SEATTLE — Despite being one of the school's most generous sponsors, Alaska Airlines isn't making it easy for University of Washington football fans to book flights for the team's upcoming appearance in the Sugar Bowl on Jan. 1.
UW earned an invitation to the College Football Playoff on Sunday morning and will take on the Texas Longhorns in New Orleans for the right to play in the national championship.
The success of the UW football team has also been a boost to local businesses.
"People are going nuts, they want t-shirts, they want something to commemorate it and we're really proud of the designs we put out," said Jamie Munson, owner of sports apparel store Simply Seattle.
He says he and his team have been working around the clock since last Friday night's big win.
"It was the busiest day we ever had in the history of our website. On Saturday, we had the new busiest day in the history of our website. So Husky fans are coming out in droves," he said.
Naturally, many fans began scrambling to book flights to see the CFP Semifinal in New Orleans on New Year's Day. However, many found a lack of options from the airline that has been UW Athletics' official airline partner since 2016.
"We went to many games my son and I, very special, on the road, at home a Husky Stadium," said Dean Toy, UW alum.
He says they spent $400 for a round-trip ticket and $500 for the game tickets.
"It's worth every single penny, this trip. It wouldn't matter how much it cost we would've been there," Toy said.
Many fans began tagging Alaska on X (formerly known as Twitter) lamenting the availability. That included Detlef Schrempf, former Seattle Supersonic and UW alumnus, as well as Dan "Big Cat" Katz of Barstool Sports.
On Monday afternoon, Alaska Airlines announced the addition of six flights from Seattle to New Orleans for Dec. 29-31. Four more flights were also added for New Orleans to Seattle for Jan. 2-3. According to the airline, this amounts to an additional 1,700 seats.
The newly added 7 a.m. and 9 a.m. flights from Seattle to New Orleans on Dec. 29 are currently priced at $534 for a main cabin ticket. Fans can find more affordable deals if they arrive a few days before the big game and leave a few days after.
Once fans get to New Orleans, hotels near the Superdome are retailing anywhere between $250 to $400 a night.
Of course, New Year's Eve in a major city like New Orleans tends to draw crowds. However, it isn't just Seattle to New Orleans drawing ire from UW fans.
If the Huskies defeat Texas in the Sugar Bowl, the CFP National Championship Game will be on Jan. 8 at NRG Stadium in Houston. Many fans also wanted to secure flights for that game in the event UW advanced, but Alaska's site only shows one direct flight from SEA on Jan. 6 for over $1,000, none on Jan. 7 and one on Jan. 8 that would get a fan to the city just a few hours before the game kicked off.
There isn't much available for an affordable price on other airlines out of SEA either. Google Flights was almost entirely showing trips with at least one stop that were well over $1,000 for a round trip. See the price history graph below from Google for a visualization of how quickly demand spiked the prices on Sunday following the CFP announcement.
