Creating memories. One Simple trip. So many unique experiences.
Quick Reads.
I’ve just wrapped up the first quarter of my 2026 travel schedule. Each of the following was a multi-day trip. I used to write a review of every trip I took. Not anymore. There’s not enough time between trips!
Northern California trackchasing
UCLA at Iowa/Wisconsin basketball
UCLA at Penn State/Ohio State basketball
Austin, TX family visit
Big Sur, California, Alila Ventana
UCLA at Michigan/Michigan State basketball
North Dakota trackchasing
Austin, TX family visit
Maui, Hawaii
Dallas, TX trackchasing
Dallas, TX trackchasing (again)
UCLA NCAA basketball tournament/Rhode Island trackchasing
Yes, each of the above was a separate round-trip airline effort from LAX. As I age, I can’t seem to write about each of these trips, but I can still take ‘em. I leave for two weeks in Europe later today.
It’s not the destination. It’s the journey.
My trips are not about the destination, but the journey. Somehow, despite taking an airplane trip virtually every week of the year, I encounter those special situations that cause me to smile, cringe, or both.
Is it just me? Are all of these “encounters” normal? Everything I mention here comes from a single trip.
Let’s get started.
I would begin by flying from LAX to New York City, in first class, with a stop in Indianapolis. I rented a car in LGA (LaGuardia) and drove down toward Philadelphia to watch UCLA play in the men’s NCAA college basketball tournament.
Go Hyatt or go home.
I am a Hyatt man. If there is a Hyatt anywhere close to where I need to do business, I will stay at the Hyatt.
Did you know Hyatt has about 30 brands? I’m talking about Park Hyatt, Hyatt Regency, Hyatt Place, Hyatt House, more than 30 brands.
It pays to use the Brand Explorer option.
Hyatt has a special program where, if you stay at five different brands, they will give you a free night certificate redeemable at a hotel that can cost $300-$400. This is called the Brand Explorer program. Hyatt wants to encourage their members to try as many different Hyatt brands as possible.
I’ve been stuck on 19 brands for a while. If I stayed at an “Unscripted by Hyatt” property, that would bring my total to 20 brands and earn me another free night certificate. There are only three hotels in the Unscripted by Hyatt group. One is in Allentown, Pennsylvania. That was a great location for this trip. I could get brand number 20 and earn my fourth free night, all worth about $12-1,600 when combined. That’s exactly what I would do.
I stayed at the Americus Hotel in downtown Allentown. Staying in downtown old cities is not my normal jam. However, I always like chasing the carrot, and this evening’s carrot was the Brand Explorer program. The Americus Hotel was built in 1926. Back in 1926, it took them only nine months to build the place, and from the photos, you can see that would’ve been quite an accomplishment.
In 1960, Richard Nixon visited the hotel. Americus Airways, not American Airlines, was founded by the hotel owner, Albert Moffa. O.K., not a lot of major stuff happened at the hotel, but at least some stuff did!
During the past 100 years, the Americus Hotel has had a storied lifespan. It was recently closed for 10 years while it was completely redone. 10 years.
Nice, old refurbished place.
My day was comfortable. They upgraded me to a suite, which was not luxurious, but it was a suite. Breakfast in the dining room was elegant. I had the steak and eggs at no charge because of my Hyatt hotel status.
Respect people, and they will respect you.
Parking was a challenge. I could park on the street for free until 8 a.m., but then I would have to feed the meter. I wasn’t planning to be awake at 8 a.m. Eastern time.
Valet parking was $35. At that price, I didn’t want to do that. The valet parking guy overheard me explaining this to the desk clerk. He told me to follow him, and he would give me a special ticket that would allow me to park about a block away for free. That was more than nice of him. I tipped him 10 bucks. It was worth the experience of staying at a downtown hotel in Allentown, Pennsylvania, but I don’t expect to stay there again.
Meeting new people.
I like to meet people and talk to them until we are nearly best friends. I met a lady and her husband who were sitting next to me at the UCLA-Central Florida basketball game at the Xfinity Mobile Arena in Philadelphia. We were all just a couple of rows from the court.
The woman broke the ice by asking me how my arena-purchased ($19.99) Philly cheesesteak was. The steak was great!
Throughout the night, we all enjoyed a nice conversation. The woman’s name was Stacy. She and her husband were travelers and sports fans as well. They lived in the Philly area. They came out to the basketball game with no direct affiliation with any of the teams playing. That’s a true sports fan.
As a general rule, most women are not avid sports fans. Remember, before you throw me under the bus, I said, as a generality.
Tonight, UCLA was playing the University of Central Florida Black Knights from the Big 12 conference. UCF’s center, who had to be the worst free-throw shooter I’ve ever seen, had a last name of BOL. He was John Bol. John was 7 foot two.
One might think that John Bol, from Sudan, was related to the famous 7’7” Manute Bol (above with Charles Barkley), who played for the Philadelphia 76ers and some other teams back in the 80s. Manute Bol had a son, Bol Bol, who also played in the NBA. Nope. The name Bol is common in Sudan, and John Bol is not related to Manute Bol. Bring that up at your next cocktail party!
And yes, for a bonus question at the party, I DID see MOSES Bol (above), 7’1”, (a cousin of Manute Bol) play for the UW Milwaukee team on a snowy night in Wisconsin five years ago. The bonus question? How was Moses Bol related to Manute Bol? They were cousins! Ladies, were the previous paragraphs more boring than normal? I told you women are not big sports fans!
I was in the midst of explaining all of this, as any self-respecting man might explain sports to a woman, and concluded by asking if Stacy knew anything about the name “Bol” in basketball.
Wow!
She responded quickly. Of course, she knew about Manute Bol. Stacy told me all about Manute Bol playing for the Sixers. She and her husband had been season-ticket holders of the Philadelphia Seventy-Sixers!
Yes, I was shocked by her knowledge of sports. I told her that she had earned 100,000 bonus points in my book. She was happy to hear this and turned to tell her husband, explaining that she was being recognized not only for her professional abilities but also for her basketball knowledge! Nice meeting those folks.
This life experience is burned into my memory forever.
For this trip, I was mainly headquartered hotel-wise in Philadelphia. I stayed over in Greenwich, Connecticut, at the Hyatt Regency the night before the Saturday race in Rhode Island (discussed soon!). It was a good midway stopping off point after the second game in Philadelphia ended at nearly 1 a.m. local time.
One of my most unusual travel adventures.
The Hyatt Regency Greenwich has a story from one of my stays in the mid-70s.
Thanks, Al McGuire.
When I fly, I wear shorts and a T-shirt. I did that in the 70s, and I do that today. This is what former Marquette NCAA champion basketball coach Al McGuire told me under a fading street light in Bermuda one night. It was just the two of us. I asked him what his secret to travel was. He told me, “Wear comfortable clothes.” I told you (later on here) I’m smart because I ask questions. I get advice, and I follow it. Wearing comfortable clothes was never my idea. It was Al McGuire‘s idea.
This is from the memory vault. I hope you like it.
I remember flying into New York’s LaGuardia airport and landing at 11 p.m. back in the 70s. I was coming to Connecticut for the “President’s luncheon.” This was a big deal in our company. It was suit and tie. Almost nothing is suit and tie in today’s world.
Back in those days, we would use a public payphone, dial into our voicemail, and get our messages. Remember that?
When I landed, rather than getting my suitcase, I elected to check my messages at a payphone. When was the last time you used a payphone?
One of my ideas, but not a good one.
This was one of my own ideas. As I checked those messages, I thought about how smart I was to clear them while everyone waited for their bags. I was multitasking. It was ideas like these that I would later learn were pretty stupid. If I were going to be a smart guy, I had better switch from coming up with my own ideas to listening to others.
When I finished checking messages, there was only one bag circling the carousel. It was my bag. I was a freaking genius. I had saved so much time.
Shocked but dismayed as well.
What would YOU do? On this particular night, they were checking bag tags. I grabbed that last remaining bag and headed out. Not so fast. The baggage tag I had did not match the one on the luggage I was trying to leave with. Oh my. This was going to cause problems. All of my “semi-formal” wear was in that bag: black wing-tip shoes, a three-piece suit, a pressed white collared long-sleeve shirt, a tie that Carol just bought me for my birthday, everything.
It turned out that another woman had the same bag I did. She was long gone by now…with MY bag. I have no idea how she got out of the baggage claim area without the right claim check.
I was in a serious hurt place at this point. The airline tried to get in touch with the woman, but she didn’t have a listed phone number in Queens. Somehow, the next morning, they did manage to get hold of her neighbor, who went over to her friend’s house, but it was too late. I was still wearing shorts and a T-shirt. It was 8 o’clock in the morning, and the president’s luncheon was starting at 12 noon.
I never give up until the horn sounds. I made arrangements to go to one of the most expensive clothiers in Westport, Connecticut. They started decking me out. The total charge for everything I needed was going to be $ 1,500.
I’m here, but I’m late.
Wearing my new clothes, I rushed into the parking lot of the Hyatt Greenwich. Through the windows, I could see everyone in our group of 200 standing outside the ballroom, each with a Coca-Cola. It looked like I might still make it. I parked, but by the time I got inside the hotel, everyone was seated at round tables of eight inside the huge ballroom. And yes, that is an actual photo of the ballroom at the Hyatt Regency in Greenwich, Connecticut.
I explained to the Hyatt staff member admitting people to the ballroom that I was late. That was pretty obvious, it seemed. He told me no problem, there were still a couple of seats, and I could enter with him.
Not my most comfortable moment.
When I entered with my escort, the president of the company was making his remarks from a large elevated podium in the ballroom. There had to be more than 200 people seated at those round tables. I entered from the back of the room with the Hyatt employee. He proceeded to wind me in a serpentine fashion through all of the tables until we reached the table right in front of the speaker as the president concluded his remarks.
Bad luck breeds more bad luck.
There were two open seats. I was given one, and when the president finished speaking, he came off the stage and sat in the other open seat right next to me. He smiled and said, “Randy, I saw you come in late.” In the corporate world, that was about as bad as it gets. That circumstance is burned in my brain and will never leave. This was embarrassing with all capital letters. Is there any good news from this experience? I made a claim to American Airlines, and they sent me a check for $1,500. That probably wouldn’t happen today.
Yes! Trackchasing in Rhode Island.
I had basketball games on Friday and Sunday, and I was lucky enough to pull off a great trackchasing maneuver on Saturday.
There was an indoor ice race in Kingston, Rhode Island, on Saturday at 2 PM. That was perfect. The racing fit right in the middle of my Philadelphia basketball games on Friday and Sunday.
The two toughest states to see a race.
Rhode Island and Hawaii are the two most difficult states in which to see a race. Normally, Rhode Island has no countable tracks, and Hawaii currently has only two for a trackchaser to visit.
Yes, that’s me with the track promoter in Honolulu, Hawaii. And yes, that proves I only wear shorts and a t-shirt. This was my first trip to Hawaii, and it was for a race. Carol and I have been to Hawaii well over 50 times, but this is my favorite photo. The track promoter and I are talking about the hurricane that hit Hawaii three weeks earlier. The hurricane knocked out the electricity at the track, and three weeks later, it had not been restored. Race canceled. Randy, very much disappointed!
She’s pregnant. Not this year.
I’ve seen racing at three tracks in Rhode Island up until this weekend. One of them was at a quarter-mile dirt oval in a private homeowner’s backyard, the Barnyard Raceway. I stayed in touch with that guy every year, trying to confirm if he was going to hold his once-a-year race and when it would be. One year, when I called him, he told me that his wife was pregnant and there would be no race. No, trackchasing isn’t easy.
Finally, in 2001, I was able to see my first race in Rhode Island at the Barnyard Raceway. Yes, there were farm animals at the track. When I saw that race in Rhode Island, it put me into the 50-state trackchasing club, which was very important to me at the time.
I get it.
Before I continue, I must tell you that “I get it.” Trackchasing is a counting hobby. It is difficult to see a race in Rhode Island. Trackchasers would love to join the 50-state club. In order to do that, you have to see a race in Rhode Island. Sometimes they don’t have any racing in the state for 10 years or more. When they DO have a race, you wouldn’t want to miss it. But…and this is a very big but, joining the 50-state club or just adding a track in Rhode Island isn’t a very worthwhile accomplishment….if you have your hand on the scale. Permit me to explain.
Controversy, intrigue, and dare I say cheating?
I’ve now seen three different tracks in Rhode Island until this weekend. Last year, the Boss Ice arena, on the campus of the University of Rhode Island, hosted a race. I didn’t go. They were doing that again this weekend for the second year in a row.
Several trackchasers saw racing at the Boss Ice Arena in 2025. For a few of those trackchasers, this was their fourth track to see in the Ocean State. By not going to Rhode Island last year, that bumped me out of a tie for the Rhode Island state trackchasing lead.
Racing, but not much racing.
Today, just like last year, there was only one class racing out of about 10 total classes that would allow a trackchaser to count racing on this ice track. Trackchasing has a lot of rules, just like the IRS. Some of them are pretty dumb, just like the IRS.
One sick puppy.
The one and only countable class was the “wing champs.” There were four of those. The winged champ heat race lasted for four laps or about a minute. Did I drive all the way from Philadelphia to Kingston, Rhode Island, for a one-minute race? Sheepishly, I reply in the affirmative. Trackchasing is a sickness, and I have that sickness.
One word: Ethics.
Why didn’t I go last year when all of the other trackchasers attended the race at the Boss Ice Arena? Ethics. I want to be an ethical trackchaser. I try to be clever. I never want to cheat. There is a huge difference between being clever and cheating.
To be clear, what I am about to tell you was not against the rules. If something isn’t against the rules, can it be called cheating? If not cheating, and I strongly think it’s cheating, it’s really poor judgment. No, it’s cheating.
I’m not afraid to say it.
I can confidently say I am the ONLY trackchaser that calls other trackchasers out. Everyone else wants to be “friends” with their fellow trackchasers. I do as well, but not when their behavior is poor. I feel more comfortable bringing issues to the table than being friends with people who create them.
If it doesn’t count, nobody would go.
Trackchasing is all about counting tracks. Being able to count the track is the main reason for trackchasing by far. If a trackchaser can’t count the track, he or she wouldn’t drive five miles to see the event.
To me, ethics are the most important part of trackchasing. Ethics is important in life. I want to do the right thing. As an example, I’m not going to show up for five minutes, see one race, and then drive 45 miles to another track, see a race for five or 10 minutes, and finish up seeing another race that’s nearby. In my judgment, that’s not ethical. It’s not against the rules, but in my judgment, it’s not ethical. Be clever, don’t cheat the system.
Should a trackchaser be a sponsor?
There’s one other thing that I am strongly against as well. That is when trackchasers pay the promoter to run a special race that the track was not going to run without the “support” of trackchasers.
When you pay the “judge, the referee, the organizer” to give you a special “in” that is cheating. It’s 100% cheating.
In my opinion, every trackchaser who paid the promoter to run last year’s Rhode Island race was cheating. This wasn’t the first time. Several times, trackchasers have paid race promoters to run a “special” event so they could count a track. They did this to count a track that, without their financial support, might not or would not have happened.
How can this be fixed?
Why not just complain to the organizers of the trackchasing hobby? It is the organizers of the trackchasing hobby that lead the cheating!
Today, as well as last year, the one and only trackchasing countable class that would make the Boss Ice Arena count was the “winged champs”. The winged champs, or as they are sometimes called, the “Senior champs,” are not a popular class. Not many people race these kinds of go-karts.
Trackchasing rules say, in general, that at least two competitors must show up to make a race and allow the trackchaser to count the track. Remember, counting the track is paramount to the trackchaser.
I have driven long distances a few times to find that NO champ karts chose to attend the event. That was disappointing, but the possibility that no one will show up for the race is part of the challenge of trackchasing. It would be a lot easier and far less stressful if I knew (wink!) in advance that competitors would show up, but that’s not how it is supposed to work.
The no-stress solution. Rig the books!
So…to relieve that stress, some trackchasers have come up with a solution. They decided they would PAY the promoter in advance to ensure the cars/karts that needed to be seen in order to count the track WOULD show up. Folks, that’s cheating in my book.
I am very much against trackchasers paying promoters to influence them to run a race that only benefits the trackchaser. I have never done it. I would never do it. Some trackchasers have done it multiple times.
Nope. This wasn’t for me.
Last year, when I learned that the trackchasing commissioner was going to pay the promoter to ensure attendance, I boycotted the Rhode Island event, even though that would bump me out of first place in the state.
I didn’t really need to boycott. I wouldn’t be paying the promoter any money, but I just didn’t like the sound of things. Most trackchasers don’t want to go against the flow. Many trackchasers came to last year’s race. I don’t know how many of them “paid the promoter,” but some did.
Today I saw my 4th track in Rhode Island.
Today, when I showed up and paid my $20 admission fee by credit card, I ran into a couple of other trackchasers and sat with them.
I won’t mention them by name. One of them I was meeting for the first time. Both nice guys. Also, one of them admitted that he didn’t pay any money to influence the promoter, almost as an admission that he felt it was also unethical for the other trackchasers to do that.
The indoor ice racing was interesting. This was my first ice race of 2026. I’ve seen ice racing at 145 locations in 27 different states, provinces, and countries. There was a small crowd of maybe 300 or 400 people in attendance. Now that I have moved back into a first-place trackchasing tie in Rhode Island, I hold a first-place trackchasing ranking in 28 total states.
I say this, but it might not be true.
I think I am one of the smartest* guys that I know. I have mentioned this to Carol on more than one occasion, and her typical reaction is to roll her eyes, tilt her head back, and snicker.
Why do I say this?
Why am I one of the smartest guys that I know? Because I have never thought of an original or a good idea on my own ever. However, I am an excellent listener. If you’ve ever met me, you know that I’m going to ask you 57 different questions. If I’ve met you for the first time, I’m going to leave that encounter, knowing where you were born, where you have lived, what your marital status is, how many kids you have, and what you do for a living. I’m likely to ask your advice on different topics. Then I will evaluate that advice, probably make some judgments about you, and hopefully use some of your recommendations in my daily life.
Sorry, Stacy.
I did that with the woman from Philly, who was living with her husband in a condo, and they also had a condo down by the “shore.” Having been to Southern California, they did admit the shore wasn’t as good as a SoCal beach. That objectivity increased their credibility in my book.
I asked the lady if she could recommend a good cheesesteak in Philadelphia. Of course, Philadelphia is famous for cheesesteaks.
Philly cheesesteaks.
She could. We all agreed that the two most famous cheesesteak spots in Philly were Geno’s and Pat’s. Those two places are across the street from each other and are major tourist attractions… and not very good.
Believe it or not, Yelp gives Geno’s a 2.5-star rating with more than 3,800 reviews. Never in my life have I seen a Yelp-listed restaurant with very many reviews getting a 2.5-star rating. Never. Pats, which I think is better than Geno’s, only garners a 3.2 Yelp rating. I try never to visit anything less than a 4.0 -rated eatery on Yelp.
Stacy told me there was a place called Angelo’s Pizza, which had the best cheesesteaks in Philadelphia. Angelo’s, it was. I would go there based on her recommendation.
I mentioned to Stacy that I published a newsletter that covers my travel experiences, financial strategies, and trackchasing hobby. Stacy was interested in that, so I added her to the list at her request. I hope she enjoys it. Welcome, Stacy and her basketball-loving husband. What a great couple.
Heading to Angelo’s was an experience.
On Sunday, before the game, I made my way down to Angelo’s pizza. What an experience. Angelo’s was in a downtown Philadelphia neighborhood, where cars were parked close to each other, as in six inches apart. There was a stop sign on every block.
I was lucky to squeeze into a spot about three blocks away. I don’t know what this Philadelphia neighborhood is called, but I would call it eclectic. There were people of all genres, ages, races, and more.
As the reviews expected, people were waiting in line not only to order their cheesesteaks and pizza but also to pick them up. I waited in line for about 10 minutes to place my order for the 11-inch cheesesteak, the only size offered, with sharp cheese and onions. I was told it would take 30 minutes to get my “steak.”
What was Angelo’s Yelp rating? 4.5 with more than 1,300 reviews. And yes, many of those reviews come from “Philly people,” not the most generous group of “raters.” Remember, Santa Claus was booed in Philadelphia!
A nice surprise.
There was one positive surprise. The reviews I read said Angelo accepted cash only, but today, they were also accepting credit cards. I try to pay for everything on my credit cards. What is everything? For me, everything includes federal and state income taxes, real estate taxes, insurance expenses, everything. I just earned 360,000 AMEX points by earning a sign-up bonus and paying my income taxes.
The 11-inch cheesesteak at Angelo’s was $19. I paid $20 at the arena on Friday night for a cheesesteak, so their price wasn’t bad. How was it? Just as Stacy had told me. The best cheesecake I’ve ever had in Philadelphia was made with sirloin steak.
You don’t ask; you don’t get.
I stayed in Philadelphia for two games, the first on Friday and the second on Sunday. I thought ticket prices were high. I always want to sit in the lower seating area at every stadium or arena. At a basketball game, my seat should be located between the baselines. Lower level; between the baselines. Those tickets are the most expensive. Die with Zero, baby.
For the Sunday game, UCLA was playing UConn (they’re in the Final Four now). The preliminary game featured Tennessee and Virginia. There were almost no seats available through my electronic ticket brokers, and if there were, prices were $300 and up.
I complained about the pricing to my son J.J. He texted back that the tickets in Philadelphia were the least expensive of the four regional sites where games were being held! Oh my.
I was checking five ticket broker sites.
StubHub
SeatGeek
Ticketmaster
TickPick
Gametime
Their prices were all similar. Just before the first game was getting ready to tip off, ticket prices were not falling at all. What was I going to do? I didn’t have a ticket.
Where was my “need one” sign when I needed it most?
I hadn’t thought to bring my need one sign. I didn’t think I would use it. I figured some frantic online seller would lower their price at the last minute, and I would skate in for a very reasonable price. I would get one of the best seats in the house in the Xfinity Mobile Arena, which seats 21,000. There’s always room for one more, right?
I never panic, but most would at this stage.
Was it time to panic? The ticket prices weren’t budging. The Virginia-Tennessee game had just started. What could I do?
One of my many mantras.
Then I remembered one of my many life mantras. What was that? If you don’t ask, you don’t get. Don’t let your mind tell you that something can’t be done when you haven’t tried it. Yes, if you don’t ask, you don’t get.
There were just a few fans entering the arena right now. Where I was stationed, maybe 20 or 30, were coming up the walk to get inside the arena.
Extras?
I used a technique that I’ve used hundreds of times, literally, when I don’t have my need one sign. I behaved like a scalper. As people filed past me, I simply asked, “Anybody got any extras?”
All 30 people looked at me as if I were homeless and said, “No, thank you.” They were thanking me for asking if they had any extras. I truly do believe a few of them thought I really was homeless.
But wait. There’s more.
Everyone walked past me. Nobody had a ticket. But wait. There’s more!
A man and his two young sons, who were 10 or 12 years old, initially passed me by, then came back and said, “We’ve got a ticket.” Hurry up, join us. Their tickets were on their phone, as most tickets are nowadays.
No bad karma here.
Being the nice guy that I am, and not wanting to disappoint anyone, I asked them how much they wanted for their ticket. The guy said the ticket is free. He continued, “I got them for free, and it would be bad karma if I tried to charge you.” That was news to me. I’ve had tickets I’ve gotten for free and sold them. Was that a bad thing to admit? O.K., sue me.
When we got inside, the guy asked me to take a picture of his phone so I would know where their seat location was. A big positive was that it was in the lower level. A bigger negative was that it was behind the basket.
My mom always told me that beggars can’t be choosers.
Of course, there was no way I was going to complain about something I had just been given for free. Yes, I was willing to take his ticket for free (I was born at night, but not last night), but no, I wouldn’t be interested in sitting in his seat location. As we all know, not every factual remark needs to be stated.
I knew that despite the arena looking as if it were sold out, I could go somewhere else, like maybe 14 rows up at Center Court, and find an open seat and watch the game from there. That’s exactly what I did. Remember, if you don’t ask, you don’t get.
Shocked and dismayed.
I am a very well-behaved basketball fan. I would never bemoan the fact that I thought the referees had made a bad call. I would never stand up and yell for my team and turn around and try to high-five everybody wearing a UCLA shirt after every basket UCLA made. That’s one of the reasons that I almost never try to buy a ticket from UCLA and sit with UCLA fans. I just don’t want to be high-fiving every fan next to me after every basket.
Soon, a couple of younger guys sat down next to me. They were fans of Connecticut. You could see they were well-mannered, well-groomed, and well-behaved. They were not going to be a “fan problem.”
Who wears a stovepipe hat at a basketball game?
However, the three guys in front of me were going to be a problem. One of them was wearing a blue-and-gold stovepipe crocheted hat that extended about 8 inches above the top of his head. Not good.
Not only that, but toward the end of the first game, which was close, they stood up to watch, and there was no one sitting in front of them. A couple of people behind them yelled, “Down in front.” It was on!
Let’s meet three stereotypical male sports fans.
The three guys standing were the type of guys you might find at a bar on Saturday night. The kind of guys who might say, “What did you say? Say that again. Say that again, and I will beat your ass!” We’ve all seen those “guys.” These folks were huge, had had their share of beer, and said, “We bought our tickets, and we can stand if we want.” Yes, this was going to be a problem.
What was more than disappointing was that the guy wearing the blue-and-gold stovepipe hat had four letters on the front that read “UCLA.”
You know how you feel when you see something, and you understand the circumstances, and you just can’t believe what you were saying? Yes, you know that feeling.
College fans have their own personalities.
UCLA fans are among the best-behaved in college sports. They are almost always well-groomed, well-mannered, and well-behaved. Nebraska and Texas A&M come to mind in this category as well. I apologized to the Connecticut fan sitting next to me. I told him the guy with the hat must have been an Arizona fan who stole the hat from a UCLA fan, or maybe found it on the sidewalk. Those people could not be UCLA fans. And yes, Arizona has the worst fans in college basketball.
When the UCLA game began, I was enjoying my conversations with the Connecticut guys, but the guy with the big hat was sitting right in front of me. I couldn’t see the game. I would have to move, and I did to a better seat across the aisle. There, I spent the night conversing with a young UCLA fan who graduated four years ago and now lives in Baltimore, but who expressed a strong desire to get back to Southern California.
Really? C’mon, really?
I always get the fans who want to broadcast the game play-by-play behind me or feel that every close call went against their team. They want to explain to their significant other that the guy who just took five steps was traveling, and then go on to explain what traveling means. C’mon guys. Don’t do that to your lady!
Toll roads!
There are many toll roads on the East Coast. Luckily for me, they accept the E-ZPass toll transponder, which is used on toll roads as far west as Illinois.
The toll people have told me that I need to register my toll pass every time I change rental cars so that the electronic toll readers will charge things properly.
I rent 50 cars a year. I told you I listened to advice, and I do. I just don’t act on all the advice. I never re-register my car‘s license plate, and I never have any problems. Some advice is better than other advice.
I get into the darndest situations.
For this trip, I picked up my National Rental Car in LaGuardia and would drop it off in Newark. My price for a four-day rental of a full-sized car was $405. National doesn’t always offer the lowest rate, but their cars are typically high quality, and their customer service might be the best of any company I work with in this category.
At LaGuardia, because I wanted a sedan, I ended up with a Nissan Maxima with 43,000 miles on the odometer. That’s terrible. Most of my National Car rentals come with 5,000 or 10,000 miles because I hold the Executive Elite status.
I was not responsible for this!
After one of my hotel stays, I noticed a crack in the windshield in the far upper-left corner. I had not come into contact with anything that could have damaged the windshield, like a rock or whatever. Why was the windshield cracking?
As I continued for the next couple of days, the crack got longer and ended up exceeding a foot in length. I use my Chase Sapphire Reserve credit card to act as my primary rental car insurance. That’s a great benefit.
Again, not my fault.
I’ve only used my CSR one time to pay for an accident. That was when an Uber driver ran into me at Chicago’s O’Hare airport. The CSR people normally require a police report to be filed for any claim that you want to make. I wasn’t going to make a police report for a cracked windshield.
Time to return my rental car. Time to talk fast and make friends. I’m a sales guy.
When I returned the car to Newark, I pointed out that first, I had picked up the car in LaGuardia, and they had given me a car with 43,000 miles on it. This is absolutely unheard of for a National Car rental executive elite member. My National return agent agreed. I pointed out that the car was pretty well-worn with warped brake rotors as an example. That stuff comes with that kind of mileage on a rental car. Then I explained the windshield.
Now the big explanation.
I told the agent there was no sign of any impact on the exterior part of the windshield. There wasn’t! I surmised that because the car had been used so much, the windshield finally began to crack on its own. The agent thought my idea was reasonable.
Adjustment? Did someone just mention adjustment?
I suggested that some sort of adjustment was in order for me, given that I had to take a car with that many miles and in a condition that would cause the windshield to crack with such a large fracture. The agent summoned his boss, and they agreed. They apologized for my getting a car that was so well-used.
What can we do to make it right?
The boss was on my side and asked me, “What can we do to make things right?” This is when I made a big mistake. I’ve taken hours and hours of negotiating classes. One thing I know is never to bid against yourself. However, I forgot my training, and I bid against myself.
My original bill for the rental was $405. What I should’ve said was, “What can you do for me?” If the agent’s reply wasn’t good enough, I could ask for more. If it was better than what I would have originally asked for, I could just accept his offer.
C’mon, Randy, do better.
I was a little impatient. When he asked me what they could do to make things right, he was just about ready to make his own offer. If I had allowed him to do that, he would have been bidding against himself. However, I interrupted him and said I think a $200 reduction in the price would work. He smiled and accepted my offer. Dumb, Randy, dumb.
Now my bill was $205, and they weren’t going to charge me anything for the cracked windshield. Then I jokingly asked him, “I think you were going to offer me more than $200 off my price, weren’t you?” He looked at me, smiled, and said, “Maybe something like $202.” I think he might have been getting ready to offer me the entire thing for free.
Nevertheless, I avoided the broken windshield problem, saved $200, and moved on down the road. If you’re gonna be a strong negotiator, and I think I am a strong negotiator, you’re going to have to have patience. You need to try to anticipate how the conversation will go, build some rapport, and stick to your guns.
Once again, if you don’t ask, you don’t get. It’s important to note that in any of these negotiations, I will never be dishonest. I may not share every piece of information I have, but that’s all part of negotiating. I don’t want to be a cheater. I just want to be clever.
Can anything be learned?
What can we learn from today’s missive? First, listen to people. When you have a conversation, try to make sure the other person does most of the talking. Research tells me that to be considered a good conversationalist, you have to let the other person do most of the talking!
Listen.
When people talk to you, they will give you advice. Listen to their advice. Not all advice is good, but much of it is. When you get good advice, act on it. Not very many people are good listeners. For those who are: if you’re going to take the time to listen, then you had better take the time to act on the best advice you get.
If you don’t ask, you don’t get.
You get more with sugar than salt. If you don’t ask, you don’t get. That is so important. Far too many people think about an idea, an option. Then they decide they couldn’t possibly do that and never ask.
Always.
I always ask. I ask politely and with a smile. What’s the worst that can happen? People can say no. However, I’m a sales guy. When people say no to me, it means maybe. It means I need to continue the conversation and look for points of advantage. Some people call points of advantage “loopholes”. To me, they are points of advantage. Try it today. If you don’t ask, you don’t get. Don’t let your mind defeat your body.
Back home in California.
I arrived back home at LAX at 7 p.m. on the last night of my trip. I was hungry for dinner. I used my Bilt credit card and the online concierge to ask where a Bilt 5X restaurant serving Mexican food would be.
The Bilt concierge, a source of information, is excellent. I got a recommendation for a great little Mexican restaurant. If I paid with my Bilt credit card, I would get 5X points on whatever my bill was. However, if I paid the bill with my AMEX Gold card, I would get 4X on that card and 3X on Bilt, for a total of 7X. I could use the 7X as transferable points to the Hyatt program, where I earn three cents per point. 7×3 is 21%, which meant I would get a 21% reduction in my restaurant bill in the form of Hyatt points. If you didn’t understand much of that explanation, don’t worry about it. Most people would like to get a 21% discount, but are not willing to study the system enough to earn it. That’s the way a lot of things in life are, isn’t it?
Overall, this was just one little four-night trip. I have one of these trips almost every week. I used to write about every one of them. I’m slowing down in my old age. Something unusual seems to happen almost every day of each of these trips. That’s why I go on the trips!
All the best, Randy…a guy who shook Richard Nixon’s hand at the Illinois State Fair in 1968, and Carol was there to see it. She tells the story that as a 19-year-old, I shoved two little old ladies out of the way to do that. I don’t think it was two of them.