When it comes to getting award tickets, I’m very much a believer in KISS principle (keep it simple, stupid). The goal is to book the most direct routing on the day I want to travel, even if it means flying in economy. In fact, 90% of the time, that’s exactly how it works. Of course, I’m aware of various tricks and sweet spots out there, they just rarely fit into my existing plans. Until now.
Another one bites the dust
As some of you may know, on August 21st United Excursionist perk will cease to exist. What is it and why should you care? I won’t go into the nitty-gritty, as there are a lot of posts written on the subject. Here is a good explainer on the Prince of Travel blog In short, Excursionist perk allows you to get a free one-way flight in the middle of a roundtrip itinerary, as long as that segment is in a different region.
Something else to keep in mind is that all legs have to be “Saver” type, which can be a challenge if you are looking to book a United-operated flight. Another thing that is not mentioned often is that instead of a roundtrip flight, you can also book an open-jaw itinerary, which allows more flexibility and potential savings.
There is no doubt that it’s a niche benefit, and this loss probably won’t affect 90% of our readers. However, I recommend you look at your existing plans and see if you can take advantage of it before it’s permanently gone.
How I’m planning to utilize United Excursionist perk
I’ve mentioned that my husband and I plan to take my daughter to Japan next year. We had some uncertainty on the exact dates due to her graduation ceremony being moved around, but that has been resolved a few days ago. Something else we plan to do is a family trip to California in July of 2026.
We are not yet sure on the exact timing of that vacation, but the impending death of Excursionist perk made it a “use it or lose it” proposition. It helps that I already had 48k United miles in my possession. I’ve been watching award tickets for a few weeks now, and finally a “saver” flight from San Francisco to Tampa popped up. Here is how I made use of Excursionist perk in order to save 9K United miles per person (27k total).
We will need to fly from Sendai to Osaka, and the date is pretty much set at this point. Then in July we would be going to California. I don’t plan to book a flight to San Francisco yet, and hope to utilize Jet Blue points in the fall for that purpose, once Blue Sky partnership is fully established The only issue, of course, is booking another flight within Japan after California trip, which we may or may not take (wink wink).
So, here is what it looks like in practice:
1) Flight from Sendai to Itami
2) Flight from San Francisco to Tampa (free)
3) Flight from Itami to Tokyo
The total cost is 13k miles per person, and even if we don’t take the last leg, we are still paying 6k United miles for San Francisco-Tampa flight instead of 15k miles if we booked everything separately. It’s not mind-blowing savings, but every bit helps. Once again, we planned to go on these trips before I found out that Excursionist perk will be eliminated. This development didn’t affect my plans whatsoever.
We will still need to book two United tickets from San Francisco to Tampa for my son and MIL, since they aren’t going with us to Japan. I’m debating on whether to zero out my Lifemiles stash for one ticket, but I’m not yet 100% sure on the dates. While United award tickets are fully refundable, Lifemiles program will charge us $50 cancelation penalty and we would also lose $25 partner booking fee.
Things to consider
If you don’t intend to take the last flight, it could potentially cause issues. For example, United may cancel your frequent flyer account. The risk is low, but it’s not zero. Also, if for some reason you can’t make your first flight, United would likely cancel the rest of your itinerary. Only you can decide whether you are comfortable with this arrangement.
Of course, if you intend to fly all three segments, that’s a no-brainer. Otherwise, think twice before pursuing unconventional solutions in the miles and points hobby as they can and do backfire.
Author: Leana
Leana is the founder of Miles For Family. She enjoys beach vacations and visiting her family in Europe. Originally from Belarus, Leana resides in central Florida with her husband and two children.
Aleks, I’ve also tried to use Excursionist perk a few times before, but things never aligned until now. In fact, there is some uncertainty on the timing of our California trip. We may end up switching to a different weekend, but at least I’ll be able to cancel for free. Of course, it will stink to lose the mileage discount, but such is life.
I agree that United program has deteriorated quite a bit in the last few years. The Excursionist perk was a differentiator of sorts, so it’s puzzling they are killing it. I can’t imagine it affects their bottom line substantially, but who knows. It’s a race to the bottom at this point.
I am very excited about Jet Blue partnership. United is the only airline that flies from Tampa to San Francisco nonstop. So if I can access these tickets via Jet Blue, it’s a win in my book.
It’s a good play before the perk is discontinued. I’ve tried to use it couple times in past years without success as everything must align in order to have all flights under one itinerary. But many partner flights just did not fall under Saver level award or had no availability on dates I needed.
Overall, I use the KISS principle – my spouse insists on the most direct routing, mostly direct flights (if possible), so not much wiggle room for that matter. 😉
For United miles program – cancelling the perk it’s a loss. It was one of the strong “selling” points of the program with relatively small number of flyers utilizing it anyhow. Now they have nothing to brag about. With United award prices getting sky-high, I’m not even looking into using their program anymore, and has not been not collecting their miles for some years. JetBlue has much better program now – that’s why their gonna merge soon, but hopefully not be degrading JetBlue very quickly…