davidhawk

Hey all,

I am looking for some examples of itineraries people have used to maximize United award miles in the Central / South America regions to book some travel from November - January.

I am not particular to which countries to explore, except I would like to visit Peru and Guatemala for longer duration.

I know this is a very broad question, with many options available, and I am having trouble figuring out how to capitalize on my miles the best I can, while seeing the most available.

The journey would initially start / end in SFO, but I can always book one ways in and out of central to start / end the round trip ticket there. An example I was looking at would be SJU - SJO (few week stay), SJO - Lim (few week stay), LIM - GUA (few week stay). This was 37,500 miles +$110. Then having a one way flight to start from SFO - SJU, and a one way flight to finish GUA - SFO.

I am only interested in the economy seats, not flying business etc.

Thanks for any input / advice you can give!

DENflyer3

The first question I would have is if you have status. Depending on the status and routes, you might have some more options on saver awards depending on date and time and destination or flying partner airlines.

davidhawk

I don't have any status. I fly infrequently and have about 110,000 points.

WineCountryUA

Forget about "maximizing" your benefits-- don't worry perhaps getting 1% then the next person -- an FT preoccupation.
Do you want to focus on traveling on airplanes or doing something interesting?

The Excursion preq allows you to have two extended stops. Figure out where you want to spend time (not a UA forum issue) and then the forum can help you figure out how to make it happen.

There are dozens of place in South America worth visiting (and a few in the North perhaps plan for a different trip in the future when things settle down)
There are many places for investigating travel in South America, see the FT destination forums -- https://www.flyertalk.com/forum/americas-438/

That would not qualify for Excursion Preq. It is correctly pricing as three (3) one-ways

The excursion preq is a benefit for just a roundtrip award (return to origin region) and it allows a segment additional segment(s) from the destination to a second "destination" In the same region. The EP can not be in the Origin region.

Regions
SJU - Caribbean
SJO , GUA -- Central America
LIM - Northern South America