How To Get a Free One-Way Flight Using United’s Excursionist Perk – Travel Hack #2

I thought it was too good to be true. Deep in the steamy nether regions of the Reddit travel boards, I stumbled across a United MileagePlus points perk that couldn’t possibly be real. Purchase 3 one-way flights with your itinerary arranged in a specific way, and one of those flights would cost ZERO points. Basically, a free one-way flight!

Seeing as Rhonda and I hadn’t yet locked in our post-Guatemala Latin American itinerary, I had to check this out.

It turns out, the perk is for real.

This travel hack is United Airlines’ Excursionist Perk and although it is described on United Airlines’ website, it is challenging to find unless you are specifically looking for it. The reason for this is pretty obvious – free flights aren’t profitable.

That’s not my problem, so I decided to take advantage of this perk to form the core of our air travel during our first year of early retirement.

NOTE: This post builds on the skills you developed in our Travel Hack #1 post, so make sure you skim that over if you dozed off while reading it.

So How Does the Excursionist Perk Work Exactly?

Simple. Generate a multi-city flight itinerary made of at least 3 flights spanning two global regions, as defined by United Airlines. This only works when you use MileagePlus points to book your trip.

• Your first flight must fly out of one region (region 1) and land in a different region (region 2).
• Your second flight must take off and land within region 2.
• And your third flight must return you from region 2 back to region 1.

If you can lock in this arrangement when booking using MileagePlus points, your flight that stays within region 2 costs ZERO points.

Amazing.

So How Did This Work Out for Us?

Swimmingly.

I honestly feel like we did something illegal. But this feeling is tempered by the fact that we will be out of the country soon, and we’ll be hard to track down.

Here is our flight itinerary (with key selections circled), followed by a points breakdown:

FLIGHT 1 – Guatemala City, Guatemala (Central America Region) to Lima, Peru (Northern South America Region) – 2 business class tickets at 22,000 points each = 44,000 points.

The cherry on top was that business class tickets cost fewer points than economy class. I’ve never seen that before in my 10 years of travel hacking, but I didn’t ask questions.

FLIGHT 2 – Lima, Peru (Northern South America Region) to Quito, Ecuador (Northern South America Region) – 2 economy class tickets at 0 points each = 0 points.

[Giggle.]

FLIGHT 3 – Quito, Ecuador (Northern South America Region) to Panama City, Panama (Central America Region) – 2 economy class tickets at 12,500 points each = 25,000 points.

So the entire itinerary consisting of 6 one-way tickets is 69,000 points + $315.90 in fees.

Yes, please.

“I love it when a plan comes together.”

— John “Hannibal” Smith, A-Team

So What Did We Learn Today?

First, cheap flights are good. But free flights are better.

Second, make sure you thoroughly research your preferred airline’s booking policies to avoid missing sweet deals. There are a bunch out there.

One of the more famous examples is Icelandair’s wonderfully shameless attempt to get you to stopover for an extended time in Iceland on your way to a second destination at no extra charge. Two birds, one stone. And great for Iceland’s tourist economy.

Hopefully, you found this post enlightening. Do you have any questions about the process? Ask in the comments section below! And don’t hesitate to share this post with anyone who might find this information useful.

Thanks for reading!

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