. Instead, my wife got the United card, and I got the Bank of America Premium Rewards card, which is not a bad travel card, and has a $95/year fee like the United card.

Recently, my luck turned and I got accepted to get the United card with a 60,000 points bonus. Hurray! Definitely worth it for the 60k miles. Now I have two cards with $95 annual fees, which is a bit much. Which one should I keep?

Bank of America advantages:
--Because I am BOA Platinum Honors status, I get 3.5% cash back (not miles or points, cold-hard cash) on travel purchases and 2.62% on ALL purchases. It's my best cash-back card, and conceivably the only card that could be my ONLY card for all purposes. Still, I only spend $1k-$2k a month so it's not a ton. And, I have other cash-back cards like the BOA cash rewards cards that give up to 5% on certain categories, or 2%-on-everything cards that I can go back to using.
--Similar travel insurance, foreign transaction fees, TSA precheck credit, and a couple other perks like $100/year airline incidental credit as the United card.

United Explorer advantages
--is official card for my most frequent airline--does it really count for much?
--has luggage benefits which may cover the annual fee, but I can use my wife's United card on trips we take together...
--lower rewards on normal purchases; would not use as an everyday card
--I'm not sure if I lose miles if I cancel this one before I use the miles.
dukeblue219
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Re: BOA Premium Rewards vs. United Explorer -- which to keep?

Post by dukeblue219 »

I switched from United to BOA a year ago and haven't regretted once (granted, not traveling). The airline credit alone makes up for (some of) the free baggage. If you need substantially more baggage you're probably elite anyway and have access to free bags that way. The miles earned on spending aren't worth a ton relative to the 2.625% at BoA

The United Card is good if you fly United a lot but not enough to earn any status.
Topic Author
28fe6
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Re: BOA Premium Rewards vs. United Explorer -- which to keep?

Post by 28fe6 »

What status do you need at United?

I forgot to mention the United card comes with two lounge passes per year (debatable value), and I'm already United "Premier Silver".

The big question is, when can I cancel the Explorer card.The mileage bonus is showing in my account, but I really don't want miles to get deducted if I cancel the card.
Jags4186
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Re: BOA Premium Rewards vs. United Explorer -- which to keep?

Post by Jags4186 »

Do you maintain United Silver status or better? If not, the Mileage Plus Explorer grants you access to XN award space which can be worth the $95 alone.
Topic Author
28fe6
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Re: BOA Premium Rewards vs. United Explorer -- which to keep?

Post by 28fe6 »

Right now I have Silver, but I don't know what my danger is of losing the status. I currently travel at least a couple of times per year on United.
SlowMovingInvestor
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Re: BOA Premium Rewards vs. United Explorer -- which to keep?

Post by SlowMovingInvestor »

You don't lose miles if you cancel, although you should probably wait a year before canceling in any case.

Miles can expire if you don't have a card, but any activity extends them -- it's very easy.

United Card does give you access to some extra award space. Your wife can book for you if she still has a card, but she wouldn't have access to your miles (it's not worth transferring them).
stay_the_course
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Re: BOA Premium Rewards vs. United Explorer -- which to keep?

Post by stay_the_course »

28fe6 wrote: Mon Apr 12, 2021 5:42 pm What status do you need at United?

I forgot to mention the United card comes with two lounge passes per year (debatable value), and I'm already United "Premier Silver".

The big question is, when can I cancel the Explorer card.The mileage bonus is showing in my account, but I really don't want miles to get deducted if I cancel the card.
I think once the miles are credited to your airline mileage account, it generally cannot be clawed back.
drk
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Re: BOA Premium Rewards vs. United Explorer -- which to keep?

Post by drk »

I would keep the Premium Rewards and downgrade the United to the no-annual-fee option.
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drk
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Re: BOA Premium Rewards vs. United Explorer -- which to keep?

Post by drk »

28fe6 wrote: Mon Apr 12, 2021 5:42 pm The big question is, when can I cancel the Explorer card.The mileage bonus is showing in my account, but I really don't want miles to get deducted if I cancel the card.
Don't cancel until you hit your card anniversary. There's no benefit to canceling before then, so it's not worth getting on Chase's bad side.
A useful razor: anyone asking about speculative strategies on Bogleheads.org has no business using them.
djheini
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Re: BOA Premium Rewards vs. United Explorer -- which to keep?

Post by djheini »

If you decide to keep the United card, you could try to downgrade the Premium Rewards card to the travel rewards card. It has the same 2.62% earning rate on everything (no bonus category for travel/dining though), and no annual fee, but rewards need to be used as statement credits against travel/dining purchases (which presumably would be easy to do and almost as good as cash if it's your main card).
Topic Author
28fe6
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Re: BOA Premium Rewards vs. United Explorer -- which to keep?

Post by 28fe6 »

I already have the BOA Travel Rewards card and 2 BOA Cash Rewards cards, which I have set to "Home Improvement stores" and "Online".

These are the cards I have:

Uber visa (which I don't use anymore, but used to be a great travel card until they re-valued it)
Citi double cash (which I don't use anymore)
Fidelity 2% cash back (good everyday card but has foreign transaction fees)
United Explorer (subject of this thread) which has $95 annual fee, good for travel but not everyday
BOA Premium Rewards (subject of this thread) which is good for travel perks, 2.62% cash back, has $95 annual fee though
BOA Travel Rewards which is pretty decent for travel also, but it's not straight cash-back and I don't think the insurance benefits and perks are as good as the Premium Rewards, no TSA credit or airline incidental credit for example
Two BOA Cash Rewards cards which have 5% category cash back each, great for everyday but I have to juggle them
Amazon which is 5% at Amazon, and on autopilot basically

With all these cards, I just don't think I need 2 of them with annual fees. What I like about the Premium Rewards card is I can use it as my one-and-only card for every purpose with very little compromise, whereas United will only be good for buying United tickets and traveling. So I think I will cancel the United card after a year. If I can keep Silver status, I don't even need the United card to get free bags. It seems wrong after waiting 4 years to finally get it, but I just need to tell myself it was worth it for the 1-shot 60k miles bonus.
humblecoder
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Re: BOA Premium Rewards vs. United Explorer -- which to keep?

Post by humblecoder »

I cancelled my United Explorer card within the past year. Newark used to be our home airport, which is a United hub, so we used to do most of our flying with them (not that we flew a lot... maybe 2-5 times per year). The United Explorer card was nice because you got the free checked bags, priority boarding, lounge passes. Those perks alone made up for the annual fee. The only things I ever charged on it were United tickets and car rentals (due to the primary auto insurance coverage).

We have since move to a new city which isn't doesn't have a lot of good United flights. Since we haven't been flying United, it made no sense to keep the card and pay the fee, so I cancelled it. I had gotten a bonus (I think 30K miles) when I signed up for it many many years ago. They did not deduct the bonus from my account when I cancelled the card.
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