IN · SUN 8 NOV · AUS · BY 2:00 PM · FLIGHT TBD
OUT · SAT 14 NOV · AUS · AFTER 10:00 AM · FLIGHT TBD
PORSCHE TRAVEL EXPERIENCE · TEXAS HILL COUNTRY
One question left
Answer it and the flights book themselves.
Dad: which shape?Three of them, all priced: straight through from Madison ($284.40),
Atlanta the night before ($827.00, all Delta and nonstop on both travel days), or the
Miami weekend ($763.81). Start with the one-click scenarios
below — one tap sets both tickets.
Answered: the tour
lets us go after breakfast on Sat 14, so the 1:00 PM flights
home are safe and no longer need confirming.
Porsche runs the show from wheels-down
to wheels-up: hotels, every meal, fuel, detailing, luggage between hotels, airport transfers,
and a hospitality vehicle trailing the drive. The only job left on our side is the one
above (plus buying the damage waiver — already decided, in the red box). Rachel
sends the real itinerary, packing list and weather around 8 Sep — this page gets
rebuilt around it.
Getting there · priced 22 Aug · nothing booked
Two hard numbers. Wheels down at AUS by 2:00 PM Sun 8 Nov;
home flights leave Sat 14 after 10:00 AM — and since the tour releases us after
breakfast, everything from 1:00 PM on is comfortable. Every flight below clears both. We are
booking Main Cabin; prices are the 22 Aug floor.
Three ways to read this. Tap a scenario to set both tickets at once.
Or open a card and pick flight by flight — the lists are split by airline, Delta
first. Either way the summary and the Sunday clock at the bottom redraw as you go.
One click · sets both tickets
Dad’s ticket
Madison ↔ Austin · his choice of shape, then his airline
Pick the shape, then the flight
$284.40 straight through · $827.00 via Atlanta · $763.81 via Miami
Run on Delta, as asked — and there is a good one. Madison 5:51a,
two full hours in Atlanta, Austin 12:32p, all Delta, still the $284.40 floor.
Delta’s own booking flow buries it because it prefers the faster 41-minute version, so
it has to be asked for by flight number. Every list below is split by airline, Delta
first.
Shape of the weekend
Delta · three ways, one of them clean his airline
American · clean, but no Delta credit
United · no carry-on on Basic
Delta · three one-ways his airline
Delta down, American across
Two things worth knowing. Medallion protection
does not extend to Basic Economy — no same-day standby, no upgrades — which
is one more reason the booking is Main Cabin. And the Atlanta and Miami shapes cost
what they cost because three one-way tickets always price worse than one round trip,
not because of the extra night: the Saturday Madison–Atlanta leg alone is $298.40,
more than the entire round trip to Austin.
Checked 22 Aug and not eligible: Delta via Detroit (9:27a, lands
2:30p, 33-minute connection), Delta’s 12:21p out of Atlanta (lands 1:53p
— seven minutes of margin), Delta via Atlanta at 5:22p and American via O’Hare at
7:05p (both land after midnight), and returns before the 10:00 AM rule. Every Delta
Atlanta–Austin nonstop from 2:10p on is too late. Nobody has to search any of this
again.
Michael’s ticket
Miami ↔ Austin · nonstop, or through Atlanta to meet Dad
One fare, plus one detour worth pricing
$299.80 rt nonstop · from $328.20 one-way via Atlanta · main cabin quote pending
Both nonstops price to the same round trip, so the plan stays
AA 2284, 9:40a. Rows three to five are the Delta routings through Atlanta that put him
on Dad’s plane for the last leg. The 7:10a is the best of them — an
hour more sleep than the 6:04a and still 1h 45m on the ground — but the 6:04a stays
here because it is the one the connector prices as a single through fare. They all work on the
clock; they all cost about the same money.
Sunday out · to Austin
Saturday home · AUS → MIA · released after breakfast, so all three are safe
Frontier via Atlanta · 5:15a → 10:31aF9 2483 + 4211$279.38 · −$20.42The only thing on the board that undercuts the nonstop, and it costs
$20.42: a 3 AM alarm, a connection, a separate low-cost carrier, and its cheapest
return leaves Austin at 5:10a — before the 10:00 AM rule. Seats were not confirmed
at that fare.
United from Fort Lauderdale via HoustonUA 2314/722 + 1823/1859$298.40 · −$1.40Same money to the dollar, one stop instead of none, the wrong airport at
the Miami end, no carry-on on United Basic, and the return lands 9:59p.
Delta nonstop home · 8:35a → 12:20pDL 2507cheapest returnCheapest way home and a Delta nonstop, which would suit the Medallion
account — but 8:35 AM breaks the after-10:00-AM rule. Listed so nobody
“finds” it later.
The two nonstops price into the same round trip either way —
$299.80 on the 22 Aug re-check (a penny under the earlier $299.81). The Atlanta
routing is a one-way and cannot be paired into a round trip at all: the connector would only
build Delta round trips around the 7:10p departure, which lands 9:19p and is useless.
Main Cabin numbers still to be confirmed signed-in on aa.com and delta.com.
Two corrections · 22 Aug
Delta does have a clean way, and Atlanta does work
1. There is a roomy Delta same-day pairing. We had said Delta’s only
same-day option was the 41-minute Atlanta connection. Not true: keep the same first flight
and take the 11:00a departure out of Atlanta instead of the 9:40a —
DL 1160 + 2011, two hours on the ground, Austin 12:32p, still $284.40.
Delta’s own search hides it because it optimises for the shortest trip, so it has to be
asked for by flight number.
2. Meeting in Atlanta works now. We had it ruled out because the only Delta run
from Miami through Atlanta landed 1:53p — seven minutes before the gate. Also
not true any more: DL 1249 leaves Miami 6:04a and connects onto either Atlanta
departure with hours to spare.
Recommendation.Dad: DL 1160 + 2011. All Delta, a two-hour
connection, lands 12:32p, and it is the cheapest fare on the page — it satisfies every
one of his conditions at once. Michael: stay on AA 2284 unless sitting together is
worth about $300; landing 39 minutes apart costs nothing and the transfer waits. If you
do want to fly the last leg together, the second scenario is the one — Dad’s
ticket and price do not change at all.
Michael’s Atlanta routing cannot be bought as a round trip — it is
two one-ways, which is the whole ~$300. $328.20 out, plus a flight home.
The Atlanta-overnight shape is now a comfort purchase, not a fix: $827.00 buys a
night in a bed and zero connections on tour day. The roomy same-day pairing gets most of the
calm for $543 less.
Delta credit: the Atlanta routings are the only options here that earn any, for either
man.
Medallion protection does not cover Basic Economy — no same-day standby, no
upgrades. One more reason we book Main Cabin.
As selected
Dad
Michael
Sunday, on one clock · central time
axis 5:00a – 2:30p central · red mark is the 2pm gate · gaps in a line are time on the ground, drawn to scale
Pricing basis: figures are the 22 Aug floor. We book Main
Cabin; the signed-in Main Cabin quotes replace these numbers as soon as they are
confirmed.
Before anyone clicks buy: price the Main Cabin fare signed in on
aa.com and delta.com — status, upgrades and certificates never show in a public
search. On a $42,500 tour, Main Cabin’s seats-together and changeable tickets are
cheap insurance. Then send Rachel both ends: airline, flight number, date, time,
confirmation number — she cannot assign the partner drivers without them.
The garage · rotated every morning
911 Carrera GTS
The new T-Hybrid — 532 hp and the first electrified 911 anyone will let you
near. The sensible one, by this fleet’s standards only.
911 Targa 4 GTS
Same engine, plus the slowest, most theatrical roof mechanism in the business.
Worth deploying at least once, preferably while parked and holding coffee.
911 Turbo S
701 hp. The one the two of you will be politely negotiating over at breakfast.
Seniority is not a recognized claim. Neither is law school.
911 Turbo S Cabriolet
All of the above, plus sky. November in the Hill Country runs 50s–70s —
genuine top-down weather if you dress like adults.
On the seats. Full disclosure before anyone asks: these are
six-day sport buckets. Heated, yes. Massage, no. That is a Cayenne feature, and the
navy Cayenne is staying home in Monona — the one category where the fleet loses to
Dad’s daily by a knockout.
The circuit · seven days, one lap
the shape of the week, not gps · gold dashes are day 5’s cave detour
· day-by-day roads are porsche’s call until the 8 sep packet
01Sun 8 NovAustin
TBD
Land · AUSflights not booked
Austin-Bergstrom, on the ground by 2:00 PM. A Porsche private transfer
meets the flight — no bags to carry, no car to rent, which will feel wrong for roughly a
day. Booking the flights is the one real to-do left — the choices are priced up
in Getting there, and Rachel needs the details to schedule the driver.
PM
Four Seasons Austinnights 1 & 6
98 San Jacinto Blvd, on Lady Bird Lake. Same hotel bookends the trip
— whatever you forget in the room on night one is a problem for night six.
Meet the crew, meet the other couples, get the route talk and the keys
ceremony. From this point until Saturday you will not see a single bill — Dad
already saw the only one that matters.
02Mon 9 NovAustin → Fredericksburg
AM
First draw from the garage
Cars are assigned each morning and rotate daily, so both of you drive all four
models by Friday. Split of wheel time within the day is ours to negotiate. Suggest
settling the protocol at breakfast on day one, in writing, witnessed.
DAY
Into the Hill Countryporsche’s call
Austin to Fredericksburg is 90 minutes if you drive it like a rental. Porsche
will not drive it like a rental — expect the long way through the ranch roads, a lunch
stop, and a hospitality van appearing exactly when someone wants a Topo Chico.
PM
Albert Hotelnights 2 & 3
242 E Main St, Fredericksburg — new, small, and the best address
in town. Two nights here means one full day with no luggage to move.
Loop day out of Fredericksburg. The classics in reach: Willow City Loop
(the one the magazines photograph), Enchanted Rock, Luckenbach (population 3,
all of them famous). Which of these Porsche actually routes is theirs to reveal on 8 Sep.
EVE
Main Street, Fredericksburg
German settlement town — bakeries, beer gardens, and an unreasonable
number of tasting rooms for a town this size. The evening stroll writes itself.
04Wed 11 NovFredericksburg → San Antonio
DAY
South through the hillsporsche’s call
Fredericksburg down to San Antonio, almost certainly the scenic way through
Comfort or Boerne. It is Veterans Day — worth a nod at dinner; Grandpa Byrne
gets a toast.
PM
Hotel Emmanights 4 & 5
136 E Grayson St, Pearl District — a 19th-century brewhouse turned
into the best hotel in Texas. The lobby bar, Sternewirth, has tanks from the old
brewery you can sit inside. Do that.
Past Texas tours have included a cave excursion as the set-piece
experience — likely Natural Bridge Caverns or similar. Porsche’s fine print
warns of “a mile of walking and two flights of stairs.” You will both
survive. Wear the shoes anyway.
EVE
Pearl District night
The Pearl is walkable from the room: river, food hall, and the bar downstairs.
Second night in the same hotel — nothing to pack, nowhere to be.
06Fri 13 NovSan Antonio → Austin
DAY
Last day in the carsporsche’s call
Back up to Austin the long way. By now you have both driven all four —
final verdicts are to be recorded on this page and held against each other at
Thanksgiving.
PM
Four Seasons Austin, again
Night 6. The spa here does actual massages — which, after five
days in sport buckets, is not a joke but a medical recommendation. The closest this trip
officially comes to a massage chair. Book ahead if wanted.
EVE
Farewell dinnerporsche’s call
Last one on Porsche’s tab. Keys go back tonight or tomorrow —
grieve accordingly.
07Sat 14 NovHome
TBD
AUS · departflights not booked
Private transfer back to Austin-Bergstrom, both flights out after
10:00 AM — worth checking against what time the tour actually releases everyone
before either return is locked. Somewhere in Monona, a navy Cayenne is waiting with the
massage seats on — the trip’s only upgrade.