If you’re a frequent traveler who enjoys flying on United Airlines, there are several credit cards that can provide you with excellent travel benefits. However, there are two particular travel cards that stand above as the most popular among those wanting to earn points for United flights: the Chase Sapphire Preferred and the United MileagePlus Explorer.

Both of these cards are excellent options for helping you travel on United flights for cheap! The United Explorer card is one of the most popular credit cards that United offers, fitting a nice midpoint between the value provided and the annual cost. On the other hand, the Chase Sapphire is one of the most in-demand credit cards on the market, letting you easily transfer your points to United at a 1:1 ratio

However, the two credit cards share many earnings benefits and both have an annual fee, resulting in there being a good chance that it doesn’t make sense to include both of them in your wallet. Therefore, it is important that you make the right choice between these two cards to best support your travel goals! Whether you're looking to earn valuable travel points, enjoy travel-related perks, or simply maximize your spending on United flights, choosing between these two credit cards can be confusing; frankly, the cards even look similar!

If this decision feels overwhelming, don’t worry! We have pulled from the data and our personal experience with these cards to break down the details, benefits, and drawbacks of both the Chase Sapphire Preferred and the United Explorer to help you figure out which one is the better option for you.

However, before we can jump into the result and tell you which card fits your needs better, we need to go over some basics:

First, why use your points and miles for United flights?

When it comes to redeeming credit card points, using them as miles on United Airlines is largely considered a good choice. United has an incredibly extensive network of destinations spanning six continents and operates more routes within the domestic USA than almost any other airline out there. United is also a member of the Star Alliance, meaning that you can book flights all around the world through United and with United Miles. If you’re looking to travel internationally, taking advantage of the alliance by booking code-shared flights through United can be extremely valuable, letting you fly all over the world for a fraction of the cash price!

United Miles are also some of the easiest rewards to redeem compared to many airline rewards systems—the United Mile system is straightforward, easy to navigate, and can be almost guaranteed to return you 1 cent per reward mile at a minimum! While you may find some extremely busy flights that have a disproportionate miles price vs. cash price, typically, United miles are some of the easiest rewards to get good value out of. From personal experience, I can vouch that I am often able to get closer to 2+ cents per mile on all my United trips, especially for any business class bookings.

For instance, if you’re flying between Boston to Denver, the cash price for normal economy seats is $258, and yet the same seat only costs 10.6k miles, giving you effectively 2.4 cents per United Mile (see below)! The business class redemptions are often equally as good (or even better) for domestic and international flights; for this particular United flight between Boston and Denver, United first class seats go for $858 round trip or only 42.8k miles, returning ~2 cents per point.

If it isn’t clear yet, using your Chase Ultimate Rewards points and your United Miles to book United flights is an easy and effective way of getting great value out of your hard-earned rewards!

Now that we’ve discussed why earning and using Chase points/United miles is useful, let’s jump into the breakdown of the Chase Sapphire Preferred versus the United Explorer! First, let’s examine each of the cards individually:

Chase Sapphire Preferred

The Chase Sapphire Preferred (known online as the CSP) is one of the most popular travel credit cards on the market, and for good reasons: great travel rewards, a low annual fee, and simplicity.

As the branding implies, the Chase Sapphire Preferred is not a United exclusive card, with United being only one option in a long list of potential transfer partners; however, United redemptions are one of the most popular uses of Chase Ultimate Rewards points alongside Southwest flights and Hyatt reservations, and Chase points transfer 1:1 to all three reward programs.

Let’s look at the basic terms and rewards of the Chase Sapphire Preferred card:

Annual Fee: $95

Sign-On Bonus: 60,000 points after you spend $4,000 in the first 3 months of having the card (though this bonus has historically been as high as 90,000 points)

Spending Rewards

• 5x points on travel purchased through the Chase Travel Portal

• 5x points on Lyft rides

• 3x points on dining (including takeout and delivery)

• 3x points on specific online groceries

• 3x points on select streaming services

• 2x points on all travel

• 1x points on everything else

Other Bonuses

• $50 annual hotel credit

• Complimentary DoorDash DashPass

• Complimentary Instacart+ subscription

Overall, the Chase Sapphire Preferred is a credit card that can easily fit into any semi-regular traveler’s wallet, and is a no-brainer for anyone looking to break into the Chase card ecosystem.

United Explorer

United has 4 co-branded credit cards with Chase, with the Explorer being the second card up on the United ladder between the entry-level Gateway card with no annual fees and the more advanced/expensive Quest card.

Given this, the Explorer is designed for those who like to fly United, but aren’t necessarily committed to only flying on United.

The biggest benefit of the Explorer credit card comes from the free checked bag—if you check a bag on your United flights and use the Explorer, you can make up the annual fee from a single trip! As well, this card has no annual fee for the first year and then only costs $95 a year after that, making it an excellent entry option into the United credit card system. Compared to some of the fancier United cards like the United Infinite card (with its >$500 annual fee), the Explorer is much easier to get value out of without forcing you into committing to United for your travel.

Let’s look at the basics of the United MileagePlus Explorer card:

Annual Fee: $0 for the first year, then $95

Sign-On Bonus: 60,000 miles after you spend $3,000 in the first 3 months of having the card

Spending Rewards

• 2x miles on United purchases

• 2x miles on dining (including takeaway and delivery)

• 2x miles on hotel stays

• 1x miles on everything else

Other Bonuses

• Free checked bag & priority boarding on all flights

• 2 United Club one-time passes per year

• $100 Global Entry/TSA PreCheck credit every 4 years

• 25% back on United inflight purchases

• 500 PQP (for United status) for every $12,000 you spend

• Misc. benefits at specific luxury hotels and resorts

• Free DoorDash DashPass for one year

Overall, the United Explorer card is a cheap but efficient tool to help you save money on United flights and earn United Miles.

So which card is right for you?

Now that we’ve gone over the basics of the two cards, let’s discuss which one makes more sense for you.

Luckily, if you’re interested in using points/miles to pay for your United flights, the Chase Sapphire Preferred and the United Explorer are two of the best cards you can get without paying massive annual fees. However, as you can see in the card breakdowns, they share a lot of benefits and spending rewards. Therefore, for most people, having both cards does not make sense.

Luckily, figuring out which card makes more sense for you can be simplified nicely:

Do you fit into the following group?

• You regularly fly on United (e.g., more than once per year)

• You often check a bag on your trips

• The travel reward you’re most excited about is getting free flights on United with miles

If so, then the United Explorer card is a great option for you and may make more sense than the Sapphire Preferred. Without even considering how you spend your points, you’ll likely make up the annual fee purely from the savings you’ll get on baggage fees, especially if you fly United internationally! Make sure to check out United’s baggage fee calculator to see how much you would save by getting the Explorer.

While the Chase card may have more earnings options, the simplicity of savings from getting a free checked bag on every flight with the Explorer can easily be worth more than the flexibility of transfer partners with the Sapphire Preferred.

However, if you do fall into this group of semi-frequent United fliers, we’d heavily recommend also considering the next card up in the United ladder, the United MileagePlus Quest card. The Quest does have a $250 annual fee; however, with the Quest you get 2 free checked bags on every flight and a $125 United credit every year. Between these two great bonuses, United frequent fliers will most likely get even more value than they would with the Explorer card and will still make up the annual fee! But if you are averse to paying any annual fees, we get it—we have also compiled a list of the best credit cards for earning air miles with no annual fees.

On the other hand, for pretty much everyone else (i.e., anyone who doesn’t fit into the above group), the Chase Sapphire Preferred is going to make more sense than the United Explorer. The Chase card has almost all the same benefits as the Explorer, but with substantially more flexibility in how you can redeem your rewards and a more valuable reward system (Chase points are largely considered more valuable than United Miles).

Even if you do fly on United frequently, you can always decide to transfer the Chase points you earn to United anyway! The versatility of the Chase card is why it remains one of the most popular credit cards out there, and it is no different here.

While it may sound dramatic to point everyone else towards the Chase Sapphire Preferred, there’s a reason that the CSP is one of the most popular credit cards on the market, and so we recommend it with confidence.

We hope this article was helpful in making a decision between the Chase Sapphire Preferred and the United Explorer card! If you’re interested in learning about other Chase and Chase co-branded cards, make sure to check out our tier list of every Chase card, where we rank every single Chase card currently on the market.

As well, if you’re curious about how the Chase Sapphire Preferred stacks up compared to other popular cards, explore our guide to its performance versus the Bilt Rewards card. And finally, if you’re also an American Express cardholder, make sure you learn how to combine your Chase and American Express points for your next travel redemption!