Planning
After a great but exhausting trip to the UK and Slovenia in October following Liverpool FC into Europe (
You'll Never Walk Alone to Slovenia), I hadn’t expected to make another UK trip until next season. Our progress in the Champions League made me re-think that plan. As soon as the Egyptian King, Mohamed Salah, scored against Manchester City in the second leg of the quarter-final on April 10th and our progress was assured (and I had stopped running around the house singing Salah’s song) I asked my wife if she would mind if I went to the semi-final home leg if I could get a ticket. “Would you be able to do it using points?” she asked. “Of course” I replied, having no idea if I could pull it off.
A few days later, the draw was made and it was Roma with the first leg at home on April 24th. That gave me just 10 days to figure out how I was going to get to Liverpool and back and also to actually get there and back. I’m not usually a last minute planner, but this time I was going to make it work.
I remembered that I had speculatively transferred 40k SPG points to Asiana last fall with the hopes of flying LH first class one way. I ended up using a RT Korean award because of my complicated itinerary so I never used those Asiana miles. Hhaving a short booking window could now work in my favor.
I also looked at Virgin Atlantic due to the direct ATL-MAN and MAN-ATL flights. I only found one seat in Biz on one day during the time period, but it was the exact date I needed for my return so I transferred points from Amex and grabbed it. Fees were high, but I did follow the letter of my wife’s rules and booked using points. When I went to grab a seat, I noticed that the seat map was different than the usual Virgin A330. I realized that it was one of the the ex-Air Berlin A330-200s that were just leased by VS to cover for the 787s having engine issues. This explained the complete lack of PE seats available on these flights (as the planes don’t have PE yet). This should be an interesting review and probably the first one on here for this aircraft since the switch to VS.
I also found my favorite points redemption hotel in Liverpool, the Aloft, available for 4k SPG points per night (vs a rate of £200 per night) for the night before and after the match. That redemption was a no brainer compared to the Marriott at 35k points per night.
Now it was just a case of stalking that Lufthansa first class space. I religiously checked UA and Aeroplan to ensure that any space I saw was really available. I realized that Boston or Chicago were probably going to be my best options as I could not find anything from EWR or JFK on the dates I needed (either the Saturday or Sunday before the match). Sunday morning April 14th I checked and found a Boston seat available for the 21st. I double checked with ExpertFlyer and it looked good. With the flight leaving at 5pm, that would give me time to enjoy a leisurely meal on board vs. the Chicago flight leaving at 10:35pm. There was also a connection to Manchester with a 7 hour layover, giving me time to enjoy the FCT in Frankfurt and take a nap during the layover.
I called Asiana when they opened at 9am that Sunday and the process could not have been easier (well, I suppose online booking would have been easier). The rep saw the same availability and made the reservation (with a $589 fee but it’s LH F!) She assured me it would be ticketed the next morning when the ticketing office opened at 11:30am Eastern time. I then booked a one way DL ATL-BOS flight in economy arriving at 12:30pm that same day which would give me a decent cushion to catch the LH flight but not have me up at the crack of dawn.
Next morning, I received the email right after 11:30am and I was set. ATL-BOS-FRA-MAN, CL Semifinal and then MAN-ATL. Looking good. Let’s hope the Reds don’t let me down (Spoiler alert: they didn’t).
Now I needed to check out the ticket market for the match. It was looking bleak on StubHub ($900+), but I stalked Twitter and Facebook anxiously looking for a lead. I found one on the Wednesday before the match. A guy was selling three tickets. I DM’d him and it turned out he had one left.
One thing you can never do in these situations is pay cash in advance. It’s either COD or PayPal for the credit card protection. This guy was willing to meet in person to turn over the member’s card that had the ticket loaded on it which was a risk, but once I have the card, I can turn him in to the club if the ticket isn’t loaded and he would lose his membership forever. I offered to have one of my friends meet him in Liverpool or to meet him myself the day before the match. Problem – he was leaving on holiday the Friday before the match (the reason why he and his brothers were selling their tickets) and he could only meet in Manchester (where he lived) or Leeds (where he worked). Solution – my cousin lives and works in Leeds! I quickly reached out via Whatsapp. It turned out my cousin worked 5 minutes from where this guy worked and he could meet him on the Thursday. I sent my cousin the cash via Paypal and then waited for the transaction. It came off without a hitch. The ticket cost me £280, which was way below market. The best other option I found was £500.
Next problem: how to get the member’s card in my possession. Getting to Leeds on the day I arrived would be doable but a pain. My cousin came through again as his neighbor was headed to the match and would meet me before the match at one of the pubs near the ground. Everything was now sorted and I was ready to go.