As a rabid Boston sports fan, I always had to knock off the Super Bowl on my bucket list. I always believed the only ways to get to a Super Bowl were to be rich, win a contest or work for a company that has these type of benefits. You have to remember that it’s not just about the expensive game ticket. The Hotels are up charging and the airlines are up charging from your area because your team is going. Round-trip airfare will cost thousands and hotels anywhere near the Super Bowl will charge around $1,000 or more a night for that weekend.
After collecting points through many different companies over the years, I had to look into how I could get there. My friend Jeff had gone to Super Bowl 49 and was willing to go again if I was interested. Super Bowl 51 was in Houston and I found out Jeff was going to be in Dallas that week for work. I fly Jet Blue mostly because Boston is a hub and I like my leg room. The only problem with JetBlue is that their points are based on dollars spent instead of distance flown. This means when the price of JetBlue’s tickets goes up, the mileage to use goes up. I could have probably looked into transferring Amex or Chase points into airline miles with another airline, but my guess is that the airlines with distance award flights wouldn’t have any since everyone and their mother was heading to Houston from Boston.
As I looked into Jet Blue flights, they wanted around 40,000 points for me to fly into Houston on that Friday or Saturday. I believe they wanted around 25,000 points for me to fly in on Thursday. Since Jeff would be in Dallas, I flew into there for around 8,000 points and we could drive over to Houston. The rental car was on Jeff. Now I had to figure out how I would get back on Jet Blue. Everyone going to the Super Bowl wants to come back on Monday. JetBlue wanted close to 90,000 points for me to come back Monday. I looked into flying home from Dallas and that wasn’t that much better. I ended up flying home on Tuesday for 38,000 points. Yes, that is a lot of Jet Blue points for a flight, but this was a once in a lifetime event for me.
Now, I know what you are all thinking. Well, if you are staying 5 nights won’t it cost you a fortune to stay in a hotel down there. You would be right, but I have some decent hotel points with a couple different brands. Hotel award nights are set points for a category they have their hotels in.
I went with IHG points, which are Holiday Inn, Intercontinental, Crowne Plaza and etc. I had about 130,000 points. I had opened their card for a 70,000 Bonus in April 2016. I also had some points left over from a contest IHG had and I had received about 90,000 points for. It’s the best hotel card to have because, for only $49 a year, they give you a free night each year after your first-anniversary date. You can use the anniversary free night at any category hotel. Worth much more than $49.
As I looked for award nights at IHG hotels in downtown Houston, I came up with nothing. I did find a hotel near NRG Stadium and another 5 miles from downtown, but still in a lively area. There wasn’t any reason to be near the stadium except for gameday. The Crowne Plaza I found was next to the highway about 5 miles west from everything going on in downtown and 9 miles north of the Stadium. It was still a very good location and we just used Uber for cheap rides. This hotel wanted about $800 a night for that weekend. IHG has it as a category 3 hotel at 20,000 points a night. Wasn’t the greatest hotel, but it would get the job done. I booked it for Thursday through Monday and moved to the NFL hotel in downtown for Monday night on Jeff.
The last thing I would need was the Super Bowl ticket. With some connections, we were able to get some of the best seats under face value with open bar and food pre-party. Row 8 on the 35-yard line! The 4th quarter comeback was down our end, while the OT winner was down the other end. Here are some photos and videos from the weekend.
NFL Experience
We snuck into the New Era party on Friday night. Open bar!
This was the free food and open bar pre-party before the Super Bowl
Rapper 2Chainz not being very nice to us Patriots fans walking into the stadium
So close to Tommy I can touch him! Eeeeee
Halftime show from my perspective. I thought the best part of my night was going to be the halftime show at this point and I don’t even care about Lady Gaga. You could feel the heat from the fire at my seat.
The two-point conversion that tied the game. My side doesn’t seem to be cheering much because we were on the Atlanta sideline.
The winning touchdown and celebration! Best game EVER!!!!
