A few weeks after returning from our trip to Germany and Switzerland it was time to hit the road again. I had to be in Baton Rouge for a meeting the Friday before LSU took on Arkansas and, after a quick call to a few of my buddies, decided to make a weekend out of it.
From there, both Mrs. ATX and I needed to be in New York for work the week after and had a wedding to attend outside of St. Louis, making another action packed week of travel crisscrossing the country!
Booking Flights
Because there were so many moving parts to this trip, some with Mrs. ATX, some without, and some that were being covered by work, I ended up booking my flights as four separate itineraries. First up was getting to Baton Rouge, American had well timed flights into BTR with a short layover in DFW for under $200 a few weeks before the trip. I was able to upgrade the whole itinerary to First Class for $100 in the app after booking.
From Baton Rouge to New York, United fit the bill for the best flight times and price. My flight from Houston and Mrs. ATX’s flight from Austin were scheduled to arrive a few minutes from each other which would make getting into the city easy. It also had the added benefit of a rare domestic widebody between Houston and Newark on the Boeing 767-300. Thanks to my United status I was able to select Premium Economy seats at booking.
From New York to St. Louis we were stuck between United from Newark or Delta from LaGuardia. I wanted to fly through LaGuardia since I haven’t been in the new Delta concourse yet but the timing worked better for us via Newark and United. Finally, to round out this trip we flew Southwest from St. Louis to Austin as they were offering the only direct flight that worked with our schedule.
Booking Lodging
Lodging for this trip was pretty simple. In St. Louis we stayed at the TownePlace Suites by Marriott in O’Fallon as that was the recommended hotel for the wedding. For our week in New York we headed back to one of our favorite hotels in the city, the Renaissance New York Chelsea.
Baton Rouge was the most difficult part of this trip as hotel prices were sky high for the game. I ended up burning 180,000 Hilton Honors points for three nights at the DoubleTree by Hilton Baton Rouge. This was a great use of points as the regular room rate was over $600 per night.
Thanks for coming along on this trip around the country!
In This Trip Report
- American Airlines B737-800 First Class (AUS-DFW)
- American Eagle CRJ-900 First Class (DFW-BTR)
- DoubleTree by Hilton Baton Rouge
- LSU vs. Arkansas Weekend in Baton Rouge
- United Express CRJ-900 Economy (BTR-IAH)
- United B767-300 Premium Economy (IAH-EWR)
- Renaissance New York Chelsea Hotel
- Our Week in Manhattan
- United A319 Economy (EWR-STL)
- TownePlace Suites by Marriott St. Louis O’Fallon
- Wingtips Lounge St. Louis (STL)
- Southwest B737-700 Economy (STL-AUS)
