Budget Travel - cheap travel to baton rouge?

I need to find a cheap flight to Baton Rouge from Los Angeles or Austin/El Paso/San Antonio. I looked at prices and it is $300 bucks to fly from san antonio to baton rouge and over $400 to fly there from LA. Any tips?

No tips, since they don't really exist. Trust me, I went to school there...
$300 isn't bad...early 2000's I was paying about $350-400 from Seattle.

Have you tried looking into flying into MSY and renting a car for the hour drive?

I am looking into that now. I wonder where I can rent a car from. I am 24. Dont you have to be 25?

Let's start with what the purpose of your trip is and when are you going and for how long.

I am going for a wedding in BR on 7/17
The wedding is at night so maybe I could fly in early on 7/17 or 7/16 and leave on 7/18 for sure
I am not trying to hang around too much. I have work.

I need to find a cheap flight to Baton Rouge from Los Angeles or Austin/El Paso/San Antonio. I looked at prices and it is $300 bucks to fly from san antonio to baton rouge and over $400 to fly there from LA...

I am afraid there doesn't seem to be much room for improvement given the cities and the dates. You can go to MSY for about $240; check if there are any airport shuttles between there and BTR.

Take a look at taking the bus (Greyhound) from the New Orleans airport to Baton Rouge. I think there is also the possibility of getting a shuttle from the airport to Baton Rouge.

Flying into Biloxi/Gulfport may also be an option.

I was just looking on the enterprise website. You can rent from them, despite your age, but it was $80/day for the days I looked at. So, you may be able to rent a car, you're just going to get gouged a bit, but you may still be able to save some money over the airfare to BR.

With yet another follow-up, it looks like Avis will rent to you as well, but they have a $25/day surcharge for being under 25. It sounds like they recently changed their rules about renting to people under 25, so renting a car may be a better option than you thought. Try kayak.com or one of the other sites to see what the cheapest rate you can get and then go and do searches on the company's website. You may be able to get a bit better rate than the $80 I mentioned in the previous post. In the past I've been able to rent cars from MSY airport for under $30/day but I'm over 25.

I am guessing your friend or family member who invited you to the wedding knows you are only 24. Why can't they pick you up at the airport? I'm not trying to be the grinch, but I didn't plan my wedding to cost other people money, and apparently that puts me in the minority of folk. I think you have a great excuse to bow out of the whole mess since "I have work," and frankly that's my choice when I'm invited to somebody else's wedding that will cost me a bomb. I simply make an excuse. Excuses are free, which makes them the ultimate bargain!


I am going for a wedding in BR on 7/17
The wedding is at night so maybe I could fly in early on 7/17 or 7/16 and leave on 7/18 for sure
I am not trying to hang around too much. I have work.

Airfare to/from BTR is always high because there just aren't that many seats going to the airport. From the west coast, even more so, as there are no direct flights from anywhere west of DFW.

Here are some of the options I was able to find on ITA:

$206 SAT-MSY 7.16-7.18 ExpressJet
$253 AUS-BTR 7.16/17-7.19 Northwest
$380 LAX-MSY, BTR-ONT 7.16-7.18 Delta/Continental

All of these are bookable through Orbitz or the respective airlines sites.

The New Orleans airport is about an hour from Baton Rouge, and you're not going to find an inexpensive cab or shuttle. However, you should look into the LA Swift bus (laswift.com). It was originally started after the hurricanes as a cheap method of transportation between the cities. It's $5 cash, each way, definitely the cheapest option between the two cities.

It doesn't stop at the New Orleans airport, but it makes a few stops in downtown New Orleans (specifically, stops N2 and N3 on the schedules page of their website). Use Google Maps and Orbitz, and you may be able to find a hotel in the Central Business District that offers a free/inexpensive airport shuttle. Hop the shuttle to the city, and take Swift to Baton Rouge. Good luck!