United Gateway Card Review: A No-Annual-Fee Ticket to Airline Miles

No annual fee

Some luxury travel credit cards have annual fees measured in hundreds of dollars, while the typical airline card often charges a fee of close to $100 per year. This card has an annual fee of $0. That gets you earning United frequent flyer miles with little downside.

Sign-up bonus

For an airline credit card with an annual fee of $0, it’s a plus to have a sign-up bonus: Limited-time Offer: Earn 30,000 bonus miles after you spend $1,000 on purchases in the first 3 months your account is open. Plus, 0% intro APR for 12 months from account opening on purchases. Learn more. Card issuers change bonuses often, but usually the bonus is enough to at least give you a decent head start toward a free domestic roundtrip flight in coach.

Frequent flyer miles

This card earns United MileagePlus frequent flyer miles, the same miles you earn from flying. They can be used to book award travel with United Airlines and its partners.

Whenever you earn frequent flyer miles, you have a chance to get outsize value by landing on a great deal: an award flight or seat upgrade that doesn’t cost too many miles.

Unlike regular MileagePlus members, cardholders get expanded availability to use miles to book award flights — no blackout dates, for example.

Perks

The United Gateway℠ Card is light on flash compared with most travel cards, but it comes with minor perks:

• In-flight discount: 25% back as a statement credit on purchases of food, beverages and Wi-Fi on United-operated flights when you pay with the card.

• No foreign transaction fees: Travel cards generally don’t charge a fee for making purchases abroad. This United card doesn’t, either. A fee of 3% is common on nontravel cards. And it uses the Visa network, which is widely accepted abroad.

• Travel-related insurances: Trip cancellation/interruption insurance and secondary rental car insurance are nice-to-haves on an airline card.

• Purchase protection: Covers new purchases made with the card for 120 days against damage or theft, up to $500 per claim and $50,000 per account.

» MORE: Benefits of United Airlines credit cards

How it compares with other United cards

The United Gateway℠ Card is one of four co-branded personal United Airlines credit cards. Its siblings offer better perks, making this card a potential “gateway” to higher-end United cards.

Here’s how the United Airlines consumer cards compare on key features:

No checked bags or early boarding

At $40 per bag each way when you don't prepay, fees for first checked bags add up in a hurry, especially when you’re traveling with others on your itinerary. That’s why typical airline cards are so valuable. But this card has no checked-bag-fee waivers, so you’ll have to pay. And you won’t get boosted toward the front of the boarding line, because the card lacks a priority boarding perk. That could hurt you when looking for overhead bin space.

» MORE: Airline credit cards that offer free checked bags

The logical solution is the United℠ Explorer Card. It offers:

• 2 MileagePlus miles per dollar spent on purchases from United.

• 2 miles per dollar spent on restaurant purchases and hotel stays.

• 1 mile per dollar spent on all other purchases.

• First checked bag free for you and a companion on your reservation, if you use the card to purchase your ticket.

• Two United Club one-time use passes per year.

• Global Entry/TSA Precheck statement credit every four years.

• 25% off in-flight purchases.

• Sign-up bonus: Limited-time Offer: Earn 60,000 bonus miles after you spend $3,000 on purchases in the first 3 months your account is open.

It has an annual fee of $0 intro for the first year, then $95.

» MORE: Full review of the United℠ Explorer Card

Fewer benefits

Some airline cards give you perks at the airport. They might reimburse you the application cost of Global Entry or TSA Precheck to get through security lines quicker, or get you free or discounted passes to an airport lounge.

This card offers none of those.

» MORE: Cards that offer airport lounge access

Inflexible redemptions

For redeeming rewards, you’re locked into United Airlines and its partners. That's limiting compared with general travel credit cards, which allow you to apply rewards to a wide range of travel-related expenses.

An option for those looking to avoid an annual fee is the Bilt Mastercard. It offers 3 points per $1 spent on dining, 2 points on travel and 1 point on everything else. You'll even earn 1 point on rent payments with no transaction fee. Points can be redeemed multiple ways, including transferring them to United Airlines at a 1:1 ratio. There is a small catch though: To earn rewards, you'll need to use the card at least five times each statement period.

If you're looking for more robust rewards, the Wells Fargo Autograph℠ Card also has a $0 annual fee and earns unlimited 3 points per $1 spent on:

• Restaurants.

• Travel and transit.

• Gas stations (and electric vehicle charging stations).

• Popular streaming services.

• Select phone plans.

Points are worth 1 cent each and can be redeemed for travel, gift cards or statement credits. It's important to note, though, that you can't transfer the rewards earned with the Wells Fargo Autograph℠ Card to United. So if your primary goal is to earn United Airlines miles, you'll likely fare better with a different card.

You can also see how these cards measure up vs. the best credit cards NerdWallet has to offer.