Calculator: Best Credit Cards For United Airlines

Looking for the best credit card to help you earn United Miles? Look no further! United has partnered with Chase to offer an array of co-branded credit cards that can help you rack up miles on all your everyday purchases. Additionally, take advantage of cards offered through partners like Chase Ultimate Rewards to unlock even more ways of efficiently earning plenty of miles.

This page covers our top credit card picks for earning United miles, United credit card offers, and provides a United miles calculator to find out which card will earn you the most rewards.

Best Credit Cards For United Miles

Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card: Best overall for flexibility.
United℠ Explorer Card: Best for occasional United travelers.
Chase Sapphire Reserve®: Best for high value.
United Quest℠ Card: Best for benefits and frequent United travelers.
Chase Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card: Best overall business card for flexibility.

Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card

Best For Flexible Rewards

Earning Rate: Earn 5X Ultimate Rewards points on travel purchases through Chase Ultimate Rewards, 3X on dining, online grocery purchases, and select streaming services, 2X on other travel purchases, and 1X on everything else.
Annual Credits: $50 credit towards hotels booked through Chase Ultimate Rewards portal.
Main Highlights: 10% bonus points annually based on how much you spent the prior cardmember year and a 25% boost to point value when redeemed for travel through Chase Ultimate Rewards.
Transfer Ratio: 1,000 Ultimate Rewards Points = 1,000 United Miles.
Intro Bonus: Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. That's $750 when you redeem through Chase Ultimate Rewards®.
Annual Fee: $95.
Summary: The Chase Sapphire Preferred is one of the best flexible travel rewards credit cards available. Not only can you transfer points to United and other programs, but you can also redeem points for 1.25 cents each through the Chase Travel portal. This provides an alternative way to get solid value out of your points if you can't find good redemption value booking with United or their partners.

Learn more about the Chase Sapphire Preferred

Chase Sapphire Preferred points and card value calculator

United℠ Explorer Card

Best For Occasional United Travelers

Earning Rate: Earn 2X points on United purchases and hotel stays, and at restaurants. Earn 1X on all other purchases.
Main Highlights: Free checked bag, priority boarding, annual United Club passes, in-flight discounts and up to $100 towards a Global Entry or TSA PreCheck credit.
Intro Bonus: Earn 60,000 bonus miles after you spend $3,000 on purchases in the first 3 months your account is open.
Annual Fee: $0 for the first year, then $95.
Summary: The Explorer Card is a great entry level card if you fly United a few times per year. While it features a handful of great benefits, the most notable benefits for this card is the free checked bag benefit. If you normally pay for bags, this will save you and one other person traveling with you a lot of money over the course of the year.

Learn more about the United Explorer Card

United Explorer miles and card value calculator

Chase Sapphire Reserve®

Best For High Value

Earning Rate: Earn 10X points on Chase Dining and both hotel and car rental purchases through Chase Ultimate Rewards, 5X on airfare through Chase Ultimate Rewards, 3X on dining and other travel purchases, and 1X on everything else.
Annual Credits: $300 travel credit.
Main Highlights: Priority Pass Select membership, up to $100 towards a Global Entry or TSA PreCheck application, top-notch travel insurance, and a 50% boost to point value on travel redemptions made through Chase Ultimate Rewards.
Transfer Ratio: 1,000 Ultimate Rewards Points = 1,000 United Miles.
Intro Bonus: Earn 60,000 bonus points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. That's $900 toward travel when you redeem through Chase Ultimate Rewards®.
Annual Fee: $550.
Summary: High annual fee, but offers excellent value and solid benefits. If you can't find solid redemption value with United, you can redeem points through Chase Travel for a very nice 1.5 cents each. Great option if you still want access to lounges before and between your United flights.

Learn More about the Chase Sapphire Reserve

Chase Sapphire Reserve points and card value calculator

United Quest℠ Card

Best For Frequent United Travelers

Earning Rate: Earn 3X miles on United purchases, 2X miles on dining including eligible delivery services, select streaming services, and all other travel, and 1X miles on everything else.
Annual Credits: $125 United Credit.
Main Highlights: Earn 500 Premier Qualifying Points (PQPs) for every $12,000 you spend on the card (up to 2X per year), free first and second checked bag when you use the card to pay for your flight, get 5,000 miles back when you book award travel (up to 2X per year), and top-notch travel insurance.
Intro Bonus: Earn 70,000 bonus miles and 500 Premier qualifying points after you spend $4,000 on purchases in the first 3 months your account is open.
Annual Fee: $250.
Summary: If you fly United often and you're looking for maximum benefits, this will be the card you're looking for. It has a hefty annual fee, but you'll easily make up for it between the $125 credit, free checked bags, and reimbursements.

Learn More about the United Quest Card

United Quest miles and card value calculator

Chase Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card

Best For Flexible Business Travel Rewards

Earning Rate: Earn 3X points on up to $150,000 on travel, shipping, internet, cable services, phone services, and advertising purchases each account anniversary year. All other purchases earn 1X.
Main Highlights: 25% point value boost towards travel booked through Chase Ultimate Rewards.
Transfer Ratio: 1,000 Ultimate Rewards Points = 1,000 United Miles.
Intro Bonus: Earn 100k bonus points after you spend $15,000 on purchases in the first 3 months from account opening. That's $1,000 cash back or $1,250 toward travel when redeemed through Chase Ultimate Rewards®.
Annual Fee: $95.
Summary: The Ink Business Preferred is the best business credit card for earning points on business purchases and travel. Points earned with the card can be transferred to United and other partners as well as be redeemed for 1.25 cents each towards travel booked through the Chase Ultimate Rewards portal.

Learn More about the Chase Ink Business Preferred Card

Ink Business Preferred points and card value calculator

United Credit Card Offers

Need to boost your United miles balance? Here are 10 of the best credit card offers currently available for United Airlines from our partners. This table is updated automatically whenever our partner offers change, so you will always find the most up-to-date bonuses listed.

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United Miles Calculator

Use the United Miles Calculator to find out which credit cards will earn you the most miles based on the spend amounts you enter.

Results will be sorted by net return which is the average value of the rewards earned, plus annual credits, and minus annual fees. You'll want to take into consideration the benefits a card offers as well on top of the estimated value calculated.

Results will consist of top-rated credit cards that either earn United Miles directly or earn rewards that can be transferred directly to the United MileagePlus program.

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These estimates are to help guide you towards making the best decision when it comes to picking up a rewards credit card. They should be used for illustrative purposes only.

You can click on the estimated earnings to see the calculations or click on the card to learn more and apply for the card through our partners.

Do note that all spend amounts entered into the tool above will carry over to every credit card rewards calculator on the site, so there's no need to re-enter spend if you choose to dive deeper into calculating rewards for credit cards on the site.

Best Credit Cards

Listed below are up to 10 of the best rewards credit cards based on the spend you entered. You can click on a card to learn more from our partners (when applicable).

Travel Cards

Travel credit cards are great for building rewards redeemable towards a wide variety of travel including airfare, hotels, car rentals, cruises, and more. Most travel cards also offer a range of benefits that can make your trips more enjoyable and save you money.

Cash Back Cards

Cash back is one of the most flexible form of rewards and most easy to understand. Rewards earned are worth face value and they can be used towards almost anything.

Rewards Cards

If you're looking to earn a solid return on your spend, rewards credit cards are the way to go. These cards offer general rewards that can be used towards a number of different redemptions including cash back, statement credits, travel, gift cards, and more.

Airline Cards

These are the best credit cards if you're looking to use rewards towards award flights. Co-branded credit cards offer benefits such as lounge access the ability to earn qualifying miles through spending.

Hotel Cards

If you're looking to use rewards towards free nights at hotels, these are the best cards for you. Many co-branded hotel cards offer great benefits such as annual free nights, complimentary elite status, and more.

No Annual Fee Cards

If you're looking to minimize your immediate costs while still earning plenty of value, you may want to consider a credit card with no annual fee. Some of these cards also offer lower interest rates and balance transfer offers.

No Foreign Transaction Fee Cards

When you make a charge with your credit card outside of the U.S., many card issuers will charge you a foreign transaction fee which is typically around 3% of the purchase price. Luckily, many credit cards waive foreign transaction fees which is great if you're looking to earn rewards on international spending and travel.

^**Amount of rewards when transferred to program.

Looking for the best credit cards?

We've run the calculations for you and here are our top picks for best credit cards of 2023:

Best premium card for unlimited miles: Capital One Venture X Rewards Credit Card.
Best for flexible travel rewards: Chase Sapphire Preferred® Card.
Best for everyday spend and travel: Citi Premier® Card.
Best cash back card for groceries: Blue Cash Preferred® Card from American Express.
Best for dining and supermarkets: American Express® Gold Card
Best for business travel rewards: Ink Business Preferred® Credit Card.
Best cash back business card: Capital One Spark Cash Plus

Travel Cards Cash Back Cards Rewards Cards Business Cards

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Our Credit Card Rewards calculator can help you find the perfect card and offers based on your monthly and yearly spending habits. Simply enter your spend amounts into our tool and let us do the work for you!

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United Miles Calculators

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