NOLA – PLANNING AND COST
I’ve been to New Orleans before, but it was a while ago (before Katrina) and back then I wasn’t even old enough to legally buy a drink. From what I remember, it was a fun trip – we road-tripped with a group of friends from Chicago, took some tours, walked Bourbon Street and probably did some other touristy stuff. One thing that I remember clearly is the heat and humidity – July is not the best time to visit Louisiana. So, although I’ve always wanted to go back to NOLA, I limited my “availability” from February until May – that seemed to be the ideal time in terms of the weather. Anyway, back in January I was looking at my calendar and decided to squeeze in a short weekend trip (so I could finally try The Hurricane).
The only weekend that worked for me was April 1-3: leaving Friday after work and coming back on Sunday. After checking flights I was shocked – the cheapest non-stop flight was $543! That’s insane! Just to give you an idea, it’s not uncommon to see $80-$100 flights from Chicago to New Orleans and back. Since Mardi Gras is in February, I was a bit puzzled why flights were so expensive….
Crazy prices!
There was no way I was going to spend that much money for this flight, therefore I decided to go an alternative route and try to use miles or points instead. Although there are quite a few miles/points options that could be used to book flights, I was limited to two. My number one option was to use Southwest points – there were flights available for 9,694 points +$5.60 from Chicago to New Orleans and 23,936 points +$5.60 for the return flight. This is pretty steep, especially for the return flight – probably 3-4 times the usual redemption rates. My second option was to use British Airways avios to book American Airlines flights: Chicago to New Orleans would cost 7,500 avios + $5 one way (15,000 avios +$10 round trip). The only problem – there was no award flight availability for my dates. So, I ended up booking my flights with Southwest for 33,630 points + $11.20.
I figured since the flights were so expensive, hotels were probably too. I was right – anything close to the French Quarter was starting at $200/night – way out of my budget. Once again, I needed to look for an alternative way to book hotels. I had a free night certificate that comes as an annual Club Carlson Visa card perk and can be used at any Club Carlson property in the US. Probably the best use of the free night certificate would be at the Radisson Blu Aqua Hotel in Chicago but since I live here, it would be a waste using it at this property. Therefore, I checked if there were any Club Carlson hotels available in New Orleans so I could use my free night. Luck was definitely on my side, there was availability for Friday night at the Country Inn in the French Quarter! The cheapest room at that hotel was $344 ($299+tax), so I didn’t have any second thoughts when redeeming my free night certificate.
I was hoping to redeem 44,000 Club Carlson points for Saturday night at the same hotel but sadly there was no availability. Because of that, I needed to figure out where to spend the second night. I started checking what hotels were within a walking distance and if any of them were bookable with points that I had. To my surprise, the best option turned out to be Hotel Monteleone, which is considered a luxury hotel and is ranked in the top 10 hotels in New Orleans on Tripadvisor. The cheapest room available was $463.84 ($399 + tax). This property is part of the Preferred Hotels & Resorts and is bookable with Choice points at the rate of 35,000 points per night. The only annoying thing is that you have to call and book it over the phone; most of the agents are clueless on how the booking process works and keep transferring you from one department to another….after 45 minutes on the phone and talking to 5 different agents I was booked!
Bottom Line
If I was going to book the same trip (fight & hotels) with cash, it would have cost me $1,350 ($543+$344+$463); I ended up paying $11.20….that’s a pretty good value, I’d say. This is the reason why I like collecting miles/points and using them for trips instead of redeeming for Red Lobster gift cards; in some instances it can provide a superb value. Of course, flights and hotels are only part of the trip expenses, there are other costs like getting to/from the airport, entertainment, food and the “must do’s” – Hurricane, Sazerac, Creole Bloody Mary.
