WCCO: Gopher Football Fans Scrambling To Secure Travel To Holiday Bowl

BleedGopher

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per WCCO:

Some Minnesota Gopher fans are scrambling to find a plane ticket to make it to the Holiday Bowl in California.

The University of Minnesota Alumni Association canceled their charter flight just a day after fans had signed up to go.

One fan tweeted Monday after he tried to find an alternative commercial flight, writing: “Amazingly enough, flights to San Diego have DOUBLED in the past 24 hours! Guess I’ll watch the game on TV instead but this is poor form!”

WCCO’s own Pat Kessler and his wife, who’ve traveled several times with the Gophers, will be among the fans booking an alternate option.

“We’ll figure it out, Gopher fans always figure it out,” Kessler said.

http://minnesota.cbslocal.com/2016/12/06/gopher-holiday-bowl-travel/

Go Gophers!!
 


Sup with that cancellation?

From the story - Apparently there was not enough quick response to the charter.
The university’s alumni association told the roughly two dozen people who had signed up that the cancellation was due to low numbers in the first 36 hours. They need 135 people to book a full flight.

Lisa Lewis, the president of the alumni association, says she believes the turnout wasn’t due to fan interest, but rather about fans wanting to book their own flights to spend more time in San Diego.
 

Count me in as someone that is still trying to find sub 400 round trip air fare to lax, Santa Ana, San Diego, Vegas, or palm springs
 

Maybe Sun Country will add flights like they did 2 years ago?
 


Just an FYI-

If you're someone who wants $300-400 flights, hop on google flights this morning and look at flights flying into Vegas.

If you leave on Christmas, flights are as low as $300; leaving on the 26th are around $400, depending on which day you come back.
 

Creative Charters came out with more flexible options and sold the first charter out and now has a list started for a second. It's cheaper, but may not include all the bells and whistles. This allows more flexibility for the fans.
 

Creative Charters came out with more flexible options and sold the first charter out and now has a list started for a second. It's cheaper, but may not include all the bells and whistles. This allows more flexibility for the fans.

Spot on. My parents were wanting to book with Creative because they have more flexibility in when they can fly compared to me. Creative already booked up, but Steve & Dorothy told them that they were in the process of hopefully getting another one filled up. The Alumni Association one was simply way too expensive, compared to what Creative was doing.

I'm not getting too worked up about it, but the article almost seems to imply that there's a lack of interest in fans, which isn't the truth. Fans are just doing it through a different avenue, whether it be Creative or doing things themselves.
 

Spot on. My parents were wanting to book with Creative because they have more flexibility in when they can fly compared to me. Creative already booked up, but Steve & Dorothy told them that they were in the process of hopefully getting another one filled up. The Alumni Association one was simply way too expensive, compared to what Creative was doing.

I'm not getting too worked up about it, but the article almost seems to imply that there's a lack of interest in fans, which isn't the truth. Fans are just doing it through a different avenue, whether it be Creative or doing things themselves.

given how it ended up looking last year, this is not surprising in the least bit
 



Just an FYI-

If you're someone who wants $300-400 flights, hop on google flights this morning and look at flights flying into Vegas.

If you leave on Christmas, flights are as low as $300; leaving on the 26th are around $400, depending on which day you come back.

if you like hanging out in vegas last i looked Sun Country had $206 roundtrip if you wanted something like leave 12/21 and return 12/28
 

Yeah for us we cannot leave Mn until 12-26. Las Vegas is very close to the $400 per ticket which would allow me to use miles for a couple of tix.
 

From the story - Apparently there was not enough quick response to the charter.
The university’s alumni association told the roughly two dozen people who had signed up that the cancellation was due to low numbers in the first 36 hours. They need 135 people to book a full flight.

Lisa Lewis, the president of the alumni association, says she believes the turnout wasn’t due to fan interest, but rather about fans wanting to book their own flights to spend more time in San Diego.

uhhh, they wanted $1800/person for their ridiculous 2 nt venture

LOL @ low numbers, you think?

maybe if this was the Rose Bowl people could rationalize that expense...
 

uhhh, they wanted $1800/person for their ridiculous 2 nt venture

LOL @ low numbers, you think?

maybe if this was the Rose Bowl people could rationalize that expense...

Yep, first thing I do when planning a Gopher road trip is check out the pricing for the Alumni Association trip and the Creative Charters options. I find their lowest priced option, cut that number in half and then use the result as the absolute top dollar I'd consider. Works pretty slick.
 



We booked our family's flights for Christmas Day and returning on the 29th...little pricey but its worth it. Looking forward to the nice weather and hoping for a good Minnesota crowd out there.
 

We booked using frequent flier miles to/from LAX. Leaving Christmas Day, returning New Year's Day. Very much looking forward to it!

There are reasonably affordable options if you are creative/flexible, and willing to drive part of the way (e.g. from Vegas) and/or use frequent flier miles.
 

We booked our family's flights for Christmas Day and returning on the 29th...little pricey but its worth it. Looking forward to the nice weather and hoping for a good Minnesota crowd out there.


27 year season ticket holder and finally attending my first bowl game. My son who is a Sophomore at the U will be going with me. We're on the creative charters first charter. A bit more than I wanted to spend but I am not having any buyers remorse. We are only there for 2 nights so it was important to me that that we arrive in SD as early as possible on the 26th. Flight arrives in SD at 9:00 am so we will be at the hotel in time to attend the Bowl Luncheon. I'm pumped!

GO GOPHERS!
 

27 year season ticket holder and finally attending my first bowl game. My son who is a Sophomore at the U will be going with me. We're on the creative charters first charter. A bit more than I wanted to spend but I am not having any buyers remorse. We are only there for 2 nights so it was important to me that that we arrive in SD as early as possible on the 26th. Flight arrives in SD at 9:00 am so we will be at the hotel in time to attend the Bowl Luncheon. I'm pumped!

GO GOPHERS!

I will say for those doing a Creative Charters for the first time....it may seem expensive and it probably is a tad overpriced, but they do a first rate job. Your only complaint will be whether you spend a little too much & could have done some stuff yourself; it won't be for anything that they did or didn't do.
 

27 year season ticket holder and finally attending my first bowl game. My son who is a Sophomore at the U will be going with me. We're on the creative charters first charter. A bit more than I wanted to spend but I am not having any buyers remorse. We are only there for 2 nights so it was important to me that that we arrive in SD as early as possible on the 26th. Flight arrives in SD at 9:00 am so we will be at the hotel in time to attend the Bowl Luncheon. I'm pumped!

GO GOPHERS!

That is awesome! FYI, if you weren't already aware:

"Current U of M students can claim a complimentary ticket to the game courtesy of Gopher Athletics. Limit 1 per student. Must present valid student ID at Qualcomm Stadium on gameday to claim your ticket."
https://www.mygophersports.com/Online/default.asp?BOparam::WScontent::loadArticle::permalink=BowlCentral&BOparam::WScontent::loadArticle::context_id=
 

For the dates 26th-29th

Cheapoair has a flight to LAX via New Orleans for $382.

Cheapoair has a flight to San Diego via Phoenix with United for $492.
 

For the dates 26th-29th

Cheapoair has a flight to LAX via New Orleans for $382.

Cheapoair has a flight to San Diego via Phoenix with United for $492.

MSP to NO, layover, to LAX, drive - better leave now.


Sent from my iPhone using Tapatalk
 

Yeah for us we cannot leave Mn until 12-26. Las Vegas is very close to the $400 per ticket which would allow me to use miles for a couple of tix.

Buddy of mine who's a skunk fan said last time they went to the Rose bowl most all the other skunk fans they knew
flew into vegas and rented a car dirt cheap and drove. PHX might also apply to this...
 

Buddy of mine who's a skunk fan said last time they went to the Rose bowl most all the other skunk fans they knew
flew into vegas and rented a car dirt cheap and drove. PHX might also apply to this...

problem for me is if I flew into Vegas I'd probably rather stay in Vegas LOL
 


27 year season ticket holder and finally attending my first bowl game. My son who is a Sophomore at the U will be going with me. We're on the creative charters first charter. A bit more than I wanted to spend but I am not having any buyers remorse. We are only there for 2 nights so it was important to me that that we arrive in SD as early as possible on the 26th. Flight arrives in SD at 9:00 am so we will be at the hotel in time to attend the Bowl Luncheon. I'm pumped!

GO GOPHERS!

Cool...making some great memories. Have a blast and take in as many activities as possible. I did the Citrus Bowl and the pep rallies and associated planned events for Gophs fans were a ton of fun.
 

Sun Country just added a charter, leaves 12/26 and returns a red eye on 12/29.


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