News and notes from around the interweb:
- The smartest airports for making connections
- Small airports where you know the staff are the best!
Thanks to top notch customer service at @AmericanAir at my favorite airport in the world @flymanchester, who called ME to rebook when my delayed flight was going to make me miss my connection. Now I will still be on time to represent NH at Mrs. America! #mrsamerica2023 pic.twitter.com/jaFuYX3UUy
— 🌩️ Mrs. NH Cyrena Arnold 🌪️ (@WxCyrena) August 11, 2022
- A look inside Aman New York, now the city’s most expensive hotel (HT: @crucker)
- How travel affects scoring in the NBA (HT: Marginal Revolution)
We test how travel affects scoring for the US National Basketball Association from 2014–2018, a period featuring a new game scheduler. We also test whether a collective bargaining agreement that protected player rest changed how travel affects scoring. We find eastward travel increases scoring and point spread via three-pointers and field goals, with implications for point spread betting in sports gambling markets. The 2017 collective bargaining agreement mitigates the eastward travel benefit on scoring and increases scoring overall, suggesting improved fairness and potential benefits for players and fans.
- Nick Reyes is somehow surprised by Marriott reservations system failures, in this case trying to apply Suite Night Awards. I spent a couple of days this past week battling the website to book free award nights while logged in because the website kept reverting to the SPG Business Amex 7% discount rate whenever I tried to search with points, and it would tell me no free nights were available (when they were).
- Don’t steal luggage, you never know when passengers put AirTags on them (HT: @crucker)
Marriott also sometimes won’t show point award rooms online.(glitch)
I complained but nobody would listen sadly
The lights are on but nobody is home in the IT dept
Its really a broken company these days despite having some good hotels
I had this same problem too so I had to search using my wife’s account. Actually my issue was no points would show up because I didn’t have enough on my account but when I clicked through the property I wanted it would still let me use my free night certificate (which is what I was looking to do)
Definitely would suggest HEL is missing from the list of cities for making connections. Finnair isn’t huge, but that airport is super easy and modern.
Marriott is even worse than that. They never give waterfront rooms or premiere rooms when searching. Always city view and even with Titanium and reaching out to the hotel its either use your suite awards for an upgrade to a King room (notice no suite) and those never come through. Clearly they want you to pay rather than use points. I’d even do that with a cash and points but the types of rooms made available dont change