BATON ROUGE - A flight full of LSU fans took off from Baton Rouge Metro Airport this morning, and flyers were greeted with a tailgate before they boarded.

United Airlines offered a non-stop flight to Austin and decided to kick the trip off with a party. Passengers enjoyed a spread of drinks, sandwiches, cupcakes, and cookies. Balloons, streamers, purple and gold decorated the terminal. A game of Jenga and cornhole happened among the terminal seats.

Fans say it was a great surprise.

"It's really nice. I wasn't expecting it," said LSU junior Camille Gallagher.

United Airlines says it's offering flights like these throughout the season in various cities and plans to kick travel off with a tailgate in other cities as well.

"The crew onboard is ready to go, we got fight songs, we got chants. We're going to continue the tailgate theme all the way through to Austin until we get there,"  Chris Earley said.

LSU fan Dave Defelice says he's had his tickets for a few months and he loved the warm welcome by United.

"I'm going out with some friends tonight but tomorrow we've got a big party," Defelice said. "We're looking forward to it."