BBSHOPSINGER

I'm seeing some business availability on LH. Where are you flying from, and are you looking in economy or business? Which days?

TandroyFoty

So this is a new one for me. Trying to take advantage of the Excursionist Perk, by booking: BOG-GPS (10k miles); BJM-ADD(0 miles); BOG-CTG (10k miles).

Had to call the 1k desk because of UA website's problems with ET award tickets, and it kept pricing at 37.5k miles, even though it should only be 20k. Agents on the phone had the usual stock response: 'we can only book what the system gives us.' So I e-mailed customer service to ask if they'd reimburse me the 17.5k miles I'm being incorrectly charged, according to their language.

Their first response demonstrated a complete lack of understanding of the Excursionist Perk (fairly, it's confusing as hell, and their own 1k phone agents have asked me on multiple occasions, 'what's the excursionist perk?' So when I explained that she was wrong, and showed her other sample itineraries that do price out correctly (BOG-GPS; CTP-EBB; BOG-CTG; or YYZ-YVR; GUA-SAL; SAN-LAX) she came back with this doozy:

"I apologize, I misunderstood the phase "the same or lower."

Although the website does not list the requirement to travel between two or more regions, it does state that the Excursionist Perk is available "within select multi-city itineraries." Travel between two or more regions is one of the requirements listed internally for an itinerary to be one of the "select multi-city itineraries." I apologize for any inconvenience this may cause."

But this directly contradicts their own website that allows plenty of itineraries that do not have travel between regions at any point. ARGH.

"More flexible and intuitive award booking? You've got it."

chinesescouse

J or F preferred. Friday 9/1.
But I think it's a pax issue. Only 1 F left.
Pretty close in already so I'm wondering if more seats will open up <T7

jsloan

This was unquestionably the intent of the Excursionist Perk. Frankly, I'm surprised that they didn't codify this as part of their November 1 rollout. I'm sorry to hear that they're not following their published rules, although I'm not particularly surprised.

mduell

This would be a great opportunity for UA Insider to contribute to the forum.

pushmyredbutton

This is one of those quirks I would like to see stick around. The ability to use the experk sandwiched between a normal [unrelated] roundtrip works for me on the website and is extremely lucrative if you play your regions right.

Additionally, I have never found an agent that has had a good grasp on the excursionist perk or why there is a middle segment 'incorrectly' charged at 0 miles.

TandroyFoty

I think it's quite telling (but not surprising) that UA tried couch detrimental changes to their award program in language around intuitiveness, and what they came up with is so convoluted their own agents don't even understand. The first response from CS in this case was "In addition, your flight from Burundi to Ethiopia is a higher mileage award than the flights before it. The Excursionist Perk requires that the "award type of the free one-way award is the same or lower than the one-way award preceding it."

It's particularly frustrating because I'd be able to book this without any problems, if their website just showed ET award availability again.

Kacee

The "Excursionist Perk" was intended as consolation for disallowing stopovers and I think it was always the intent of the perk that you actually use it between the two one-ways. So it's hard for me to get too worked up about this.

Overall, it turns out that the biggest devaluation flowing from these changes was the dumbing down of the award booking system.

sbm12

This version of the excursionist perk is folks playing at the edge of what's permitted v what's intended by the rules. Just like the prior era where we'd force an open-jaw at a stopover or multiple 23 hour overnights on a circuitous routing because it wasn't explicitly prohibited.

Scream and yell all you want but when the net result is that this version is tightened up due to abuse don't be the ones feigning surprise.

flyerbaby19

I still don't understand this perk. Can the excursion be after the round trip? Or it has to be in between?

Motorskills

Apologies for my ignorance, please can someone provide a link to a page explaining what this Excursionist Perk is all about. Thanks!

In The 216

United's award redemption rules have always been an issue - in some form or another. The biggest continues to be a lack of fundamental understanding by UA agents of their own rules and the inability for agents to get the same availability/routing via Compass that freely come up on united.com.

One thing to note is that the stopover was only eliminated from being allowed in the same region as departure. I still find that the "stopover" is freely allowed in the destination region. I understand that it is still more restrictive than before but we probably got away with quite a bit of creativeness in the past (which I miss as much as the next guy).

sugashane3

I booked an award flight xxx - iad / iad - hnl in first at the standard 90k mile cost. Both flights booked in to first (JN if memory serves me correctly). For some reason on the xxx - iad flight, I am showing on the first class upgrade list with a check mark. I am not on the iad - hnl upgrade list but have a confirmed FC seat. Why would a flight booked with miles at standard rate show up on the UG list xxx-iad? My concern here is IROPS and possibly not being rebooked into first if I somehow have a coach fare.

findark

CPU-eligible flights will show a green check mark for everyone in the following fare classes: JN, PN, RN, R. This is a hold-over from when the use of the JN fare class was elite instant upgrades from high Economy fares. This is not to worry, and no other part of the system will think you are an upgraded passenger.

It does not show on IAD-HNL because it is not CPU-eligible.

jsloan

The free segment must be chronologically between the two paid segments.

There are a number of good links in this thread's Wiki.

I agree with the lack of understanding about the rules. Sadly, they now appear to see exactly the same inventory as appears online, except their tool adds SQ (and ET, if ET is really hidden on purpose).

Well, there are no stopovers at all. Instead, they added the concept of the "free one way" flight. The problem with thinking of it as a stopover is that there are plenty of logical stopover places that are no longer allowed -- for example, it's not possible to get a free stopover in Tokyo on a flight from SFO to Southeast Asia, despite UA happily steering you on those flights. Japan is its own region, so the only way to get a stopover in Tokyo is if your destination is elsewhere in Japan.

Note that UA's multi-city award search seems even more broken than usual. I saw multiple occasions just now where the wrong flight(s) were being marked as 0 -- including one where the first flight showed 0, as well as some where the classes of service were wrong -- but the total came out correctly at the end.

Anyway, the distinction between a stopover and a free one-way is crucial, because the flight that the OP suggested is absolutely supposed to be allowed under the rules. The specific requirements for the Excursionist Perk are:

On an award ticket consisting of at least three journeys ("one-ways") which begins and ends in the same region, you will get the first qualifying one-way free. A qualifying one-way flight is one that begins and ends in the same region, which may not be the same as the origin region.

If / represents an interruption of journey (e.g., get out of the airport and go do something), and - represents a flight, the journeys marked with an * are supposed to be free, by rule:

SFO-NRT / NRT-MNL / MNL-NRT-SFO -- none qualify
SFO-NRT / NRT-MNL / MNL-BKK* / BKK-NRT-SFO -- MNL and BKK are both in South Asia
SFO-NRT-MNL / MNL-BKK* / BKK-SIN / SIN-LAX-SFO -- only the first qualifying segment is free
SFO-LHR / LHR-FRA* / FRA-SIN / SIN-BKK / BKK-NRT-SFO -- ditto
AUS-IAH / BKK-SIN* / IAH-AUS -- trip begins and ends in the same region; free flight is within one region; free flight is not within the origin region
AUS-IAH / IAH-AUS / BKK-SIN -- putting the flights in this order, none of them qualify, because the trip no longer begins and ends in the same region.

The intent of the perk was to allow itineraries like the first few examples I have listed. The last one is a byproduct of the way that they wrote the rules, but it's legal, and it will ticket. OP should have been allowed to book the flights listed.