Baton Rouge and LSU-Alabama

Baton Rouge for LSU-Alabama Football

via American Airlines

November 2022

Off to Baton Rouge to watch LSU play Alabama.

I've never been to a real college football and an SEC game between LSU and Alabama at Death Valley in Baton Rouge is as good as it gets IMO. And what an amazing experience it was.

But I almost didn't get there as bad weather at DFW on Friday closed DFW for 4 hours and caused utter chaos at AA. My easy Saturday morning trip got thrown out the window when AA started cancelling flights including my 6am DEN-DFW flight.

Everything else to Baton Rouge was sold out. Denver to New Orleans didn't work either. My best option seemed to be a 9pm DEN-Houston and then drive to Baton Rouge or connect to DFW to catch my now sold out DFW-BTR flight. Fortunately a great CK agent (thanks to DFW_CK) re-routed my on the midmnight Denver-Charlotte redeye, connecting back to DFW so I can catch my DFW-BTR flight. I bid Mrs. SFO777 adieu at 9:30p and headed to DIA.

We arrived 20 minutes early in Charlotte with plenty of time as my connecting gate was in the same concourse and only 4 gates away.

We arrived early at DFW. I was going to go to the Capital One Lounge in terminal D but saw that the plane for my Baton Rouge flight was in the midst of rolling delays in Abilene.

So I headed to try to catch the earlier Baton Rouge flight.

This looked pretty bleak as the flight was sold out and I'm #7 on the standby list.

Amazingly, they cleared 6 standbys. So I missed it by one. Over to the D Terminal to wait.

Since my BA Gold One World Emerald status gives me access to the Flagship Lounge, I stopped in there first the check out the offerings.

LOL. Yeah that looks like AA.

Fortunately, the Capital One Lounge is right next door.

Much more inviting.

With real food including a to go section.

Delicious Croque-Monsieur - ish with what tasted like a peaches.

AA figured out the Abilene mechanical and my inbound arrived. Looks like only a 40 minute delay today.

My lunch from the To Go section of the Capital One Lounge.

We arrived in Baton Rouge around 12:30pm as the clouds and rain had moved on.

Pre Game Partying at LSU

Pre Game Tailgating and Partying at LSU

Since I only planned this trip a week ago, hotel rooms were few and far between and at ridiculous prices. I decided to stay near the airport which was probably a good choice considering my marathon AAdventure getting here. The best of a bad lot of available hotels was the pretty pathetic Days Inn... at $250 a night. LOL. Uber and Lyft were also joining in the fun, but I manage to get a Lyft at $40 for the 9 mile ride into the city.

Thanks to LSU alum wakesetter93, I knew where to go today.

Can't even get to the bar for a drink.

Across the street was a great place to show for Tiger swag.

$300 later... LOL

Glad I wasn't trying to park today.

Party time! What a great tailfgating scenes. Tens of thousands just having a great time.

And a few classy Bama fans. LOL

Finally making it to Tiger Stadium and environs.

Lunch time, LSU style. Jambalaya and LSU Bud Light.

LSA-Alabama from a Tiger Den Suite

One of the greatest college football games ever!

I'd been following tickets on Stubhub for a few days and all of a sudden, a seat in a TIger Den Suite on the 50 yard line popped up... and at a relatively reasonable price of $540. No idea what a Tiger Den Suite was or how nice it is, but what did I have to lose?

And what a treat this was!

Turned out to be the Capital One Baton Rouge suite. Apparently Capital One gave a client 4 tickets and said client decided to unload them for a profit on Stubhub. Pretty sure that client won't be getting any more tickets here. LOL.

What a wonderful suite with great food, drink and camaraderie, despite my being an interloper.

Yeah, this view will do. Hahaha

For those that follow college football, it was one of the greatest games ever. Multiple lead changes in the final few minutes with LSU winning on a gutsy 2 point conversion in OT.

Heading home to Denver... at 6am!

The Painful Morning After

While the game ended a little after 10pm, I hung around in the suite for another 45 minutes waiting for the crowd to thin out. I walked back to The Chimes to try to find an Uber/Lyft ride back to the airport Days Inn. The streets around campus were still clogged and gridlocked with cars basically going nowhere. I made it The Chimes around 11:15p and was put on a 35 minute waitlist for a table. At the same time, I tried to get Uber or Lyft to actually show up. Drivers were confirmed (at surge pricing of course) but inevitably bailed as they couldn't get close. An hour later, traffic had started to thin and another Days Inn guest and I finally got a Lyft to show up at 12:40am. Got back to the Days Inn around 1am. Fell asleep by 2am and slept for 3 hours thanks to the switch to daylight savings. Only took 20 minutes for an Uber to show up this morning and I arrived at the airport just before 5am.

Baton Rouge BRT to DFW

American AA 3622

E75

6:02a-7:30a

November 6, 2022

Efficient BTR agent started boarding promptly 30 minutes before departure.

Full flight this morning with zero service. FA sat glued to her jumpseat the entire flight as the captain decided to give her a rest. Bogus announcement of turbulence on the way to DFW so he requested FA remain in her seat. Naturally, there was no turbulence anywhere.