Super Bowl: If Airline Tickets Predicted Champions, New England Patriots Would be Winners

— -- New England fans, perhaps not surprisingly given their fanatical devotion to their hometown teams, are pretty confident the Patriots are headed to next month's Super Bowl.

Nevermind whether the Pats are actually going to win this Sunday’s game against the Indianapolis Colts. Judging from airline tickets sales on Orbitz, however, New England has this one in the bag.

Patriots fans have purchased the most airplane tickets, at an average of $507, to see the ARC Championship Game in person.

Seattle Seahawks fans are feeling confident they will make a repeat appearance to the Big Game -- coming in at number two at $424 a ticket.

The Colts and Packers fans don’t seem as confident with the fewest purchases coming from Green Bay at $402 a ticket and Indianapolis at $434 a ticket, respectively.

If it seems crazy to book a plane ticket without even knowing who is in the Super Bow, then think again. According to Orbitz.com, airline ticket prices to the past two Super Bowl cities jumped significantly the night of the conference championships.

Last year, the average flight to New York jumped 25 percent from $388 to $518, and in 2013 to New Orleans, nearly 40 percent from $591 to $970.

No matter who is in the game, hotel rooms in Phoenix may be hard to come by. But hotels often block out more rooms than they can actually sell, and availability often increases as the game gets closer.

Orbitz has put together a guide to hotels –- and prices –- in the Phoenix area.