A trip to the Allstate Sugar Bowl for perhaps 10,000 University of Hawai'i football fans could cost a couple thousand dollars per person for airfare, hotel and game tickets to get to The Louisiana Superdome on New Year's Day.

But first they have to get a ticket on an airplane out of Hawai'i to New Orleans.

Companies that specialize in bowl game travel yesterday were offering hotel and ticket packages that average about $700 per person. Most did not include airfare because of fuel costs and packed flights over the busy holiday travel season, said Rachel Shimamoto, manager of Hawai'i-based Travel Ways.

"Flights are really booked right now between the holidays and with college kids returning to school," Shimamoto said.

A search of airline Web sites yesterday showed roundtrip ticket prices around Jan. 1 running about $900 per person.

The UH athletic department's Web site did list a Sugar Bowl package starting at $1,999 per person that included airfare through Vacations Hawai'i, but company officials could not be reached yesterday. Space is limited, according to the site.

UH season ticket holders Jasmine and Stephen Mukai, of Niu Valley, plan to go to New Orleans but know they will probably have to book their airline arrangements separately from their hotel and game tickets.

"We'll see what happens," Stephen Mukai said yesterday.

It will be the Warriors' eighth bowl appearance but just their second outside of Hawai'i. UH played in the Holiday Bowl in San Diego in 1992. At that time, about 25,000 fans attended, said Bob Bourg, vice president and general manager of Destination Management Inc., the official travel company for the Sugar Bowl.

Based on the 1992 attendance in California and the extra distance — and cost — to New Orleans, Bourg estimates a UH crowd of about 10,000 for the Sugar Bowl.

"We're thinking about 10,000 people, if we're lucky, and most of them will be Hawai'i fans who are alumni who live on the Mainland," Bourg said. "Most of the Hawai'i contingent will have their own air tickets."

UH athletic officials sent out letters Friday to season ticket holders offering them a chance to buy game tickets starting yesterday. The best available seats were offered first to Koa Anuenue sport-package patrols and to UH corporate partners, season ticket holders and then general public sales.

General public sales will begin at 8 a.m. Thursday. For more information, go to www.hawaiiathletics.com or the Stan Sheriff Center Ticket office by Dec. 12.

At Premiere Sports Travel, company president Brian Wilder said he has received a lot of interest from Hawai'i fans trying to get to the Sugar Bowl.

"We normally don't work on Sunday," Wilder said. "But with something like this, we have been working since 3 a.m., and we'll be here until the phones stop ringing."

Hawai'i resident Dr. Leon Liem reserved his Sugar Bowl ticket two weeks ago. A Warrior season football ticket holder, Liem figured he would turn a family holiday trip to New York into an extended stay in the Big Easy.

"I've never gone to a college bowl game before," Liem said. "It's history in the making. This opportunity doesn't come up too often. It's going to be expensive. But it's worth it."

Reach Suzanne Roig at sroig@honoluluadvertiser.com.