To kick off our trip to Baton Rouge we were flying American from Austin with a connection in Dallas/Fort Worth. But, as you can tell by the title, there was a last minute change of plans.
Booking
I started searching for flights to both New Orleans and Baton Rouge on Google Flights for our travel dates. Typically, New Orleans is much cheaper to fly into than Baton Rouge so I was shocked to see a roundtrip on American for under $400 per person. United wanted almost $700 for a roundtrip flight to New Orleans.
I’ve typically been flying United and Delta the last few years and my American status lapsed. Thankfully, I received an Instant Status Pass offer via email a few weeks before and was back up to AAdvantage Gold, so at least I could select preferred seats, check a bag for free, use the priority lane and have an outside chance at an upgrade.
Pre-Flight
With our flight leaving Austin at noon, we left our house in South Austin just before 9:00a to make the drive up to North Austin to drop Gumbo off for a puppy play weekend with some of my grad school friends and their pups. While in the car I got the first notification from American that our flight had been delayed.
By the time we made it to their house, the rolling delays had kicked in and our connection was blown. I rebooked Mrs. ATX Jetsetter and I in the app for a later flight, which would cause us to miss dinner but still get us in that day, and headed to the airport to see what other options we had.
Mrs. ATX Jetsetter dropped me curbside and went to park the car while I headed to the American desk. Thanks to my newly minted Gold status, I was able to use the Priority land and got an extremely helpful AAgent who was working like crazy to accommodate multiple passengers who had missed connections from our delayed flight. She agreed to rebook us on United through Houston which would get us in before our originally scheduled American flights. Unfortunately, in the process, Mrs. ATX Jetsetter’s reservation got unlinked from mine and we headed down to the United counter to get our tickets.
United got us sorted out, though I got a seat assignment and Mrs. ATX Jetsetter didn’t though we were assured that they had a seat for her, so we headed off to security. Once through security we grabbed sandwiches from ThunderCloud Subs and headed to Gate 27 to board our flight to Houston.
Boarding
We got to the gate a few minutes before scheduled boarding and headed straight for the boarding lane which was tucked behind the desk. Mrs. ATX Jetsetter was able to select a seat in the app and we both ended up in window seats, albeit 10 rows apart. While we waited for boarding to begin, I managed to grab a shot of our waiting A319 that would shuttle us down to Houston out of the window.
United Airlines
UA 2101
AUS-IAH (Austin-Bergstrom International – Houston-Intercontinental)
Seat: 10F (Economy)
A319-100 (N828UA)
Scheduled: 12:10p-1:21p
Actual: 12:13p-1:24p
Boarding began with Global Services, Premier 1K, families needing extra time, and active duty military. After preboarding, Group 1 was called and we made our way down the jet bridge to our waiting A319.
Once onboard I settled into my seat, 10F, which was an extra legroom Economy Plus seat. United is currently in the process of retrofitting all of their A319/320 aircraft with new interiors and IFE though there are only a few currently in service. We got one of their old, pre-refurbished workhorses for the hop over to Houston. With this in mind, if you find yourself scheduled on one of these flights bring your own device for streaming entertainment.
Departure
We pushed back from the gate a couple of minutes after our scheduled departure time, next to a United A320 and 737-MAX9.
During our taxi we made our way over to the parking area and came to a stop, which is never a good sign. The Captain came over the PA to inform us that we had to wait a few minutes for a slot due to flow control into Houston-Intercontinental. I used the time on the ground to eat my sandwich and after a 10 minute hold we restarted our taxi over to Runway 18L.
After waiting for a private jet to land, we pulled onto the runway and took off to the south before turning east towards Houston.
In Flight
As is the norm on this route, there was no service in economy on this 140 mile flight (I’ve been on AUS-IAH flights in First where no service was offered onboard) so I passed the time looking out the window and doing some work as we headed towards Houston.
We overflew Houston-Intercontinental to the north before circling back over Lake Houston to land from the east.
Arrival
We landed on Runway 26L which meant a long taxi around the airport to our arrival gate. We pulled into Gate C43 after a 10 minute taxi and only 3 minutes after our scheduled arrival time. Not bad when you consider the flow hold and lengthy taxi. From there I headed off the plane and waited for Mrs. ATX Jetsetter who was further back at the top of the jet bridge.
Reunited, we made our way over to the Skyway Tram to head to Terminal B and our waiting United Express flight to Baton Rouge.
Summary
Aside from the short ATC hold in Austin, the flight was just what you’d expect between Austin and Houston. With very little time in the air, only 37 minutes for this particular flight, no onboard service was offered. The vast majority of the A319/320 fleet doesn’t have IFE installed yet, though it is coming, so if you find yourself scheduled on one of these bring your own entertainment or be prepared to stream to your personal device.
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