A couple of months ago, I opened my second credit card of the year. This one came with an 80,000-point bonus, the largest I've ever seen for this card. I once received a 70,000-point bonus on the same card before the pandemic, but it had been several years since I'd had the card.
This card was the United Explorer card from Chase. As I'd only applied for a couple of credit cards (one of them a business account) over the past couple of years, I knew that I was well below the 5/24 limit. Also, I knew that I was past the limit for earning the bonus on this card again.
The minimum spend requirement was $3,000 over a three-month period.
United Explorer Card from Chase
With gas and grocery purchases, that's not a bad amount of spending, and I hit it. The 80k bonus hit my account as advertised. This will be earmarked for (hopefully) an international trip within the next couple of years. I burned through a bunch of Chase Ultimate Rewards to fly on a return trip for four passengers from London on LOT and United. I had a few MileagePlus miles, but the vast majority of that flight were transfers from Chase.
This card does not come with spectacular bonus categories after the initial signup bonus hits. It hits 2 miles per dollar spent on United purchases, along with dining and hotels. I think I had to pay the $95 annual fee immediately, but the current offer comes with a waived annual fee for the first year. The current bonus is 60,000 miles, and you can sign up here with my referral link from Chase refer-a-friend. There are other options for United cards at the link as well, but for the waived annual fee, I think the Explorer would be the best for most people.
One additional benefit that I like when I have this card is the two annual lounge passes. This is a great benefit if you have a fairly long layover in a major airport. My wife and I were able to spend some time in the lounge in Newark a few years ago before taking a trip to Prague via Munich. It beat sitting by the gate for several hours, and we had views of the Manhattan skyline to boot. I've also spent some time in the lounge in Cleveland (not as impressive) and Chicago, the latter of which allowed me to relax when my flight got delayed for about four hours.
