United Airlines Surprise Adventure Week
It's always fun when award travel programs spice things up a bit. Throw in an award sale and it's even better. United Airlines is kicking off 2024 with “Surprise Adventure Week.” Each day, United releases a new destination as the promotional city and award flights are on sale. If you're opening to booking random cities, this is a great opportunity for you. Let's do a deep dive into this promotion, which runs daily from January 8, 2024 to January 12, 2024.
Details of The United Promotion
Each day during United Airlines Surprise Adventure Week (1/8/24 to 1/12/24), a new city is announced as the promotional destination. The roundtrip ticket cost in economy is 50,000 United miles plus taxes and fees (starting at $194.60). The terms & conditions of the promo indicate that:
- this promotion is available to all members of United MileagePlus
- each destination must be booked during the 24 hour period of that specific day (no timezones are specificed)
- roundtrip purchase is required
- eligible travel dates are Sunday through Saturday (i.e. 7 days per week) between January 10, 2024 and March 20, 2024.
- tickets are only valid to/from the contiguous 48 states and select cities (Alaska and Hawaii are excluded)
- only economy tickets are eligible (no basic economy, premium economy, premium plus, or business)
- United and its subsidiaries must operate the flights
- promotional seats are capacity controlled (so book early!)
While these terms and conditions are fairly standard, I did quickly confirm that multi-city trips are NOT pricing at the 50K level. Unfortunately, it does not appear that you can stack the United Excursionist Perk to this trip to make it even more valuable.
Surprise Destination – Monday
For the first United Airlines Surprise Adventure Week destination, we can travel roundtrip to London, England for 50,000 United miles roundtrip. Taxes and fees start at $194.60 and include all the expensive LHR/UK departure taxes. During a quick search of the relevant timeframe, 9+ seats are oftentimes available in each direction of travel. For random dates in February, 9+ seats are available most/all days of the week from the east coast.
Surprise Destination – Tuesday
Up next for the United Airlines Surprise Adventure Week destination is Paris, France! Taxes and fees start at only $87.40. All other terms and conditions apply from Monday's surprise destination. During a search of fares, plenty of options are available. Say you want to fly non-stop to Paris for Valentine's Day and take your favorite human to the City of Love. 100,000 Miles + $176.40. Lots of routes and lots are seats are open.
Surprise Destination – Wednesday
The third installment of United Airlines Surprise Adventure Week is Amsterdam, Netherlands. Taxes and fees start at only $90.50 roundtrip. Like other days, award seats are plentiful! One thing I noticed about this availability is that most days that have the 25,000 economy seats, also have 80,000 business seats. What does that mean? The business seats are saver awards and bookable by any star alliance partner. If you have any Amex Membership Rewards, you can transfer them to ANA and book roundtrip business class for 88,000 points, not much more than this economy deal!
United Airlines Surprise Destination – Thursday
The next to last surprise for United Airlines Surprise Adventure Week is Frankfurt, Germany. While Frankfurt is not known as the cultural center of Germany, it is an excellent jumping off point in Europe. A world-class airport, with connecting flights all over the world. From Frankfurt, a drive to Bavaria or a flight to Buenos Aires, Tokyo, or Dubai are all possible. Luckily, United has many nonstops as well, including: Chicago–O'Hare, Denver, Houston–Intercontinental, Newark, San Francisco, and Washington–Dulles. Luckily for those wanting to book this deal, award flights are WIDE OPEN on many of these non-stop routes.
The Final Surprise City – Friday
For the final city in United Airlines Surprise Adventure Week, you can go to Brussels, Belgium for 50,000 miles roundtrip. Taxes and fees start at $67.60. Much like Frankfurt, the calendar is absolutely wide open, with 4+ days available each week during the promotion. Better still, tons of saver premium economy (50,000 each way) and business (80,000 each way) are available. Note: you can book those saver awards MUCH cheaper on Aeroplan (the business seats are only 60,000 each way, for example). Go grab this deal before it leaves tonight.
United Airlines Surprise Adventure Week – ToP Thoughts
This promotion is a lot of fun. Not only does it represent a nice discount on award flights, but it interjects a bit of fun and excitement to the following day's announcement. As we posted last night, 100,000 Chase Ultimate Rewards can take you a long way. This week, you can add 5 more options to what those expiring bonuses on the Chase Ink Cash and Chase Ink Unlimited will get you (offers expire January 18, 2024 at 9 a.m. ET). In any event, a roundtrip international award flight for 50,000 United miles and taxes & fees is a good deal. Certainly not the best, but better than many options, especially if it works to your local airport. Stay tuned each day for today's deal.
Did you book one of the United Airlines Award Adventure Week promotions? Come over to our Facebook group and let us know.
HT: Bulkhead Seat
