Sports fans: it’s rough out there.
Ticket prices are high. Concession prices beggar belief. Heck, your team may not even be very good, here in Edmonton we went an entire decade where our flagship team/local religion didn’t even reach the playoffs.
But I have good news for you: with the magic of miles & points, you can lessen some of the hurt to your wallet. Today, I want to get into the how so you have more cash for popcorn, jerseys, and fan experiences, all while traveling to see your desired sporting event.
As a Canadian, I’m obviously going to be writing this from a North American perspective with an emphasis on team sports like football, baseball, and especially ice hockey. But I hope that you find value in applying the lessons here and save money the next time you travel to take yourself and your loved ones to the big game, fight, race, or derby.
Why Traveling For Sports Can Be A Great Opportunity
Sports enjoyers are called “fans” because “fan” is short for “fanatic.” While each of us fans may have varying levels of aplomb for our chosen teams or sports, be they team games like basketball, trials of individual champions like boxing or UFC, or motorsport, one thing is true for us all:
We know sporting events have a special energy in person. As a hockey fan, I definitely love hearing the bombastic voice of Jack Michaels’ (the voice of the Edmonton Oilers) play-by-play from the comfort of my couch, but it just isn’t the same as the experience of seeing a game live at an arena with other enthusiasts.
So, why should you even consider traveling then if we know that costs are pretty high for any professional team? The reason that traveling for sporting events can be such a great opportunity is that you can find great deals, especially if you’re a fan of a given sport rather than of a team.
This is because the fandom of sports in certain jurisdictions may not be as dedicated, or less committed than others. Fans of Major League Soccer, for example, rarely have to compete with ticket prices nearing those of the National Football League.
Similarly, even towns that boast a major league franchise may not be super fanatical about the sport, keeping the cost of seeing a professional team reasonable. Frugal Flyer, for example, took advantage of this with a trip to see the eternally mediocre Seattle Mariners of Major League Baseball. Something tells me tickets wouldn’t have been as reasonable for a team of about ten writers if it was for the Seahawks.
However, what I said about supply and demand cuts both ways: while the Dallas Stars aren’t as big of a team as the Dallas Cowboys, and hockey isn’t as cool in Texas as football, if both play games against other teams with big fan bases on the same weekend, a basic hotel motel Holiday Inn might cost north of $500 USD a night.
How to Save on Travel to Sporting Events with Miles & Points
Flights
Flights can be some of the most stubborn items to nail down when traveling to watch your chosen sports team.
This is because some teams have diehard fan bases who will travel for lots of games and drive prices to the stratosphere. On top of this, most leagues want to schedule hallmark games that they know will be big draws to coincide with times that parents and professionals are off work, such as long weekends.
This means that there are two ways to plan your flights out: either immediately after the schedule for your sporting events is released, or (if you’re flexible) checking to see if prices drop right before you hop on a plane.
The first method, of booking way in advance, is often preferable if you’re paying cash. This is because you can offset the costs of travel with redeemable fixed-value points currencies like Scene+ points or BMO Rewards.
Booking travel for sporting events also gives you the opportunity to use any travel credits you may have on existing credit cards, such as the anniversary $200 travel credit on the American Express Platinum card. Both of these options will allow you to take a significant bite out of the cash costs.
When booking reward flights, it’s best to keep in mind that everything within Canada right now is dynamically priced, and so can go up and down in accordance with demand. That means if your team is hot, tickets might be a bit pricier, as is usually booking last-minute flights unless the planes are empty. Keep this in mind if you choose to redeem miles in a frequent flyer program, such as Air Canada Aeroplan or WestJet Rewards, as the same principle applies.
Generally, I’ve found looking a couple of weeks in advance to be ideal, but if your desired date coincides with major holidays you’re not getting much of a break. This is why I’d recommend expending any bank-issued loyalty program points like Scene+ points or CIBC Aventura points that at least let you redeem on any itinerary if you’re traveling to watch a game. Plus, it can be a better idea to consider saving your Aeroplan points for those longer-haul international itineraries.
Hotels
When traveling for sports, hotel loyalty program free night certificates that are offered as a benefit on credit cards can significantly reduce the cost of your travels.
For example, Marriott Bonvoy free night certificates earned from the American Express Marriott Bonvoy card or Hilton Honors free night certificates earned from the American Express Hilton Honors Aspire card (US) both offer some excellent high-value redemptions when hotel rooms are in demand.
With lots of fans converging on big sporting events, using your free night certificates can save you literally thousands of dollars. Let’s look at the prices for Super Bowl LIX, the one nobody but Chiefs and Eagles fans asked for set in New Orleans.
A modest Courtyard has surge priced to $6,176 USD for two nights… or a much more palatable 78,000 Marriott Bonvoy points per night.
With two 35,000-point free night certificates from co-branded credit cards, which would cost a total of $270 CAD in annual fees, this means you’d only need an extra 8,000 Marriott Bonvoy points to make this booking for the Superbowl. That’s a cent per point value of almost 8 cents (USD), pretty much unheard of outside of remote resorts in the Maldives.
Of course, these rates sometimes show up as “ghost availability” and aren’t even bookable. But the same lessons apply even to hotels very far outside of a venue that will be absolutely slammed with attendees:
This Fairfield 45 miles away from New Orleans, but still within easy tailgate distance of the Super Bowl, costs $1,498 for two nights… or 43,000 points per stay. That’s two free night certificates or 43,000 Marriott Bonvoy points for a value of 3.5 cents per point. Again, it’s outstanding value.
Something similar to this occurred during the Edmonton Oilers’ legendary Stanley Cup final run in 2024, standard rooms at the JW Marriott Edmonton Ice District on the night of playoff games reached over $2,000, as did many other rooms in the ICE District.
This is an area where hotel chains’ points can supersede the usefulness of cash-like currencies. You’d need north of 200,0000 Scene+ points to offset even the remote Louisana hotel room listed above, which is much harder to get than 43,000 Bonvoy points.
These are the most extreme examples, but they can show just how much money you’ll save by cleverly preserving free night awards and pouncing on award availability. And, if all else fails, you can always offset the cash rates by using easily redeemable currencies for travel like Scene+ points.
Tickets & More
Finally, we come to the question of tickets. Perhaps you want to get these before you take off, but unfortunately, this is an area where the magic of Miles & Points will not avail much in the way of savings.
Fortunately, you can still earn points on tickets either through meeting the minimum spend on new credit cards’ welcome bonuses or through multipliers such as the 5x on entertainment and ticket multiplier on the Scotiabank Gold American Express card.
The Scotiabank Gold American Express card earns up to 6x Scene+ points at Empire grocery stores and charges no foreign exchange fees on purchases made in foreign currencies.
In 2025, we awarded this card as the Best Fixed Value Points Credit Card.
Check out our Scotiabank Gold American Express card review for more details.
40,000 Scene+
$7,500
$280+
$120
No
Jul 1, 2025
In North America, Ticketmaster is functionally a monopoly that controls most venues and their ticketing procedures. They’re the vendor that anyone, be they a season ticket holder or someone going for a single game, has to go through.
This situation has therefore created an entire secondary market of other websites for people to re-sell tickets, usually (but not always) intending to make a profit. Ticketmaster even facilitates some of these resales, here’s an example for a Canadiens game in Montreal:
As can be seen above, many of these third-party resales have ludicrous junk fees tacked onto them.
To get the best price, you should shop around every reseller to find the best price. The main resellers are Stubhub, Seatgeek, AXS, and (exclusive for Canadians) FansFirst.
I’ve found the consistently cheapest option to be FansFirst.ca, which did not sponsor this post, but does charge in Canadian dollars. They also don’t charge any junk fees: if the price is $195, you pay $195.
Be aware you can only use Canadian credit cards on FansFirst, as the site’s anti-fraud security only accepts Canadian postal codes and will reject US-issued cards on the spot.
Most importantly: Canadians must be aware that all the other main resellers, such as StubHub, SeatGeek, and AXS are denominated in USD. On the upside, StubHub occasionally shows up on US Amex Offers meaning you could potentially shave a few dollars off your purchase.
This means if you purchase tickets from those resellers, you may see a Canadian dollar price displayed, but you’ll be charged in USD. Here’s an example from tickets I bought recently:
What was I charged on my Canadian card?
I could have saved my thick skull the spread and 2.5% FX fees if I had just been smart enough to use one of the best credit cards in Canada with no foreign exchange fees, such as the Scotiabank Passport Visa Infinite card or the Scotiabank Gold American Express card.
The Scotiabank Passport Visa Infinite card offers benefits such as no foreign transaction fees and six annual complimentary airport lounge access passes.
In 2025, we awarded this card as the Best Overall Travel Credit Card and Best Credit Card for Foreign Transactions.
Check out our Scotiabank Passport Visa Infinite card review for more details.
40,000 Scene+
$40,000
$250+
$150
No
Jul 1, 2025
Not only do both of these cards offer no foreign transaction fees, but the Scotiabank Passport Visa Infinite earns 2x Scene+ points on dining even overseas. On the other hand, the Scotiabank Gold American Express card earns 5x Scene+ points on tickets and entertainment purchases. These are both no-brainer credit cards that are worth adding to your wallet for sports fans likely to go abroad.
This Ticketmaster and reseller bollocks doesn’t apply nearly as hard if you’re outside of North America. So if you’re a big fan of Bundesliga soccer, Indian Premier League cricket, or rugby, congrats, I’m sure tickets aren’t free but it probably isn’t subject to this infuriating amount of inexplicable fees.
Finally, we should consider that there are many incidental costs that can arise when you’re traveling. Taxis, Uber, and parking are consistently some of the most egregious surge prices on the market when lots of fans take to their chosen arenas. The best ways you can offset these incidental costs are by using points currencies like Scene+ or BMO Rewards on any travel purchase to help offset the costs.
Conclusion
Sports have been one of the biggest passions for human beings since time immemorial. It’s amazing to live in an era where we as fans are able to access so many world-class athletes, in so many venues, across so many different leagues.
The only part of the experience that hurts more than watching your team lose is sometimes the cost of watching them. I hope that today I’ve given you some good methods to keep the cost of loving sports down and use Miles & Points to enhance your fan experience.
Kirin Tsang
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