How My Fantasy Football Team is Influencing My Travel Decisions

I've been playing fantasy football for almost 15 years now, with largely the same group of guys.  About seven or eight years ago, we changed the format of our league to be a keeper league, which means you keep the same players from year to year unless you drop them or trade them away.  This lets guys build their teams with young players, but it also lets you get pretty attached to the players you've owned for a few years.  While normally this is an insignificant feeling that only surfaces when talking to other managers in the league, I've noticed that on occasion it can trickle over into my travel planning.

I don't sit down and say "Where are my fantasy players playing this week?" when I'm planning a trip, but if I happen to be scanning down the list of cities that are on for a reasonable price, there's a couple of them that are going to stick out more than others.  For instance, the quarterback for my fantasy team for the last six years has been Drew Brees of the New Orleans Saints.  This is also year five for me with Marcus Colston, his main receiver.  These guys have been the mainstays of my team for the last little while, although they've yet to win a championship for me.

Obviously New Orleans isn't on sale this week.

When I go looking for a cheap airfare, I use a program (Fare Compare) that lists flights based on a cents/mile basis.  Then I scan down the list, and see what's on for a good price that interests me.  There's usually lots of cities available at the same cents/mile rate, but when I see New Orleans, my brain thinks "Saints", and it just kind of pops out at me.  I start thinking about the points that Brees and Colston are going to get for me this weekend, and that makes New Orleans the destination that gets my first look.

I've also had Steven Jackson of St. Louis for a number of years.  I really have no reason to want to go to St. Louis.  Very few of the airlines that I fly spend much time there, and the list of things to do in St. Louis doesn't really appeal to me.  Still, if I'm going down the list and my brain sees St. Louis (Rams) in the sale column, I'm taking a second look.  One of these days I'm going to book a flight to St. Louis and my wife is going to give me her "Why the heck are we going there?" look.  I have no idea how I'm going to explain that it's because Steven Jackson ran for over 120 yards and two touchdowns last week and won me a fantasy football match up.

Of course, it works both ways.  Buffalo is going to have to come in under three cents per mile before I'm ever going to consider booking a flight there, and even then it would probably just be a brief pit stop on the way to New York.  I know nothing about the city, which might be one of the most beautiful places on Earth, but I've been beaten more times than I can remember by a Buffalo Bills player having a huge week.  The fact that I'm a huge Miami Dolphins fan and Buffalo is a division rival doesn't make me any more likely to be headed to upstate New York any time soon.

I get that choosing your vacation spot based on your fantasy football team is a little strange, but there are probably worse things to be influenced by.   It's not like I'm dragging my kids to Milwaukee because the best guy on my fantasy baseball team plays for the Brewers.  Besides, just this week I picked up a Miami Dolphins receiver and guess what city's on the top of the sale list today?  Destiny?

Grand Hyatt Denver

Quick name the only city in the world to be awarded the Olympics and then turn them down.  Yeah, this would be a much trickier question if I hadn't told you which city I was writing about in the title of this post, but I'm going to award one point to everybody who said Denver anyways.  I don't know how things go so haywire for you that you actually turn down hosting the Olympics, but I'm glad there was no public vote on whether or not Denver wanted to be the last stop on the StarMegaDo3, especially since it turned out to be my favorite city on the trip.

My favorite stop on the 16th street mall

Our last sponsor hotel for the MegaDo was the Grand Hyatt Denver.  It's located right downtown and within a reasonable walking distance of most things that you'd probably like to do.  The 16th street pedestrian mall is only a block over from the hotel, and makes for one of the nicest walks I've had within a major city.  I did learn  my lesson though, as I usually tend to walk at a fairly quick pace which isn't a good idea unless you're used to the thin air of the Mile High City.  However if you pace yourself, and walk right to the end of the mall (or take the free shuttle that runs constantly) then you end up right beside Elitch Gardens, an ex-Six Flags amusement park. I didn't have time to go check out the park on this trip, but I'm thinking that a mile long shopping mall (with free wi-fi) leading to a roller coaster heavy amusement park might just be a good summer trip for our family.

Back to the hotel itself, the Grand Hyatt has some very nice rooms, which made it more surprising that they are currently launching a renovation of them.  I suppose a new, hipper look is a good thing, but I liked the feel of the room that I got as it was.  I can keep telling you that the Hyatt beds are very comfortable, but I think you've gotten that point by now.  They do use the dreaded double beds instead of queens (there's a renovation I wish every hotel would make) but I suppose it makes the room feel a little more spacious.  It's a tub/shower combo bathroom, and somebody give housekeeping a raise as it might have been the cleanest bathroom I've been in this year.  I didn't get a bad view (the picture is at the end), but we were in the middle of downtown Denver, so pretty much any direction you faced you were going to see other buildings.  Unless of course, you made your way up to the very top of the hotel, where there was a magnificent panorama view of over 200 mountains surrounding the city.  They have a room that's used for weddings up there, and I can only imagine how perfect a setting it must provide.

While the Bombardier tour in Montreal was our chance to explore the airline business, the Grand Hyatt Denver gave us a bunch of opportunities to learn about the hotel industry.  We were given a behind the scene look at their kitchens, laundry facilities, and staff areas.  Tours were given for the local breweries and wine tasting, and a fantastic crepe making demonstration was put on for us by the head pastry chef for the property (who probably should have been downstairs working on the wedding cake for the next day).  I even got to check off one of the stranger things on my "want to do" list, as we got to ride up and down in the housekeeping elevator, which, much to my chagrin, wasn't really all that different from any other elevator (I guess I had that whole Tower of Terror image in my mind).  It was a lot of fun though, and I appreciate the Grand Hyatt staff letting us intrude on their daily routines.

The StarMegaDo took me to three new cities, and left me with a favorable impression of all of them.  What I feel comfortable doing on my own though, and what I think makes a good destination for a family vacation are two different things.  Denver made me want to get out and explore (not an easy feat with me), and it seemed like there was plenty to do.  The fact that all four major sports are played within a few miles of downtown certainly doesn't hurt either.  I don't know what Denver would have ended up like if they had voted to hold the 1976 Olympics, but I'm very impressed with the end result, and I look forward to getting back to the city and the Grand Hyatt Denver very soon.

View from my room. 

I'm a Diamond Guest!

During our wrap-up dinner for the StarMegaDo, Jeff Zidell, the Vice President of Loyalty Marketing for Hyatt, shared a slightly edited version of this clip with us:

He made it clear that Hyatt didn't make this video, they simply found it on the web, but it was still pretty brave considering there were 161 diamond members in the room.  Fortunately we all got a good laugh out of it, and in fact, it became a running joke for the rest of the night, so when a large number of us descended on the Hyatt Place by the airport that evening, nobody could resist working the phrase "But I'm a Diamond" into their check-in.

Now obviously this is an over the top parody (I hope) of somebody who's let status go to their head.  I think everybody has spent some time in line behind one of these "Don't You Know Who I Am?" kind of people.  At the Hyatt Orange County once I was beside a lady who, after being told her room wasn't ready yet, wanted to know who she could leave her dog with until she was able to check-in.  I listened carefully as I figured if dog sitting was available it would be a given that I could leave my kids with the bell desk, but apparently pets aren't allowed at the Hyatt OC in the first place.  I would have loved to listen to the rest of that conversation, but my keys were ready (which didn't please the lady either) so I gave a "good luck" nod to the poor front desk agent and headed up to my room.

What I'm left wondering though, after watching this video, is "Am I like that when I check-in at a hotel?"  I know I've never asked for a helicopter pad or a giraffe sitting service, but a specific view or a late checkout would be normal requests for me.  I certainly have no intention of coming off like a "diamond guest", but almost any request can probably seem overly-demanding to a desk agent who's been getting asked for things all day.  On the other hand, if you don't say anything, you get views like this.

Concerned that perhaps I was giving an undesirable impression when we check in to hotels, I showed this video to my family and asked if this is what I'm like when we've had a long day and finally arrive at our hotel.  These are the responses I got:

Wife:  "Who do you think the American Idol was? It must be Adam Lambert to need a helicopter pad."
Boy:  "LMAO.  We should totally demand the presidential suite next time!"
Daughter #1:  "Can we travel with a dog and a giraffe too?"
Daughter #2:  "What's a douche bag?"

Sigh.  Family is so helpful.  I'm going to go out on a limb here and assume that since I don't even like using the diamond check-in line, I'm probably not too much like the guy in the video here.  I'm cringing thinking about the next time my family is at the front desk of a hotel though.  I just know I'm going to be checking in and there's going to be four people standing behind me going "We are a diamond guest!"

(Le) Hyatt Regency Montreal

Let's be fair.  I was not in a good mood when I arrived at the Hyatt Regency Montreal.  I had just found out that I had lost my passport, and although I had managed to talk my way in to the country, I was resigned to the fact that my MegaDo was over.  I was in a bit of a funk, and it didn't really matter how pretty the Hyatt building looked, I wasn't going to be all that impressed.  The fact that we had to take an elevator up to the lobby before taking a different elevator up to our room didn't thrill me either.  This, however, concludes my list of things I didn't like about the Hyatt Montreal.  Everything else I loved.

Let me start by saying that this hotel was very prepared for the arrival of 161 diamond guests.  We got off our bus, walked in the door from the street and were handed an envelope that contained the keys to our room.  There was no line, no running of credit cards, and most importantly when it comes to keeping things moving, no chance for people to try and negotiate for an upgrade.  All 161 of us were checked in and on the way to our rooms within 15 minutes, or about the same amount of time it took the one person in front of me at Mandalay Bay last month.  As I went up to my room, I noticed a couple of our group had stopped at the front desk to try and change rooms.  Old habits die hard I guess.

I had a room on the top floor of the hotel, facing the rear of the hotel.  The view from my room was fine, but the prize here would be out the front of the hotel, facing towards the Place-des-Arts across the street.  The rooms were nice enough, comfy beds with an older tub/shower combo in the bathroom that had screaming water pressure for being on the top floor of a hotel.  The TV was fantastic, with a huge assortment of channels, but it was also the source of a brief moment of panic when it suddenly dawned on me that people in Montreal speak French.  The first 15 or 20 channels that I tried were all in French.  This was particularly disturbing as tonight was the opening night of the NFL season, and Le Football Game would not be the same without being able to listen to Al Michaels call the game (although if they could keep Chris Collingsworth's thoughts in French, that would be awesome).  Fortunately it turned out that the English channels were simply further down the list, and tragedy was averted (unless you count the final score).

View from the room.  Either these people work all night, or somebody forgot to hit the switch.

I hadn't actually given the language thing much thought before arriving in Montreal.  Hotel staff is wonderful, as they will always greet you with "Bonjour/Hello" and even a seconds hesitation on your part will tell them that they need to shift in to English.  On the other hand, no matter how long you stare at a sign with a blank look, it stays in French.  I had to run down to the business center at this hotel, and the lady at the front desk told me that it was just down the hall, beside the ladies washroom.  I went down and located the ladies washroom (thank goodness for the universal bathroom picture signs) but the only door in the area looked like it led to a storage room and it had a nameplate sized sign on it that said "Le Bureau".  I thought this through carefully, as I definitely didn't want to be the guy poking around in the storage room for the ladies washroom.  Thinking back to my high school French, I seemed to recall "Bureau" being the word for desk, which seemed like something they would have in a business center.  You've never seen anybody creak a door open so slowly, but it turned out I got it right (fluent in French is now going on my resume) and there were a couple of computers in there.  Of course all the instructions and log-in screens were in French, but that's a whole different frustrating story for another day.

For a while I thought that the local people must have some kind of secret way to tell if somebody is French speaking or not, as I was almost always addressed in English.  Eventually though, I realized that I just have that "fish out of water" look about me.  At one point a Scottish couple picked me, out of a crowd of about 30 people, as the most likely to speak English and came over to ask me for some directions.  I was briefly pained that it was so obvious I was a tourist, and I considered hauling out some of my French 11 vocabulary, but "Mon crayon est jaune!" didn't seem like it would fit the situation.  On the other hand, if it's that obvious I don't speak French, it should probably be obvious that I have no idea where anything is in this town either.

Place-des-Arts Montreal.  Home of the Just for Laughs festival and perceptive Scottish tourists.

Despite the whole language barrier thing, I absolutely loved the little bit of time I got to spend in Montreal.  The Hyatt Regency has a fantastic location, downtown in the middle of everything and right across the street from the subway station.  I'd love to come back and visit some more, and since one of those bucket list items of mine is to get to Montreal for the Just For Laughs festival, the Hyatt would be the perfect place to stay.  Especially since it's right across the road from the main theater and I wouldn't have to read any French signs to get there.

This is What Frequent Flyers Want?

This morning's Wall Street Journal ran an article on the charter flight that I took last week.  Here's a link to the story, which includes a video interview that reads a whole lot more into what was going on than I think most of us were aware of.  I remember seeing Mr. McCartney along on the journey, and although I never did get around to talking to him, he seemed very much to fit in with our group of lunatics.

Our Charter Plane

Who he was talking with to get the idea of what frequent flyers want is beyond me though.  I don't know that any of us considered this trip as a chance to "play airline".  I suppose it's true that the leaders of StarMegaDo3 did organize the charter, set the price, and arrange the in-flight details, and they did a fantastic job of it.  If Tommy and Ed were to organize a charter trip to a snake infested swamp, I'd be among the first to sign up (assuming, of course, that there were at least double miles or Starwood status or something).  I'd be along for the fun and comradery though, not for the following things that the article says frequent flyers are looking for:

What Flyers Want:

Champagne toast after takeoff - WTH? Maybe in the 1950's that's what passengers wanted.  This one bugs me the most, as it really makes us seem like a bunch of entitled snobs.  Besides, can you really toast in plastic champagne glasses?

Free Beer and Wine - I wish I could argue this one with you, but I'm pretty sure I'd be in a very small minority from our flight who didn't consider this a perk.  There's a reason the Horizon Air beer plane is a popular route.

Sandwiches, preferably wraps, in a picnic bag for short flights - Ok, my problems with the picnic bag are previously documented, but I'm pretty sure that most of us are capable of getting through a couple hour flight without food.  Even though the wrap they gave us was good, sometimes I'd rather go hungry than have to listen to everybody around me (and myself) eating in a confined space.


Full meal on longer flights - I suppose if you're flying over 8 hours or so it would be nice to get something to eat.  I'm guessing though, that Mr. McCartney had the chicken on our flight, and not the "some kind of beef".


Ability to pay extra to keep the middle seat empty in coach - I think it's a neat idea, but here's a secret.  Most of us who aren't traveling on the company dime, are pretty cheap.  Considering our already high hopes for an upgrade, I'm not sure too many of us would shell out the extra money unless it was available as a last minute option.


In-flight raffle to raise money for pilot scholarships - I think this might not be in the right place, but really, there's never a bad time to mention the Jason Dahl Scholarship Fund.  Mr. Dahl was the captain of United Flight 93 on September 11th, and the charity in his name gives scholarships to young people trying to become pilots who have limited resources.  Does it belong on a list of things frequent flyers want?  Probably not, but how great would it be if it did?


Pillow fights (really) - Are you more surprised by the fact that we had a pillow fight or by the fact that there were enough pillows on board for everybody to have one?


I hope the airline and hotel executives got what they were hoping for from the chance to talk to our group, but most of the people I spoke with were just along for the experience (and the Hyatt diamond status, for those who didn't already have it).  While we do fly a lot, I'm pretty sure the desire for some extra space in a plane is shared by everybody, not just the frequent flyers.  I think for me, a little extra room, free wi-fi, and NFL Sunday Ticket would be enough to swing me to whichever airline offered it.  If we're going to "play airline", then I'm starting with that.

How bad is leg room getting on these flights anyways?