Avoid SEA-TAC during World Cup 2026?

What other choice(s) are there from your origin? Have you looked at the list of cities that are hosting games?

@Joe:
2026 World Cup host cities: Atlanta, Boston, Dallas, Houston, Kansas City, Los Angeles, Miami, New York/New Jersey, Philadelphia, San Francisco/Bay Area, and Seattle; so potentially I could use PDX or SLC to fly to AMS. I'm just wondering if SEA-TAC will be super busy because of hosting the matches.

I don’t think it will have much impact. I checked and there 6 matches being played in Seattle over the course of a month. What are you specifically worried about?

@Helen:
The last time I used SEA Airport for my international connection it was super crowded. For my 2026 tour my original plan is to fly the route TheShire-SEA-AMS-ARN; now I'm also concerned about potential flight delay that could impact my Europe domestic connection. To mitigate these concern; I probably will take this route instead: TheShire-PDX-AMS-ARN.

I normally prefer to fly Delta A330-900neo because of its 2-4-2 seating configuration and 18" seat width; KLM uses 787-9 (with 3-3-3 configuration and 17" seat width) for its PDX-AMS route. I prefer window seat so this is not going to be very comfortable for a 10-hour flight; but I might have to put up with it this time ... I will have to book early to secure the bulkhead seat :)

There's really no outsmarting or out calculating a flight delay. On our last international flight we were on the runway ready to take off on time and then something happened and we got towed back to the terminal and had a 4 hour delay. It's July so most airports are going to be busy anyway. Go with your best guess that works for you, and perhaps consider leaving even a day earlier than you have originally planned for, incase you have to play catch up with any delays.

SeaTac is used to handling crowds. Over the summer there are quite a few cruise passengers. I really don't think I would overthink this too much.

As noted there are only six matches - June 15, June 19, June 24, June 26, July 1, July 6. I'd be more worried about traffic getting to Lumen Field or finding a Seattle area hotel room near those dates. I don't know where "The Shire" is but if you are driving to the airport on a game day, you definitely want to leave plenty early.

Sea-Tac is always busy - 50m passengers a year compared to Portland's 15m. If you fly from PDX you still have to go through Seattle. If it were me, I'd book my preferred flights and make sure there is ample layover time at SEA in both directions.

If you fly from PDX you still have to go through Seattle

Not if you fly KLM non-stop route: PDX-AMS

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The Shire is somewhere in the Neverland :)

The World Cup won't make much of a dent in the SEA-TAC traffic. It's not like everyone arrives on the same day. Plus, you'll go through TSA screening at your first airport in either case.
Seattle is holding the FIFA Club World Cup June 15 to 25, 2025, You could see what happens this year.

The Shire is somewhere in the Neverland :)

Code for "Oregon boondocks"?

I understand your concern, having a soccer family that are truly excited for US World Cup venues next year. It is suppose to be huge with people coming in from all over the world. If you’re really concerned about SeaTac airport delays and traffic to the airport, I would fly the day before to PDX and get one of the direct flights to Amsterdam, London or Frankfurt…and yes, there are direct flights. You might just get a better price, too.

I interpreted your prior responses to say you had to fly through Seattle to Portland. I stand by my suggestion, fly the route you want just don't cut it close. FWIW, the Portland-Amsterdam route is no longer daily service so if there are issues or a cancelation you have to wait several days to catch the next direct flight.

OP: Noting Icelandair has 1 connection options from SEA and PDX, probably the fastest way to ARN from either city,

In case you are wondering why so many hot cities ended up getting chosen: many northern cities didn’t apply.

https://www.sportsdestinations.com/sports/soccer/who-made-it-who-didnt-and-why-world-cup-2026-30420

@margie & @KD:

Fly the day before to SEA-TAC is a good idea; that will eliminate the stress over missing international flight due to delay.

@Toby:

Icelandair has stingy carry-on bag weight rule and it flies 757; so likely a no for me.

@CL:

the Portland-Amsterdam route is no longer daily service so if there
are issues or a cancelation you have to wait several days to catch the
next direct flight.

This is a really good point! I have an even deeper concern: if Delta discontinued PDX-AMS route due to lack of profitability, then KLM could easily run into the same problem and drop the route after I book my flights. For this very reason I think I will fly the Neverland-SEA-AMS-ARN route but arrive at SEA-TAC the day before; this will also mean a more comfortable flight on Delta A330-900neo.

Now I can shift my worry to summer mosquitoes in Scandinavia :p

I have a second thought about my flight itinerary; my earlier reasoning does not take into the account for the total carbon emission of the flights.

Based on Google Flights estimations, flying PDX-AMS-ARN (and AMS-PDX) instead of PDX-SEA-AMS-ARN (and AMS-SEA-PDX) will reduce the total carbon emission by almost 40%!!!

To address my concern for the KLM 3-3-3 configuration; I will just have to book early to secure the bulkhead window seat. Not departing on Monday or Wednesday should address the concern of not able to reschedule for the next day if flight were to get cancelled (KLM flies PDX-AMS everyday except Tuesday and Thursday). And let's hope KLM will continue to fly this route for the foreseeable future :)

Based on Google Flights estimations, flying PDX-AMS-ARN (and AMS-PDX) instead of PDX-SEA-AMS-ARN (and AMS-SEA-PDX) will reduce the total carbon emission by almost 40%!!!

Hard to believe that flying the 130 miles between SEA-PDX adds 40% to a trip that is 5000 miles

@Joe:

Thanks for the excellent question; that 40% was a 'quick and lazy' number I extracted based on difference in percentage emission reduction. I've since used the emission data from Google Flights; it should be 29% which is still a very significant difference!

PDX-AMS-ARN + AMS-PDX = 475 + 374 = 849 Kg CO2 emission

PDX-SEA-AMS-ARN + AMS-SEA-PDX = 555 + 540 = 1095 Kg CO2 emission

% difference in total CO2 emissions = (1095 - 849) / 849 = 29%

A few factors could have contributed to the difference:

• KLM 787-10 has lower fuel consumption per mile than Delta A330-900NEO; 787 uses significantly more composites in its fuselage and wings. Regardless both planes are more fuel efficient than the other older Boeing and Airbus airplanes.
• Flight time (distance) for SEA-AMS (9 hr 50 min) is higher than PDX-AMS (9 hr 20 min); similarly for the returning flights.
• Delta uses E175 for PDX-SEA flights, small regional plane typically has a higher carbon footprint per passenger than larger commercial aircraft. The PDX-SEA round trip flights add ~150 Kg CO2 emission.