Creative Charter Bowl Site Travel Packages

[e.bigelow]

Just added a second flight. Must not have gouged enough fans. Nebraska canceled their only flight.

What a lot of people want is for CC to take a loss on this, just to get more "fans" to the game. Ridiculous. The Erbans contribute more to the program in time and money than 99%. That's what they do.

Shameful criticism. Shameful.

I don’t see much “shameful criticism.” Mostly, it seems that people are frustrated by the fact that the only officially sanctioned trip open to the general public costs so much. I don’t begrudge them a profit, but they want over $4600 from my family of four to fly us down to Houston, put us up in a hotel for two nights, give us rides back and forth to the airport and the game and provide us with access to a tailgate party. Planning my own trip, I am staying four nights at a similar hotel in a similar location and renting a car so I can go wherever I want. I don’t get the tailgate party, a luggage tag or name badge, but the $2000 we saved will cover our game tickets, parking, five days of food and entertainment and still leave me with plenty of walking around money in case I decide to buy some cowboy boots.

The point isn’t that Creative Charters is greedy or bad or evil, it’s that when presented with those numbers, people who would otherwise be interested in the trip simply give up because for many that amount of money can’t be justified. If they (or somebody) put together charter flights for $300 or $400 (or whatever it would really cost including a reasonable profit) and let everyone find their own way from there, I bet it would be a popular option. There will always be a market for the "all-inclusive" option, but people shouldn't be surprised that more people don't go when the only "pre-packaged" trip presented costs so much.

I agree with parts of both of these. Highwayman is right that the Erbans do contribute A LOT to the program by putting these trips together and arranging everything (shuttles to and from hotel) and such.

But, I moreso agree with 2nd degree Gopher. These trips put together as such, are rather expensive when you consider about taking a family of three, four or even more. I was considering the 'all-inclusive' through CC for me and my girlfriend to go, but when I saw the price and what I could do by basically putting it toghether on my own, it is almost half as much as they are asking just for two people. And, that is with using there 'land only' package they offer, which is a nice substitute for peopple who want to book their own flights. It makes me wonder, how much more could I save if I just planned all of this, (hotels, tickets, car rental and such) myself? Just my two cents.

 

[Ogee Ogilthorpe]

I am going to have to bypass the game and trip totally. At gametime, I will be in the air to Phoenix for a vacation visiting my daughter and her family.

Honkers, this concerns me greatly as I'll be heading to PHX that weekend as well. The valley may not be big enough for the both of us. Consider yourself forewarned. I hate that I can't go to the Texas Bowl for the Gophers but I'll be going to the BWW Bowl to see Michigan-Kansas State, and then the Cardinals-49ers game on Sunday.

Stupid family obligations...