Mrs. ATX, ATX Jr., and I just returned from a quick weekend getaway to San Diego. Our first trip with our three month old went off without a hitch so, we decided to double down and take another trip prior to a hectic month of work that was coming our way.
Booking Flights
Even with all of our travels, there are a few major cities in the United States that either Mrs. ATX or I hadn’t yet visited. On that list were places like Boston, Portland, San Diego, and Seattle.
Since we were traveling with a newborn, we decided to stick to only direct flights that had reasonable First Class fares out of Austin which narrowed our search parameters quite a bit. As always, I began our search using Google Flights with our preferred travel dates and the destination set to ‘United States’. This allowed me to see the pricing for trips anywhere in the country at once.
Seattle and San Diego both looked like viable options but, in order to get a reasonable fare from Seattle, you had to take the redeye back.While I am squarely on team travel with kids, I wasn’t about to subject my fellow passengers and ourselves to that level of torture. So, we landed on San Diego. Mrs. ATX had been before but this was my first trip and I’d heard nothing but great things about it so I was excited.
Ultimately, we ended up booking our two roundtrip First Class tickets with a lap infant for $1,032 via the Alaska website.
Booking Lodging
Between work travel being down for me this year and a new baby, I’m woefully behind on requalifying for my Marriott Bonvoy Platinum status (I accepted I won’t make Titanium months ago). With that in mind, I searched for Marriott properties almost exclusively for this trip. Mrs. ATX wanted to stay at the Hotel Del Coronado but after one look at the pricing I knew that wasn’t going to happen.
Downtown with a central location was important for us and we ended up choosing the Hotel Republic San Diego, Autograph Collection. It fit the bill for our needs and was a short walk from Little Italy, Embarcadero, and Marina neighborhoods. Also, the hotel had valet parking on the lower end of what we found for similar properties in the area. Our room came to $229 per night plus an additional $30 per night for parking.
This is a trip I was really looking forward to as I’d heard many great things about San Diego and it’s always fun to fly a new airline (though I’m writing this on a delayed Spirit flight so I may change my mind on that). As always, thanks for following along on this quick weekend getaway!
In This Trip Report
- Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-900 First Class
- Hotel Republic San Diego, Autograph Collection
- AvGeek Paradise: Nolita Hall and Little Italy
- Aspire Lounge San Diego (SAN)
- Alaska Airlines Boeing 737-800 First Class
