The Points Guy believes that credit cards can transform lives, helping you leverage everyday spending for cash back or travel experiences that might otherwise be out of reach. That's why we publish a variety of editorial content and card comparisons: to help you find a great card to turn your goals into reality.
Our site may earn compensation when a customer clicks on a link, when an application is approved, or when an account is opened with our partners, and this may impact how or where these products appear. While we don't cover all available credit cards, our editorial team creates and maintains all of the analysis of these cards, and our content is not influenced nor subject to review by any credit card company, bank or partner prior to (or after) publication. Please view our advertising policy and product review methodology for more information.
Advertiser disclosure
The Points Guy believes that credit cards can transform lives, helping you leverage everyday spending for cash back or travel experiences that might otherwise be out of reach. That's why we publish a variety of editorial content and card comparisons: to help you find a great card to turn your goals into reality.
Our site may earn compensation when a customer clicks on a link, when an application is approved, or when an account is opened with our partners, and this may impact how or where these products appear. While we don't cover all available credit cards, our editorial team creates and maintains all of the analysis of these cards, and our content is not influenced nor subject to review by any credit card company, bank or partner prior to (or after) publication. Please view our advertising policy and product review methodology for more information.
Guides
How to travel more for fewer miles with United’s Excursionist Perk
Richard Kerr is a veteran naval officer and founder of the Award Travel 101 Facebook community. He’s one of the foremost experts in points and miles strategy, featured in Forbes, US News, Money Magazine, Kiplinger Personal Finance and presented at #SXSW 2017. Richard has visited over 45 countries, lived in England and Japan, and spends his spare time dissecting loyalty program award charts to maximize the value of points and miles. Richard holds a BBA in International Business and has his wife and two small children in tow for his travels as often as possible.
Kyle Olsen is the former points and miles reporter at TPG. He specializes in maximizing points and miles, elite status and credit cards so readers travel more comfortably and at a lower cost.
also contributed to this story
December 23, 2024 • 12 min read
The cards we feature here are from partners who compensate us when you are approved through our site, and this may impact how or where these products appear. We don't cover all available credit cards, but our analysis, reviews, and opinions are entirely from our editorial team. Terms apply to the offers listed on this page. Please view our advertising policy and product review methodology for more information.Editorial disclaimer: Opinions expressed here are the author's alone, not those of any bank, credit card issuer, airline or hotel chain, and have not been reviewed, approved or otherwise endorsed by any of these entities.
Comments
By commenting, you agree to our Community Guidelines to help create a positive space for conversation. The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser, our partners, or The Points Guy (“TPG”). They have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by any of these parties. All responses are submitted by individual contributors, and neither the bank advertiser, our partners, nor TPG are responsible for ensuring that all posts and/or questions are answered.
Related stories
Quick summary
The United Excursionist Perk allows travelers to add a free one-way segment to a round-trip award ticket within the MileagePlus program, enabling more complex and valuable itineraries.
Eligibility rules require the trip to start and end in the same region, with the free segment occurring in a different region and within the same or lower cabin class as the preceding flight.
Booking is done online using the multicity search tool, and the free segment will automatically price at zero miles, though taxes and fees still apply.
Creative use of this perk can let travelers visit additional destinations for no extra miles, especially in regions with many countries or cities.
What to consider
The Excursionist Perk only applies to award bookings, not paid tickets, and requires following specific region and cabin-class rules.
Dynamic pricing may affect the overall value, but the free segment remains regardless of the underlying award cost.
You must take the first leg of your itinerary, or the rest of the booking will be canceled.
What you'll miss from the article
Step-by-step examples and advanced strategies for maximizing the Excursionist Perk, including how to structure multicity trips and avoid common booking pitfalls.
Generated by AI with support from our editorial team.
Update: Some offers mentioned below are no longer available. View the current offers here.
One valuable feature of the United MileagePlus program is the Excursionist Perk, which allows you to add a one-way flight to a round-trip award ticket without using extra miles. The rules for this perk are not well defined, but it is an extremely valuable tool for award travel.
Understanding and using the Excursionist Perk may be challenging for beginners and even some advanced award travelers. It requires time and effort, but it may allow you to redeem United miles for fantastic award itineraries at a low cost — and see more of the world for fewer miles. Here's everything you need to know to take advantage of this unusual perk.
At its core, the Excursionist Perk is meant to give a free one-way segment to travelers on round-trip itineraries between two different regions as defined by the MileagePlus program. The United website is incredibly vague when defining the Excursionist Perk, which leaves ample room for creative minds to stretch the bounds of this perk. Here are the rules published by United for the Excursionist Perk:
Your trip starts and ends in the same MileagePlus-defined region.
The free Excursionist Perk flight starts and ends in the same region.
Your trip starts in a different region than the free Excursionist Perk flight.
The free Excursionist Perk flight must be in the same (or a lower) award tier or cabin than the flight before it.
To paraphrase: The first route within a single MileagePlus-defined region that’s different from the region in which your itinerary begins and ends is free, as long as it's in the same class (or lower) as the preceding leg.
For an example of the simplest (and likely intended) use of the Excursionist Perk, consider a round-trip economy-class award flight between Newark Liberty International Airport (EWR) and London's Heathrow Airport (LHR), which in this case costs 55,200 miles and $204 in taxes and fees.
UNITED.COM
By invoking the Excursionist Perk, you can get a free segment within the region you’re visiting (as long as it’s a different region than where you’re starting). This means you could book the following itinerary for the same number of miles as a simple round-trip award (though you'll still have to pay taxes and fees on the free middle segment):
Newark to Heathrow
Heathrow to Berlin Brandenburg Airport (BER)
Berlin to Newark
Here’s the itinerary priced out using United’s multicity search function.
UNITED.COM
You pay no additional miles for the middle segment, but you’ll also get to see Berlin and conveniently return home directly from there. You’ll even save a few miles because award flights from Berlin are slightly cheaper than from London, and you'll save some cash by avoiding the United Kingdom’s high departure taxes on your ticket.
When you book the London to Berlin segment, you’ll notice United charges zero miles for it.
UNITED.COM
The process is pretty straightforward, and at face value, United could win customers over with this uncommon benefit. However, the value you can get out of the Excursionist Perk depends on the MileagePlus-defined region you visit. Europe is a great one, since you could plan a stopover at one of the dozens of countries in that region. Japan, on the other hand, is classified as its own region, so the only Excursionist flights you'll have to choose from will be from one Japanese city to another.
How to book United Excursionist itineraries
You can (and should) book United Excursionist itineraries online. All you need to do to use the Excursionist Perk is use the “Advanced search” tool on the United homepage.
UNITED.COM
On the next page, select the “Multi-city” option and plug in the dates and destinations you want to book. You must check the box to show the price in miles, as the Excursionist Perk doesn’t apply to paid tickets.
If your itinerary follows the Excursionist logic, it will price correctly. There’s no extra button to select or discount code to enter; the free Excursionist leg will automatically appear for zero miles (plus taxes and fees). You can combine United flights with partner airlines, and there’s no minimum or maximum stay requirement for the stopover.
Below are four examples of Excursionist itineraries in which we apply the perk’s base logic to real-world award itineraries. These are just examples to help you understand the Excursionist Perk; there are plenty of other options to explore once you get the hang of it.
The East Asian Excursionist hopper
Starting in South Korea, you can see various cities and countries on a single ticket. For example, you could fly between the following airports:
Seoul’s Incheon International Airport (ICN) to Bangkok’s Suvarnabhumi Airport (BKK)
BKK to Manila’s Ninoy Aquino International Airport (MNL)
MNL to Taiwan Taoyuan International Airport (TPE)
Since South Korea and Taiwan are both in the same region (North Asia) and Thailand and the Philippines are in a different region (South Asia), the middle leg from BKK to MNL qualifies for the Excursionist Perk.
UNITED.COM
If you're already visiting South Korea, you could use the Excursionist Perk to see three more countries for as little as 35,000 miles and $51 before you head home from Taiwan.
If seeing the Galapagos turtles is near the top of your to-do list, you might also want to visit other destinations in the region. With this itinerary, you can cover Ecuador’s two major cities and the Galapagos Islands for a minimal outlay of miles:
Houston’s George Bush Intercontinental Airport (IAH) to Mariscal Sucre Quito International Airport (UIO)
Jose Joaquin de Olmedo International Airport (GYE) in Guayaquil, Ecuador, to the Galapagos’ Seymour Airport (GPS) on Baltra
GPS to IAH via UIO
For this itinerary, you start in Houston (or anywhere in the U.S.), visit both Guayaquil and Quito, Ecuador, for as long as you want, then visit the turtles (and other wildlife) in the Galapagos before flying back to the U.S. The GYE-GPS segment will price at 0 miles — you'll only be subject to $18 in taxes and fees.
UNITED.COM
This whole itinerary will set you back 63,000 miles (if you find saver availability) and $125. The only other step you’re responsible for is getting from Quito to Guayaquil, an easy proposition.
Dynamic pricing equals dynamic value for the United Excursionist
The consensus is that dynamic pricing is a terrible development for award travelers seeking outsize value for their miles. However, there are times when it can work to your advantage. One such way is with the Excursionist Perk.
Consider this scenario: You’re based in California and already have a trip booked to Thailand and Indonesia. You need a one-way flight from Jakarta’s Soekarno-Hatta International Airport (CGK) to Bangkok, which normally would set you back at least 17,500 United miles in economy.
However, rather than jumping to book that option, consider the following:
San Francisco International Airport (SFO) to Los Angeles International Airport (LAX)
CGK to BKK
LAX to SFO
SFO-LAX is available from 6,800 miles each way. So, if you nested your one-way CGK-BKK flight between trips to Los Angeles, you could get the whole itinerary for just 13,600 miles, saving you a few thousand miles — since the CGK-BKK leg is $0 plus $18 in taxes and fees.
UNITED.COM
All you’d need to do is go home from Los Angeles the first weekend and then down to Los Angeles the second weekend (potentially using an alternate form of transportation). You would thus get a round-trip flight from SFO to LAX and your desired CGK-BKK flight for fewer miles than if you booked the CGK-BKK flight alone.
This is one creative way to use the Excursionist Perk to save yourself even more miles. Just be aware that you must fly the first leg; if you don’t, the rest of your itinerary will be canceled.
The independent Excursionist
You can take this theory even further if you like to plan and are willing to have three or more trips at a time on the books. Let's say you're based in Boston and you want to plan three separate trips: a February ski trip to Denver, an April getaway to Africa and an early-fall jaunt to New Orleans. With a little more effort, you may be able to save some miles by booking parts of these trips together and using the Excursionist Perk.
In this example, you'd fly the following itinerary (but spaced out as far apart as you need):
Boston Logan International Airport (BOS) to Denver International Airport (DEN)
Johannesburg’s O.R. Tambo International Airport (JNB) to Kotoka International Airport (ACC) in Accra, Ghana
BOS to Louis Armstrong New Orleans International Airport (MSY)
The itinerary begins and ends in the same region (mainland U.S., Alaska and Canada), with the middle segment wholly within another region (Central and Southern Africa) — and is thus eligible for the Excursionist Perk.
UNITED.COM
In this case, the whole itinerary costs 23,400 miles and $52.80.
Purchasing the Excursionist leg by itself would actually cost more miles than the above multicity booking.
UNITED.COM
In this case, you're effectively getting three flights for less than the price of one.
Of course, you'll still have to book the other legs of these three trips separately, which requires more time and effort. And like the SFO-LAX example above, you must take the BOS-DEN flight first; otherwise, the rest of the itinerary will be canceled. But this shows how you can potentially save miles by reframing how you think about the Excursionist Perk.
Here are some additional tips and tricks we've learned about the Excursionist Perk that may help you in your search:
After multiple searches, you may need to clear your cookies and start over on United.com. The search engine can start showing errors and no results after several queries.
During the multisegment search, the seven-day and 30-day options may error out and say nothing is available even when flights have award space. In this case, you must change your search dates in the multicity search function to find available dates.
There don't seem to be any maximum segment or maximum permitted mileage limitations on United Excursionist itineraries.
Don’t forget about open jaws, which are possible when using the United Excursionist Perk. If you can travel on your own to get to the next city where your ticket picks up, you’ve added yet another destination to visit for no extra miles.
You can also mix classes, as long as the Excursionist Perk flight is in the same (or a lower) cabin than the flight before it. For example, if you find a business-class flight from the U.S. to Europe, you can then book a free intra-Europe flight in business class before flying back to the U.S. — even if you can only find economy award availability on that last leg.
Study the regions of the United MileagePlus award chart. Large regions typically hold the most potential value, as those longer interregional segments will be free. Booking the cheapest intraregional routes (e.g., Japan to Japan) means you still get the more expensive Excursionist leg free. It doesn’t matter if the Excursionist leg costs twice as much as the intraregional flights (see the dynamic pricing example above).
Don’t call United. One TPGer spoke with five agents on United’s Premier 1K line, and only one knew about the United Excursionist Perk (and not by name). Your agent may have no idea what you’re trying to do, and if you get an ill-informed one, you could be on hold for hours and still end up with bad information. We recommend only using United.com when researching and booking Excursionist itineraries.
Finally, you may consider adding a cobranded United credit card to your wallet if you’re serious about booking these itineraries. Cards like the United℠ Explorer Card (see rates and fees) can provide discounted award availability on United-operated flights, which can noticeably impact the final price you pay.
After reading this article and seeing some examples, we hope you see the potential value of the United Excursionist Perk. Take what you learn here and combine a United Excursionist booking with other nested award itineraries, each with its own sweet spots. You can potentially visit five or six different destinations on a single trip for very few miles.
The Excursionist Perk requires some planning and research, but it remains a powerful tool to get phenomenal value from your United miles.
Comments
By commenting, you agree to our Community Guidelines to help create a positive space for conversation. The responses below are not provided or commissioned by the bank advertiser, our partners, or The Points Guy (“TPG”). They have not been reviewed, approved, or otherwise endorsed by any of these parties. All responses are submitted by individual contributors, and neither the bank advertiser, our partners, nor TPG are responsible for ensuring that all posts and/or questions are answered.
