It’s often been tough in recent years, after multiple MileagePlus devaluations, to justify earning or transferring to United’s mileage currency when there are better options most of the time for booking Star Alliance awards.
In an update primarily talking about Instant Upgrades going away for Premier members that buying YBM (the most expensive three) fares in coach as of August 21, 2025, they very quietly mention this:
Additionally, we are no longer offering the Excursionist Perk on award tickets starting on August 21, 2025. This only impacts new bookings and any changes made to existing bookings.
While the Y/B/M fare change primarily impacts business travelers who could get their companies to pay for expensive coach fares but not First or Business (and it was a nice end run around policy!) the Excursionist Perk loss is a blow to the program for sure.
Only launched a handful of years ago, it allowed you to get a free flight in the middle of a round trip itinerary. Very basically, if you were flying EWR-CDG-EWR, you could add in a segment for free, making your trip EWR-CDG-WAW-EWR and the CDG-WAW segment would be free.
There were many ways to get solid value out of it, especially in Business Class, so I guess it’s no surprise that United is taking the axe to it.
There’s a webpage here about changes, but it only talks about the YBM upgrade change, with no details on the Excursionist Perk lost beyond what I pasted above.
Cue the wave of “who can I status match to” questions 😉
That said, you can still book these until August 21, 2025, so if you have a bank of miles and a trip in mind, go get it!
Oh, and last but not least, they are eliminating their “Upgrade Award Chart” as of November 24, 2025. Dynamic pricing, here we come!
Thoughts?
Let me know below in the comments, on Twitter, or in the private MilesTalk Facebook group. And don't forget to follow me on Instagram for all sorts of tips on miles, points, credit cards, and travel.
If this post helped you, please consider sharing it!
You can find credit cards that best match your spending habits and bonus categories at Your Best Credit Cards.
New to all of this? My “introduction to miles and points” book, MilesTalk: Live Your Wildest Travel Dreams Using Miles and Points is available on Amazon and at major booksellers.
