Airfare is usually one of the most expensive aspects of travel.
Even with airline miles and points, it can often be pricey to see multiple cities on
a single trip without using up a ton of your points.
Hey, how’s it going, everyone?
It’s Ernest from Trip Astute.
In this video, I want to explore a feature from United called the Excursionist Perk,
and discuss how you might want to use it on your next trip to fly further and to more
locations.
In the past, I’ve talked about the 23:59 rule for stopovers and connections.
That process is still valid, but it is complicated.
And sometimes, you want a bit more time and flexibility to see another city.
So today, I want to discuss the United Excursionist Perk, and how you can use it to save on airfare.
Before we get started, if you’re new here, welcome to our channel.
Trip Astute is a travel channel that is focused on sharing ways to make travel easier, affordable,
and more enjoyable.
Traveling can be stressful and expensive, so we’re looking for ways to help you maximize
your experience through travel tips, points and miles, and innovative gear.
If that sounds interesting to you, please consider subscribing.
The Excursionist Perk from United essentially allows you to add a free additional one-way
flight to a roundtrip award ticket.
For example, suppose you want to fly from Los Angeles to Paris, then fly from Paris
to London, then return to Los Angeles from London.
The Excursionist Perk allows you to do this and makes the middle flight free, with the
exception of fees and taxes.
Now there are some rules that you need to follow.
First off, the booking has to be made on one flight plan.
This means that in order to activate the Excursionist Perk, you have to book this as one multi-flight
trip and not as three separate and individual one-way flights.
The perk only applies to award bookings, not cash tickets.
Your flight must involve at least two regions.
The origin and destination of your Excursionist Perk flight has to be within the same region,
which is defined by United.
The award type of the Excursionist Perk flight has to be the same as the start and end flights.
That means that you can’t book a business class flight in the middle unless your starting
and ending flights are business class.
Lastly, the final destination region must match the origination region.
So, let’s look at United’s region map.
United has 17 regions listed.
Some regions are extremely small and limited, like the Hawaii, Mexico, and Japan region.
However, you’ll also notice that other regions are massive and contain a lot of different
countries.
Understanding these distinctions is important when you plan an itinerary with the Excursionist
Perk.
For most people, the most simple way to get value from this perk is to book any additional
flight within your travel plan.
If you’re traveling from the mainland US, perhaps that’s an extra city in Europe,
South Asia, or even an island hop in Hawaii.
There are a lot of possibilities with this perk, and you’re mostly limited by where
United Airlines flies and any fuel charges or fees that you encounter when booking.
In order to book using the Excursionist perk, you’ll want to book directly from United
Airline’s website.
I recommend logging into your account first, then clicking on Advanced Search.
You’ll want to select Yes on the “Do you want to book a MileagePlus award ticket”
question.
Then you’ll want to select the multi-city option.
From there, you just specify the destinations where you want to fly, the dates, and times
if you have a preference.
You can also specify the number of connections, though I would leave all options selected
in case your destination has limited award seat availability.
You’ll then select the flights that you want.
Keep in mind that the points listed are for each leg.
So in this case, you’ll see that I am looking at Saver Award flight of 30,000 points and
fee of $5.60 to fly from Los Angeles to Paris.
Once I select my flight, I am then shown the middle flight.
You’ll notice that the award miles needed for this flight is zero.
This is Excursionist perk being applied to your itinerary.
Once I select this flight, I’ll then be shown the final flight, and I can complete
the booking.
It’s that simple!
And since United is a travel partner with Chase, you can transfer Chase Ultimate Rewards
points to them if you have a premium Chase travel card like the Sapphire Preferred, Sapphire
Reserve, or Ink Business Preferred.
It’s really a great way to see more places without having to pay for another full-price
flight.
For most people, this is probably how you’ll use this perk.
But then, there might be a few of you that noticed a bit of ambiguity in the wording
of the rules.
Specifically, you might have noticed that the origin and destination of your Excursionist
Perk flight has to be within the same region, but it doesn’t specify that it has to be
in the same region as your starting and ending flight.
Also, the final destination region must match the origination region.
However, the entire US mainland is one region, which means that you could end your flight
in a completely different US city.
This lack of specificity allows you to plan trips in the future by mixing flights within
different itineraries.
I could use the perk to book three unrelated flights as my multi-city itinerary as long
as they follow the rules.
For example, suppose I planned to visit New York in September and February.
But I also am planning to be in Paris in November for work.
I could book an itinerary where I am flying from Los Angeles to New York, then Paris to
London, then Los Angeles to New York again.
The middle flight still shows 0 miles.
This is because we are still following all the rules.
Since Los Angeles and New York are in the same region, we are meeting the requirements
of starting and ending a flight in the same region.
The middle flight needs to be between two cities of the same region, and the itinerary
has to have involve two regions.
I will add a few caveats with this strategy and approach though.
For one, you would need to have planned out your flights way in advance, which can be
hard with work schedules and commitments.
In order to maximize this approach, you would need to have a large gap between your starting
and final flights since your middle flight would need to occur in between the two.
That also means that if you were to have to change your flight plan, you would be looking
at potentially multiple bookings to edit, which means a lot of change fees.
Plus, if your trip spanned multiple flight plans using this perk, you might not have
many options if your flight is canceled or delayed during your trip.
So, there are inherent risks with mixing and matching flights in your flight plans.
I don’t know if I would go too crazy with this approach.
The option is there, and for those of you with aggressive travel planning, this could
be a very lucrative way to book a future flight using the perk.
However, I know that in our experience, life can be unpredictable, especially when traveling.
While this approach can save you money, it does limit your options in case your plans
change or your travel is interrupted.
For most people, the simple way of just adding another stop on your travel plans is going
probably be extremely valuable in itself.
But again, for those of you that have mapped out your travels for the entire year, this
could be an easy way to score some free award flights, even if you have to pay the taxes
and fees.
If you do plan to go this route, here are some things to keep in mind.
1.
There is no mileage or segment limitation: As long as your middle flight is within a
same region, it doesn’t matter how long the flight is, or even if there is a long
stopover.
That means that you could layer in long stopovers to see even more places.
On that note, 2.
Focus on larger regions for more value: You’ll probably get the most value from your middle
flights on ones within a large geographic region.
Areas like the mainland US, Europe, Africa, South Asia, and Australia and New Zealand
might be ones to look at if you have any trips planned in those regions.
However, even if it’s not the best value, you could get an island to island flight in
Hawaii if you happen to be flying there with United.
While it’s great to maximize the value of the middle flight, don’t underestimate the
experience that might be gained even for a short and inexpensive middle flight.
3.
Clear your browser cookies: If you’re searching for different flights on the United website,
you might eventually find that the site seems to crash or show no availability.
If this happens to you, I recommend clearing the cookies in your browser.
After I did it, the site seemed to be back to normal again.
4.
Consider the United Explorer card: While it’s not my favorite card to use, the reason I
have and keep my United Explorer card is that it does give me a free checked bag, priority
boarding, and most importantly, additional award seat availability.
If you have the card, you will see more available award seats on flights.
Again, I still prefer to use my Chase Sapphire Reserve when booking my ticket.
However, having the United Explorer card has helped me with finding additional award flight
options, so it’s worth considering if you plan to use this perk a lot.
Have you tried using the United Excursionist perk?
Have you been able to score some amazing middle flights?
Also, let us know if you have any additional tips or questions.
If you’re interested in applying for a credit card, we would love it if you used our link
in the video description or on our website.
It’s an easy way to support our channel, especially if you’ve found our content to
be valuable and helpful.
Also, if you need any help with picking the right credit card or developing a card strategy,
sign-up for our free card consultation service.
You basically fill out a questionnaire and schedule a 15-minute video or audio call with
me to review your recommendation.
As always, we hope you enjoyed the video and found it useful.
If so, please give us a thumbs up and consider sharing the video with others.
It really helps us with growing our channel and community.
Until next time, travel safe and travel smart.