My wife, Annie is a die-hard fan of her University of Arizona men’s basketball team. And I’m equally as big a fan of my University of Illinois team. So we were really excited to learn that our schools had agreed to play each other in basketball in 2019 and 2020. Our schools do not play each other often, so we knew we had to take this opportunity to see it in person. This year’s game is in Tucson on November 10.

Tucson Illinois at Arizona Basketball 2019 Planning

Arizona vs Illinois College Basketball History

These two schools have a storied history in college basketball. The University of Arizona owns the 14th most victories all-time, while the University of Illinois ranks 18th.

The two teams have been playing basketball since the early 1900s and yet have only played each other 14 times. Arizona currently owns bragging rights, winning 8 out of the 14 matchups. Arizona has won the last two meetings—a 2007 game in Chicago and a 2006 game in Phoenix.

But back in 2005, Illinois pulled off one of the most memorable comebacks in NCAA tournament history with a 90-89 overtime win to advance to the Final Four. The Illini came back from a 15-point deficit with only four minutes to go to force overtime and the eventual victory.

Illinois fans can re-live the comeback below (Arizona fans, please skip ahead):

During the 2000-2001 season, the teams squared off three times with Arizona taking the first game in Maui and the Illini returning the favor a few weeks later in Chicago. But the Wildcats got the last laugh, as they took down the one-seeded Illini 87-81 to advance to the Final Four.

For the first time in 12 years, our two schools are playing each other! We’re excited to visit Tucson, walk around campus, eat and drink at some of Annie’s favorite places and of course, attend this highly anticipated non-conference game.

For this quick trip, we’ll be spending two nights in Tucson and then driving to Phoenix. We’ll spend one night with family before heading back to Chicago.

Airfare

Annie and I have flown American Airlines to Tucson in the past and they have several flight options that work well with our schedule. Two tickets from Chicago to Tucson and Phoenix to Chicago in the main cabin are going for $870 total.

So I started reviewing our options to use points and/or miles instead of paying for airfare. We had two options involving American Airlines:

Redeem American AAdvantage miles
Redeem Chase Ultimate Rewards points and transferring to British Airways

American AAdvantage

The first, and most straightforward, option would be to redeem some of our American AAdvantage miles. If we use this option, American Airlines would charge us 12,500 miles per one-way ticket, or 50,000 miles in total for four one-way tickets.

Chase Ultimate Rewards

However, there was another interesting, and slightly more complex option—use Chase Ultimate Rewards points. British Airways is a Chase transfer partner and so we could transfer some of our Chase points to British Airways Avios program. But how would that help us fly American Airlines from Chicago to Tucson and from Phoenix to Chicago?

British Airways and American Airlines are partners via the OneWorld alliance. That means you can redeem British Airways Avios miles for flights on American Airlines. What’s great about this option is that British Airways uses a distance-based rewards chart to determine how many miles you need to redeem for a given flight. This creates some sweet spots where the same flight can cost less miles when booking through British Airways then through American Airlines.

Chicago to Tucson is 1,437 miles and Phoenix to Chicago is 1,440 miles. Flights in that distance range fall into Band 3 on the British Airways rewards chart. Prior to May 30, 2019, Band 3 flights cost 10,000 British Airways miles. Beginning May 30, 2019, redemptions for Band 3 flights went up to 11,000 miles. So a round-trip flight booked on or after May 30 would cost you 22,000 miles—which is better than using 25,000 American AAdvantage miles.

When it’s time to book the flights, I’ll do some calculations to determine whether it’s a better deal to book the flights using American AAdvantage miles or British Airways Avios miles via Chase Ultimate Rewards.

Hotel

For hotels in Tucson, there’s only two we’re looking at. We want to be as close to campus as possible so that we can walk to restaurants, bars, and the basketball game. There’s also a vibe you get when you stay close to campus that you don’t get when you stay a few miles away. The options are the Aloft Tucson University and the Tucson Marriott University Park.

We stayed at the Aloft once before. It’s a newer hotel, built in 2013 and we had a pleasant stay there several years ago. It’s located on the northwestern edge of campus and is close to the basketball stadium. The Marriott is on the east side of campus, but more in the heart of everything then the Aloft is. Not only is it on campus, it’s very close to several popular bars and restaurants.

Even though we’ve read that the Marriott is old and in need of a renovation, I think it’s likely we’re going to give it a try on this visit. We like the idea of being on campus and since we’re only staying two nights, if the rooms are in terrible condition, at least it’s only two nights.

Car Rental

Finding a cheap rental has been difficult. It could be due to high demand during this time of year. It’s also partly because we’re picking up the car in Tucson and returning in Phoenix. Many car rental companies will assess a one-time drop charge or mileage charge in addition to the rental rate on one-way rentals. Whenever I search for rental cars, I always start with the car rental companies themselves. I also always check Costco Travel and the Chase Ultimate Rewards and American Express travel portals.

The next post will detail which airfare, hotel and car rentals I booked and how we saved over one thousand dollars!