Even before the games that determined which two teams would be heading to the Super Bowl, some fans were playing absurd amounts of money in order to secure a ticket to see the game at Allegiant Stadium in Las Vegas.
By mid-January, prices for a round-trip flight to Las Vegas McCarran International Airport during the weekend of Feb. 9 to 11 from anywhere in the country were up 88% from the year before, while a last-minute purchase can easily set one back several thousand dollars on top of the average $10,000 ticket to see the game in person.
Related: 2024 Super Bowl ticket prices will blow your mind.
In order to meet the increased number of people looking to make it to Las Vegas that weekend, American Airlines (AAL) – Get Free Report upped the number of flights going between Kansas City and Las Vegas to twice a day on Feb. 9 and 10 and another one heading back on Feb. 12 in order for the former’s residents to see their home team square off against the San Francisco 49ers.
Travis Kelce and Taylor Swift have emerged as the stars of the 2023-2024 NFL season.
Kevin Sabitus/Getty Images
Swift and Kelce fans will appreciate the references on these American Airlines flights
But the key thing that fans will notice is that the flights going to Las Vegas have been named Flight 1989 while the one returning back to Kansas City is Flight 1987. The latter honors the number on Kansas City’s star tight end Travis Kelce’s jersey while the former is a reference to the year his girlfriend and star artist Taylor Swift was born and a best-selling album name. After the two confirmed their relationship last fall, Swift has been stealing the show cheering Kelce on at games during the season.
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“You could say that after tonight’s games, we are in our football era, and we are thrilled to provide additional direct flights from Kansas City to Las Vegas,” American Airlines said in a statement to the Associated Press. “To our customers who are huge sports fans, look what you made us do.”
These are some of the other flights launched specifically for the Chiefs-49ers game
Meanwhile, a series of other flights is running between Kansas City and Las Vegas. Flight 15 from Kansas City to Las Vegas on Feb. 8 happens to be quarterback Patrick Mahomes’ jersey number, while the return flights on Feb. 12 and 13 have been collectively named Flight 1521 in honor of the jersey numbers of Mahomes and Safety Mike Edwards.
United Airlines (UAL) – Get Free Report, in turn, has also dedicated flights between the two cities in this way — Flight UA 1989 is the Swift album and birth year reference while Flight 2287 is a combination of Kelce’s jersey number and Swift’s hit song “Twenty Two.” Flight UA 1587, meanwhile, combines Mahomes’ and Kelce’s jersey numbers.
For those flying in and out of Las Vegas from San Francisco, American Airlines will also offer Flight AA 85 in reference to 49ers tight end George Kittle’s jersey number and Flight AA 262 — quarterback Brock Purdy was the 262nd pick in the National Football League (NFL)’s draft last year, while United has flight UA 1995 for the last year the 49ers won the Super Bowl.
