The World Cup is one of the globe’s most anticipated sporting events. Football fans from all over the globe travel to the event to cheer on their home country and to watch some great games. Even if you’re not a big sports fan, the opportunity to visit the host country should be enough of a reason to visit. I have been to the 2014 and the 2018 World Cups and both have been magical. Now it’s time to start planning for Qatar 2022!
ALLOW TIME FOR PLANNING YOUR WORLD CUP TRIP
While you may think 4 years of planning is too much, it isn’t. It gives frugal travelers plenty of time to save up some cash to spend on the trip. While you plan to use points and miles to cover your flights and lodging, you still need to have money to cover your food, drinks, souvenirs, tours and any other costs you may incur. Also, you’ll need money in case you come across an amazing flight or hotel deal that works out for the World Cup.
If you save about $200 a month starting now, in 4 years you’ll have $9,600 saved to use for your trip. That’s more than enough to cover your costs for the trip. You can adjust that figure up or down depending on your needs, but you get the idea that the more time you give yourself to save, the better!
GAME TICKETS
Getting tickets to the games can be tough, but with enough patience you can score tickets directly from FIFA which can save you thousands versus buying from a reseller. In the past two World Cups, FIFA has offered Category 1-4 tickets. Category 4 tickets are only offered to residents of the host nation. With Category 1 tickets have the best views along the sidelines. Typically Category 2 tickets provide views from the corners. Category 3 tickets are behind the goalie.
There are different phases when trying to purchase tickets, and depending on what your goals are affects which phase you’ll try to buy tickets. During the first phase, the teams eligible for the World Cup have yet to be determined. You can buy tickets depending on which cities you want to visit. For example, if you were interested in only visiting St. Petersburg and Moscow, then you can try to purchase tickets for games in those cities, regardless of who plays there. You can purchase packages to watch all of the games in your chosen cities, or single game tickets. You can buy a maximum of four tickets per game, per account.
During the second phase, the teams participating in the World Cup, the groups they’ll be in and where they will play their matches have been determined. This is the phase that I get involved in since I want to watch my team and follow them to the cities they play. During this phase you can buy team packages for as many games as you’d like to see them play or individual games tickets. For example, you can purchase a TST3 package, which means you want to watch your team’s first three games. TST4 is for the first 4 games, so on and so forth.
RANDOM SELECTION VS FIRST COME FIRST SERVED
You’ll notice that the first two phases offer a “random selection draw” and a “first come first served” date range. The “random selection draw” is like a lottery. You apply for the type of ticket package or single game that you want. At the end of that phase you are notified if your application was selected then you can pay for the tickets that you applied for. You may be successful for part or all of the tickets that you applied for.
The “first come first served” phases are a little more interesting. Usually the times when these phases open are not ideal for US residents, so you may have to set your alarm to be logged in for your chance to buy tickets. Also, there are thousands of fans who are waiting to buy tickets so there may be long wait times before you’re able to get into the site. If the games or teams that you want tickets for are popular, it’s difficult to find available tickets for them. Although it’s not easy, persistence is key to landing the tickets that you want.
PERKS OF THE WORLD CUP
A very cool perk of traveling to the World Cup is that many times you get free public transportation within the host cities. This could save you a considerable amount of money! We took advantage of free shuttles from the airport to the city centers, free metro rides, and free shuttles around the city. They also offer free shuttles to and from the games, however we didn’t really take advantage of those since we liked walking with the crowds to the game. Considering how much we would’ve paid in transportation costs, this is a huge money saver.
http://welcome2018.com/en/free-transport/#more
Another thing that most would appreciate is the fact that the host country usually eases travel restrictions regarding Visas. From our experience both in Brazil and Russia, we didn’t need a visa, or got a special tournament visa at a much lower cost. The nice thing about these tournament visas (FanID) is that they are very easy to get and you don’t need to submit your passport anywhere to get it. It takes a little bit of the stress out of planning for your trip, which is always welcome!
CONCLUSION
The World Cup is on many fans’ bucket lists and it is a very much achievable goal. With enough time given to plan, you can take part in one of the world’s greatest sporting events. The great thing is that you can take a huge chunk out of the costs with points and miles. In Part 2 of this series, I’ll show you which routes I’m going to consider taking to Qatar in 2022. Are you planning on going to Qatar 2022?
