How to Fly to the Super Bowl Cheaply

6 min read

January 27, 2026point.me

How much are flights to Santa Clara for the Super Bowl?

The closest airport is San Jose International Airport (SJC) at about 5 miles, but you could also fly into San Francisco (SFO) or Oakland (OAK), which are each under 35 miles away, or even as far as Sacramento (SMF), which is around 120 miles, or Sonoma County (STS) at around 100 miles.

While the latter two are about 2-2.5 hours by car from Levi’s Stadium, if the savings are significant or the flights are more convenient, it may be worth it.

Seattle to the Bay Area

Cash: If you want to fly to the Bay Area on Friday and return home Monday, cash fares for a nonstop flight from Seattle to San Jose or San Francisco range from $495 to $988 roundtrip for the two-hour flight.

Points: For the same schedule, a nonstop flight runs around 56,000 points round-trip.

Tips for spending less: Flying Thursday to the following Wednesday drops your cash price down to $360 for a nonstop, or just $181 for a short layover on Frontier. If you’re locked into flying Friday-Monday for a shorter trip, a one-stop on Frontier starts at around $350 roundtrip. For points fares, the pattern holds: flights for longer trips start at 31,000 points. If you’re open to a layover, the points fare can drop to under 20,000 points round-trip.

Boston to the Bay Area

Cash: If you want to fly to the Bay Area on Friday and return home Monday, cash fares for a nonstop flight from Boston to San Jose or San Francisco range from $650 to $1,050 roundtrip for the two-hour flight.

Points: For the same schedule, a nonstop flight runs a whopping 100k points round-trip.

Tips for spending less: Flying Thursday to the following Wednesday drops your cash price down to $335-$512 for a nonstop, or around $350 for a short layover on United or puts your points fare at around 45k points with one stop on American or Delta. If you’re locked into flying Friday-Monday for a shorter trip, a one-stop on United or American starts at around $380-$450 roundtrip. For points fares, the pattern holds: flights for longer Thursday to Wednesday trips start at 25,000 points.

How to save on flights to the Super Bowl

If the cash prices from your city have you shuddering a bit, but you don't want to miss the big game action, here are a few ways to snag a cheaper flight.

Book ASAP

When it comes to cash fares, flights rarely get cheaper in the final two weeks before departure, and with the high demand we'll see along routes to San Jose for Super Bowl week, you should only expect the fares to rise in the final days before the game.

Points fares are a slightly different beast. Programs that price their points fares according to region or distance won't see a lot of fare volatility, but you might struggle to find availability. And if the airline uses dynamic pricing, the points fares will increase or decrease as the cash fares do. This means you'll likely see fare increases as the date of the game approaches.

Your best bet is to snag a seat ASAP, even if you aren't sure you will attend the game. Most programs allow you to cancel or change your flight and get most of your points back. And if you're paying cash, you have up to 24 hours after booking to cancel and get your money back, so long as you’re booking at least seven days before the trip.

Extend your trip by a few days

The highest demand — which means the highest prices and lowest availability — will be for flights arriving on Saturday and departing on Monday. If you can spend a few more days in the Bay Area (and why wouldn't you want to?), you'll save on your flights.

Compare two one-ways to a roundtrip

While a round-trip flight is often in the same price range as two one-ways, booking two one-ways gives you a lot more flexibility to mix and match your airlines and programs and snag the best flights for less. This is especially helpful if you have points in a few different programs.

Check nearby cities and alternate airports

San Jose is a major destination, and chances are you can get there with one stop or less. But your closest airport might not have the best fares. For example, cash fares to San Jose from Milwaukee for Super Bowl weekend are currently around $900, while fares from Chicago, an hour's drive away, start at $650. For those in the Northeast, don't forget about the airports that are connected to Amtrak's Northeast Corridor, such as Newark (EWR) and Baltimore (BWI).

Check both business class and economy

Business class can sometimes cost a lot fewer points than you might expect, especially when compared to the points fare for economy.

Break up your group and book individually

You're traveling in a group of four, so you search for four seats. Makes sense, right? It does, but it can result in higher fares. Airlines bucket their cash fares; when all the seats at one price are gone, the available seats go up to the next highest price. If you’re looking for more than one seat, but only one seat is available at the lowest price, the fare can rise drastically when a second passenger is added.

This also applies to points fares. Not every seat on a plane is available to book via points, and availability can be especially limited when it comes to premium seats.

If you’re having trouble finding the number of seats you need at the price you want, reduce your search number. You may need to split your party among different flights, pay for some in cash and others in points, or split your group between fare classes.

Evaluate whether cash or points is the better option

Generally, we recommend not booking a fare that comes out to less than one penny per point in value. This is the bare minimum you’ll get from most credit card portals, but you can often get a lot more value when transferring your points to an airline. If the flight you’re eyeing isn’t a great points deal, you may want to save your points and just pay cash.

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