Even if you’re not a soccer fan, a trip to the FIFA World Cup is one for the bucket list. Going to a match or two has been on my personal list for years, and I’m making it happen in 2018!
The next World Cup will take place in 11 cities in Russia. Although I have been to Russia before, my fiancé has not. We decided to take advantage of the waived visa requirements for the World Cup fans and have chosen to attend a few matches in a few different cities. Because it won’t be my first visit to Russia, I want to combine our trip with another country I haven’t been to before. We landed on Poland.
Last year, when Chase Sapphire Reserve Card’s bonus was still high, my fiancé scored 100,000 Ultimate Rewards points, which had a purpose—to pay for our trip to the World Cup. Originally, I wanted to utilize United Airlines’ Excursionist Perk and spend just 60,000 miles per person, but availability with the Star Alliance airlines wasn’t great, and we chose to go another route.
Salt Lake City to Krakow, Poland
Salt Lake City, our home base, is a Delta Air Lines hub, and Delta partners with a ton of SkyTeam carriers. In our case, it made more sense to use KLM/Air France’s Flying Blue rewards program and book a one-way ticket to Krakow, Poland, on KLM with a single stop in Amsterdam for just 25,000 miles per person.
Although part of Europe, Poland is an affordable country. We will likely stay at a budget hostel or guesthouse and save money that way. Our stay will total six days, and we will split our time between Krakow and Warsaw.
Warsaw to Sochi, Russia
Our first match will be in Sochi, Russia, at the Fisht Olympic Stadium. Flying from Warsaw to Sochi on our dates is either inconvenient (with long, multiple layovers) or simply expensive. Again, miles to the rescue! The Russian airline Aeroflot had the most convenient schedule, hence the most expensive flights. A one-way was close to $700 on our preferred date!
Aeroflot is also part of the SkyTeam alliance, and we were able to use 14,500 Flying Blue miles per person to secure our flight from Warsaw to Sochi with just a two-hour stop in Moscow.
Sochi to Saint Petersburg, Russia
The next match we chose to attend will be in Saint Petersburg, but we haven’t booked this flight yet. Because these specific flights aren’t too expensive (yet), we plan on either paying cash or using the Chase Portal to book our flights using my fiancé’s Chase Sapphire Reserve, which offers a great value of 1.5 cents per point. If not, domestic flights within Russia are just 10,000 Flying Blue miles on Aeroflot. Either way, we have options.
Saint Petersburg to Moscow
The final match we plan on attending will take place in Moscow, Russia’s capital. Moscow is about 450 miles from Saint Petersburg, and we will take a train between cities most likely. Some express trains take about four hours to reach the Leningradsky Railway Station in Moscow.
Moscow to Salt Lake City
Because we have a wedding to attend at the end of June, we have to be back home by a certain date. None of the frequent-flyer programs I was planning on using had decent availability, but Delta SkyMiles did. The thing about Delta miles is, they’re not that valuable…until you need them. Luckily, I had enough Membership Rewards points in my American Express account.
I transferred my Membership Rewards and booked a one-way flight for both of us from Moscow to Salt Lake City on a combination of Aeroflot and Delta with a stop in Los Angeles for 35,000 SkyMiles per person. I couldn’t find any low-level awards, which would normally set me back 30,000 miles each, but paying an additional 5,000 miles per ticket meant that we would be back home in time to go to our friends’ wedding.
In Conclusion
Collecting transferrable rewards is generally preferable to collecting specific airline miles because you never know which airlines will offer the most availability. However, it is also important to diversify the type of flexible points you accumulate. In this case, my fiancé and I utilized both Chase UR points and Amex MR points to book our flights. Being able to redeem points for airfare has allowed us to attend the World Cup at prices we can afford.
Do you have any sporting events on your bucket list? How have points and miles allowed you to attend these events?
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