ETA 1: SHOOT, EWR764 & MatthewLAX beat me to the major concern above! Still leaving it here for my skepticism about correct implementation in Part 2 below..
Originally Posted by
anc-ord772
...
I certainly have concerns about this Excursionist Perk and how layovers are priced, but with such garbage IT I'm sure there will be loopholes...
Couldn't agree more with both parts of this sentence.
First part: How layovers are going to be priced. Two FAQ quotes:
"The Excursionist Perk is not defined by time, while the stopover policy is".
"If you use the multi-city search path to route over a favorite city, you may be charged more miles."
Logically, these statements imply that you have to provide O/D, and take one of the options provided by the computer/agent to avoid additional miles being charged. Offered options could include layovers at connection points, and these layovers could theoretically be over 24 hrs since there is no time concept for characterizing connection types any more.
BUT
if you try to get alternative routing through inputting preferred or unacceptable connection points online, or feeding individual segments online or to an agent,
they are implying they are going to charge separate award pricing to each selected connection/destination point.
Second part: While that seems to be the theory, can United execute this logic, (and enforce things like the 24hr change restriction on Star partner awards)? Seems unlikely given the IT history. They would have to remove the logic that currently keeps stopovers from charging purely additively for a multi-city, and then include new logic that correctly zeroes out miles only for the
first intra-region ExPerk that's outside the starting region, on a roundtrip that has the same starting and ending region. I am guessing there's going to be a lot of implementation pains. Again.
ETA 2: Who the .... came up with this ExPerk name? Confusing, unwelcoming, elitist sounding. What a winner.