@Lain What in the world are you doing answering questions at this hour? lol But, I was wondering that too. Just got my mailer yesterday, it took 5 weeks from signup of MileagePlus to get my 50,000 United offer. But I just got the CIC, so how long do I need to wait to get the United Card? Offer says it expires 12/31 Or should I hold out for a better offer. Like
@trenty, don't think I have immediate use of them, just trying to get some saved up.
SW Plus 1/11/2017
SW Premier 3/10/2017
Sapphire Reserved 12/12/2017
Sapphire Preferred 12/12/2017
SPG Business 3/7/2018
Ink Preferred 6/14/2018
Ink Cash 10/23/2018
I really hate the end of daylight savings time. It really messes with my sleep, so my body is waking up an hour earlier than it usually would.
The one major thing that I value from a United MileagePlus card is increased award availability. As a MileagePlus cardmember, you have access to additional award inventory that's not otherwise available to the general public. Also, UA opens up their award seats about 335 (or 338?) days before departure, so if you have any travel plans that include United in the next year, it's a good idea to have your points in place and a MileagePlus card added to your account.
I'm not sure this helps, but I'll offer a few personal anecdotes and some thoughts on what we plan to do.
My wife, who's never held a United MileagePlus card, but flies United often for business, received a targeted mailer for 60k UA points earlier this year (iirc, early summer). I should have had her jump on it, but we were working on other MSRs and I wanted to keep her file clean of personal cards to get through the CIU and CIC first. Since then, the offer she sees on her United account and app bounces between the 40k and 50k offers, and she's received a few 50k mailers (the most recent one about 3 weeks ago), which we've shredded. (Strangely, my wife may have a valid mailer for 50k or better, but still see only 40k online or in app.) I'd note that there's a link to the 50k in-flight offer, that supposedly works even if you're not in-flight, so that may be an option if you don't find yourself targeted to 50k or better when you want to apply. At this point, I think we're going to wait to jump on a 60k or better offer.
We can afford to wait on my wife because all her travel is booked and paid for through her company, so she doesn't need the award miles or extra award availability, and her bags are expensed. She's got a little stash of UA miles going and I'm still sitting on about ~395k UA miles to tide us over, so we're not in desperate need of miles; and if we do, we can transfer UR points over to UA.
Personally, I've never been targeted with anything better than the public offer. I've held a United MileagePlus card since college, so I'm never going to cancel it, and even though it's been downgraded to the no fee card, it's like Chase/United knows I'm not a new customer they need to attract with better offers. (I still get increased award availability and a 25% bonus on MPX with my no fee United card.) I'm going to drop back under 5/24 early next year, go for the CIU, then probably round off my 5/24 with a United card -- even at the public offer -- just to top off my miles.
I would still put 2-3 months between apps. If you decide to take the 50k mailer offer, you should be fine to apply at the end of December.
I think with the recent changes -- death of the Sapphire and SW DD, Sapphire bonuses extended to once per 48 months, the Marriott/SPG restrictions that went into effect on 8/26 -- the choice of what personal cards to use a 5/24 slot for has become a lot more limited or not as compelling, and there are only so many biz cards you can go through before Chase starts declining you or you have to resort to the EIN trick, so it's easier to justify using up a 5/24 slot for the United card.