United chooses miles over Choices

To the considerable bewilderment and consternation of many, when United redesigned its Mileage Plus Visa card, it elected to call both the card and what cardholders earned by charging purchases to the card by the same name, Choices.

So you earned Choices by using the Choices card. What’s a Choice? Well, if you’re referring to the earnings rather than the card itself, they’re very much like miles. But they’re also different.

Huh?

From a consumer perspective, it was confusing.

And from a marketing perspective, it was all cuteness, at the expense of clarity.

United got the message and, walking the “We listen to our customers” talk, will replace all references to Choices (as the earning currency) with ‘miles’ as soon as the airline’s marketing materials can be amended and cardholders have been advised.

United’s Mileage Plus credit card is a solid product, with significant competitive advantages over most other cards in its category. Awarding Choices instead of miles was a bad decision, best reversed.

Good choice, United.