Here’s my own real-world scenario: Our roundtrip economy flights from Phoenix to New Zealand (in region terms: Mainland US, Alaska & Canada to Australia & New Zealand) would have cost 80,000 miles each no matter what. So we used miles to book the following flights: Phoenix to Sydney, Sydney to Christchurch, then Auckland to Phoenix, building the itinerary with three legs in total. (We drove from Christchurch to Auckland.) The cheapest flight of the bunch was the one from Sydney to Christchurch, so that’s flight we got for zero miles; we just had to pay the taxes and fees for the reservation.
We got a three-city tour for just 80,000 United miles and $174.15 in taxes and fees each, $82.11 of which was specific to Australia.
How we got the points to fly from the US to Australia and New Zealand
To get to the 160,000 total points we needed for our reservations, my husband and I looked at credit card welcome offers.
We signed up for three new cards for the two of us. My husband started with the United Explorer credit card, which, at the time, had an increased sign-up bonus of 60,000 miles. We also both work as freelancers, which made us eligible for the no-annual fee Chase Ink Business Unlimited with a sign-up bonus of 90,000 points when we applied for a card each. That netted us a total of 180,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards points.
For my husband’s reservation, we transferred 20,000 Chase points to his United account; with his United sign-up bonus worth 60,000 miles, he had his 80,000 miles ready to go for his reservation to Australia and New Zealand. For mine, I transferred 60,000 Chase points to my United account, which already had about 20,000 miles waiting to be used, leaving both of us plenty of Chase points for another trip.
Triggering the Excursionist Perk
After spending weeks drooling over the route (and quadruple-checking each leg for availability), I was in for a rude awakening when I signed into United to book it: I couldn’t get the perk to trigger on the app or the website. A quick Reddit dive revealed that others had faced the same problem, so I geared up my millennial self for a phone call with United’s customer service team.
The first several representatives I spoke to had no idea what I was talking about. It took more than an hour on the phone to find someone who could help me make the booking. Now, it seems that United has fixed whatever was causing the perk not to trigger; when I searched several routes on a multi-city booking as a test (and maybe to plan my next trip), none cost extra miles for the cheapest leg. I wouldn’t recommend calling unless you absolutely must; if you do, you’ll want to make extra sure there is mileage seat availability for each of your legs.
The bottom line
The United Excursionist Perk is a great way to add another city or country into your travel without dipping back into your miles and points. While we only spent three days in Sydney, there isn’t a time limit for the perk. It’s hard to beat the allure of a bonus country added to your trip.