United Explorer Card Review & Calculator

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Rewards Rates

Earn 2 United miles per $1 spent on hotel stays and United® purchases

Earn 2 United miles per $1 spent on dining including eligible delivery services

Earn 1 United mile per $1 spent on all other purchases

Current Intro Bonus

Earn 60,000 bonus miles after you spend $3,000 on purchases in the first 3 months your account is open.

Key Cardholder Benefits

When you use your United Explorer Card to pay for your flight, you and up to one companion traveling on the same reservation will receive the first checked bag free.
As a United Explorer Card holder, you and everyone traveling with you on the same reservation will receive priority boarding on United-operated flights.
Every year, two United Club Passes will be deposited into your United MileagePlus account.
When you use your United Explorer Card to pay for a Global Entry or TSA PreCheck application fee, you'll get reimbursed on up to $100.
When you use your United Explorer Card to make purchases in-flight on United-operated flights, you'll receive a 25% discount in the form of a statement credit.
As a United Explorer Card holder, you'll be eligible for complimentary premier upgrades on award tickets for United-operated flights.
The United Explorer Card grants access to Visa's Luxury Hotels & Resorts. When booking hotel stays through this portal with your card, you'll receive a number of benefits including daily breakfast for two, a special benefit unique to each property, complimentary Wi-Fi, a room upgrade (if available), and early check-in and late check-out (if available).
Be covered with trip cancellation insurance, trip interruption insurance, trip delay reimbursement, car rental collision/loss damage waiver, baggage delay insurance, and lost luggage reimbursement.

Rewards Value

The Point Calculator values United miles at 1.3 cents each when used for award flights with United and their partners. This means that 10,000 miles are worth about $130 in flight value.

Redemption option	Redemption value in cents
Award Flights (Research/Sweet Spots)	2
Award Flights (Average)	1.3
Cruises	0.78
United Club Membership	0.77
TSA PreCheck	0.77
Car Rentals	0.75
Hotels	0.68
United Wi-Fi Subscription	0.65 - 0.68
Gift Cards	0.30

Learn More: United miles value

Transfer Partners

United Miles can be transfered to one program: Marriott Bonvoy. Every 1,000 United miles you transfer to Marriott will give you 1,000 Marriott Bonvoy points.

United Miles are worth more than double the value of Marriott Bonvoy points on average, so you'll only want to transfer points from United to Marriott when it makes sense to do so. In most instances, you'll be better off buying Marriott Bonvoy points and saving your United miles for award flights.

Learn More: Marriott Bonvoy points calculators

Annual Fees

The United Explorer Card has an annual fee of $0 for the first year, then $95.

United Miles Calculator

Calculate how many United Miles you can earn with the United Explorer Card based on spend and the cash value of those points. Results can be compared side by side any U.S. credit card featured on the site.

Any spend entered into the primary card column (the first column) will carry over to all credit card calculators on the site, so there's no need to re-enter spend when viewing other credit cards.

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Credit Cards

Use this section to add credit cards to the calculator. You can search for a card or go through our top recommendations for each category.

Once you select a card, you'll be shown the details of the card. Any link you click on in the details will open up in a new tab, so you will not lose your calculations.

Clicking on Add Selected Card will add it to the calculator.

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Compare A Card

Add a credit card to compare side by side based on spend, benefits and fees.

Search Cards

Search for a credit card by name, rewards program, or the rewards currency it earns.

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Family Cards

These cards are part of the same family and generally earn the same type of rewards.

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.

Business Cards

Put money back into your business by earning cash back, points, or miles on business expenses. Many cards also offer travel insurance, purchase protection, and more.

Airline Cards

These are the best credit cards if you're looking to use rewards towards award flights. Some of these cards also offer various 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 of these cards also offer great benefits such as annual free nights, complimentary elite status, and more.

No Annual Fee

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.

Intro Bonus:

Annual Fee:

Authorized User Fee:

Bonus Categories:

Add Categories - Adds any missing bonus categories from the selected card to the Category Spending section once added. Copy Spend - Copies spend values from the first column to the second/third column on card add.

Category Spending

Add Categories

Calc Options

Use this section to enter how much you plan on spending either monthly or yearly across different categories for each card listed.

You can click on the option button for access to a lot of useful tools you can use to quickly adjust spending for the calculator.

Change the order of the categories in the Category Spending section. This has an impact on cards that have spend limits and bonus caps on categories.

Resets all fields in the Category Spending section for all columns. Also clears all saved spend values that carry from calculator to calculator.

Add Categories

Search for categories and click 'Add Category' to add it to the calculator. If you want to be more specific, you can specify domestic or international spend.

Type at least 3 characters.

Currently Selected:

Spend Region:

Category Spending Total

The amount of rewards earned from card spending.

Rewards & Bonuses

If a card earns bonus points, miles, or cash back, it will be listed here. You'll be able to edit or toggle on/off most bonuses listed here.

Do note that some bonuses may be automatically calculated based on spend entered in the Category Spending section.

If you want to factor in an intro or welcome bonus, you can also do that here by entering it in the Extra Value field. You can click on View Offers when applicable to see current sign up bonuses for all top credit cards by category.

Extra Value

Use this field to add additional rewards to include in the calculation such as an intro or signup bonus.

Extra Value

Use this field to add additional rewards to include in the calculation such as an intro or signup bonus.

Extra Value

Use this field to add additional rewards to include in the calculation such as an intro or signup bonus.

Rewards & Bonus Total

The amount of rewards earned from card bonuses.

Total Rewards & Cash Value

This is the total of all points, miles, and cash back earned between Loyalty & Memberships, Category Spending, and Rewards & Bonuses.

You can view the average value of the rewards based on popular redemptions and the transfer of rewards to partners (where applicable).

Rewards Average Value By Redemption

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How much is 0 worth?

Average Value

This is how much we value the rewards earned with the card on average based on our valuations. Cards that may offer bonus/additional value are reflected here.

Transfers To Partners

Redemptions to do with transferring rewards to partner loyalty programs and redeeming them for high value (when applicable). These redemption values typically require knowledge of the best transfer partners.

Cash Back, Statement Credits

Redemptions to do with turning your rewards into cash back or using it as a statement credit to offset purchases made to the card.

Travel

Redemptions to do with using your rewards towards travel such as airfare, hotels, and car rentals (not including transfers to partners).

Gift Cards

Redemptions to do with using your rewards towards the purchase of gift cards.

Reward Transfers To Partners

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Currency Worth

Enter how much you value a single rewards point or mile in cents or regional currency equivalent (X.XX). The value of cash back cannot be changed.

Rewards Cash Value

The average cash value of rewards earned in the Grand Total section based on the set Currency Worth.

Monetary Bonuses

This section lists all monetary bonuses. This includes annual credits and top-tier benefits that can offer great monetary value.

If there's a perk or benefit missing that you find valuable, you can add how much you value it in the Extra Cash Value field.

Extra Cash Value

Use this field to add additional cash value to the calculations.

Extra Cash Value

Use this field to add additional cash value to the calculations.

Extra Cash Value

Use this field to add additional cash value to the calculations.

Total Cash Value

The total cash value of all listed benefits plus the cash value of rewards earned.

Fees

With great benefits comes great annual fees. If a card has a fee that you have to pay annually (or monthly in rare cases), it will be listed here. You have the ability to change it.

If the card charges a fee for adding authorized users, it will also appear in this section.

Annual Fee

This is the fee you must pay annually to have the card.

Authorized User Fee

This is the cost to add additional users or supplemental cards to the account. Enter total amount of authorized users.

Total Card Value

This is the total cash value of each listed card when factoring in all rewards and all fees.

Learn More

Learn more about the card through our partners.

Other Ways To Earn

One of the best ways to earn United miles is by using United's co-branded credit cards, but you can also earn miles via United's transfer partners. Of the few partners that allow you to transfer miles to United MileagePlus, Chase Ultimate Rewards is the best option thanks to the high intro bonuses and earning rates the cards offer.

Here's the full list of programs that allow you to transfer points to United MileagePlus:

Learn More: Transfer points to United using these transfer partners

Earning Rate Comparison

There are several partner credit cards that you can use to earn United miles thanks to transfer partners. Check out the table below to see how the United Explorer Card earning rates per $1 spent stacks up against United and other partner credit cards.

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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

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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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