Let’s talk about the United Excursionist Perk. What, you’ve never heard of it? Don’t worry, we’ve got you covered. If you fly United sometimes, it is the way to get a free flight segment, and who isn’t all about that?

Basically, the United Excursionist Perk is a free one-way award within select multi-city itineraries. If you book a flight with three or more one-way awards, you may be eligible to get one of the one-way awards for free, if it meets the following conditions:

The Excursionist Perk cannot be in the MileagePlus defined region where your travel originates. (For example, if your journey begins in North America, you will only receive the Excursionist Perk if travel is within a region outside of North America.)

• Travel must end in the same MileagePlus defined region where travel originates.
• The origin and destination of the Excursionist Perk are within a single MileagePlus defined region.
• The cabin of service and award inventory of the free one-way award is the same or lower than the one-way award preceding it.
• If two or more one-way awards qualify for this benefit, only the first occurrence will be free.

 

Sample Excursionist Perk

My sister and I were planning to visit London and then Dublin. We are leaving from Chicago. Let’s see how this works out. The key is to use the multi-city booking form and put all the flights in as one-way tickets.

 

 

I couldn’t show you the entire screen, but Destination 3 is Dublin to Chicago (ORD). Here are my results:

 

25K for the flight Denver to London

 

 

 

You can see here that the middle flight was absolutely free! I could go from London to Dublin on a United flight for no cost with the United Excursionist Perk. This amazing deal can be used over and over again as long as you follow the rules. And 55,000 miles + $116.08 to visit both London and Dublin is outstanding! Just by opening the Chase United Quest Credit Card and getting the 90,000 bonus offer, I can do this!

 

Bottom Line

The United Excursionist Perk is a great way to save even more on an award travel redemption. This works well if you are flying from North America to Europe or Asia and would like to see another city while there. Just do a multi-city search and see if your middle flight is free.