flying to a concert...
 

has anyone ever done this?

I'm thinking of maybe doing this for Bon Jovi's 10 night stand at the new Prudential Center in Newark sometime in October.

Why not?

I flew from northern California to Seattle and then took the Amtrak to Vancouver in 2003 to see Shania Twain.

Frankly, the sound quality is better in my living room than it was live in some stadium.

No, I always fly to an airport. Safer that way. :p :p :p

Seriously, though, I've been known to do this. If you've got a multi-city fare sale, for example, and the need to do trips to build miles (I can't bring myself to do pure turnaround MRs), then it's often useful to check POLLSTAR (www.pollstar.com) first, especially in the Charts section (top 50 tours), to see who's touring and see if anyone excites you. If so, it can be an incentive and a tiebreak.

For example, the MR concert of the year last year had to be U2 at Aloha Stadium in HNL, the only U.S. stop on that leg of the tour. Saw it from the nosebleeds and later kicked myself for not buying the special t-shirt or poster. The shirt seemed pricey to me at $35, but they were being flipped onto eBay for $350+! Would've been easy to recover cost of that trip!

McCartney in Antwerp in 2003 was another one, tied together with a trip to AMS and Jaarbeurs. 2-euro Hoegaardens were nice, but being charged to use the bathroom seemed odd.

Prince in Edmonton in '03 was another; in both that case and McCartney I discovered it just as tickets went on sale. Pure, dumb luck.

The Police in DEN will be the next one. Right now they're not scheduled for ATL, so that could be the best shot at it.

Maybe 1 trip in 5 will have some kind of concert possibility. I usually only buy nosebleed seats.

I too thought about doing that trip to Honolulu to see U2 last December...but alas no dice. The furthest I've gone is from Santa Barbara to Oakland to see U2...on the Greyhound...ick

I would buy nosebleeds too and maybe find a cheap place to stay and hopefully find tickets to see a show or two while getting a chance to see the city. EWR would be a logical choice due to the proximity to the venue but are LGA and JFK plausible too?

I do it all the time, though I also use the concert as an excuse to do other things in the destination city. I took my first trip to New Orleans earlier this year to see Jeff Tweedy at HOB.

I went to see Bruce Springsteen in 1993 in the US/Canada, had tix for Mountain View (2 cancelled shows :mad: :mad: ), then Sacramento, Tacoma and Vancouver.
Also in 2003, Darien Lake, Detroit and Milwaukee.
And a few shows in Europe by air, the others I drove to or took the train.

I fly to music festivals all the time, and have flown for a single-performer concert once or twice too. A rare performance by The Meters at the Chicago HOB, for example.

Like any other time-sensitive travel (wedding, cruise departure, etc), just make sure you allow enough buffer for flight delays, especially going into a place like EWR.

FlyerTalkers travel for the sole reason of being on an airplane. To actually see an event is a plus. ^

I met a buddy in Las Vegas a few years ago to see a Journey/Styx/REO Speedwagon concert. It was great.

I flew to Rome To see Sting in Concert. It was nothing like seeing a concert in the states I can tell you that.

I've done a lot of flying to see Bob Dylan shows. Almost all of them ended up being a combination of driving and flying. Flew one way on....hmmmm, Air Tran, probably, ORD-ATL and met friends with a car, so we saw him in Atlanta, Nashville, and Memphis. Booked a round trip ORD-LAS, stayed the night in Vegas, flew round trip LAS-PHX to see him the next night (I was by myself at that point), back to Vegas for a show, drove to Lancaster County in California and saw him again, then back to Vegas for the flight home. There were others, too, but those were my only two three-show trips. Whew. I don't have that kind of energy any more, now I'm grateful when he comes within 15 miles of me. :-)

I fly to a concert about once a month. The biggest trip was a month in Europe to see the Grateful Dead back in 1990 (I saw 9 of the 11 shows). I am amazed at how many other people I have run into at shows that do this as well. Next month is Roger Waters in Las Vegas (A short trip compared to last year when I flew to Indiana to see him). A friend just went to Vancouver to see the Police in their first show, he said they were incredible. Have fun!:D

I actually flew phx x/stl dfw to see George Michael.:eek:

I've boarded a few planes to see people. Make sure to leave plenty of times for delays if you are flying in the same day.

Thanks everyone, yeah, I think I'll get out a day early, Bon Jovi are supposed to do a 10 night stand at the new Prudential Center in Newark sometime this fall, late October I believe. Hopefully the dates are consecutive and I can make it a 4-5 day trip and catch a few shows in between arrival and departure...and see the city as well

many many times.

furthest was from London to NZ for a concert.