Update: This is across all cards, not just United cards.
Chase is reducing the benefits on the United co-branded cards effective June 1st, 2018. The following changes will be made:
- Price protection will be discontinued
- Currently they offer up to $500 per item and $2,500 per year if you make a purchase and you see a lower advertised price within 90 days
- Return protection will be discontinued
- Currently they offer up to $500 per item and $1,000 per year on items that the store won’t take back
- Trip cancellation/Interruption coverage will be reduced
- Currently they offer up to $10,000 per trip for trips that are cut short or cancelled due to sickness, severe weather or other conditions
Chase recently added a new hurdle for price protection claims and there was a rumor they would be discontinuing it across all cards later this year so it’s possible this will affect more than just United cards. Citi just reduced their price protection benefit as well. Overall it’s always disappointing when card issuers decide to remove or reduce these auxiliary benefits, the current consensus seems to be that these benefits are expensive to administer and because only a small portion of cardholders are using them (and those cardholders are often seen as ‘abusing’ them) there is not a lot of benefit keeping them long term. I think cardholders value these types of benefits, even when not using them. Insurance products in general are about peace of mind, so I hope this trend doesn’t continue.
Hat tip to The Points Guy
