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Repair Windows errors before they cause bigger problemsFix Now →Scan for outdated or missing drivers - takes under a minuteDriver Scan →Several United MileagePlus credit cards now carry higher annual fees. Chase and United raised fees in 2025 alongside new travel credits, partner offers, award-flight discounts and Premier-qualifying-point benefits. Existing cardmembers moved to the new fees at renewal, so by October 2026 the transition windows have already closed for most accounts. Whether a card is still worth its fee depends on which benefits you will actually use, not on Chase’s headline “total value” estimates.
What changed and when
Chase and United’s 2025 announcement said new benefits applied to new cardmembers immediately and to existing cardmembers at the time of the refresh. Annual fees for existing cardmembers changed only at renewal. For cards generally, the transition date was on or after August 1, 2025. Existing Explorer cardmembers had a later date, with their fees changing on or after January 1, 2026. The full announcement is at media.chase.com/news/united-refresh-2025.
The announcement does not list the fees that applied before the refresh, so this article does not quantify the increase for each card. Your renewal notice or your statement history will show the exact change on your account.
Current annual fees
Chase’s airline-card comparison page, as captured in 2026, lists the following terms for the four United personal cards. Fees and offers change, so confirm them on the issuer page before you apply or renew.
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| Card | Annual fee (per Chase comparison page, 2026) | Chase’s announced total value (2025 estimate) | Headline benefits named in the 2025 announcement |
|---|---|---|---|
| United Gateway | $0 | Not stated | Not stated in the announcement |
| United Explorer | $0 introductory fee for the first year, then $150 | Over $800 | Rideshare, United travel, United Hotels, Avis or Budget, and Instacart credits; award-flight discount |
| United Quest | $350 | Over $1,000 | $200 annual United travel credit, rideshare and Instacart credits, Premier qualifying points, award-flight discount, Economy Plus upgrade certificates |
| United Club | $695 | Over $2,000 | Rideshare and Instacart credits, Premier qualifying points, award-flight discounts, United Club membership |
What came with the fees
The fee increases came with new or expanded benefits. The conditions attached to each one matter more than the headline value, so read them card by card.
United Explorer
Chase’s Explorer product page lists a $100 United TravelBank credit after $10,000 in calendar-year card purchases. It also lists hotel, rideshare, rental-car, Instacart and JSX credits, each with its own booking, enrollment or purchase requirement. A 10,000-mile award-flight discount becomes available after $20,000 in annual purchases. Check the expiration date and eligible purchase channel for each credit before you count it.
United Quest
The Quest card’s headline benefit is a $200 annual United travel credit. The refresh also added rideshare credits, Premier qualifying points, an award-flight discount, Economy Plus upgrade certificates and Instacart credits. Your value depends on how many of these you can use in a year, not on how many are listed.
United Club
The Club card pairs United Club membership with rideshare and Instacart credits, Premier qualifying points and award-flight discounts. Because the lounge membership is the costliest item on the card, it is the one most worth testing against your own travel pattern.
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How to decide whether the fee is worth paying
- List every benefit with its condition. Write down the credit amount, the spend threshold or enrollment step it requires, and any expiration date.
- Keep only the benefits you would use anyway. A $200 travel credit is worth $200 only if you would have spent $200 on United fares, seat upgrades or bags regardless of the card.
- Count your United trips. Estimate checked bags, boarding priority and any Economy Plus seats you would use in a typical year, for you and any travel companions the card covers.
- Estimate lounge use separately. If you will not visit a United Club, the membership on the Club card contributes nothing to your return.
- Compare against the no-fee alternative. Set the net cost of the fee against the benefits you will use, and compare the result with the Gateway card, which listed a $0 annual fee on Chase’s comparison page.
If your renewal is coming up
- Check your renewal date and the fee shown on your statement or renewal notice before it posts.
- If the fee now exceeds the benefits you will use, weigh a product change to a lower-fee United card against cancelling.
- Before you downgrade or cancel, check the terms for any points, credits or perks you have already earned, since those may not carry over.
- Re-run the five-step check above using the benefits you actually used in the last 12 months, not the ones you expect to use.
What the value estimates do and do not show
The total value figures in the table are Chase’s own estimates from its 2025 announcement. They are not guaranteed cash savings, and they are not independent valuations. Your realized value depends on which credits you use, when you use them and how often you fly United. Chase’s announcement also included two quotes that frame the refresh as a product upgrade:
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Chris Cracchiolo, President of Co-Brand Credit Cards at Chase, said: “Our newly enhanced card portfolio is designed to deliver unmatched value and support United fliers at every step of their travel journey.”
Richard Nunn, CEO of MileagePlus, said: “Having one of our cards means you’ll have an enhanced travel experience when you fly United.”
Neither quote measures what a cardholder will save. For a neutral description of how the benefits work, Chase’s explainer is at chase.com/personal/credit-cards/education/chase-cards/united-credit-card-benefits.
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Independent data on how many cardholders keep, downgrade or cancel after a fee increase is not established in the sources reviewed for this article, so no typical outcome is implied.
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