The Superbowl is a travel anomaly. People from two cities want to travel en masse to a neutral city to watch a sports event. Sure, the same thing happens for the college football playoff or any sports event.
In 2017, Delta paid a passenger $4,000 to take a bump voucher on a flight from Atlanta to South Bend, IN because the flight was full of Bulldog fans who didn’t want to miss the game against Notre Dame.
Needless to say, sports ball fans are serious and are willing to pay top dollar for the chance to see their team in the biggest event of the year.
Not to mention that even if you get a flight to Phoenix, you’ll be paying through the nose for hotel rooms, rental car and tickets. IF you can manage to get any of those.
One difference about Superbowl flights this year is that several airlines connect Philadelphia and Kansas City to Phoenix. That hasn’t kept airlines from adding flights to the routes, and those flights aren’t going to be cheap.
For the Friday before the game, you can still get a non-stop from Philadelphia to Phoenix, but prices start at $850. If you want to fly Delta, you’re going to pay at least $1,659.
If you’re from Kansas City, things look a little better. The $400 flight on United is a relative steal.
Prices may lower because Delta, United, American, Frontier, and Southwest added capacity to the route. Never the ones to miss the opportunity for a pun, Frontier sent this email today.
Southwest is flying seven times between Kansas City and Phoenix, and almost every flight is sold out.
Flying home isn’t any less expensive. In fact, last year we ran into several Bengals fans in the LA SkyClub on Tuesday, February 15th. They stayed in Los Angeles for a few days after the game to get less expensive flights home to Cincinnati.
If you were hoping to travel from Philadelphia or Kansas City to the Superbowl in Phoenix, I hope you have a large bankroll or flexible travel plans.
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This post first appeared on Your Mileage May Vary
Cover Photo: Blervis, CC BY-SA 4.0, via Wikimedia Commons
2 comments
I’m staying at crap hole Hyatt House in Old Town Scottsdale that weekend for Wasted Management. It was $1260 a night. A Hyatt House.
I’m flying out of PHX to Seattle for a connection overseas for a work trip the day after the superbowl. Not here for the game as I live here but I’ve never had a flight as expensive as that ticket was. Seattle isn’t even in the SB but it seems the SB being here is the reason that airlines will jack up the price of tickets anywhere domestic just because they can and use the DB as an excuse.