Trip motivation
We traveled to New Jersey to visit some of our best college friends. While we were there, we also got to squeeze in a 24-hour trip to New York City. Because the Northeast states are so close together, the best option for us was to fly to and from Philadelphia for this trip.
Flight details
This was an easy non-stop flight to and from Philadelphia. Flying there, we found a great deal from Frontier airlines for $54/person. This is a low-cost airline which means everything on top of the actual ticket price costs extra, so we did have to pay an additional fee for seat selection and for each carry-on bag. Overall the flight there cost $289.
For the return flights, we took an early morning Southwest flight that got us back to town in time to head straight to work! The cash cost for the flight was $80 per person. We used a combo of cash and Southwest points for the return trip. You can earn Southwest points from Southwest Credit Cards or by transferring Chase points using the Chase portal. Southwest is one of my favorite airlines for traveling with kids. Read more about tips for airline trips here.
Getting There:
Nashville (BNA) to Philadelphia (PHL) 4:36 CST -7:46p EST(2 hr 10 m)
Coming Back:
Philadelphia (PHL) to Nashville (BNA)
6:00a EST -7:00a CST (2 hr)
Airport Lounges
When traveling with layovers or to new cities, we always check the local airport website and the Priority Pass Lounge website prior to the trip (link). The Chase Sapphire Reserve card (in addition to others) comes with Priority Pass access. This card gets you access to various airport lounges. It is much more common internationally.
Other travel perks
Another perk you can get from several credit cards we used is Global Entry/Pre-Check. This is always helpful for avoiding long lines and spending as little time as possible with others. After you activate your credit card, you’ll use it to pay for the Global Entry fee and get reimbursed immediately. If you want more on this particular benefit and how to use a credit card to receive it for free, I encourage you to click here. The cards below are ones that we’ve used are are very please with, but there are definitely more options if something else suits your family and travel goals better.
Driving to our Destinations
Our focus of this trip was New Jersey and New York City, so flying into Philly was for convenience and cost-efficiency. This mean twe didn’t get to spend time in this great city for this trip
After arriving late in the evening, we rented a car through Hertz. We signed up for a gold membership and were able to skip the desk and go directly to pick up our car. This was an especially helpful benefit. Ellie loved getting to choose her favorite blue car.
The drive from the Philadelphia airport to our hotel in Jersey City across the river from Manhattan was 2 hours. For a late dinner, we made a stop at Wawa, a well-known chain of convenience stores along the east coast that offers delicious food options.
Keep in mind that New Jersey roads do have tolls. The car came with an EZ pass, so we could wait until after the trip to take care of the fees. I didn’t check but it may be cheaper to use cash as sometimes rental companies charge an extra fee for no reason.
After spending a day in NYC, the remainder of our trip was spent in New Jersey, and the return road trip from our location in NJ to the airport was less than an hour.
For more on road trip tips, see here.
Airport Hotel in Philadelphia
Because of our early morning return flight to return to Nashville, we decided to stay our last night at the Philadelphia Airport Marriott. The price was a little higher than neighboring hotels (~$150 vs $110) but we valued the convenience of staying nearby. We were able to return our car the night before our flight, which also reduced our overall trip costs. In the morning, it was a 5 minute shuttle to our terminal for the early morning flight home.
