The 2026 US Open runs from 24 August to 13 September at the USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center in Flushing Meadows, and the finals weekend is the 12th and 13th. If you are in Los Angeles and thinking about going, you are looking at the most expensive and most constrained week of the whole tournament, and there is a version of this trip that works and several that do not. The difference is understanding how the ticketing is actually structured, which is not obvious from the outside.
Late-tournament tickets and cross-country flights both move fast and in the wrong direction. Ask Karpo what the trip actually costs from here and whether the session you are looking at is worth it.
Sessions, not days
The first structural thing to understand is that a US Open ticket is for a session, not a day. In the main stadium, day and night sessions are separately ticketed, and the grounds are cleared between them. A day session ticket does not get you into the evening matches, which is the single most common mistake first-time buyers make.
By the final week, the number of matches per session has dropped sharply — a quarter-final day session might contain two matches rather than eight. You are paying substantially more for substantially less tennis, and that trade is either obviously worth it or obviously not, depending on whether the specific match is the point.
The grounds pass is the underrated ticket, and it expires
For the first week and a half of the tournament, a grounds pass gets you onto the site and into every court except the main stadium, which in practice means unlimited access to a dozen matches at once, seats close enough to hear the ball, and the best value in professional tennis. It is the ticket that experienced attendees buy.
The catch for a final-week trip is that once the outer courts stop hosting singles matches, the grounds pass loses most of its value. By the second week the tennis has consolidated into the main stadiums, and the cheap ticket that was extraordinary on day three is a much thinner proposition on day eleven. If someone tells you to just get a grounds pass, ask them which day they mean.
What the trip actually costs from Los Angeles
Be honest about the arithmetic. A cross-country flight booked days out in September, two or three nights of New York hotel during the tournament's peak week, ground transport out to Flushing Meadows and a finals-weekend ticket adds up to a genuinely significant number before you have eaten anything. The tickets are frequently not the largest line item.
The transport detail worth knowing: the site is served directly by the 7 train and the Long Island Rail Road at Mets-Willets Point, and both are dramatically faster and cheaper than a car during the tournament. Anyone who has sat in the traffic on Grand Central Parkway trying to reach a session that started forty minutes ago only makes that mistake once.
When to go instead
If the ambition is to see the US Open rather than to see a specific final, the correct trip is the first week, not the last. Fan Week and the opening rounds put dozens of matches on the site at once, grounds passes are cheap and genuinely good, flights and hotels are priced for a normal week rather than a peak one, and you can watch a top-ten player from twenty feet away on an outer court. It is a better experience for a fraction of the money, and the only thing you give up is the ability to say you were there for the final. Plan next year in April, not in September.
Watching from here, and the arithmetic that follows
The comparison worth making before booking anything is between a finals-weekend trip and a very good version of watching it at home. In Los Angeles, the men's final on ABC is free-to-air and starts late morning, which makes a long brunch with people you actually want to see a genuinely competitive option — the sound, the seats and the replays are all better than they are from row Z of a stadium. The case for going is atmosphere and the fact of having been there, which is real and should not be dismissed. The case against is that the same money, spent in April on a first-week trip, buys four days of tennis instead of one afternoon.
If you are going, what to actually pack
A practical note for anyone who does make the trip. Flushing Meadows in September is hot and humid in a way Los Angeles is not, and the grounds are almost entirely uncovered — a day session is six or seven hours largely in direct sun. Take a hat, sunscreen and a refillable water bottle, which the venue permits and which saves a meaningful amount of money over a long day. Food and drink inside are priced accordingly. And check the bag policy before you leave the hotel, because the size restrictions are enforced at the gate and the storage alternative involves a long walk back to the entrance. None of this is exotic advice; it is simply the difference between a good day out and a very expensive one spent queueing for water.
Practical notes
2026 US Open: 24 August to 13 September, USTA Billie Jean King National Tennis Center, Flushing Meadows. Women's singles final Saturday 12 September at 4pm Eastern, which is 1pm Pacific; men's final Sunday 13 September, broadcast on ABC. Tickets are sold by session, not by day, and the main stadium clears between day and night sessions — a day ticket does not admit you to the evening matches. Final-week sessions contain far fewer matches than first-week ones. Grounds passes give access to all courts except the main stadium and are excellent value in the first week, but lose most of their value once singles play consolidates into the main stadiums in week two. The site is reached directly by the 7 train and the Long Island Rail Road at Mets-Willets Point, both far faster than driving during the tournament. For a first visit, the opening week offers more tennis at lower cost than the finals weekend.
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Ask Karpo first
A last-minute trip east for a final is mostly an arithmetic problem with a deadline attached. Ask Karpo what the flights and sessions actually cost from Los Angeles right now, which session has the match you want, and whether watching it here with a good crowd is the better version of the weekend.
