How You Can Score 35+ Hours In Business Class With Only 48,000 United Miles With The United Excursionist Perk
The United Excursionist Perk is intended to be a way in which you can travel to two destinations that are relatively close to each other within one trip for the same amount of miles. The basic idea is that you can travel from an originating Region to a second Region, book a ticket within that Region for 0 miles in the same class of service, and then fly back to your originating destination. However, there are ways that you can maximize the United Excursionist Perk so that you can get an unbelievable value out of it, all by taking a closer look at the rules. So what are some basic uses of the United Excursionist perk, and how can you take advantage of it?
The Basics of The United Excursionist Perk
I’m going to try and explain the United Excursionist Perk in as simple terms as I can. I know it did take a while for even me to understand it, but once you get it, your life in understanding United MileagePlus will never be the same. Here are the basics of how you can typically use it (paraphrased and hopefully simplified off of the United website):
- You can only use the United Excursionist perk with if you book multi-city award tickets. No, you can’t use it to get completely free flights with booking with cash.
- Typical Use: You book the multi-city entire ticket with three flights. The first flight is from Region A (United has so-called Regions – I know that it’s getting rid of its award chart, but it still does in some ways use the Regions) to Region B at destination A. This first flight is booked at the regular United award price and can be in any cabin class. Typically, the second flight is within Region B at destination B and costs 0 miles, but only for the same class of service that you booked the first flight in. The third flight is from Region B at destination B back to your origin in Region A. Throughout this itinerary, you booked the flights from your origin to destination A and from destination B to your origin (both in Region B) and got the flight from destination A to destination B for 0 miles (for free)!
- You cannot use the Excursionist Perk for three flights solely within one region. For example, if you book a multi-city award ticket from the origin (in Region A) to destination A (also in Region A) book a flight from destination A to destination B (also in Region A), and the third flight from destination B back to your origin, the middle flight would not be free, like it would be if destinations A and B were in a different Region from the origin.
- The class of service that the second flight (the free flight) is in is solely dependent on the flight that you actually paid for with miles (the first flight) and sometimes is lower, especially for intra-US flights. So if your flight from the origin to destination A is booked in business class, the flight from destination A to destination B is available complimentary either in busineiss class or in economy class, depending on availability.
- I did write this up above, but just to clarify: the originating region (where the origin of the first flight is) must be the same as the ending region (the region where the last flight ends). So you can’t use the Excursionist Perk for flights where the first flight is from Washington to London, the second flight is from London to Rome, and the final flight is from Rome to Tokyo.
If this sounds confusing, it’s because it’s not meant to be simple. The Excursionist Perk isn’t exactly advertised by United because it can give you some pretty big loopholes that can give you segments for 0 miles. If what I wrote above sounds confusing, read it over again, or see if United’s definition is simpler. Before I begin with all the examples, there are multiple ways to get United miles, which include getting a United or Chase credit card (such as the United Explorer Card), by flying on United or one of their Star Alliance partners, or through numerous other ways.
The Classic Example
The United Excursionist Perk has ways it was intended to be used, and then it has ways in which it was not intended to be used (but are still within the realms of possibility). The way it’s intended to be used is actually pretty simple – you travel to two destinations within the same region for the price of one. Here’s a classic example of how to use the United Excursionist Perk:
- You book a multi-city itinerary using miles on United’s website from Newark to London to Lisbon and back to Newark. You first book the flight from Newark to London in economy class for 30,000 United miles, or possibly you book it for 45,000 miles in premium economy (United recently introduced premium economy award availability on that route, and there is a ton of saver award availability).
- Next, you book the flight from London to Lisbon. Since you booked the last flight in economy class and Lisbon and London are in the same region, you can use the United Excursionist perk to get a free flight from London to Lisbon. However, you still will have to pay the (minimal) taxes and fees.
- Finally, you book the flight back from Europe on United from Lisbon to Newark for a total of 30,000 miles. By using the United Excursionist Perk, you now booked a round trip ticket to two destinations in Europe. While it normally would cost 60,000 miles for a round trip journey to a single destination in Europe, with the United Excursionist Peerk, you were able to see two destinations (London and Lisbon) for that same price! So essentially, you can book 2 trips in 1 for the price of 1 round trip ticket, which I find to be pretty amazing! And we haven’t even gotten to the good part yet!
The basic use of the United Excursionist Perk is amazing as is, and can be used for flights in economy class, premium economy, business class, or even first class! With the example above (or another example routing to Europe) you could also book the first leg in business class for 60,000 miles in business class (if there’s saver award availability on United), get the intra-European flight for free in business class (as the first flight was booked in business class), and then book the flight back to North America in economy class, all in all costing only 90,000 miles! The United Excursionist perk can also be used to flights around other places in the world, such as to Central America:
Or take this example, which involves flights to and from two different destinations within China to Beijing and Shanghai in business class:
The United Excursionist Perk can also be great for booking trips to Hawaii. With miles, you can book a flight from the US mainland to Honolulu, get a free flight within Hawaii (operated by Hawaiian Airlines), and then book a flight back to the US mainland using miles from another destination in Hawaii. So even using the “classic” United Excursionist can present a good value of visiting two destinations using miles for the price of one.
United MileagePlus Regions
You may have noticed that I talked a lot about Regions above. That’s because the flight (the one in the middle of your itinerary) that’s free has to be within one Region. United has a very simple page online that lists which countries are part of what Region, which is linked here. Using that list, you can find out which destinations can qualify for a free segment using the United Excursionist Perk. Very Important: Just because two countries are right next to each other (i.e. the US and Mexico) doesn’t mean that they are in the same region and hence wouldn’t qualify for a free segment. Even More Important: Just because two countries are far apart (i.e. Mauritius and Senegal) doesn’t mean that they aren’t in the same region (I’ll get to this later).
The “Expert” Rules
If you thought that the basic way to use the United Excursionist Perk provided value, you haven’t seen anything yet. Also, if you thought that the classic use of the Ecursionist Perk was confusing, this part is going to get a lot more confusing. At the beginning of the article, I listed a couple of rules for the Excursionist Perk. Those were the rules as to how you can use the Excursionist Perk the way it was meant to be used, although it can also be used in a couple of other ways, that don’t necessarily involve staying within one Region. Here are what I call the “Expert” Excursionist rules.
- With the United Excursionist Perk, the first flight has to go from an origin in any Region (call it Region 1) to a destination in another Region (call it Region 2)
- The second flight can be within any Region in the world, not necessarily Region 2. So the second and free flight can be within any Region in the world, such as a Region 3, not only Region 2.
- The last flight only has to end up in Region 1, where the trip started, but doesn’t have to originate in Region 2 or Region 3. So for example, it could originate in Region 4, but it has to end up in Region 1 again.
- So overall, the first flight can originate in Region 1, end up in Region 2, and is paid for in full with miles. The second flight has to be completely within a Region, such as Region 3, and is in the same cabin class (or less) than the flight before. Finally, the last flight can originate in Region 4, but has to end up back in Region 1, and has to be paid in full with miles. Here’s an example of this below:
Let’s examine this example up above. The first flight you book with United miles from Washington (IAD) to São Paulo (GRU) – it leaves the United States and arrives in a different region. The second flight you get complimentary because of the Excursionist perk within a Region in the world – it doesn’t have to be the same Region as the first flight arrived in. The last flight is from Tokyo Narita to San Francisco, and stays within the rules of the Excursionist perk, as it arrives in the same Region as the whole trip began in.
Now, this brings me to my next point which relates to the example above: The Excursionist Perk is good for long-term planning of multiple trips. That example above isn’t exactly useful for one trip. But if you plan in advance multiple trips, the Excursionist Perk can save you a ton of miles. Specifically, if you are planning two or three trips at once and you use the Excursionist Perks on multiple trips at once and take advantage of some of the award routing rules. Let me explain.
With the “advanced” uses for the Excursionist Perk, you don’t have to use it only on one trip or within the same Regions. This works if you book multiple trips using two multi-city itineraries with the Excursionist Perk. Here is an example below:
| Multi-City Itinerary #1 | Number of Miles | Month Of Trip (Example) |
| EWR-LHR | 30,000 | October |
| LHR-FCO | 0 | October |
| CUN-EWR | 17,500 | November |
| Multi-City Itinerary #2 | ||
| EWR-MCO | 5,000 | September |
| FCO-CDG | 0 | October |
| CDG-EWR | 30,000 | October |
| Total Miles Spent | 82,500 |
My main point with this itinerary here is to prove that you can score multiple free flights that can give you multiple intra-Region flights for free. In this example, you score a multi-destination trip to Europe with two free segments within Europe – from London to Rome and from Rome to Paris. Because with the Excursionist Perk, you also have to book two more segments than you need with the trip to Europe, you also can book two trips anywhere in the world. With this example, you have an outbound flight from Newark to Orlando (you can book the return flight seperately) and another flight from Cancun to Newark (you can book the outbound flight seperately). So in essence, you scored a trip to three destinations in Europe for the price of one (60,000 miles) and also could book two other seperate (halves of) trips.
This is one of the better uses of the Excursionist Perk, as it gives you not two but three free destinations on a trip. You also can use the Excursionist Perk on itineraries that aren’t based in North America, such as booking multiple flights within Asia. That can involve flying from one destination to another (like from Beijing to Hong Kong) with miles, booking a free second flight from Hong Kong to Singapore, which are in the same region, and then booking another last flight with miles from Singapore to Beijing. However, you would still have to pay for the flights getting to Asia on your own, but this itinerary does get you one free segment within Asia and lets you see four destinations. Using this strategy is great to get free flights within one region without having to pay for one of the flights that is within one of United’s pre-defined regions.
So overall, the United Excursionist Perk is great for providing free segments within a region, that can allow you to see multiple destinations for the price of 1 or 2.
Maxing Out The Excursionist Perk
Now that I hope that you understand the basic idea of how the Excursionist Perk works, I’ll explain to you what I promised I would give you in the title of the article – 35+ hours in business class for only 48,000 miles. Now, I have to say that this itinerary isn’t practical for most of you. The sole purpose of why I am sharing it is to show the maximum potential of the Excursionist Perk. The motive simply was that I one day decided to try and max it out and find out the maximum hours you can score in business class using the Excursionist Perk, making the best use out of United’s Regions. So, while this isn’t really any use to most people, I’m sure you could find a similar itinerary that might actually let you score free flights that work better for you. So let me explain my thought process to you about how I maxed it out, and hopefully you’ll find a couple of additional loopholes along the way, as I did.
First, with this “maxed out” itinerary, I started in Auckland, New Zealand. Why? Because United has unbelievabley cheap flights out of Sydney (or Auckland or Melbourne) to Guam. Most airlines charge on the final distance flown, and not based on where you connect through. So basically, to get to Guam from Sydney, you have to fly from Northeast Asia, which on its own involves a lot of time flying in business class. So in the end, a journey from Sydney to Guam via Beijing and Osaka would score you up to 18 hours in business class, for only 40,000 United miles, which on its own is a spectacular deal! Now, if you want to take advantage of this without the Excursionist Perk, you can do so, as if you book only the segment from Sydney to Beijing, in business class, it would cost 10,000 more miles than if you continued on to Guam. In theory, if you travel only by hand luggage, you could get off in Beijing and not continue onto Guam, although airlines tend to not like when you do that.
Next, I’m going to take advantage of United’s largest Region: sub-Saharan Africa. According to United’s rules, everything in Africa below the Sahara is in the same region. So that means that Dakar, Accra, Johannesburg, Addis Ababa, and Mauritius are all in the same award region. To take advantage of this, you could fly from Dakar to Mauritius in business class (time in business class: about 19 hours) for a grand total of… 0 Miles and $121! Now, if you’re not convinced by my words, be convinced by my screenshots:
Lastly, because you need to have a flight arriving in the same region as it all started, you can book a short flight in economy class for only 8,000 miles from Wellington to Auckland (which you don’t have to take). So overall, you theoretically can fly for over 35 hours in business class for only 48,000 miles. The only problem is that it’s practically for…almost no one (unless you want want to fly from Auckland to Guam in the same year as flying from Mauritius to Dakar). So yeah, you can fly in business class for almost 48,000 miles for over 35 hours (which is 12,000 miles less than a roundtrip economy class ticket to Europe), but the thing is, almost no one just flies to fly in business class. The point of this final example was not to give you the most practical example in the world, but was to show you that crazy itinerararies with the Excursionist Perk are possible and can save you a lot of miles.
Conclusion
The United Excursionist Perk can provide a ton of opportunities to get multiple free segments. The classic example is that it can allow you to see two destinations for the price of one with miles, in Europe, Hawaii, Asia, or in almost every continent of the world. There are truly an unlimited amount of possibilities of how to use the Excursionist Perk. With the final example, I set out to show you the possibilities that there are with using it (not so that you can fly 19 hours in two completely different continents for free). And lastly, when it comes time for you to use the Excursionist Perk, get creative. As long as you have the United miles, there is no right or wrong. The rules of the Excursionist Perk have a lot of loopholes that allow multi-hour flights to be booked with 0 miles, so take advantage of them to get a free intra-Region segment!
Have you ever used the United Excursionist Perk? Share about your experience below in the comments section!
