United's latest offer...

United has started a new offer on their site where purchases made with their branded credit card can earn up to 5,000 elite qualifying miles (not miles you can use, as the card already gets you those, but miles that count towards qualifying for one of the 25, 50 or 100 thousand mile elite levels).

Here's the offer:

Make every Mileage Plus Visa purchase count towards 2007 elite status.

Use your Mileage Plus® Visa® November 1 - December 13, 2006 to earn Elite Qualifying Miles (EQM) and Elite Qualifying Segments (EQS):

• Earn 5,000 EQM and 5 EQS when you spend $10,000
• Or, earn 2,500 EQM and 2.5 EQS when you spend $5,000
• Or, earn 1,250 EQM and 1.25 EQS when you spend $2,500

To register for this Mileage Plus Visa promotion, please complete the form below. Your credit card will be charged a $99 fee for this transaction. All fields must be filled out to register.

Note: Offer only valid for U.S. Mileage Plus credit card; not valid for U.S. Mileage Plus debit card or non-U.S. Mileage Plus credit cards.

There are soooo many problems with this offer:

• The period ends Dec 13, long before the final push for holiday spending for most of us procrastinators.
• These miles don't go into your mileage account, they just count towards elite status
• The earnings are driven bthresholdld rather than percentage... Spend $9,999.99 and you only get the 2,500 miles rather than the 5,000 miles -- so "every purchase" doesn't count towards elite status.
• The max is at 5,000 miles -- this just isn't enough miles to mean all that much (about 10% of the 50K you need for Premier Executive -- where the elite status starts to really mean something)
• You have to pay $99 for the privilege of participating (and that's above and beyond the annual fee you pay for the card itself).

If you really want extra miles for elite status, I suggest you wait till next October and then take United up on their double elite qualifying miles that they seem to be offering every year around that time.

Me, I don't even have a Mileage Plus Visa (even though United would pay my annual fee (because I'm at or above the Premier Executive 1K status)). I used to have one, but they kept putting a hold on the card every time I traveled internationally and told me I would have to call them before every trip to prevent the hold -- not a chance... Don't have the same problems with my AmEx, nor my Chase Visa (interesting since Chase handles Mileage Plus Visa now -- I wonder if they did when I had the problem).

Tags : united / ual / premier / 1k / american express / chase